Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/378

372 for the nineteenth century are valid, the promise for America is large. We should during the twentieth century produce more notable men than any other nation. It is ill for us, having the largest population and the richest resources, if we do not keep this promise.

Our racial divisions are given to us ready made. The subject becomes more difficult when we try to class eminent men in accordance with their traits. We can, however, perhaps use the tripartite subdivision current in psychology. There we are apt to treat separately cognitions, feelings and volitions. This classification proves useful when applied to the traits of great men. Some excel because they have strong wills, are quick and sure in action. These become leaders in war and in political affairs. Others have strong feelings—artists, poets, men of letters. Others surpass in pure thought—philosophers, scholars, men of science. Distinguishing then men of action, men of feeling, and men of thought, we secure the curves shown on the accompanying chart. It is seen that more men are eminent for action than for either thought or feeling, though if the latter two classes are combined it is found that the quiet work of the student has after all produced more eminent men than war and politics. Each class shows an increase as we approach our own time and the secular variations affect them together, though it is noticeable that men of thought have been