Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/598

594 history has recorded as worth while. One can not evade the question, is woman innately so inferior to man, or has the attitude of civilization been to close the avenues of eminence against her?

When the list of names was completed, the amount of space accorded the women by the different encyclopedias was reduced to a common standard, and the names arranged in order of merit.

According to our standard of measurement Mary Stuart is the most eminent woman of history. She has no close competitor. Queen Victoria is the most recent of the preeminently gifted women, and therefore has a large probable error of position. George Sand is the most distinguished literary woman, and we may say that the chances are even that her position as fifth in the order of merit is correctly determined. The most eminent woman of American birth is Mrs. Stowe, who ranks twentieth. Had additional or different encyclopedias been used in compiling the list, the chances are one to one that her position would be between 17 and 21.

It must be borne in mind that had other sources been used in selecting the eminent women, the position of certain ones might have shifted more or less. However, we must concede that the women who are ranked in this list as the most eminent are the ones most familiar to us in literature and history, and they unquestionably deserve their position. The twenty preeminently gifted women of history are Mary Stuart, Jeanne d'Arc, Victoria of England, Elizabeth of England, George Sand, Madame de Staël, Catherine II. of Russia, Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette, Anne of England, Madame de Sévigné, Mary I. of England, George Eliot, Christina of Sweden, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Madame de Maintenon, Josephine of France, Catherine de Medici, Cleopatra and Harriet Bcecher Stowe.

A list of this sort makes possible comparisons which are not ordinarily evident and could not otherwise be made, and the known probable error makes it possible to determine within what limits the comparisons are true. Charlotte Bronte and Charlotte Corday seemingly have nothing in common, yet their respective numbers in order of merit are 21 and 22. Marie Brinvilliers, whose mania for poisoning makes it impossible to classify her as anything but a criminal, just precedes Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Joanna Baillie, the poet; Mrs. Siddons, the actress, and Beatrice Cenci, whose beauty and tragic fate have been preserved for us in the colors of Guido Reni and in the lines of Shelley, are numbered 89, 90 and 91, respectively.

The range of eminence covered by these 868 women is wide. Mary Stuart, with 607.67 lines, is more than one hundred and eighty-eight