sufficient rank to be included by name in his Table of
Precedence.




CHAPTER V.--NOTEWORTHINESS AS A MEASURE OF ABILITY.


Success is the joint result of the natural powers of mind and body,
and of favourable circumstances. Those of the latter which fall into
definite groups will be distinguished as "environment," while the
others, which evade classification, will be called "accidental."

The superstitions of old times cling so tenaciously to modern thought
that the words "accident" and "chance" commonly connote some
mysterious agency. Nothing of the kind is implied here. The word
"accident" and the like is used in these pages simply to express the
effect of unknown or unnoted causes, without the slightest
implication that they are unknowable. In most cases their neglect has
been partly due to their individual insignificance, though their
combined effect may be very powerful when a multitude work in the
same direction. Moreover, a trifling pressure at the right spot
suffices to release a hair-trigger and thereby to cause an explosion;
similarly, with personal and social events, a trifling accident will
sometimes determine a career.

Noteworthiness and success may be regarded statistically as the
outcome of ability and environment and of nothing else, because the
effects of chance tend to be eliminated by statistical treatment. The