Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/217

 Ch. 14. conanguinity is that which ubits between perons, of whom one is decended in a direct line from the other: as between John Stiles (the propoitus in the table of conanguinity) and his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and o upwards in the direct acending line; or between John Stiles and his on, grandon, great-grandon, and o downwards in the direct decending line. Every generation, in this lineal direct conanguinity, contitutes a different degree, reckoning either upwards or downwards: the father of John Stiles is related to him in the firt degree, and o likewie is his on; his grandire and grandon in the econd; his great-grandire, and great-grandon in the third. This is the only natural way of reckoning the degrees in the direct line, and therefore univerally obtains, as well in the civil, and canon , as in the common law.

doctrine of lineal conanguinity is ufficiently plain and obvious; but it is at the firt view atonihing to conider the number of lineal ancetors which every man has, within no very great number of degrees: and o many different bloods is a man aid to contain in his veins, as he hath lineal ancetors. Of thee he hath two in the firt acending degree, his own parents; he hath four in the econd, the parents of his father, and the parents of his mother; he hath eight in the third, the parents of his two grandfathers and two grandmothers; and, by the ame rule of progreion, he hath an hundred and twenty eight in the eventh; a thouand and twenty four in the tenth; and at the twentieth degree, or the ditance of twenty generations, every man hath above a million of ancetors, as common arithmetic will demontrate. This lineal conanguinity, we may oberve, falls trictly within the definition of vinculum peronarum ab eodem tipite  Rh