144 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



Sense of duty. This is closely related to ambition. In Nelson's case it was 

 the appreciation of the fact that he must subordinate the immediate gratification 

 to larger interests. As he tells his betrothed: "Duty is the great business of a 

 sea officer all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it 

 is." Again, he writes to his wife: "I have pride in doing my duty well, and a 

 self-approbation, which if it is not so lucrative, yet perhaps affords more pleasing 

 sensations" (Mahan, i, 133). His last signal at Trafalgar before "close action" 

 was "England expects every man will do his duty," and his last words: "Thank 

 God, I have done my duty; God and my country." 



It is to be noted that his devotion to duty did bring him that fame which he 

 idolized. If devotion to duty and fame did not achieve the end of a eugenical 

 mating it was because a certain feebleness in the inhibition of the sex impulse 

 led him to marry before he had acquired fame. It did make possible a later ille- 

 gitimate mating, with Lady Hamilton, at a higher social level than the first, and 

 its product was Horatia, his only child who survived infancy. 



Strength and tenacity of convictions. This trait is a part of the depressed 

 temperament. The hyperkinetics readily and quickly change their ideas and 

 even ideals, but the hypokinetics are tenacious of them. Nelson said: "I feel 

 I am perfectly right, and you know upon these occasions I am not famous for 

 giving up a point." As a captain in the West Indies he disputed the right of a 

 civil officer "Commissioner of the Navy" to fly the commodore's pennant 

 and to give him orders, and insisted on this principle. "Under a conviction 

 of right he throughout life feared no responsibility and shrank from no conse- 

 quences" (Mahan, p. 52). He stuck to his conviction that American ships, after 

 the Revolution, had no right to trade in the British West Indies, although in doing 

 so he opposed his naval superior and the civil governments of the islands. Finally 

 the courts decided that his contention was correct. These instances are char- 

 acteristic of his reactions throughout life. 



Let us now consider the origin of the constitutional traits which determined 

 Nelson's reactions. We look with interest for the traits of Nelson's descendants, 

 and here we find few data. Of Horatia, generally regarded as his daughter by Lady 

 Hamilton, it was observed by Nelson, Grenville, and Hamilton: "Horatia is like her 

 mother; will have her own way, or kick up a devil of a dust." This insistence upon 

 carrying out ideas was, of course, strongly seen at times in Nelson also. Horatia 

 married Philip Ward and had a son, Nelson Ward, about whom details are wanting. 



Nelson's fraternity comprised 11, of whom 3 died in infancy. Besides Horatio 

 there were: 



Maurice, born in 1753, who secured through the assistance of his mother's 

 brother, Captain Maurice Suckling, a comptroller of the navy, a position as clerk 

 in the navy office. Maurice was rather apt to be in debt and difficulties, from which 

 he was once rescued by Horatio. It was not until he was over 40 that his father 

 was able to write: "He has the income of a gentleman" (Matcham, 1911, p. 126). 

 In 1801 he was promoted to the principal seat in the naval office and great regret 

 was felt when he died, childless, shortly after. 



Susannah (1755-1813), who married, hi 1780, Thomas Bolton. She had a 

 cheerful, affectionate, plucky temperament. She had 2 sons and 4 daughters. 

 Of the sons Thomas became the second Earl Nelson and had many descendants, 

 including Rear Admiral Maurice Horatio Nelson (1832-1906). George died at 

 sea at the age of 12 years. 



