MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 449 



MENTAL AND MORAL HEEEDITY IN ROYALTY. II. 



By FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS, M. D., 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



Evidence from the House of Hohenzollern in Prussia. 



Here we find a very different condition. Let us begin with the 

 founder of the family's influence, Frederick William, the Great Elector 

 of Brandenburg. The great elector (1620-1688) was a man of the high- 

 est attainment and force of character. He received his country in a very 

 desolate condition and accomplished the greatest results with the least 

 resources. He was one of the ablest men in Germany in his time. On 

 looking up his pedigree one finds his father a weak scion of a family 

 not then illustrious, his mother not much above mediocrity, but a grand- 

 daughter of William the Silent. 



There is ever} r reason to believe that the great Elector was one of 

 numerous geniuses descended from William the Silent, even if he did 

 stand as far away from him as a great grandson. He was a first cousin 

 of the famous Prince Rupert, and his two sisters were Sophia, Duchess 

 of Brunswick (10), and Elizabeth of Palatine (9), a very profound 

 intellect. This relationship was by the way of Frederick IV. of Pala- 

 tine, who had married a daughter of William the Silent, by Anne, 

 a daughter of Maurice of Saxom r , a celebrated general. 



Every union from now on to Frederick the Great brings in again 

 the brilliant strain. Frederick William, the Great Elector, married a 

 daughter of Frederick Henry, the distinguished stateholder (8). She 

 was granddaughter of William the Silent (10), and great grand- 

 daughter of Caspard de Coligny, the great admiral of France (10). 

 Their son, Frederick I. of Prussia, showed none of the genius, but 

 he married a sister of George I., and therefore a daughter of the same 

 great Duchess of Brunswick (10). Her father also was distinguished 

 and ranks in 7 (Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover). 



This queen of Frederick I. was Sophia Charlotte. She had high 

 ideals and an important influence over political actions. She was really 

 profoundly interested in astrononry, prehistoric remains and moral 

 philosophy, and formed a warm friendship with Leibnitz. Yon Heine- 

 man says she was generally called the 'Philosophical Queen.' She is 

 placed in grade 8. Their only son was Frederick William I., a most 

 remarkable character. He was not very intellectual and especially 

 despised literature, but was a man of iron will with great ability in 



VOL. LXI. — 29. 



