THE LESSON OF HEREDITY 



plebeian because he has no ancestors! He means, of 

 course, that the plebeian does not know the name of 

 his ancestors. But what does he know of his own? 

 Sir John Jones boasts loudly of his lineage because he 

 knows the names of his little line of Jones ancestors for, 

 say, ten generations back. He holds in contempt poor 

 Smith who cannot bring documentary evidence that he 

 had a great-great-grandfather. 



But has Jones at his tongue's end the records of all 

 of the other fifteen of his own ancestors of that fourth 

 generation whose names were not Jones ? I venture not. 

 But even if he had, what does he know of that boasted 

 tenth generation? Why, that one member was named 

 Jones. But what of the 1,023 other individuals who 

 make up the remainder of the phalanx ? The ancient 

 Jones may have been a very great man indeed, but he 

 represents less than one- tenth of one per cent, of the 

 present Sir John's ancestors of that single tenth gen- 

 eration. 



Fortunate is it for Sir John's peace of mind that he 

 does not know the others, for it is many chances to one 

 they were a motley crew, scattered in all parts of the 

 globe. Not improbably, there were a few Turks and 

 Arabs, and a Negro or two in the company, and it 

 is not at all unlikely that a few score of them were 

 vassals or slaves to some of poor Smith's illustrious 

 but now forgotten ancestors of that same genera- 

 tion. 



But whether kings or vassals matters not for our 

 purpose. It is only important to recall that these 

 multitudinous ancestors existed. And there they 



