572 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No; 850 



chusetts. 1 prefer to make further statistical 

 inquiries before attempting to interpret their 

 meaning. 



The third series of tests which illustrate the 

 exactitude of historiometry are drawn from 

 comparative studies of the fame of Euripides 

 and Sophocles. In Science, October 7, 1910, 

 Mr. C. A. Browne called attention to the fact 

 that Sophocles received the iirst prize from the 

 Athenians twenty times, and Euripides only 

 four times, while since their deaths various 

 writers from Plato to Emerson have referred 

 to and quoted Euripides more than Sophocles. 

 Mr. Browne also shows that both Curtius and 

 Grote, and biographical dictionaries, and en- 

 cyclopedias as well, allot more space to Euri- 

 pides than they do to his elder rival. This 

 seems to indicate that the opinion of the Athe- 

 nians has been reversed by posterity, but the 

 real explanation I have found to be otherwise. 



Authorities 



' Grie- 

 chischer litera- 

 turgeschichte," 

 1894 



Bernhardy 



Croiset ;.. 



von Christ 



Curtius 



Miiller and Don- 

 aldson 



E. C. Jebb 



Gilbert Murray.. 



Jevons 



Encyclopedias 



Meyer's " Kon- 

 vasations Lex- 

 ikon" 



Brockhaus' 

 "Lesikon "... 



" La Grande 

 Encyclop^die" 



"Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica," 

 1890 



"New Interna- 

 tional Ency- 

 clopedia" 



Lippincott's 

 "Biographical 

 Dictionary," 



1892 : 



110 pp 

 74 pp 

 57 pp 

 34 pp 



200 1s 



25 pp 

 11 pp 

 19 pp 

 11 pp 



109 1s 

 112 1s 

 298 Is 



550 1s 



207 Is 



Adjectives 



Pages 



137 pp 

 116 pp 

 71 pp 

 40 pp 



773 1s 



30 pp 

 16 pp 

 28 pp 

 13 pp 



126 1s 

 161 Is 

 178 1s 



995 1s 



181 Is 



45 Is 6 



It appears that the problem that Mr. Browne 

 proposes is a very delicate one. These two 

 great Greek dramatists stand in such an ex- 

 alted position and so close to one another, both 

 being near the extreme range of human genius, 

 that probably not two hundred individuals 

 who have ever lived have exceeded them in 

 eminence." Therefore, compared with all men 

 of all historical time, these two are almost 

 merged in something like a point at the ex- 

 treme end of a line. It is like splitting and 

 measuring the components of a binary star at 

 a great distance. It would be no discredit to 

 any objective method of differentiation if it 

 failed to give interpretable conclusions. As it 

 is, it turns out that the problem presented is 

 just within the limits of historiometric dis- 

 crimination so that the figures yield uni- 

 formity and repetition warranting real con- 

 clusions. 



I have extended Mr. Browne's list and have 

 found confirmation of the statement that more 

 space is devoted to Euripides than to Sopho- 

 cles. This would leave the impression that 

 Euripides is to-day frankly considered the 

 greater of the two, which is not the impression 

 that one gains by even a cursory reading of 

 the printed matter so spaced. Furthermore, 

 I am informed by John Williams White, Pro- 

 fessor of Greek, Emeritus in Harvard Univer- 

 sity, that for the last hundred years the gen- 

 eral estimate of scholars has placed Sophocles 

 above Euripides. This is precisely the con- 

 clusion which is obtained from the extraordi- 

 nary character of some of the terms and sen- 

 tences of eulogism which one finds applied to 

 Sophocles. In these same authorities one 

 never finds for Euripides anything like the fol- 

 lowing : " There has hardly been any poet 

 whose works can be compared with those of 

 Sophocles for the universality and durability 

 of their moral significance ... of all poets of 

 antiquity Sophocles has penetrated most 

 deeply into the recesses of the human heart " 

 (Miiller and Donaldson). " He renders 

 tragedy a perfect work of ideal art " (E. C. 

 Jebb). Occasionally the direct comparison is 



' Conf . J. McK. Cattell, Tlie Popular Science 

 Monthly, February, 1903, p. 359. 



