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Hereditary Genius
9
500 of them are decidedly well known to persons familiar with literary and
scientific society. Now, there are about two millions of adult males in the
British isles above fifty years of age; consequently, the total number of the
“Men of the Time are as 425 to a million, and the more select part of them
as 250 to a million.
The qualifications for belonging to what I call the more select part are, in
my mind, that a man should have distinguished himself pretty frequently
either by purely original work, or as a leader of opinion. I wholly exclude
notoriety obtained by a single act This is a fairly well-defined line, because
there is not room for many men to-be eminent Each interest or idea has its
mouthpiece, and a man who has attained and can maintain his position as
the representative of a party or an idea, naturally becomes much more
conspicuous than his coadjutors who are nearly equal but inferior in ability.
This is eminently the case in positions where eminence may be won by
official acts. The balance maybe turned by a grain that decides whether A,
B, or C shall be promoted to a vacant post. The man who obtains it has
opportunities of distinction denied to' the others. I do not, however, take
much note of official rank. People who have left very great names behind
them have mostly done so through non-professional labours. I certainly
should not include mere officials, except of the highest ranks, and in open
professions, among my select list of eminent men.
Another estimate of the proportion of eminent men to the whole
population was made on a different basis, and gave much the same result I
took the obituary of the year 1868, published in the Times on January 1st,
1869, and found in it about fifty names of men of the more select class.
This was in one sense a broader, and in another a more rigorous selection
than that which I have just described. It was broader, because I included
the
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