A Study of British Genius

Abstract

MR. HAVELOCK ELLIS points out that owing to the completion of the “Dictionary of National Biography” it has at last become possible to obtain a comprehensive view of the men and women who have built up English civilisation, and in order to ascertain the composition of these elements of intellectual ability which the British Islands have contributed to the world, and as a help to the study of the nature of genius generally, he has freely made use of this monumental work. The author took as a basis of eminence those to whom af least three pages are devoted in the “Dictionary,” but he also included some about whom less was said if they had shown intellectual ability of a high order, and conversely he eliminated those about whom much was written if they did not possess intellectual ability. The final selection yelded 975 British men of a high degree of intellectual eminence and 55 women. These 1030 persons are discussed from various points of view, and in appendices lists are given of their names, their activities, their places of origin, the occupation of their fathers, and other data.

A Study of British Genius.

By Havelock Ellis. Pp. xiv + 300. (London: Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 1904.) Price 7s. 6d. net.