loria] social anthropology— a review 293
thrust into the infernal whirlpool of the mines and factories, can become Byrons or Raphaels ? And then, what are we to say of Amnion's startling demonstration of the parallelism between the curve of incomes and the curve of genius? First, let us note that, in order to make the curves coincide, the author is obliged not only to manipulate his data rather laboriously, but also to suppose that individuals deprived of income or afflicted with a negative income are fewer in number than the possessors of the least income. Now, this supposition is ruthlessly belied by sta- tistics, which demonstrate, on the contrary, that the phalanx of the unemployed and the rejects are at present assuming propor- tions exceeding those of the most wretched fraction of the work- ing class. Given this fact, it is at once evident that one can no longer speak of a curve of incomes, and hence, that the incomes are distributed according to a law altogether different from the law of distribution of genius. But leaving this aside, let us asr sume that there are really two curves, and that they agree per- fectly. In order that this fact may constitute a real proof of the pretended correlation between wealth and genius, the author must prove that the persons occupying the different points on the curve of incomes are the same as those who occupy the cor- responding points on the curve of genius ; in other words, that the successive classes of income-getters are composed of the same individuals who comprise the successive classes of intellects. Now such a demonstration, it is hardly necessary to add, the author does not and cannot give ; without it his two curves tell us abso- lutely nothing, and authorize no conclusions whatever in regard to the question under discussion. Thus Amnion's thesis has no other foundation than the greater width of the hats used by the rich — a frail argument, to say the least, since everyone knows what value can be attributed to the craniometry practiced by hatters.
As regards Jacoby's theory, with which Ammon connects the entire philosophy of history, it must be admitted that it thor-
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