MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 453 



grandparents were in grade 10. It is very easy to account for this 

 high wave of intellect, for in the first place among the sixty-two 

 ancestors who lie in five degrees of remoteness, one finds only two in a 

 grade below 1 and only one below 5. These were Frederick I. of 

 Prussia and George William of Brunswick, who were in 3; both lie 

 remote. This alone is remarkable, and I doubt if the same would be 

 true of any other chart, or indeed of any other family. 



In the second place one sees the House of Orange four times in 

 the fifth generation. This of itself would probably create only a 

 small effect since this entire generation is considered to have only 

 3!/8 per cent, of influence, but we see here a fortunate selection of the 

 best, and four of its greatest descendants are found among the third 

 degree of remoteness, and one in the second degree. Then the 

 remaining part of the pedigree is filled in with what is best in the 

 House of Brunswick, together with Elenora d'Olbrenze, a remarkable 

 character.* She was of a good Dutch Huguenot family. 



Among the forty included in this group (all ancestors of Fred- 

 erick the Great to third degree, with nieces and nephews) we find 

 five in 10, four in 9, six in 8, seven in 7, or nine of these forty are 

 geniuses 9 or 10; and 22 are high in the talent class. There is 

 a strong literary and musical bent among the descendants, and hered- 

 itary influence can be traced through both the mother and paternal 

 grandmother of Frederick the Great, straight back to the House of 

 Orange, from which it probably came. This is in spite of the fact 

 that Frederick's father was entirely hostile to literature. The bent 

 appeared decidedly in five of the ten. In the others it seems to have 

 been absent. The pedigree calls for about half of them to show this 

 imaginative type of mind, if we couple to the pedigree this idea : that 

 strong mental characteristics do not freely blend, but tend to jump 

 about, and, if appearing at all, appear in almost full force in those who 

 inherit them in any conspicuous degree. 



Whatsoever in Frederick the Great's fraternity environment would 

 not properly account for either the appearance of the artistic taste or 

 the fact only half showed it. This literary bent should be compared 

 with Hanover, where eighty-seven persons show only four authors and 

 these are every one of them in the extreme background and conse- 

 quently do not influence the House itself. Among the House of Han- 

 over a number of the princes were fond of study but none were authors. 



Regarding the moral side among the Hohenzollerns, there were 

 only a few who fell short. It corresponds perfectly in a general way 

 with the pedigree. It is noteworthy that here as in Hanover no atro- 

 cious and violent characters appeared in the family, nor were any 



* See Wilkins, ' Love of an Uncrowned Queen.' 



