MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 509 



as remarkable as that just considered. In Spain it is related to an 

 inherited mental imbalance in just the same way as in Eussia. 



Evidence from the House of Montmorency. 



Since the family of Nassau Orange perpetuated itself by aid of 

 the House of Coligny and since the Collignys, Condes and Mont- 

 morencys intermarried freely, these three families may be considered 

 next and treated as one group under the three separate headings. 



The pages of Betham's 'Genealogy of the Sovereigns of the World" 

 (London, 1795) contain from Eberhard Montmorency contemporary 

 with Hugh Capet to Anne, Duke of Montmorency, the great Constable 

 of France (1493-1567), 107 names covering a period of eighteen gen- 

 erations. During the later sixteen of these generations, the family held 

 exceedingly high social position and were lords of Montmorenc}', Laval, 

 Montfort, etc. There were among this 107 a considerable number of 

 persons of local influence, constables and marshals of France, but the 

 names of two alone of this large number, the product of eighteen gen- 

 erations, have come down to us as distinguished historical characters. 



These are Mathew I., Constable, died in 1151, and Mathew II., 

 called ' The Great,' died 1230. They were grandfather and grandson. 

 The next great Montmorency was Anne, Constable of France (1493- 

 1567) (8). "He was a brave but ferocious warrior, was totally 

 illiterate, and yet through his natural talent and the experience of a 

 long life, he was an able statesman and counsellor." None of the imme- 

 diate ancestry of Anne appears to have been famous, as the two 

 Mathews are many generations back; therefore the inherited talents of 

 Anne must be considered a new variation. 



Xow comes another little region of great names : Anne's second son, 

 Henry I., Duke of Montmorency, was a distinguished legislator (8), 

 being the only one of seven mature children to reach high fame; the 

 general average of the fraternity shows the reversion to the mean. 



Henry II., the representative of the next generation, was rather 

 more distinguished than his father. He was the only son to reach 

 maturity. His sister, Charlotte, who married Henry IL, Prince of 

 Conde, and was the mother of the Great Conde, has remained famous 

 all these years, but rather for her extreme beauty and strength of 

 character than for purely intellectual qualities. There were two other 

 sisters not distinguished. Henry left no children, so the male line ends 

 here. 



Not only is this house, as is well known, an instance of heredity, 

 but its closer analysis strengthens this view even more, and the 

 six most famous ones fall in two little groups far removed from each 

 other; and comparing the percentages of geniuses with the sizes of 



