THE CHILDREN'S START IN LIFE 33 



devotion to training which have projected them- 

 selves through eight generations without losing the 

 strength and force of their great ancestor. Of 

 the three sons and eight daughters of Jonathan 

 Edwards there was not one, nor a husband or wife 

 of one, whose character and ability, whose purpose 

 and achievement were not a credit to this godly- 

 man. Of the seventy-five grandchildren, with their 

 husbands and wives, there was but one for whom 

 an apology may be offered, and nearly every one 

 was exceptionally strong in scholarship and moral 

 force. 



We have paused long enough on the threshold 

 of the descendants of Jonathan Edwards. We have 

 seen the estimate in which he was held by his con- 

 temporaries at home and abroad, and by close stu- 

 dents of the history of his times. We have seen 

 what he inherited and by what training and in 

 what environment he was developed. We have 

 also seen the terrible strain to which his children 

 were subjected in childhood from lack of school 

 privileges and pleasing social conditions. It re- 

 mains to be seen what kind of men and women 

 these children became with childhood disadvan- 

 tages, but with a grand inheritance and the best of 

 home training. 



Remember the size, ages, and financial condition 

 of the family when the father died — the sons being 

 aged eight, thirteen and twenty — and then con- 

 sider the fact that the three sons graduated from 

 Princeton, and five of the daughters married college 

 3 



