MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 423 



MENTAL AND MOEAL HEREDITY IN EOYALTY, VIII. 



By Dr. FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS, 

 HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



Evidence from Lehr's Genealogy. 



IF there is any one still unconvinced that heredity is by far the most 

 important of all causes leading to high mental activity resulting 

 in what we call eminence or distinction, he need only carefully study 

 the great book of pedigrees compiled by Paul Ernst Lehr. If he will 

 follow these charts of relationship and, at the same time, use any 

 general biographical dictionary, he will find how seldom has distinction, 

 as judged by achievements, fallen to those not close blood relations 

 of others of the same stamp. And this consanguinity of distinction 

 is in spite of the varying degrees of education and opportunity that 

 must have been presented to these different princes even when living in 

 the same age or the same family. If we find, as we do on certain pages 

 of the book, great barren regions containing dozens of titles of the 

 highest social rank, the bearers of which lived in different countries and 

 eras, there is no reason to suppose that these undistinguished princes 

 did not average just as much opportunity as the average of dozens on 

 some other page where clustered together are the names of those whose 

 achievements have been the themes of biographers and historians. 



For instance, there does not seem to be any reason why the kings 

 and princes of Denmark should not have averaged just about the same 

 opportunity as the princes of Prussia; education of varying degrees 

 of perfection, stirring times and chances to display ability in war and 

 government fell to the lot of a certain number in each country, certainly 

 to no more in Prussia than in Denmark, yet Denmark is barren of 

 genius, and Prussia at the same time is full of it. At that time not 

 only do we find great men and women in Prussia, but also their rela- 

 tions in Brunswick and Sweden, engaged in vigorous activity, while the 

 princes of nine tenths of the other countries of Europe are doing 

 nothing really worthy of any mention at all, although education and 

 events must certainly be favorable to a great many of them. 



It is not that education is of no moment, for it must be, as we all 

 know, of conspicuous influence in mental development. Even those 

 'self-made' men who have had no education worth mentioning in the 

 ordinary sense of the word, have nevertheless educated themselves by 

 observation and experience. It is not that education is of no moment, 

 but it must be that the determining factor in the production of the 



