Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/523

Rh mediocre grades and the presence of some little vice or a reasonable array of good qualities are not to place a man in an extreme grade in either direction. In the case of the women the standard proved to be such that it was necessary, in order to make things balance, to place all excellent, quiet and negative characters in a grade as low as (5) and reserve the upper grades for those only who have had a special reputation for devoting their time to some form of altruism. Those who are familiar with history and court memoires may see how far the grading suits their particular approval, and most who read the list carefully will doubtless object to characters here and there; but I am sure that much of this will be found due to some personal bias, and an acquaintance with all the characters would result in a scheme not very different from the present. It is to be remembered that they are not arranged by the writer from a vague idea of their worth drawn from reading accounts of their lives, but are graded purely on a basis of the adjectives used in describing their traits by the best authorities, several different sources of information having been used for verification. In any case errors would be likely to balance.

The three lowest grades have been reserved for the distinctly vicious, those described as debauched, depraved, licentious, dissipated, cruel or extremely unprincipled. In the three upper grades we find such descriptions as 'Adored by the people as a saint,' 'Gave herself up entirely to works of piety and charity.' 'Heroic virtues and rare abnegations,' 'By his well-known devotion to the best interests of the country he secured the confidence and esteem of all classes,' 'Respect and veneration which the Russians entertained for his character'

In the list following, the persons within each grade are given in the alphabetical order of the country or family name, which is followed by the christian name. When the family name is omitted, it is the same as the preceding. The numbers in brackets which stand before the names are the intellectual grades in each case, and those following, without brackets, refer to the total number of children who reached adult years.

Thus (10) Anhalt, Catherine II., Empress of Russia, 1; means that she was by birth of the House of Anhalt, that she stands in grade (1) for virtues, grade (10) for mental qualities and that she left one adult child. The averages at the bottom are indicated in the same way. Illegitimate children are also included in the number.

In regard to the variability of the two sexes one sees that the