Smyrna times., 1873-05-07
Ella ID e o us.
Rise Of Noble Families.

In Sir Bernard Burke's Rise of Noble |
Families are stated several curious facts which |
are we'll worthy of note. The extinction of
our most iustrious men, he says, "Of these
who have been most conspicuous for extraOr
dinary intellectual power is as remarkable as
that of great families, but not equally suscep
tble of explanation. Perhaps it may be true
that when human race has given birth to Its
bright consummate flower it seems commonly
to be near its end There is not now living
a single descendent in the male line of Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Spencer, Milton, Cowley, Butler,
Dryden, Pope, Goldsmith, Scott, Byron or
Moore; not one of Sir Phillip Sidney or, l
believe, of Sir Walter Raleigh; not one of
Drake, Cromwell, Hampden, Monk, Marl-
borough, Peterborough or Nelson not one Of
Strafford, Ormonde or Clarendon; not one of
Addison, Swift OF Johnson; not one OF Boiling
broke, Walpole, Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Burke,
Grattan or Canning; not one of Bacon, Locke,
| Newton or Davis; not one of Hume, Gibbon,
or Macaulay; not one of Hogarth Sir Joshua
Reignolds or Sir Thomas Lawrence; not one of
David Garrick, John Kemble or Edmund
Kean." This same fact might be stated Of a
large number of our distinguished Americans,
of a large proportion of our presidents including
Washington, Jefferson. MadiLon, Monroe,
Jackson, and others; of Franklin, Hancock aud
Laurens; of Pinkney, Calhoun, and Daniel
Webster; of Cooper, Irving, Percival and
Haeck of Copely, Stuart and Alston, and
many more who have gained celebrity in art OIL
arms
Why this should be, involves physiological
puzzle. Numerous instances here and IL
England might be adduced the other way, bu
the frequency of its occurrence connected will
the noblest names in literature and science
; war and craftsmanship, would seem to shov
1 that any wide departure from ordinary stand
ards of mediocrity in the human race tends t.
exhaust the principle of vitality. AnalOgie
J. are not wanting in the vegetable kingdom or il
j.. other branches of the animal to prove that an
/ unusual development of superiority lessons tn
: chance OF reproduction or brings 10 a close tn
d transmission of the particular species Grea
4 intellectual power may repeat itself for fe'
.t generations as in the Pitts Coeridges Q
|; Bulwers, but that in rare instances is even th
= race perpetuated, and the representatives {
" great celebrities if they are suffered for
al while to exist soon die out On the othC
n hand, those that occupy less conspicuous pos
e tons and especially when compelled TO lsbC
y for subsistence in humber paths great
d multiply and their posterity inherit the eartf
g A life Of Industrious toll and simple habi
n. proves more conducive to that well-balance
le condition which nature selects to perpetuate
n while genius is an abnormal growth, physic
he perfection being sacrificed to mental, doome
ns to extinction. This is a comforting rehectiC
he for the great majority of men, who, if mo-
rs rs stupid or dull would not for all the gories al
m achievments of such extraordinary developme
eI exchange the satisfaction of transmitting
ne other generations the priceless boon OF e.
be lstence.-BOStO Courier