MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 321 



August (1579-1666), the second generation, married an authoress, 

 Sophia Elizabeth; they had four children who were authors, among 

 them Ferdinand Albert I. Ferdinand had several children, but no 

 authors. One of these, Ferdinand Albert II., married Charlotte, not 

 literary, whose father, uncle, aunt and grandfather were all authors. 

 Among their nine children one, Elizabeth, published a number of 

 translations and another, Ernst Ludwig, had literary taste and became 

 the tutor of William of Orange. 



The next generation is formed by the union with the literary 

 Hohenzollerns and shows a fair proportion of authors, three in nine. 

 After this none appeared. If these five generations of authors had 

 accrued without any rejuvenation of blood, it would speak strongly 

 for the effects of education. As it is, it could be used for an argument 

 on either side. All that one can say is that heredity is satisfied. 

 On the purely intellectual side there seems to be two rather serious 

 deviations from Galton's law. The generation which contains the 

 nieces and nephews of Frederick the Great is even more brilliant 

 than would be expected. This may have been, as in the case of 

 Frederick's own fraternity, either prepotency or superior opportunities 

 of distinction, one can not tell which. 



The next generation gives one of the worst results from the stand- 

 point of heredity found anywhere, and we have quite the unexpected 

 happening. 



Two of the children, George William and Charles George, were 

 mentally unfit to rule and consequently disinherited. In this con- 

 nection it may be stated that a study of Denmark, Hesse Cassel and 

 England has brought the author to the belief that this mental disease 

 in the House of Brunswick was but a cropping out of the old Palatine 

 insanity at the time of James I., of England. Christian VIL, of 

 Denmark, who was an uncontrolable imbecile and finally became mad, 

 was a first cousin of George III., of England, who was insane during 

 his later life, and Christian was also a first cousin once removed of 

 the two little imbecile sons above mentioned, of Augusta, princess of 

 Brunswick. Another more convincing bit of evidence in this con- 

 nection is to be found in the neighboring House of Hesse Cassel. 

 Here we find another who became insane and died in early manhood, 

 and was a first cousin, once removed, of Christian VII. of Denmark. 

 All these are related and only through the same source, the Palatine 

 House, and since this Christian, of Hesse Cassel, is doubly descended 

 from this suspected strain (Palatine House) it seems more than prob- 

 able that we are dealing with an inherited insanity in all these cases. 

 We may also mention Frederick William I., of Prussia, about whom 

 Macaulay said: 'His eccentricities were such as had never been seen 

 out of a mad house.' Frederick William was a first cousin of George 



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