October 1, 1886.] 



8CIEJSCJiJ. 



295 



death, of a number of eminent men, take the 

 average age, and compare it with a similar aver- 

 age of a number of ordinary men, or even with 

 the average lifetime of the race, and in this way 

 to make the results speak decidedly in favor of the 

 superior longevity of great men. All that such a 

 method can prove (and this it does prove) is that it 

 takes long to become great. It neglects to con- 

 sider that a select class of men is dealt with, 

 and that, to be even potentially included in this 

 class, one must have lived a cei'tain number of 

 years. 



For example : in an article translated in the 

 Popular science monthly for May, 1884, it is argued 

 that astronomers are a long-lived race because the 

 average life-period of 1,741 astronomers is 64 years 

 and 3 months. An average human life is only 33 

 years ; but, as one cannot be an astronomer before 

 adult life, the author takes the expectation of life 

 at 18 years, which is 61 years, and thus makes an 

 excess of over 3 years in favor of astronomers. 

 He also divides his astronomers into four degrees 

 of eminence, and finds that those of the first rank 

 live longer than those of the second, and they in 

 turn longer than those of the third, and so on, 

 thus implying that the best astronomers are most 

 favored with years. The true conclusion is, that 

 it takes longer to become a first-rank astronomer 

 than it does to become a less eminent one.^ 



If great men were great from their infancy, and 

 we had the means of ascertaining this fact, the 

 method would be correct. But as it is, we must 

 define in some way or other what we niean by 

 greatness, and then fix the average age at which 

 it becomes possible to distinguish an amount of 

 talent sufficient to enable its possessor to be en- 

 rolled in the ranks of the great as ah-eady defined. 

 What is known as the ' expectation of life' at any 

 number of years tells the most probable age at 

 death of one who has attained the years under con- 

 sideration : a comparison of this age with the age 

 at death of great men will decide whether they are 

 longer-lived or not. 



The attempt was made to select about 280 to 



1 Mr. Galton {Hereditary genius, p. 34) has allowed him- 

 self to neglect a similar consideration. In giving the num- 

 ber of men in each class that the population of the United 

 Kingdom would have between certain ages, be gives 85 as 

 the number of men of class Q- (a very high degree of emi- 

 nence) between the ages 20 and 30, and only 21 such men be- 

 tween 40 and 50 years. But this cannot be true, because 

 only a very small proportion of men could possibly attain 

 the eminence requisite to be classed among the G's in 20 to 

 30 years, while almost all (of those who will attain it at all) 

 ■will have attained it before the end of their fiftieth year. 

 And this consideration far outbalances the excess in abso- 

 lute number of men between the former ages over those 

 between the latter. Similarly the falling-ofE in the number 

 of men of class g, i.e., idiots, from decade to decade, would 

 be more rapid than in ordinary men, — a fact which the 

 tables fail to show. 



300 of the greatest men that ever lived. ^ Throw- 

 ing out about 30 of the doubtful names, there 

 remain 250 men, about whom the statement is 

 hazarded that a list of the 250 greatest men, pre- 

 pared by another set of persons, will not materi- 

 ally differ from our list, as far as all the purposes 

 for which it is to be used are concerned. From 

 this list I have selected at random a set of men of 

 whom it was probably easy to fix the age at w^hich 

 they had done work which would entitle them to 

 a place on this list, or work which almost inevi- 

 tably led to such distinction : it is a date about 

 midway between the first important work and the 

 greatest work. The average of over 60 such ages 

 is 37 years ; which means, that, on the average, a 

 man must be 37 years old in order to be a candi- 

 date for a place on this list. The real question, 

 then, is. How does the longevity of this select class 

 of 37-year-old men compare with that of more 

 ordinary individuals ? The answer is given by the 

 expectation of life at 37 years, which is 29 years, 

 making the average age at death 66 years. And this 

 is precisely the age at death of these 60 great men ; 

 showing, that, as a class (for these 60 may be con- 

 sidered a fair sample), great men are not distin- 

 guished by their longevity from other men. 



Further interesting conclusions can be drawn if 

 we divide the men into classes, according to real 

 psychological and physiological differences in the 

 ways of manifestation of the several kinds of 

 genius. It is almost surprising how weU the ordi- 

 nary trinity of faculties — intellect, emotions, and 

 will — accomplishes this purpose. Greatness seems 

 to appear either in a brilliant thought, a deep feel- 

 ing, or a powerful will. Under men of thought 

 would be included philosophers, scientists, histori- 

 ans, etc. ; under men of feeling, poets, musicians, 

 religionists, etc. ; under men of action, rulers, 

 commanders, statesmen, etc. Before comparing 

 the relative longevity of these three classes of men, 

 I assure myself that the period at which greatness 

 begins to be possible does not materially differ - in 

 the three classes, and, as was done in the former 

 case, I exclude all cases of unnatural death. I 

 find that men of thought live 69.5 years, or 3.5 

 years longer than ordinary men ; while the lives 

 of men of feeling are 3 years, those of men of 

 action 5 years, shorter than those of average men, 

 — a conclusion that agrees with the commonly 



1 The names were selected by three others and myself, 

 while engaged in a study of what might be called the natural 

 history of great men. The process of selection was most 

 rigid and careful, by a system which it would talie too long 

 to describe. 



2 Mr. Sully (Nineteenth centxiry, June, 1886) has shown 

 that men of feeling are more precocious than men of 

 thought ; but the difference in the age at which their first 

 great work is done, though in favor of men of feeling, is very 

 slight indeed. 



