THE BREEDING OF MEN 



broken his compact and also married, and he had 

 a daughter, whose advent brought consternation 

 to the family. Sophia of Palantine never forgave 

 her niece for being born; but she solved the 

 dilemma by marrying her own son to said offend- 

 ing niece, his cousin. So the family interests were 

 again united. 



Thus it appears that the family of the seven 

 ambitious brothers was a dwindling company in 

 the two generations that succeeded their compact, 

 and expressly because of their compact. In 

 modern terms this seems a case of race suicide. 

 But it may properly be interpreted in a yet more 

 modern phrase. 



What the ambitious brothers and their suc- 

 cessors had done was to practice the art of eugen- 

 ics in three important phases. 



They had (1) restricted the number of de- 

 scendants, through preventing the birth of super- 

 numerary children; (2) they had wisely selected 

 able mates for the procreating member of the 

 family; (3) and they had concentrated the family 

 estates and talents by judicious inbreeding that 

 is to say, by the union of cousins. 



Now note the sequel of this remarkable prac- 

 tice of eugenic principles. The son of the erst- 

 while Bishop of Osnabriick and his brilliant wife 

 became King of one country (George I of Eng- 

 land), and their daughter became Queen of an- 

 other (Sophia Charlotte of Prussia) . Their direct 

 lineal descendants to-day occupy the thrones of 

 England, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Norway, 



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