Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/382

374 'Dictionary' a second time, therefore, I modified my list in accordance with a new rule, to the effect that biographies occupying less than three pages might he included if the writers seemed to consider that their subjects had shown intellectual ability of a high order, and that those occupying more space might be excluded if the writers considered that their subjects displayed no high intellectual ability. At the same time, I eliminated those persons who rank chiefly as villains (like Titus Oates), and have little claim to the possession of any eminent degree of intellectual ability. I have also felt compelled to exclude women (like Lady Hamilton) whose fame is not due to intellectual ability, but to beauty and to connection with eminent persons.

So far as possible, it will be seen, I have sought to subordinate my own private judgment in making the selection. It has been my object to place the list, so far as possible, on an objective basis. At the same time, it is evident that, while I only reserved to myself a casting vote on doubtful points, there is necessarily a certain proportion of cases where this personal vote had to be given. A purely mechanical method of making selections would necessarily lead to various absurdities, and all that I can claim is that the principles of selection I have adopted have involved a minimum of interference on my part. It is certainly true that, even after much consideration and repeated revision, I remain myself still in doubt regarding a certain proportion of people included in my list and a certain proportion omitted. However often I went through the 'Dictionary/ I know that I should each time make a few trifling readjustments, and any one else who took the trouble to go over the ground I have traversed would likewise wish to make readjustments. But I am convinced that if my principles of selection are accepted, the margin for such readjustment is narrow.

I must here remark that a slightly lower standard of ability has been demanded from the women selected than from the men. It was not my desire that this should be so, and in the first list the same standard was demanded from women as from men. But it soon became clear that this was not practicable. On account of the greater rarity of intellectual ability in women, they have often played a large part in the world on the strength of achievements which would not have allowed a man to play a similarly large part. It seemed, again, impossible to exclude various women of powerful and influential personality, though their achievements were not always considerable; I allude to such persons as Hannah More and Mrs. Montague. Even Mrs. Somerville, the only feminine representative of science in my list, could scarcely be included were she not a woman, for she was little more than the accomplished popularizer of scientific results. In one department, and one only, the women seem to be little, if at all, inferior to the men in ability; that is in acting.