THE GREAT MAN VERSUS SOCIAL FORCES.

A question of long standing in sociology is the relative influence of the individual in social change. A most interesting fact about living organisms is that when a particular trait of a random number of living organisms of the same species is measured, it is found to be distributed according to the normal probability curve. Measurement in psychology also indicates that mental traits, like such physical traits as height and stature, fall into frequency distributions of the same general shape as the "normal probability curve. This distribution seems to be true not only for simple mental traits but also for combinations and complexes of traits, such as logical reasoning and even general mental ability. It seems probable therefore that such traits as inventive ability or any particular combination of traits of greatness would also be similarly distributed. People therefore think that the biological bases of the different kinds of greatness occur in the normal probability curve of frequencies.