MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 373 



is probably as true of mental stature as of physical, where it has been 

 proved by actual measurements. This consideration is of great impor- 

 tance in proving the inherited nature of genius and stupidity, because 

 if after placing most of our individuals in grades four, five, six and 

 seven, and admitting only a very few to grades nine and ten, or to 

 one and two, we still find them to be closely related to others, it is 

 all the more a proof of heredity. 



Besides this number I have been able (thanks to the ' Genealogy' 

 of Lehr, which contains the full pedigree, male and female, to the 

 twelfth generation, of all the northern ruling families) to extend the 

 number to about 3,500 related persons as a field for study of genius 

 alone. 



This book contains the names of 3,312 distinct persons, but by 

 intermarriages and repetition the actual number is raised to 32,768. 

 It would of course be a very long undertaking to look up the characters 

 of 3,312 persons, but by using the index and 'Lippincott's Biographical 

 Dictionary' it was not hard to tell how many of the number are not 

 mentioned at all, and consequently were not geniuses or worthy of 

 grades nine or ten. It seems fair to assume that if a person was of 

 noble rank (and there are practically none others in Lehr's c Genealogy') 

 and did not distinguish himself sufficiently to gain a place in a 

 biographical dictionary as large as Lippincott's, he could not have 

 been very great, at least as regards outward achievements, which is 

 the standard here employed. 



The standard for grades nine and ten is very high indeed. It is 

 made up of really great names and includes few below the standard 

 of William the Silent, Gustavus Adolphus, Peter the Great and the 

 Great Conde, Turenne, Maurice of Nassau, and, among the women, 

 Isabella of Castile, Maria Theresa, Elizabeth of Palatine and the 

 Duchess de Longueville. 



Of course being in Lippincott's is no criterion of mental calibre 

 in a king, so that many who are there must be at once thrown out, 

 as for instance Louis XIIL, XV. and XVI. of France. No one is 

 placed in grade nine or ten for intellect, unless his or her name appears 

 in Lippincott's and also appears there in virtue of mental endowments 

 or distinguished achievements. There are only a few, and those are 

 actual kings, who appear in this biographical dictionary merely on 

 account of their birth. They are easily detected and would be excluded 

 by any one. 



Occasionally I have met with a character in the histories or large 

 biographies who seemed to me to be worthy of rank nine or ten, whose 

 name is not to be found in Lippincott's. Such a person was Sophia 

 'The Philosophical Queen,' of Prussia, and grandmother of Frederick 



