Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/379

Rh is probably as true of mental stature as of physical, where it has been proved by actual measurements. This consideration is of great importance in proving the inherited nature of genius and stupidity, because if after placing most of our individuals in grades four, five, six and seven, and admitting only a very few to grades nine and ten, or to one and two, we still find them to be closely related to others, it is all the more a proof of heredity.

Besides this number I have been able (thanks to the 'Genealogy' of Lehr, which contains the full pedigree, male and female, to the twelfth generation, of all the northern ruling families) to extend the number to about 3,500 related persons as a field for study of genius alone.

This book contains the names of 3,312 distinct persons, but by intermarriages and repetition the actual number is raised to 32,768. It would of course be a very long undertaking to look up the characters of 3,312 persons, but by using the index and 'Lippincott's Biographical Dictionary' it was not hard to tell how many of the number are not mentioned at all, and consequently were not geniuses or worthy of grades nine or ten. It seems fair to assume that if a person was of noble rank (and there are practically none others in Lehr's c Genealogy') and did not distinguish himself sufficiently to gain a place in a biographical dictionary as large as Lippincott's, he could not have been very great, at least as regards outward achievements, which is the standard here employed.

The standard for grades nine and ten is very high indeed. It is made up of really great names and includes few below the standard of William the Silent, Gustavus Adolphus, Peter the Great and the Great Conde, Turenne, Maurice of Nassau, and, among the women, Isabella of Castile, Maria Theresa, Elizabeth of Palatine and the Duchess de Longueville.

Of course being in Lippincott's is no criterion of mental calibre in a king, so that many who are there must be at once thrown out, as for instance Louis XIII, XV. and XVI. of France. No one is placed in grade nine or ten for intellect, unless his or her name appears in Lippincott's and also appears there in virtue of mental endowments or distinguished achievements. There are only a few, and those are actual kings, who appear in this biographical dictionary merely on account of their birth. They are easily detected and would be excluded by any one.

Occasionally I have met with a character in the histories or large biographies who seemed to me to be worthy of rank nine or ten, whose name is not to be found in Lippincott's. Such a person was Sophia 'The Philosophical Queen,' of Prussia, and grandmother of Frederick