Edwin Grant Dexter

“ Thus the scientist, or even the college professor, who has devoted thirty years of life to study, can enter his profession from the top, while the business man and financier for whom the accumulation of wealth is a desideratum, or the lawyer and the doctor who must command a practise, or the minister who needs a congregation, must with the same period of intellectual infancy enter it from the bottom and devote a few more years to the climbing process. ”

“ This is not hard to understand when we recall the infant prodigies who frequently figure on our bill boards, or consider that nature has in most cases contributed more largely to his success than has nurture. Of those callings which presuppose a professional or at least an extended preparation, that of scientist seems from our table to promise the earliest recognition. ”

“ The probable mortality of that number of persons for the decade, supposing them to be good 'risks,' would be six. We may then suppose that 80 would enter the next decade. But our figures show that 922 of our entire group were between the ages of 30-39, inclusive, leaving the number 842 as representing the number of new names admitted during the decade. Of the total number for this age period (922) , the mortality tables lead us to suppose that 78 will die before its completion, giving us 844 as the number passing on to the next group—that for the age decade of 40-49 years. ”

“ Except for the soldier and sailor, whose ability to rise to prominence, at least in time of peace, is determined by the rapidity with which those above him are retired from service, and the congressman and the statesman, whose minimum limit is prescribed by law, the rest of the vocations shown upon the chart fall, it seems to me, into a class for which the schools, as organized means of education, provide no adequate preparation, and for which that preparation must come to a great extent from the vocation itself. ”

“ In considering this proposition it is inevitable that men, such as Gladstone, Bismarck, Moltke, Hoar, Rockefeller, Morgan and scores of others beyond the age limit, leaders in various activities, come to mind as refutations of his theories. ”

“ The effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty—these fifteen years of plenty, the anabolic or constructive period, in which there is always a balance in the mental bank, and the credit is still good.... ”

“ Although women are not included in the table given, the study of those mentioned in 'Who's Who' shows that upon the stage and in musical circles recognition is much earlier for them than for men, while in all other callings it is slower. ”