THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 263 



In almost all the above cases it was impossible to discover 

 in what exact order in the family the illustrious individual 

 came. In the dictionaries and encyclopaedias consulted, the 

 sisters were left out of consideration. 



It is remarkable how frequently in this list the intellectual 

 prodigy has been the eldest son. This happened in the case 

 of Shakespeare, Carlyle, Newton, Goethe, Kobert Blake, Clive, 

 Warren Hastings, Gibbon, Dickens — in nine out of twenty- 

 two ! Moreover, seven others were second children. Whether 

 this proportion would be maintained in a larger list, I know 

 not : I cannot but doubt it. Among the nine eldest sons, 

 Shakespeare and Newton are certainly two of the greatest men 

 who have ever lived — perhaps, intellectually, the greatest of 

 whom we have proper record. Shakespeare, however, was the 

 third child. So that, if only two children had been permitted 

 to be born to his parents, Shakespeare would not have come 

 into being. Nor would Darwin, Wellington, Gladstone — three 

 of the most remarkable Englishmen of the present century. 

 (Think how these three men have impressed European 

 history and thought !) The same is true of the great Bacon, 

 who was the youngest, and of Tennyson, who was the 

 third son. From such a small number of cases it would be 

 impossible to draw any general principles — moreover, no 

 account is taken of the physical side of man ; but even these 

 few cases — taken, as I say, entirely haphazard — show most 

 emphatically how much mankind would have lost by inter- 

 ference with biological laws. 



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