GREAT MEN OF MODERN HISTORY. 14! 



very near being born in camp. As it was the future emperor is 

 said to have been born on a rug in chapel on Sunday. From 

 these circumstances we know an important point in Napoleon's 

 ancestry. A man acting as a commander in active service neces- 

 sarily has his mental faculties keyed up to the highest pitch. With 

 his wife accompanying him in battle, as she is said to have done, 

 she must also have been exercising her brain to its fullest capacity. 

 We thus have both father and mother using their brains and 

 sharpening their wits so as to develop the mental power to the 

 utmost pitch to which they were able to attain at their ages in life. 

 If there were in this no question of ages of parents at the birth of 

 the child, then Napoleon would be the finest example of use-inher- 

 itance of which we have any record. As the matter stands, we 

 have an illustration of the fact that great mental activity may 

 produce a great brain from comparatively young parents, but that 

 the utmost strain of mental activity for a short period is not a 

 full equivalent for a less activity extending over a long period. 



