136 GREAT MEN OF MODERN HISTORY. 



his own ideas on subjects, and was not averse to coming into con- 

 flict with the town authorities when it suited his business interests 

 to do so. As to the mental ability of Mary Arden, we have some 

 information in the fact that, though the youngest of the family, 

 she was, in 1556, made the executor of her father's will. After 

 eight years more in which to exercise and use this mental ability 

 she became the mother of William Shakespeare. 



THE HERSCHELS. 



The Herschels, astronomers, though famous, were persons 

 whose mental ability was greater than their fame. Sir John Her- 

 schel, born in 1792, was son of Sir William, who was born in 1738, 

 who was son of Isaac, born 1707, youngest son of Abraham, son 

 of Hans, who quitted Moravia early in the seventeenth century 

 on religious grounds. Caroline Herschel, born 1750, was sister 

 of Sir William. If Hans "quitted Moravia early in the seven- 

 teenth century" on his own responsibility, he must have been born 

 more than a hundred years before his grandson Isaac. That he 

 was alive at all early in the seventeenth century would make the 

 father and grandfather of Sir William take high rank, though Sir 

 William himself ranks only in class e. Sir John ranks in sub- 

 class A 2 , as his father was fifty-four when he was born, and Caro- 

 line ranks in class B, as her father was forty-three when she was 

 born. 



THE DARWINS. 



In looking for the ancestry of Charles Darwin, born 1809, I 

 found that he was the son of a physician and a grandson of Dr. 

 Erasmus Darwin. After seeing the same statement in three or 

 four different places, I became curious to know who this physician 

 was. I then found that he was Robert Waring Darwin, born in 



