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Hereditary Genius
33
Number of marks
obtained by the
Number of Candidates who obtained those marks.
Candidates.
A. According to fact.
B. According to theory.
6,500 and above
0
0
5,800 to 6,500
1
1
5,000 to 5,800
3
5
4,400 to 5,100
6
Total
8
Total
3,700 to 4,400
11
73
13
72
3,000 to 3,700
22
16
2,300 to 3,000
22
16
1,600 to 2,300
8
13
1,100 to 1,600
Either did not
8
400 to 1,100
venture to compete,
5
below 400
or were plucked.
1
The symmetry of the descending branch has been rudely spoilt by the
conditions stated at the foot of column A. There is, therefore, little room for
doubt, if everybody in 'England had to work up some subject and then to
pass before examiners who employed similar figures of merit, that their
marks would be found to range, according to the law of deviation from an
average, just as rigorously as the heights of French conscripts, or the
circumferences of the chests of Scotch soldiers.
The number of grades into which we may divide ability is purely a matter
of option. We may consult our convenience by sorting Englishmen into a
few large classes, or into many small ones. I will select a system of
classification that shall be easily comparable with the numbers of eminent
men, as determined in the previous chapter. We have seen that 250 men
per million become eminent; accordingly, I have so contrived the classes in
the following table that the two highest, F and G, together with X (which
includes all cases beyond G, and which are unclassed),
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