Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/379

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A STATISTICAL STUDY OF EMINENT MEN.
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much more constant in their appearance and bid fair to surpass the others in the twentieth century.

In passing I may state that modern psychology does not admit that we can divide mental processes into such as are cognitions, such as are feelings and such as are volitions, any more than we can divide physical bodies into such as have size, such as have color and such as have weight, but must rather regard these as aspects of all mental processes. So

The Curves Show the Relative Numbers of Men of Action, Men of Thought, and Men of Feeling at Different Periods.

with our great men—if a man excels in action he probably is not deficient in feeling and judgment—on the contrary these are probably strong. My statistics show, contrary perhaps to the current opinion, that a man who excels in one direction is likely also to excel in others. An artist is much more likely to be a poet than is an ordinary man and is, though in a less degree, more likely to be a soldier or a man of science.

Curves showing further subdivisions are also given. From the upper chart it is clear that there have been more eminent statesmen than soldiers, especially since the beginning of the eighteenth century.