in his mother, as we shall see from the following curious and characteristic traits. They were related to me by a female friend who was extremely intimate with her at Frankfort."

·

"Goethe's mother, whenever she hired a servant, used to make the following condition : You are not to tell me anything horrible, afflicting, or agitating, whether it happened in my own house, in the town, or in the neighborhood. I desire, once for all, that I may hear nothing of the kind. If it concerns me I shall know it soon enough; if it does not concern me, I have nothing whatever to do with it. Even if there should be a fire in the street in which I live, I am to know nothing of till it is absolutely necessary that I should."

"Those who were at all acquainted with Goethe's person and manners will instantly agree with me, that much of this amiable temper, and of this vein of NAIVE humor, which nothing in life or death could subdue, flowed in full tide from her veins into his. We shall give further proof of this hereafter from the history of his early years, as well as of his more serious moods, from the latter."

Did Schiller owe nothing to parentage above the veriest blockhead or mendicant?

BYRON, already shown to have inherited his violence of passion from his mother 355, partook of her temperament, which, with his father's sensuality, made him what he was. Macau. ley says of him :—

"Never had any writer so vast a command of the whole eloquence of scorn, misanthropy, and despair. That Marah was never dry. No art could sweeten, no draughts could exhaust its perennial waters of bitterness. Never was there such variety in monotony as that of Byron. From maniac laughter to piercing lamentation, there was not a single note of human anguish of which he was not master. Year after year, and month after month, he continued to repeat, that to be wretched, is the destiny of all; that to be eminently wretched, is the destiny of the eminent; that all the desires by which we are cursed lead alike to misery-if they are not gratified, to the misery of disappointment; if they are gratified, to the misery of satiety. His principal heroes are men who have arrived by different roads to the same gaol of despair, who are sick of life, who are at war with society, who are supported in their anguish only by an unconquerable pride, resembling that of Prometheus on the rock, or Satan in the burning marl; who can master their agonies by the force of their will, who, to the last, defy the whole powers of earth and heaven. He always described himself as a man of the same kind with his favorite creations; as a man whose heart had been withered, whose capacity for happiness was gone, and could not be restored; but whose invincible spirit dared the worst that could befall him here or hereafter.

"From the poetry of Lord Byron his youthful admirers drew a system of ethics, compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness, a system in which the two great commandments were, to hate your neighbor and to love your neighbor's wife."

BURNS, that poet of nature, also inherited his genius from his mother, of whom his historian thus writes:

"The mother of Burns was a native of the county of Ayr; her birth was humble, and her personal attractions moderate; yet, in all other respects, she was a remarkable woman. She was blessed with singular equanimity of temper; her religious feelings were deep and constant; she loved a well-regulated household; and it was frequently her pleasure to give wings to the weary hours of a chequered life by chanting old songs and ballads, of which she had a large store. In her looks she resembled her eldest son ; > her eyes were bright and intelligent; her perception of character quick and keen. She lived to a great age, rejoiced in the fame of the poet, and partook of the fruits of his genius."

His father was also endowed with sound mind, diversified knowledge, and great strength of intellect.

is exces

A son of the distinguished writer, Mrs. sively nervous and fidgety, having undoubtedly inherited from his mother that exalted nervous temperament so indispensable to good writing.

If asked, what, in accordance with this hereditary doctrine, have become of the descendants of Milton, Shakespeare, and other poetical geniuses? the answer is two-fold. First, as to raise a good crop, requires good SOIL as well as seed, so to produce poetic or distinguished offspring, requires highly endowed MOTHERS as well as fathers, yet great men often marry most unfortunately. Milton wedded a woman of pleasure and frivolity, weak, fashionable, vain, and incapable of parenting children of genius, and his children accordingly sunk to medi} ocrity. This is equally true of the wives of many other great men.

Poetical talents also usually accompany a predominance of the mental temperament and cerebral action over the physical strength, which too often enfeebles poets, as in the case of Pope and Cowper, and leaves their children too weak in body to become distinguished—that is, PRECOCIOUS—which CONFIRMS Our hereditary law. But more of this hereafter

378

Ideality, besides conferring an essential ingredient of poetry, also bestows taste and refinement in general, gracefulness and polish of manners included. Several instances of the descent of superior personal carriage or manners, have already incidentally been given.

PERRY'S noble, manly, magnificent bearing and mein were inherited from his father, whose "features were regular and striking, his person elegant and commanding, and his manners exceedingly prepossessing."

ANSART, a French physician, who emigrated to this country, was eminently polished, and by nature a perfect gentleman-every action graceful, every motion elegant. His son and this son's daughter inherited these personal attractions.

That whole families will everywhere be found who are naturally genteel and refined in manners and conversation, while other families are naturally awkward, ungainly, and clownish, as well as wanting in propriety and good manners, is apparent to every observer.

That the mimicing disposition and capability are hereditary, is equally supported by facts, apparent to all observers; yet we will not protract by giving details.

368. MIRTHFULNESS

Is also transmitted. Witty parents almost always have witty children, and sedate parents serious children. General PETERS, though an eminently religious man, would nevertheless take and make every opportunity to crack jokes, and tell laughter-moving anecdotes. In his head the organ of Mirthfulness is large, as seen in the accompanying engraving, copied from a bust cast on his face, I think after death.

His brother, who resided in Connecticut, though he is religious, and mourns over and strives to subdue his joking propensity, will nevertheless have his fun.

Two sons and a daughter of Gen. Peters are also noted for the same disposition and capability. In 1837, Rev. Absalom Peters, formerly editor of the "Biblical Repository," subitted his developments to the author's manipulation. MirthIness was found to be a leading organ, and the reasoning

faculties were large; and hence he was described as endowed with a disposition to argue by RIDICULING. He afterwards stated that his uncontrollable disposition to regard things in a ludicrous light, and make fun even on serious occasions, was his besetting sin, and troubled his conscience more than anything else he did. Yet, as similar cases are abundant, we hasten onward.

18*

SECTION VIII.

INTELLECT, ITS KIND AND AMOUNT, HEREDITARY.

369. TALENTS IN GENERAL DESCEND.

THAT accumulative force of our argument, already presented 324 345, renders details, by way of PROVING this point, comparatively unnecessary; and our proof that "idiocy is hereditary" 352, implies its converse-that superior talents are also transmitted. Those, however, who require specific cases, will find them in the parental history of every distinguished man of the nation, of the age, of the WORLD. What son of genius was ever born of dolts? We will not swell our pages by cases already recorded, but introduce an extract from the manuscript of Joshua Coffin, whose genealogical knowledge, as well as general memory, like that of his ancestors, is most extraordinary, and whose conversation is full of biographical and hereditary anecdote.

"Men distinguished for their native strength of intellect have always been descended from mothers of strong powers of mind, or, in other words, no woman who is weak or deficient in intellect ever had a child distinguished for talents. If the father is a man of talents, so much the better; but, be the father who he may, unless the mother has talents, the children will not-I might almost say cannot be distinguished. It is not so much the SEED as the SOIL* from which the husbandman expects to obtain a good crop; but let him take what pains he may, in every respect, he cannot anticipate, nor will he obtain, anything worthy of notice, unless the soil is deep and rich. As a proof of this assertion, we must depend not on theory, but on FACTS, which, as saith the proverb, are 'stubborn things.' And, from long and careful observation, I have never yet read of or known an instance of any person of superior intellect, whose MOTHER was not blest with strong powers of mind. Take a few examples: Sir William Jones's mother was a woman of extraordinary talents, so was Napoleon Bonaparte's, so was Walter Scott's, so was the mother of Chief-Justice Parsons, of Schiller, of Rev. Richard Cecil; and, in short, of so large a number, that time would fail me to recount them. Both the parents of Daniel Webster were distinguished for their talents; and, as a striking proof of the position I take, it will interest you to know that Col.

* We want BOTH good seed AND good soil, to produce a good crop, as well in the animal kingdom as in the vegetable.-AUTHOR.