158 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 813 



" New International Encyclopaedia " and 

 " Encyclopaedia Britannica." All the stand- 

 ard American histories were examined but 

 not one could be used, owing to flagrant 

 omissions. Philosophers as a class suffered 

 most frequently by these omissions. 



In the table below the first column to the 

 right of the names, headed " Hall of Fame," 

 contains the totals of votes given that name 

 by the electors, the names being arranged in 

 the order of the number of votes received. 

 The second column, headed " Adjectives," con- 

 tains the totals of adjectives of praise applied 

 to each person in the four reference works, 

 named above, and the third column, headed 

 " Space," contains the totals of lines (space) 

 devoted to that name in the same books of 

 reference. 



Errors in arithmetic or judgment doubtless 

 exist but it is believed that the errors are not 

 sufficiently great to materially affect the con- 

 clusions. In this table it will be observed that 

 some disagreement occurs especially when the 

 subject is a scientist, inventor, preacher or 

 philanthropist. For example, Peter Cooper 

 totals only Y adjectives and 313 lines, Morse 

 6 adjectives and 227 lines, Fulton 11 adjectives 

 and Y5 lines, Whitney Y adjectives and Y5 

 lines (no sketch in " Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica"). This is scarcely to be wondered at. 

 A career is frequently theatrical out of all 

 proportion to its importance. Another career 

 may be remarkable more for length and va- 

 riety than worth. Sometimes a brief but 

 great career, especially if it be that of a 

 statesman or soldier, gets a fair relative 

 amount of attention, as in the cases of Lin- 

 coln and Grant, but the chances appear to be 

 decidedly against this in the less picturesque 

 callings. The public demands the details of 

 the lives of the leaders of men. Again, moral 

 qualities in the Hall of Fame selections play 

 a part which they do not in the objective stud- 

 ies, for obvious reasons; and sectionalism is 

 always a disturbing element in both. As 

 respective illustrations, consider Edgar Allen 

 Poe, W. L. Garrison and Jefferson Davis. 

 The latter two never received a creditable 

 number of electoral votes. Moreover, these 



apparent inconsistencies in the electoral votes, 

 if they are not points in favor of the objective 

 methods, certainly do not tend to discredit 

 them. As for agreement in general, let it be 

 remembered that " all things are relative."" 

 In consideration of the millions of Americans 

 who have lived and died, it is a rare distinc- 

 tion to receive from such sources any votes, 

 any adjectives or any praise. Even among^ 



