Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/325



Among the twenty-seven only three deserve the adjective brilliant. These are William I., king of the Netherlands, 'a captain, a hero, a legislator and a great man,' and his younger brother, William George Frederick, who lived to be only twenty-five, but won considerable distinction and appears in the 'Biographie Universelle,' 'a rare model of all talents, virtues and precious qualities. 'The third is the second son of William I., Frederick William Charles, who 'took a prominent part in the war of the Belgian revolution in 1830.' These came together, and we suppose their talents came from the high wave about Frederick the Great.

Reviewing the list:

In the first two generations we get what we might well expect, since John Sr. of Orange, a brother of William the Silent, was, although an able man, in no way a genius.

In the third generation, we might not be surprised to see it reappearing, and heredity would demand it in a large number of children, but as there are only two, these may have taken after their parents who were obscure.