Some Eminent Men 41 



The steam engine and several other inventions 

 of a high order are due to a Scotchman by the 

 name of James Watt. James was born when his 

 father was 38, and the father was born when the 

 grandfather was 56. This is only 94 years for 

 two generations, but only one person in 122 is 

 born as great a length of time as that after his 

 grandfather. And the grandfather of James 

 Watt was a teacher of mathematics, a fact which 

 shows that education before reproduction was not 

 only long continued but was intense as compared 

 to what exists in the general population. 



Some of these persons who do not like to have 

 facts of this kind presented to the public may 

 come along and say that Confucius was his fath- 

 er's eldest son. Quite true. All of the other 

 children were girls, and the father was 71 when 

 the famous son was born. Also, the father was 

 a learned man and a chief magistrate. Also, 

 the mother was the youngest daughter of an- 

 other learned magistrate. 



Or, the objector may say that Cuvier, the 

 French naturalist, was an intellect of the first 

 order, and was his father's eldest child. Correct 

 again. But it happens that the father was a 



