Eminent people by nation (Cattell 1000) (1894)

James Cattell
James Cattell
(1860-1944)
American science magazine editor and America's first psychologist James Cattell, maker of the Cattell 1000, an 1894 listing of the top thousand preeminent people of history, based on multiple dictionary and encyclopedia space allocation. [1]
In genius studies, Cattell 1000 (Cattell 1000:#) is a list of the thousand most eminent individuals of history, made in 1894 by psychologist, Science editor, and Popular Science Monthly founding editor James Cattell, based on the degree of overlapping appearance and length of coverage in six biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias, two English, two French, one German, and one American.

Greco-Roman geniuses
See main: Genius epochs
The following, derived from the eminence rankings, shows the distribution of eminent people during the Greco-Roman period: [1]

Distribution of eminent men (Greeks and Romans)

Here, of note, we see Greek genius, peaking at 500-450BC, Roman genius, peaking at 100BC-100AD, followed by: Italian genius, British genius, Scottish genius, French genius, German genius, and American genius.

Cox geniuses
In 1924, American psychologist Catherine Cox, and her team of psychologists at Stanford University, under the direction of Lewis Terman, started with Cattell 1000, and took those who were of adulthood age between the years 1450 and 1850, and ranked them by IQ, arriving at a listing of the top 301 greatest geniuses (see: Cox IQ) existive during this period of history.

Methodology
The methodology used by Cattell is best described in his own words:

“The method I followed to discover the 1,000 men who are preeminent was this: I took six biographical dictionaries or encyclopedias (Lippincott’s Biographical Dictionary, The Encyclopedia Britannica, Rose’s Biographical Dictionary, Le Dictionnaire de Biographie Generale, Beaugean’s Dictionnaire Biographique, and Brockhaus’ Conversations lexicon)—two English, two French, one German, and one American and found the two thousand men (approximately) in each who were allowed the longest articles. In this way some 6,000 men were found. I then selected the men who appeared in the lists of at least three of the dictionaries, and from these (some 1,600) selected the thousand who were allowed the greatest average space, the value of the separate dictionaries being reduced to a common standard. Thus was obtained not only the thousand men esteemed the most eminent, but also the order in which they stand.”

A fairly interesting and discerning procedure, to say the least. The distribution of eminent people is shown in the adjacent bar graph, which Cattell describes as follows:

“The rectangles are proportional to the numbers of the most eminent men produced by different nations. The shaded parts represent the more eminent five hundred, and the heavily shaded parts the hundred most eminent of all.”

Here we see the 42-degree latitude (± 10°) rule of maximal genius evidenced.

List
The following are the results of Cattell’s study, showing the top 1000 men of history, ranked by degree of eminence; the notation (Cattell 1000:#), e.g. Aristotle (Cattell 1000:6), shows an individual's Cattell ranking, when applicable, in Hmolpedia existographies:

1-100
101-200
201-300
201-300401-500
1. Napoleon Bonaparte
2. William Shakespeare
3. Muhammad [not real]
4. Voltaire
5. Francis Bacon
6. Aristotle
7. Johann Goethe
8. Julius Caesar
9. Martin Luther
10. Plato

11. Napoleon III
12. Edmund Burke
13. Homer
14. Isaac Newton
15. Cicero
16. John Milton
17. Alexander the Great
18. Pitt
19. George Washington
20. Augustus

21. Wellington
22. Raphael
23. Rene Descartes
24. Christopher Columbus
25. Confucius [not real]
26. Penn
27. Scott
28. Michelangelo
29. Socrates
30. Byron

31. Cromwell
32. Gautama [not real]
33. Immanuel Kant
34. Gottfried Leibniz
35. John Locke
36. Demosthenes
37. Mary Stuart
38. John Calvin
39. Moliere
40. Abraham Lincoln

41. Louis Philippe
42. Dante
43. Jean Rousseau
44. Nero
45. Benjamin Franklin
46. Galileo Galilei
47. Samuel Johnson
48. Robespierre
49. Frederick the Great
50. Marcus Aurelius

51. Hegel
52. Petrarch
53. Horace
54. Charles V. (Germany)
55. Mirabeau
56. Erasmus
57. Virgil
58. Hume
59. Guizot
60. Edward Gibbon

61. Blaise Pascal
62. Bossuet
63. Thomas Hobbes
64. Jonathan Swift
65. Thiers
66. Louis XIV
67. William Wordsworth
68. Louis XVI
69. Nelson
70. Henry VIII

71. Joseph Addison
72. Thucydides
73. Fox
74. Racine
75. Friedrich Schiller
76. Henry IV (France)
77. William Herschel
78. Tasso
79. Thomas Jefferson
80. Ptolemy

81. Augustine
82. Alexander Pope
83. Niccolo Machiavelli
84. Emanuel Swedenborg
85. Philip II
86. Leonardo da Vinci
87. George III
88. Julian
89. Pythagoras
90. Macaulay

91. Rubens
92. Burns
93. Mosart
94. Humboldt
95. Auguste Comte
96. Cousin
97. Georges Cuvier
98. Justinian
99. Euripides
100. Camoens
101. Talleyrand
102. Fenelon
103. Thomas Carlyle
104. Pius IX
105. Pitt
106. More
107. Hannibal
108. Benedict Spinoza
109. Chateaubriand
110. Peter Abelard

111. Grant
112. Charles I (England)
113. Charles Darwin
114. Mazarin
115. Lord Bolingbroke
116. Elizabeth (England)
117. Ovid
118. Joan d’Arc
119. Livy
120. Corneille

121. Rabelais
122. Huss
123. a’ Becket
124. Jean d’ Alembert
125. Grotius
126. Peter I
127. Polo
128. Carl Linnaeus
129. Raleigh [John Strutt]
130. Palmerston

131. Lamartine
132. Jos. Bonaparte
133. Tennyson
134. Plutarch
135. Charlemagne
136. Aristophanes
137. Philipp Melanchthon
138. St. Ambrose
139. Richelieu
140. James I.

141. John Hunter
142. Victor Hugo
143. Disraeli
144. Dryden
145. Origen
146. Titian
147. Boccaccio
148. Alberoni
149. Lessing
150. Johann Fichte

151. Etienne Condillac
152. Dickens
153. Wallenstein
154. Friedrich Schelling
155. Durer
156. Charles VII
157. Kepler
158. Trajan
159. Knox
160. Constantine

161. Jean La Fontaine
162. Van Dyck
163. Cervantes
164. Germaine Stael
165. Hippocrates
166. Louis XVIII
167. Clive
168. Rembrandt
169. Denis Diderot
170. Geoffrey Chaucer

171. Michel Montaigne
172. John Napier
173. Sand
174. Marmont
175. Tiberiius
176. Peel
177. Francis I (France)
178. Nicholas I
179. William I
180. John Mill

181. Sophocles
182. John Adams
183. Webster
184. Athanasius
185. Richard Bentley
186. Savonarola
187. Marlborough
188. J. Cook
189. Seneca
190. Zwingle

191. Cavour
192. Buffon
193. Goldsmith
194. Brougham
195. Alexander VI
196. Gerson
197. Alexander I (Russia)
198. Louis XV
199. Roger Bacon
200. Pericles
201. Herodotus
202. Hadrian
203. Humphry Davy
204. Frederick II (Germany)
205. Catherine II
206. Conde
207. B. Jonson
208. Antony
209. Lucretius
210. Pompey

211. James II (England)
212. Canning
213. Strafford
214. Mencius
215. La Feyette
216. Alexander Hamilton
217. Alfred the Great
218. Pierre Gassendi
219. Cortez
220. Ludwig Beethoven

221. L. Bonaparte
222. Sevigne
223. Xenophon
224. Wycliffe
225. Alfieri
226. Charles X (France)
227. William Harvey
228. Marius
229. Juvenal
230. Firdousee

231. Johannes Gutenberg
232. Lope de Vega Carpio
233. Pierre Laplace
234. Garibaldi
235. Necker
236. Froissart
237. Arius
238. Aeschylus
239. Etienne
240. Epicurus

241. Mithradates
242. Isocrates
243. Jerome
244. Andrew Jackson
245. Canova
246. Atterbury
247. Bulwer
248. Joseph Gay-Lussac
249. Wilhelm I. (Prussia)
250. Barthold Niebuhr

251. Fielding
252. George IV
253. Albrecht Haller
254. Friedrich Schleiermacher
255. James Watt
256. St. Bernard
257. William III
258. Joinville
259. Francois Arago
260. Fouche

261. Handel
262. Edmund Spenser
263. Joseph Lagrange
264. Johann Herder
265. Velasquez
266. Robert Bunsen
267. Alcibiades
278. De Foe
279. Hastings
280. Colbert

281. Metternich
282. Richard I.
283. Tertullian
284. Lamennais
285. Leo X
286. Cobde
287. Gustavus Adolphus
288. Christoph Wieland
289. George Berkeley
290. John Law

281. Maintenon
282. Cranmber
283. Samuel Coleridge
284. Chrysostom
285. Beza
286. Murat
287. Mazzini
288. Marquis de Condorcet
289. Polybius
290. Ariosto

291. Chatterton
292. Phiny (Elder)
293. Turgot
294. Tacitus
295. Nicolas Malebranche
296. John of England
297. Danton
298. Chalmer
299. Germanicus
300. Joseph Haydn
301. St. Basil
302. William of Orange
303. Longfellow
304. Philip IV
305. Sully
306. Christiaan Huygens
307. Louis VI
308. Charles Montesquieu
309. Eugene
310. Charles II (England)

311. Bernadotte
312. A. Severus
313. Klopstock
314. Innocent III
315. Zoroaster
316. Attila
317. G. Monk
318. Adam Smith
319. Ney
320. Victor Emmanuel

321. Prescott
322. Pindar
323. Beranger
324. Gregory VII
325. Beaumarchais
326. Rossini
327. Jeremy Bentham
328. Drake
329. Moreau
330. Michael Faraday

331. Boetius
332. Thomas Moore
333. S. Clarke
334. Channing
335. Alexander II (Russia)
336. Maria Theresa
337. Richard Wagner
338. Joseph Priestley
339. Josephine
340. Thackeray

341. Nicolaus Copernicus
342. Blucher
343. Soult
344. Maximilian
345. Sadi (or Lazare) Carnot?
346. Philo
347. Averroes
348. Calderon
349. Bolivar
350. Sulla

351. Ali-weli-zade
352. Le Sage
353. Heinrich Heine
354. Robert Boyle
355. Loyola
356. Marie Antoinette
357. Wesley
358. Poussin
359. Winckelmann
360. Turenne

361. R.B.B. Sheridan
362. Weber
363. William Hamilton
364. Avicenna
365. Anthony Shaftesbury
366. Bright
367. Catullus
368. Herman Boerhaave
369. C. Grey
370. Leopold I. (Germany)

371. William Irving
372. Henry IV (Germany)
373. Tamerlane
374. Massena
375. Retz
376. B. Constant
377. Reuchlin
378. Sainte-Beuver
379. Baxter
380. K.W. Humboldt

381. Jenner
382. Justus Liebig
383. Philip II (Germany)
384. Thomas Aquinas
385. Dumouriez
386. Murillo
387. Lucian
388. Agassiz
389. Mehemet Ali
390. Thomas Wolsey

391. Solon
392. Jansen
393. Antoine Lavoisier
394. R. Walpole
395. Hogarth
396. Derby
397. Bichat
398. Sherman
399. Frederick W. III (Prussia)
400. St. Simon
401. Wilkes
402. Phidias
403. Philip Augustus
404. Moses Mendelssohn
405. Boniface VIII
406. Cobbett
407. Jean Bailly
408. Emerson
409. Joseph II (Germany)
410. Russell

411. Vauban
412. Ferdinand V. (Spain)
413. Bayle
414. Archimedes
415. Christina
416. Scipio
417. Thou
418. T. Fairfax
419. Metastasio
420. Louis IX

421. L. Hopital
422. Marat
423. Guicciardini
424. Jacob Berzelius
425. Akbar
426. Sarpi
427. Marcus Varro
428. Armeniuis
429. Vergniaud
430. Bayard

431. Gregory I. (Pope)
432. Louis XIII
433. Beaton
434. Wilberforce
435. Tieck
436. Andrews
437. Lycurgus
438. O'Connell
439. Burnet
440. Reynolds

441. Seward
442. J. Franklin
443. Galen
444. A. Dumas
445. Alarie
446. Campanella
447. Arnauld
448. Honore Balzac
449. Plautus
450. a' Kemple

451. Richelieu
452. Pius VI.
453. Terence
454. Charles VII. (France)
455. Renan
456. Pizarro
457. Henry II (England)
458. Martial
459. Theodosius
460. R. Blake

461. J. J. Scaliger
462. Cardin
463. Cowper
464. Musset
465. Pius II
466. Villars
467. Helvetius
468. Belisarius
469. Candolle
470. W. Temple

471. Palestrina
472. Robertson
473. David Strauss
474. Kotzebue
475. Bach
476. James Madison
477. Hesiod
478. George I. (England)
479. Dupin
480. F. A. Wolf

481. Geoffroy Hilaire
482. Farragut
483. John Q. Adams
484. Cato (Elder)
485. Gluck
486. Grote
487. Cyrus
488. John Bunyan
489. Grimm, L.
490. L. Bonaparte

491. Antoninus Pius
492. Chesterfield
493. Pius VII
494. Leopardi
495. L. de Medici
496. Richard II
497. Gouvion St. Cyr
498. Gregory Naz
499. Warburton
500. Strabo.





501-600
601-700
701-800
801-900
901-1000
501. Euclid
502. Desmoulins
503. Genii
504. Clarendon
505. De Witt
506. Essex
507. Brabe
508. Eusebius
509. Mahmud II
510. Ferdinand VII (Spain)

511. Frederick I (Germany)
512. Leonhard Euler
513. G. Howard
514. Reid
515. Gambetta
516. Ledru-Rollin
517. Ramon Llull
518. Michaelis
519. Mahmud
520. Robert Southey

521. Gaspard Monge
522. Lucullus
523. Hans Oersted
524. Hutten
525. Belden
526. Henry VI
527. Hawthorne
528. Villemain
529. Gall
530. Goldoni

531. Beaumont
532. Aguesseau
533. Beauharnais
534. J. F. Cooper
535. Catiline
536. Clement
537. J. B. Rousseau
538. Castlereagh
539. Bernard Fontenelle
540. Casaubon

541. Cellini
542. Charles VI (France)
543. L. R. St. Simon
544. Lavater
545. Carl Jacobi
546. Herod
547. Margaret of Anjou
548. Philip VI. (France)
549. Richter
550. Voss

551. Mackintosh
552. Lao-Tsze (see: Taoism)
553. Paracelsus
554. Parsing
555. Themistocles
556. J. C. Wolf
557. Andre Ampere
558. George II (England)
559. Huskisson
560. Lachine

561. Albuquerque
562. Jean Bruyere
563. Dalhousie
564. Suwaroff
565. Hampden
566. Coligni
567. Photius
568. Ralph Cudworth
569. Alva
570. Pufendorf

571 Benjamin Thompson
572. Anderson
573. de Malherbe
574. Mary
575. J. B. Jourdan
576. Louis XII
577. Theodoric
578. Barren
579. Titus
580. Ranks

581. Aurelian
582. Caskell
583. Thomas Paine
584. Herbert
585. Lee
586. Phoeion
587. Mme. Roland
588. Henry III (France)
589. St. Pierre
590. Ingres

591. Warwick
592. Garrison
593. Erskine
594. Edmond Halley
595. Cato (younger)
596. Gustavus I
597. Vasco da Game
598. Pierre Maupertuis
599. Guyon
600. Courier
601. Albertus Magnus
602. Boehme
603. E. T. W. Hoffmann
604. T. E. Hook
605. Marot
606. Henry I. (England)
607. Massillon
608. Quintilian
609. Monmouth
610. Maecenas

611. Philip V
612. Michelet
613. Luxembourg
614. Tintoretto
615. Vespucci
616. Saladin
617. G. Buchannan
618. Henry V (England)
619. Samuel Butler
620. Anselm of Canterbury

621. Francois Rochefoucauld
622. Charles the bold
623. Manutius
624. Gustavus III
625. Cornelius
626. John of Austria
627. Delille
628. Michel Adanson
629. Cherubini
630. Jean Champollion

631. Mornay
632. Sieyes
633. Horace Walpole
634. Genghis Khan
635. Ferdinand Magellan
636. William IV (England)
637. Boleyn
638. Ronsard
639. Meyerbeer
640. Ramus

641. Richard Steele
642. Michael Servetus
643. Orleans d' P.
644. Stephen Gray
645. Josephus
646. Royer-Collard
647. Charles Fourier
648. St. Francis
649. Henry Clay
650. Vincenzo Gioberti

651. Desaix de Voygoux
652. Grattan
653. Raimondo Montecuccoli
654. Sacy
655. Giordano Bruno
656. William Paley
657. Jerome Bonaparte
658. Barras
659. Maury
660. De la Vigne

661. Ali (Ibn abi talib)
662. Cavaignac
663. Cromwell
664. Charles d' Orleans
665. Sterne
666. Malesherbes
667. Middleton
668. Vico
669. Claude Berthollet
670. Jane Grey

671. A. Sidney
672. Salmasius
673. Pliny the younger
674. MacDonald
675. Sallust
676. Saxe
677. Marmontel
678. Clarendon
679. Sylvester II (Gerbert)

680. J. Taylor
681. Jean Lamarck
682. Holbein
683. Henry VII
684. Alessandro Volta
685. Rosa
686. Whiston
687. Hauy
688. Cyprian
689. A. Chenier
690. Diocletian

691. Pompadour
692. John Herschel
693. KauIliad
694. Poggio
695. Holberg
696. Miller
697. Henry IV (England)
698. Oehlenschlager
699. Boden
700. Manes
701. Sappho
702. Sarto
703. Anaxagoras
704. Isabella of Castile
705. A. W. Schlegel
706. Justin
707. Godoy
708. Epaminondae
709. P. Henry
710. Robert Fulton

711. Dumont d' UrviIle
712. Garrick
713. Andrieu
714. Ginguene
715. Regnard
716. Du °neselin
717. Wellesley
718. H. Vernet
719. George Eliot
720. Fuller

721. Hemclitus
722. Newman
723. Struensee
724. Thorwaldsen
725. Ckopofra
726. Zeno of Elea
727. Pouehkin
728. E. Coke
729. Augereau
730. Bronte

731. Jerome of Prag.
732. Aurungrebe
733. Vespasian
734. Philopeeman
735. Vane
736. Jouffroy
737. Charles Bonnet
738. Giotto
739. Agrippa
740. Alcuin

741. Gregory A Nyasa
742. Pierre Proudhon
743. PoMien
744. Arndt
745. Freret
746. R. Hall
747. Charles IX. (France)
748. Anne
749. Smollett
750. Demetrius Polior

751. Democritus
752. Gay
753. Cabanis
754. J. Flaxman
755. Gallatin
756. Fouquet
757. Cujas Guido Reni
758. C. S. Gracchus
759. Jeffreys
760. Gardiner

761. Oxenstierna
762. Kleber
763. Scipio
764. HabilIon
765. Lackpbde
766. Stewart
767. LyeII
768. Rameau
769. Cassini
770. Lalande

771. Sumner
772. Parker
773. Plotinus
774. Cagliari
775. Lacordaire
776. Marguerite d' ring
777. Larne
778. Kosciusko
779. P. H. Sheridan
780. Tooqueville

781. Hipparchus
782. Henry III. (England)
783. Whitegift
784. Rudolph I.
785. Constantin Volney
786. Jugurtba
787. Prior
788. Mingo
789. Oken
790. Murray

791. Bellarmino
792. Churchill
793. Laffitte
794. Henry II. (Franco)
795. W. Jones
796. J. Owen
797. Cecil
798. Darius I.
799. Charles Edward Stuart
800. Donirotti
801. Hammer-Purgstall
802. J. L. David
803. Propertius
804. Boileau
805. Leighton
806. Correggio
807. Grouchy
808. Francke
809. Lysias
810. Lannes

811. Donner
812. Pichegru
813. Erigena
814. Casanova
815. C. de Medici
816. Nadir (Shah)
817. Whitefield
818. J. P. J. d'Orleans
819. Lucan
820. Terriers

821. Richard III
822. ApeIles
823. Meckiewitz
824. Ximinee
825. Sobieski
826. E. Irving
827. Stein
828. Hoche
829. Louvois
830. Saadi

831. Montague
832. Alfonso X
833. Scribe
834. Oudino
835. Robert Livingston
836. E. Herbert
837. Friedrich Schlegel
838. Mariana
839. Rienzi
840. Sixtus V

841. Hahnemann
842. CeIsm
843. von Gentz
844. Deak
845. Pym
846. Gustavus IV
847. Monroe
848. Carl Gauss
849. Keats
850. C. Bell

851. Godwin
852. De la Croix
853. Charles VI (Germany)
854. Edward IV
855. Ennius
856. Epictetus
857. Ferdinand II
858. Harold II
859. Zeno of Citium
860. Fiesole

861. Pestalozzi
862. Dundonald
863. Tippoo Sahib
864. Clovis
865. Huet
866. Maistre
867. Cagliostro
868. John Ray
869. Thomas Malthus
870. Atticus

871. Barrow
872. Somers
873. Arkwright
874. Christopher Wren
875. Quinet
876. Nodier
877. Krudener
878. Bede
879. Claude of Lorraine
880. Theocritus

881. L. Stanislaus
882. Joseph Hooker
883. P. Sidney
884. Milner
885. Maimonidea
886. Odoacer
887. Henault
888. Theresa
889. Barthez
890. Espartero

891. Decazes
892. Harriet Martineau
893. T. Brown
894. Fermat
895. Agathocles
896. Empedocles
897. Charles V
898. Banks
899. Zinzendorf
900. Thierry
901. T. S. Gracchus
902. Delambre
903. Caligula
904. Edward III (England)
905. Richardson
906. Porphyry
907. Nicole
908. Waller
909. Balboa
910. Solyman

911. Catherine de Medici
912. La Harpe
913. Pole
914. Thales
915. Maria de Medici
916. Procopius
917. Lactantius
918. Borgia
919. Berengarius de Tours
920. Tallien

921. Camden
922. Armstrong
923. Jeffrey
924. Capo
925. Sismondi
926. R. Owen
Robert Owen | Richard Owen?
927. Apuleius
928. St, Just
929. Spontini
930. W. Laud

931. Irenaeus
932. Lacretelle
933. J. B. Lull
934. Paul I (Russia)
935. Stilicho
936. Arbuthnot
937. Dampier
938. Auber
939. Gregoire
940. Dole

941. La Chaise
942. Francis II (Germany)
943. Dolomieu
944. Aesop
945. F. M. Grimm
946. Dupuytren
947. M. J. Brutus
948. Ludwig Feuerbach
949. Barnaveldt
950. Farel

951. Akenside (Ѻ)
952. Prince Albert
953. Bouillon
954. Hauser
955. Frederick Wilhelm II (Prussia)
956. Cerando
957. William Wallace
958. Chamfort
959. Agrippa
960. Garat

961. Audubon
962. A. Doria
963. Hareeree
964. Cowley
965. Heyne
966. Martinez
967. Petronius
968. Hortense
969. Mahommed II
970. Mai

971. Sue
972. J. Barry
973. Marivaux
974. Sebastian
975. Rotrou
976. W. Russell
977. Suchet
978. Paoli
979. Bopp
980. Romilly

981. Montalembert
982. John XXII
983. Rohan
984. Iamblicus
985. Bernhard
986. Simonides
987. Bagpsen
988. Raspail
989. William Thomson
990. Louis I

991. Otho
992. Sertorius
993. Macpherson
994. Claudianus
995. Domitian
996. Bugeaud
997. Charles I (Naples)
998. Fauriel
999. Enfantin
1000. Babeuf

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Proximity | Error effect
Cattell, of note, discusses the so-called “proximity error effect”, i.e. the closer one gets to one’s own time, the more prone to error the rankings become; for example:

“As we come nearer to our own times it becomes increasingly difficult to measure tendencies by the methods we are using. The positions of men on the list are subject to larger probable and constant errors. Byron may be a household word on the continent and Shelley unknown, while the best criticism may place Shelley above Byron. Our list places Mendelssohn above Bach and ignores Schumann altogether—while the last thirty years have altered not only critical opinion, but also popular taste.”

In other words, in 1894, George Byron (Cattell 1000:30) [RGM:347|1,260+] (IQC:180) (IQ:180|#134) was a “house hold” name, whereas Percy Shelley (1792-1822) (IQT:165) (IQ:185|#88), per posthumous genius reasons, was not yet making the top one-thousand eminence rankings, yet the “best criticism”, aka the discerning mind (see: genius recognizes genius), as Cattell states, may well place Shelley above Byron; this reasoning affords to the modern consensus of things; by 1930, e.g., Lewis Terman calculated Shelley's IQ at 165 and by 2017, with Shelley’s atheism rankings (HD:22) (FA:94) (GA:15) climbing, his citation (CR:14) climbing, and his human elective affinity work coming to light, he now rankings in at IQ 185 at top 500 genius position of #88 (May 2017).

The same can be said of Joseph Thomson, who in 1923 was ranked by Time magazine as the "greatest living physicist", likely owing to the hoopla over his recent 1897 discovery of the electron, but he was soon thereafter, particularly after Einstein’s relativity-based light-bending (1920) measurement prediction confirmation, with the eclipse expedition of Arthur Eddington, Thomson was soon surpassed by Einstein, in greatest physicist rankings. Thomson, presently, e.g., does not even make the top ten rankings of most greatest physicist ever rankings.

Quotes
The following are related quotes:
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“It is an unquestionable fact, and one melancholy to contemplate, that during the sixty years which succeeded the death of Descartes, France had not possessed a single man who dared to think for himself. Metaphysicians, moralists, historians, all had become tainted by the servility of that bad age. During two generations, no Frenchman had been allowed to discuss with freedom any question either of politics or of religion. The consequence was, that the largest intellects, excluded from their legitimate field, lost their energy; the national spirit died away; the very materials and nutriment of thought seemed to be wanting.”
Henry Buckle (1856), History of Civilization, Volume One (pgs. 524-25)

References
1. Cattell, James, M. (1894). “A Statistical Study of Eminent Men”, statistics of paper presented to the American Psychological Association Dec.; abstract published in the Psychological Review, Mar., 1895; read in present form as a lecture before the Philosophical Club of Yale University, 1897; Popular Science Monthly (1903), 62: 359-77.
2. (a) Cox, Catherine. (1924). “On the Early Mental Development of a Group of Eminent Men”, dissertation/thesis. Stanford University.
(b) Cox, Catharine, M. (1926). Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses (Genetic Studies of Genius Series). Stanford Univ Press.

Further reading
● Kaufman, James C. and Sternberg, Robert J. (2010). The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity (pg. 180). Cambridge University Press.

External links
James McKeen Catttell – Wikipedia.

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