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Despite the good environment almost uniformly present, the geniuses in
royalty are not scattered over the surface of the pedigree chart, but
form isolated little groups of closely related individuals. One centers
in Frederick the Great, another in Queen Isabella of Spain, a third in
William the Silent, and a fourth in Gustavus Adolphus. Furthermore, the
royal personages who are conspicuously low in intellect and morality are
similarly grouped. Careful study of the circumstances shows nothing in
the environment that would produce this grouping of genius, while it is
exactly what a knowledge of heredity leads one to expect.
In the next place, do the superior members of royalty have
proportionately more superior individuals among their close relatives,
as was found to be the case among the Americans in the Hall of Fame? A
count shows at once that they do. The first six grades all have about an
equal number of eminent relatives, but grade 7 has more while grade 8
has more than grade 7, and the geniuses of grade 10 have the highest
proportion of nearer relatives of their own character. Surely it cannot
be supposed that a relative of a king in grade 8 has on the average a
much less favorable environment than a relative of a king in grade 10.
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