268 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



every means to corrupt his morals and stunt his education that she 

 might get the more power in her own hands. I only mention this 

 to show a good example of the sort of cases that should make us bend 

 strongly towards the importance of environment in molding the psy- 

 chical form. It is the relative absence of such cases that has led to 

 the view taken in this book. In spite of the fact that Christian VII. 

 married his first cousin, related on the bad side of the house, since 

 she was a sister of George III., his two children were not of the worst 

 sort by any means, though in general we may say that one took after 

 the father and one the mother. Louisa Augusta, the daughter, had 

 relatively very little intellect, no ambition and a very quick temper, 

 while Frederick VI., the next king, mild, affable and sensible, re- 

 sembled his mother. 



The remaining characters, Christian VIII. and Frederick VII., 

 were merely examples of good normal men, liberal, popular and suffi- 

 ciently able to fill their positions with honor to their country. There 

 is nothing particularly interesting just here, so we can conclude the 

 chapter of the Oldenburg dynasty with a glance back at the seven- 

 teenth century. 



It will be noticed that there is one little region where the intel- 

 lectual ratings are fairly high and that included in this group is 

 Christian IV., the greatest of Danish kings. The only slight error 

 from expected heredity is. that the intellectual eminence fails to be 

 perpetuated to quite the extent we might have expected in any of the 

 children of Frederick III. Ulrica Elenora, the only gifted child, was 

 'distinguished for her knowledge.' She was the mother of Charles 

 XII., of Sweden, and in him the genius was more than rejuvenated. 



Aside from this heredity is very well satisfied in the study of this 

 country, there being not more than one or two exceptions at most to 

 what we might expect from the workings of this force. It is also 

 important to note that the age of absolutism entirely failed to pro- 

 duce a type of cruel and arrogant kings. Had such a type been here 

 engendered it would certainly have been ascribed largely to the en- 

 vironment in which they lived. 



