applicable to this method the royal ones offer the most favorable field, owing to the maintenance of family trees and the great interest that has always been taken in their lives and characters as found in histories, biographies and memoirs. Besides, although all have the highest social rank, they have lived in different countries, in different centuries and under varying circumstances, with different educations and opportunities. Their peculiar positions make it unwise to compare them with men at large, but, having a great number, we can properly compare them with each other and judge them according to a standard of their own.
Galton in his 'Hereditary Genius' purposely avoided royalty, because, as he says, the qualities that make a great king are not the same as apply to genius in general. In this work it is no drawback, since here I have gone with more pains into the question of intellect and actual achievements, and a man is not given the same rank for being a wise and successful ruler that he is for great and brilliant creative achievements. The adjectives that are used by biographers and historians are the basis of the estimate, and by this standard William I. of Germany would not rank with Frederick the Great, since one does not find the same admiration expressed for his intellect.
By taking down every individual met in every degree of blood relationship and also everything in the nature of a characterization or adjective applied to him, I have been able to verify or check the estimates, and avoid the difficulty which one might expect to arise from a lack of uniformity of opinion. It is really very easy to get a sufficiently clear idea, in a rough way, of the mental and moral status of any historical character. The accounts may vary on some points but not much on essentials. Thus in the case of Frederick the Great none would question his high intellectual standing, though considerable difference of opinion would be found relative to his moral qualities, most putting him rather low. The same would apply to Napoleon, but in both these instances the interesting and important thing to be explained is the intellect, and of this we can form a sufficiently just estimate. In the same way the important fact regarding Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, is his high moral tone and studious tendencies, and about these we can have no question. So that in the main, two sufficiently accurate scales can be formed in which to place them all, one for the intellectual side and one for the moral side.
Grades from 1 to 10 have been used for each class of traits, intellectual and moral; and attention has also been paid to the law of 'Deviation from an average,' by which most people are made to range close to mediocrity, the geniuses and imbeciles being relatively few. This law is set forth in Galton's 'Hereditary Genius,' page 22, and
