Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/219

 Ch. 14. two ons, who have each a numerous iue; both thee iues are lineally decended from John Stiles as their common ancetor; and they are collateral kinmen to each other, becaue they are all decended from this common ancetor, and all have a portion of his blood in their veins, which denominates them conanguineos.

mut be careful to remember, that the very being of collateral conanguinity conits in this decent from one and the ame common ancetor. Thus Titius and his brother are related; why? becaue both are derived from one father: Titius and his firt couin are related; why? becaue both decend from the ame grandfather: and his econd couin's claim to conanguinity is this, that they both are derived from one and the ame great-grandfather. In hort, as many ancetors as a man has, o many common tocks he has, from which collateral kinmen may be derived. And as we are taught by holy writ, that there is one couple of ancetors belonging to us all, from whence the whole race of mankind is decended, the obvious and undeniable conequence is, that all men are in ome degree related to each other. For indeed, if we only uppoe each couple of our ancetors to have left, one with another, two children; and each of thoe children on an average to have left two more; (and, without uch a uppoition, the human pecies mut be daily diminihing) we hall find that all of us have now ubiting near two hundred and eventy millions of kindred in the fifteenth degree, at the ame ditance from the everal common ancetors as ourelves are; beides thoe that are one or two decents nearer to or farther from the common tock, who may amount to as many more. And, if this calculation hould appear incompatible with the number of inhabitants on the earth, it is becaue, by intermarriages among the everal decendants from the ame ancetor, a hundred or a thouand modes of conanguinity may be conolidated in one peron, or he may be related to us a hundred or a thouand different ways. Rh