EMINENT FAMILIES. I9I 



GREAT MEN. SONS. 



53 Coleridge 24 



43 ? . Cromwell 27 



A 3 Dibdin 26 



Draper 24 



51 Franklin 23 



Hunt 26 



44 Jay 28 



Kean 24 



43 Mather 24 



43 Peter the Great 18 



43 Pugin 22 



52 Solomon 17 



Stephenson 22 



The accompanying table gives the birth-ranks of a number of the 

 sons of great men, and also that of the men themselves when known. 

 This distinction is sharp and follows the difference in mental ability. 

 In his "Hereditary Genius," Galton remarks that the Cromwell 

 blood does not seem to have been as potent as was to have been 

 expected. While we do not know Cromwell's birth-rank exactly, 

 we know that he was a fifth child and that he belonged to a slowly 

 moving line extending back five generations to a common ancestor 

 with Charles I., whose line to the same ancestor was eight genera- 

 tions. We also know that his mother was 39 when he was born, 

 and that his father was the second of four brothers, all of whom 

 sat in Parliament before Cromwell's birth. We have seen that a 

 birth-rank of 2y will sometimes produce eminent men, but as an 

 ancestry as slowly moving as that of Cromwell is somewhat rare, 

 it is not at all probable that his wife was as well endowed. Cham- 

 pollion had a brother thirteen years old, and Hunt was the young- 

 est of a large family. 



