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Hereditary Genius
7
achieve success in proportion as the general estimate is large of their
aggregate merits. In ordinary scholastic examinations marks are allotted in
stated proportions to various specified subjects—so many for Latin, so
many for Greek, so many for English history, and the rest. The world, in the
same way, but almost unconsciously, allots marks to men. It gives them for
originality of conception, for enterprise, for activity and energy, for
administrative skill, for various acquirements, for power of literary
expression, for oratory, and much besides of general value, as well as for
more specially professional merits. It does not allot these marks according
to a proportion that can easily be stated in words, but there is a rough
common-sense that governs its practice with a fair approximation to
constancy. Those who have gained most of these tacit marks are ranked,
by the common judgment of the leaders of opinion, as the foremost men of
their day.
The metaphor of an examination may be stretched much further. As there
are alternative groups in any one of which a candidate may obtain honours,
so it is with reputations—they may be made in law, literature, science, art,
and in a host of other pursuits. Again: as the mere attainment of a general
fair level will. obtain no honours in an examination, no more will it do so in
the struggle for eminence. A man must show conspicuous power in at least
one subject in order to achieve a high reputation.
Let us see how the world classifies people, after examining each of them,
in her patient, persistent manner, during the years of their manhood. How
many men of “eminence are there, and what proportion do they bear to the
whole community?
I will begin by analysing a very painstaking biographical handbook, lately
published by Routledge and Co., called Men of the Time.” Its intention,
which is very fairly and honestly carried out; is to include none but those
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