316 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY, VII. 



By Dr. FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS. 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



Evidence from the House of Nassau. 

 A. Elder Branch of Orange. 

 f I 'VMS branch of Nassau for five generations from William the Elder 

 -*- (1487-1559) to William, Prince of Orange, who became king of 

 England (1650-1702), includes in the direct line 30 names. Com- 

 pleting the pedigree on the maternal side for each fraternity brings in 

 83 additional persons, and raises the entire group to 113. 



The thirty in the direct line show remarkable characteristics and 

 probably average, among the direct lines already discussed, more genius 

 than all the rest of the countries put together, excepting that little 

 region about Frederick the Great which we believe to have been formed 

 from this. These illustrious names are William the Silent (10), 

 Maurice (9), Frederick Henry (8), William II., Prince of Orange 

 (18), William III., of England (9). These are father, two sons, 

 grandson and great-grandson. If due to heredity, why was it per- 

 petuated through four generations without reverting to the mean? 

 This was largely due, as far as the second generation was concerned, 

 to the fact that the stock was remarkably well maintained on the 

 maternal side. Maurice had, for his mother's father, Maurice, the 

 celebrated Elector of Saxony (9) and for a great-grandfather Philip 

 ' Landgrave Hesse (7). 



Frederick Henry was a grandson of Gaspard de Coligny, the great 

 admiral of France (9), himself of distinguished stock, and the most 

 remarkable member of the Montmorency-Coligny combination. Fred- 

 erick Henry married Amelia of Sohns, a woman of fine character and 

 high mental endowments; so it is not surprising that his son, William 

 II., who died young, should have been a prince of exceedingly high 

 promise. 



In the next generation William II. married Mary, a daughter of 

 Charles I. of England, so that the relatively poor blood of the Stuarts 

 was introduced. He had but one child, William III., one of the 

 greatest of England's kings. That the last of the line took from 

 the paternal rather than the maternal side must be considered good 

 luck, to say the least. Thus besides the remarkable unions we see 

 also a selection inasmuch as the most highly gifted were sons, many 



