GREAT MEN OF MODERN HISTORY. 139 



also descended from Alexander, but Cromwell was three genera- 

 tions nearer Alexander than was Charles I. Three generations 

 in a total of eight, from Charles I back to Alexander, makes a 

 very great difference in the length of time elapsing from one birth 

 to the next. Galton in his Hereditary Genius, speaking of the 

 descendants of Oliver Cromwell, remarks that the Cromwell blood 

 seemed to have been less potent than was to have been expected. 

 Cromwell had two sons, one born when he was twenty-seven and 

 the other when he was twenty-eight. It requires a very good 

 quality of mother to keep up great mental ability in sons born to 



such a young father. 



CUVIER. 



The greatest French scientist was Cuvier, who was born in 

 1769. Not only was he the greatest Frenchman from the mental 

 standpoint, but he had the standard heavy-weight brain of the 

 world. His father was the youngest of two sons and did not 

 marry until he was fifty years of age, and Cuvier was the second 

 child. 



LAMARCK. 



Although Cuvier is credited with being the greatest of French- 

 men, there are many men who consider Lamarck to have been a 

 clearer-headed thinker than Cuvier. He may be considered as 

 the real founder of evolution, and he is the author of the laws to 

 which this work relates. He was born in 1744. His father was 

 born in 1702, and was consequently forty-two when Lamarck was 

 born. The dates of births of previous generations are not given, 

 but I find that the grandfather of Lamarck's father was "a captain 

 by rank and bought the estate of Saint-Martin" no years before 

 his grandson was born. As this officer could not very well pur- 

 chase an estate before he was born, we have the physical possibilities 



