A RACE LIKE A FAMILY 193 



when we are considering a few generations of a 

 single family. But it is fallacious in that it em- 

 phasizes direct succession, and conceals from us the 

 immense importance of collateral inter-connection. 

 We shall appreciate its deceptiveness if we consider 

 the course of reproduction with reference to direct 

 succession only. The number of our ancestors 

 doubles in each generation, and if we go back 

 twenty generations the forbears of each of us 

 must number a million. But the population of 

 that time would not have sufficed to provide 

 ancestors, in this number, for more than a few 

 persons now existing, and it is obvious that, owing 

 to extensive intermixture of lines, a vast number 

 of the present inhabitants of the British Isles 

 must have ancestors in common. Where free 

 intermarriage is checked by law or custom a line 

 propagates itself still more directly by the union 

 of blood relations. The ancestry of the German 

 Emperor might have included 4,096 individuals 

 during the last twelve generations : as a matter 

 of fact less than 550 persons within this period 

 contributed to his birth, in so many cases have 

 individuals filled several places in the genealogical 

 scheme, owing to the intermarriage of more or 

 less distant cousins. It is easy to comprehend 

 how in these circumstances family peculiarities 

 of strength or weakness would become accentuated. 

 But such restrictions upon intermarriage have 

 not been general ; and in the past there has, more- 

 over, been extensive intermixture of blood by 

 illegitimate connections. So it has come about 

 that, speaking generally, a race may be likened to 

 a family, in that its propagation tends to repress 

 divergences from a type or standard, and to pro- 

 duce a racial uniformity. 



