CHAPTER III 



THE INHERITANCE AND TRAINING OF 

 MR. EDWARDS 



No man can have the intellectual power, nobility 

 of character, and personal grandeur of Jonathan 

 Edwards and transmit it to his children's children 

 for a century and a half who has not himself had 

 a great inheritance. The whole teaching of the 

 culture of animals and plants leaves no room to 

 question the persistency of character, and this is 

 so grandly exemplified in the descendants of Mr. 

 Edwards that it is interesting to see what inherit- 

 ances were focused in him. 



It is not surprising to find that the ancestors 

 of Mr. Edwards were cradled in the intellectual 

 literary activities of the days of Queen Elizabeth. 

 The family is of Welsh origin and can be traced 

 as far as 1282, when Edward, the conqueror, 

 appeared. His great-great-grandfather, Richard 

 Edwards, who went from Wales to London about 

 1580, was a clergyman in the Elizabethan period. 

 Those were days which provided tonic for the 

 keenest spirits and brightest minds and pro- 

 fessional men profited most from the influence of 

 Spencer, Bacon, and Shakespeare. 



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