Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/323

 of the daughters showing the reversion to mediocrity and balancing up matters in the outside families into which they married, most of whom, if they left descendants at all, left only such as never rose above obscurity.

There were, however, among the other twenty-two grandchildren of William the Silent, three who were distinguished, one of whom, Turenne (10), ranks among the highest. The origin of the genius of William the Silent is not quite clear, since none of his ancestry in several degrees of remoteness were worthy of being called great, although they were of the sterling sort and above mediocrity. So William the Silent himself can not be taken as an instance of heredity, though all his descendants can. The moral tone was very high throughout, and corresponds either with the education or with the blood, since no bad characters were introduced, except Anne, second wife of William the Silent. She was violent, dissolute and finally insane. The later descendants are not from her. She had but two children and no legitimate grandchildren. Except that her daughter Amelia was extremely headstrong, her children appear to have escaped any influence from her.

Thus we see that the branch of Nassau is entirely confirmatory of the theory of heredity, and this should be taken into consideration in studying the causes of the rise of the Dutch Republic, since whatever was due to the personalities of these men finds its inner reason in the pedigrees which lie behind them.

The following is a list of all the grandchildren of William the Silent. This list analyzes the branch of Nassau in another way.

Those who are in (8), (9) or (10) are marked with an asterisk. To be in ranks (9) and (10) the persons must receive high praise in Lippincott's. Those in (8) may not always appear in Lippincott, but must at least receive very high adjectives in other authorities.