THE DESCENT OF BAD TRAITS AND GOOD. 263 



6. The intermarriage of highly gifted relatives 

 tends to diminish rather than to increase the ability 

 of the race. 



Niebuhr says that aristocracies, when obliged to 

 recruit their numbers among themselves, fall into 

 decay, and often into insanity, dementia, and imbe- 

 cility. Who does not know that this truth might be 

 illustrated by vast ranges of historical knowledge, 

 were there time here for the presentation of details ? 

 The Lagidse and Seleucidse for ten hundred years 

 intermarried, and through nine hundred years were 

 in a process of mysterious decay. The opinion of 

 many of our Revolutionary fathers was, that half the 

 thrones of Europe were filled by persons more or 

 less erratic on account of descending from relatives. 

 It was one of the propositions Jefferson often talked 

 about in private, that the high places of Europe were 

 filled with imbeciles, the results of consanguineous 

 marriages. The rule of the Church of England to- 

 day on this topic is more strict than has been that of 

 some decayed royal houses. 



7. The marriage of highly-gifted persons of differ- 

 ent lines of descent is a method of improving the 

 upper, but only the upper, that is, the most intel- 

 lectual and virtuous, portion of the human family. 



Face to face with the question, What is God's sift- 

 ing-machine in his own application of the laws of 

 hereditary descent to man's improvement? I must 

 whisper, that, for one, I think there is an indication 

 in nature as to what parties should enter into mar- 

 riage. It is a solemn moment. This house is still. 



