84 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



family, though gifted to a certain extent, carried ambition to madness 

 and folly, and being finally deposed, supported himself by writing, 

 together with a small pension. Since Charles XIII., the uncle of Gus- 

 tavus IV. who succeeded him on the throne, adopted and made suc- 

 cessor, Bernadotte, Napoleon's agent, we have now reached the close 

 of our chapter on modern Sweden. 



In the study of this country, from Gustavus Vasa to Gustavus III. 

 Adolphus, we find throughout a most perfect confirmation of the 

 theory of mental and moral heredity. We find that in selecting those 

 who were to become the progenitors of the next generation, twice a 

 choice of the best among them all in Charles IX. and Charles X., and 

 the cause of this selection lay in the fact that their very merits 

 brought to them the throne. In the union of Charles the Tenth's 

 great son with the strongest part of Denmark's dynasty, we have still 

 another point where the genius was not allowed to die. We find no 

 more great names, only the petty Holsteins, until Gustavus III. Adol- 

 phus reclaims once more the glory of his ancestors, but this we find 

 to be not the ancient genius but a fresh graft, and from the famous 

 Hohenzollerns taken at the height of their intellectual eminence in 

 the time of Frederick the Great. 



In all this Swedish history the lives of these men and women can 

 not be explained by environment. If we adopt this view, why did so 

 many among them who must have had most abundant opportunities, 

 fail entirely to exhibit any of these remarkable mental statures? The 

 only serious failing on the moral side was their violent and ungovern- 

 able temper. Since there was also mental unbalance in the family, 

 it seems fair to assume that these violent tempers were a manifesta- 

 tion of the neurosis, and not to be ascribed to their high and arbitrary 

 position. 



Also, relative to the moral qualities in this family, there does not 

 seem to be any good reason from the standpoint of environment, why 

 there should be such an absence of that dissolute and licentious type 

 so continually found in Spain, France and Eussia during these same 

 centuries. But if we look at it from the standpoint of heredity, we 

 can easily see why this is so, since it was neither there to any great 

 extent in the earlier generations, nor was it in those who became the 

 subsequent ancestors of the different male lines considered. It does 

 not seem as if the example set to princes by their parents should be 

 of more effect than general temptations such as come to all who have 

 abundant means at their disposal; and we know too many examples 

 both in royalty and out, where parental influence has sadly failed to 

 inculcate such desirable lessons. 



