138 The Third and Fourth Generation 



and how their genius is dissipated by unwise 

 matings. 



Peter the Great of Russia came as a brilliant 

 type from a good stock, though with a very 

 evident taint of epilepsy and feeble-mindedness. 

 He himself was an epileptic. His father, 

 grandfather, and great-grandfather had been 

 men of large ability. They had married 

 peasant girls, as was the custom of the czars. 

 Peter's own brothers and sisters were in no way 

 remarkable. His half-sister Sophia was a 

 woman of marked ability, although two of her 

 brothers were imbeciles, one also an epileptic. 

 As will be seen from the pedigree, the epilepsy, 

 imbecility, and mediocrity appear in both 

 Peter's children and grandchildren, as well as 

 in those of his imbecile half-brother, Ivan. It 

 is interesting to note from the pedigree that the 

 feeble-mindedness and epilepsy seem to cling 

 to the males quite persistently. The females 

 of the family are much more apt to be brilliant 

 and virtuous. Peter the Great's own son Alexis 

 was a poor dissolute specimen, and although he 

 married Charlotte, the angelic daughter of a 



