Washington sentinel., 1853-12-13

| THE Sons OF GREAT FATHERs.--Ihere are
very few Of the great men in English litera-
ture who have any descendants. AS a general
rule, great man is the last of his immediate
line. He makes his name famous and then
bequeaths it to nobody. 1t seems to be too
much glory for family to be able to connect
itself lineally with any one of those master
spirits in the world of mind that have conferred
glory on q nation. We're there descendant
of Shakespeare alive, he would be curiously in
spected by many admirers of the great bard, in
order to ascertain whether there were not some
marks about him which distinguished him from
other men. But it so happens that nature
scenes inimical to the propagation of great
names, although it sometimes occurs that a
great man has family of children who sur
vive him and who multiply and spread his
name. But generally the children of great
men are short-lived and the family dies out in
the course OF ageneration or two.
What have become of the names of the
greatest of Englishmen? Of our twelve Pres
idents who have been elected to that Office but
three or four have left any descendants, and
what is true of our Presidents in this respect
is also true of our most distinguished men in
other departments of life. Where are the de-
scendants of Shakespeare and Ben Johnson?
Shakespeare had children, but the family is long
since extinct. So also had Milton children,
but his name has long ceased to belong to the
living. We have no Drydens, no Popes, nor
Addisons, nor Swifts, nor Bolingbrokes, nor
Johnsons, nor Gibbonses, nor Burkes, nor
Reynoldses, not to mention hundred other
names of distinction in science, art, literature,
craftsmanship, and war. Their offspring are
Of the brain and live upon the shelves Of IL
braries and in the hearts Of the lovers of ge-
MUS and of song
A recent writer from Germany speaks of the
son of Schiller, the greatest of the German
poets, who is still living. Of course he is an
object of curiosity, as all who love the father on
account Of the beauty and brilliancy of his ge-
MUS have the desire to see the son of such man.
Well they see him, and when they do see him,
theyseeavery ordinary man. Theyfeel very ymuch
disappointed. We suppose that it is thought
that such man as Schiller could not have o
son who would not rise far above the stature of
ordinary men, Men seem to think that genius
must necessarily give birth to genius, whereas
the truth is that mind is not transmissible and
it is mind that makes the glory of the man.
They, who hunt out Schiller's son in the expec-
tation Of finding a prodigy in intellect as the
father was, laugh at the son. whereas they them
selves deserve to be laughed at for their folly.
He is very respectable man who acts his part
in life with proprety, and but for his connection
with the great bard of Germany would be re-
garded in all respects as a most passable and
pleasant man. But he is the son of Schiller,
and people will not permit the son of Schiller,
to be common. To accommodate their tastes,
he ought to be made out of porcelain and not
out of the common clay from which men and
women are made. AS nature, and not they,
had the making Of him, he came into this world
undistinguished by any Of the extraordinary
powers Of mind for which his great father is so
famous. Poor fellow, it is his misfortune and
not his fault that he is the son of great man.
People laugh at him because he is not a genius,
and deride him because he is the son Of Schiller,
without the mind of Schiller. He feels keenly
the disadvantage of having had famous father,
for people are continually contrasting him with
that father, greatly to his disparagement. There
seems to be a strong tendency in the minds Of
people to look for superiority in all those who
spring from men Of superior mind, notwith-
standing the world is full of evidence going to
shew that great men either have no children at
all, or if they have any, such as are not distin-
guishable from the children of common men.
They may inherit the physical organizations
and lineaments Of their fathers, but genius is
gift from heaven which may not be inherited.
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