Some Eminent Men 35 



The average for the entire twelve is over 36. 

 Among the other persons were one lawyer, one 

 colonel and one general. These were all educated 

 men who got their educations first and their off- 

 spring afterwards. 



In the early part of the eighteenth century 

 there was a poor French fisherman with a large 

 family. Poor fishermen do not get much educa- 

 tion in the ordinary significance of that term, but 

 the work of fighting storms on the bay of Biscay 

 and providing food and clothing for a large and 

 growing family develops mental powers, and that 

 is the kind of education referred to here. In 

 1723 that fisherman's twentieth child was born, 

 and it is very certain that that fisherman had ac- 

 quired a good deal of education before that twen- 

 tieth child was conceived. That twentieth child 

 rose to be an admiral in the French navy, a fact 

 which indicates that he inherited mental ability 

 from his parents, and that he acquired considera- 

 ble education. By the time this French admiral 

 had got education to the extent of 57 years he 

 became the father of a child, subsequently known 

 as John James Audubon, America's greatest 

 naturalist. 



