Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/515

Rh as remarkable as that just considered. In Spain it is related to an inherited mental imbalance in just the same way as in Russia.

Since the family of Nassau Orange perpetuated itself by aid of the House of Coligny and since the CollignysColignys [sic], Condés and Montmorencys intermarried freely, these three families may be considered next and treated as one group under the three separate headings.

The pages of Betham's 'Genealogy of the Sovereigns of the World" (London, 1795) contain from Eberhard Montmorency contemporary with Hugh Capet to Anne, Duke of Montmorency, the great Constable of France (1493-1567), 107 names covering a period of eighteen generations. During the later sixteen of these generations, the family held exceedingly high social position and were lords of Montmorency, Laval, Montfort, etc. There were among this 107 a considerable number of persons of local influence, constables and marshals of France, but the names of two alone of this large number, the product of eighteen generations, have come down to us as distinguished historical characters.

These are Mathew I., Constable, died in 1151, and Mathew II., called 'The Great,' died 1230. They were grandfather and grandson. The next great Montmorency was Anne, Constable of France (14931567) (8). "He was a brave but ferocious warrior, was totally illiterate, and yet through his natural talent and the experience of a long life, he was an able statesman and counsellor." None of the immediate ancestry of Anne appears to have been famous, as the two Mathews are many generations back; therefore the inherited talents of Anne must be considered a new variation.

Now comes another little region of great names: Anne's second son, Henry I., Duke of Montmorency, was a distinguished legislator (8), being the only one of seven mature children to reach high fame; the general average of the fraternity shows the reversion to the mean.

Henry II., the representative of the next generation, was rather more distinguished than his father. He was the only son to reach maturity. His sister, Charlotte, who married Henry IL, Prince of Condé, and was the mother of the Great Condé, has remained famous all these years, but rather for her extreme beauty and strength of character than for purely intellectual qualities. There were two other sisters not distinguished. Henry left no children, so the male line ends here.

Not only is this house, as is well known, an instance of heredity, but its closer analysis strengthens this view even more, and the six most famous ones fall in two little groups far removed from each other; and comparing the percentages of geniuses with the sizes of