Heredity of the Imagination. 63 



iv. MUSICIANS. 

 The development of the art of music is far more recent than 



that of painting. It dates back no more than three centuries. 



Still we shall find that the heredity of this art is not rare : the 



family of the Bachs alone presents us with most singular evidence. 



Of great musicians who constitute exceptions to the law of heredity 



I find only Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, and Hale'vy. 



ALLEGRI, the famous composer of the Sistine Chapel Miserere, 

 was of the same family as Correggio the painter. 



AMATI, Andrea, the most illustrious member of a family of violinists 



at Cremona ; 



His brother, Niccola, his two sons, Antonio and Girolamo, and 

 his grandson. 



BACH, Sebastian, the greatest of his family. 



The Bach family is, perhaps, the most distinguished instance of 

 mental heredity on record. It began in 1550, and continued 

 through eight generations, the last known member being 

 Regina Susanna, who was living in indigence in the year 1800. 

 1 During a period of nearly 200 years this family produced a 

 multitude of artists of the first rank. There is no other 

 instance of such remarkable talents being combined in a 

 single family. Its head was Weit Bach, a baker of Presburg, 

 who used to seek relaxation from labour in music and song. 

 He had two sons, who commenced that unbroken line of 

 musicians of the same name that for nearly two centuries 

 overran Thuringia, Saxony, and Franconia. They were all 

 organists, church singers, or what is called in Germany Stadt- 

 Musiker. When they had become too numerous to live near 

 each other, and the members of the family were scattered 

 abroad, they resolved to meet once a year, on a stated day, 

 with a view to keep up a sort of patriarchal bond of union. 

 This custom was kept up until nearly the middle of the i8th 

 century, and often more than 100 persons bearing the name 

 of Bach men, women, and children assembled.' In this 

 family are reckoned twenty-nine eminent musicians. Fe'tis, 

 in his Dictionnaire Biographique^ mentions fifty-seven mem- 

 bers of this family. 

 BEETHOVEN, Ludwig; 

 4 



