The Opelousas courier., 1903-08-15

bg1N E5Ils anu u pooes
ss lier, is the text Of a very
interesting book on 1.-THE Control OF
Heredity; a Study Of the Genesis OF
Evolution and Degeneracy." by Caspar
Lavater Redfield.
BY careful study of the families from
which the great men, both ancient and
modern, of the world sprung, Mr.. Red
field proves that the exceptionally
gifted individuals Of the race have
been, 6 a rule, the Children of fathers
who married. hate In life.
Mr.. Redfeld sgoas further than DR..
Holmes, and says that ones education
should include a considerable amount
accumulated by ones great-gtandpa-
rents. and that the amount Of ones
mental power win be proportional to
the accumulation Of the three genera
tons. "
He predicts that the race which will
in future dominate the world is that
one which can increase in numbers at
the latest average age or reproduc-
ton. The increase does not need to be
rapid, but 1t must be actual. Fear
need not be expressed because some
earlier reproducing race is increasing
more rapidly, for when the pressure OF
population becomes greater the earlier
reproducing and less intelligent races
will give way before the stronger and
more intelligent.
To prove his case he selects twenty
Ave famous Americans from those adj
mitted to the Hall of Fame, among
them Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln,
Emerson, Longfellow and many distin-
guished jurists and statesmen. He
finds that George Washington's father,
Augustin, was thirty-eight years old
at the time Of his sons birth; that
Augustin was born of a father over
thirty-three years of age, who was the
son of o man Of thirty-four.
Mr.. Redfeld examined the ancestry
of each Of these famous men In detail.
Finally, by adding the ages Of their
twenty-five fathers together and divid.
ing by twenty-five, he obtains an aV-
erage age of fatherhood of thirty-six
years six months and twenty-five days,
four years above that Of the whole
population.
By examining the records Of great
men Of oil ages and times, notably
Solomon, born when King David was
ffty-three; Confucius. who was the son
Of a man between sixty-ive and sew
enty; Alcibiades, whose father was
over fifty when his warrior o was
born: Augustus Caesar. whose fathers
age MI. Redfeld roughly approximates
at f~ifty-seven, the author proves that
the overwhelming majority Of the
worlds greatest intellects were born
Of fathers of mature years.
Mr.. Redield assumes a youth,
strong, healthy, active, Of more than
average mental ability, and traces his
life history.
AS be approaches thirty he interests
himself more in literature, art and
Music. He goes to theatres and to
concerts At thirty-fve he is the en-
bodiment OF artistic taste.
AS he approaches forty he becomes
more interested in practical affairs.
He begins to work for dollars, not for
fame, He looks less at the beautiful
and more at the practical and useful.
He takes an active interest In politics.
When In his fifties ne has passed the
heat and passions Of youth and looks
more at the moral and philosophical
side OF things. Craftsmanship, the
good OF mankind, engrosses his atten-
ton.
Having established this typical IA
Their, Mr.. Redield proceeds to study
what effect the different changes in
his character as 1t develops win have
on his offspring produced during the
different ages. Under a strict inter-
probation of the laws of use-inheritance
we should expect the sons Of very
young men to be aggressive, active
and egotistical; that children born of
fathers between thirty and forty would
show a love for the poetic and the
beautiful; that IONS produced between
forty and fifty would be keen, prac-
teal men Of affairs, and those born
after the ~half-century mark would be
philosophers, moral reformers and
philanthropists.
This Mr.. Redfeld declares to be very
largely correct. He instances Aris-
totle, Bacon, Buddha, Confucius,
Franklin, Leibnitz, Moses, Seneca and
Solomon as born Of ~philosophic fathers
ali over fifty years Of age.
The keen, practical business men and
statesmen born to fathers between
forty and fifty are illustrated by Bis
mark, Canning, Carnot. Cato, Crom-
well, Gladstone, Webster. Peter the
Great and Machiavelli.
Poets, musicians and artists whose
fathers were between thirty and forty
years OF age at the time Of their birth
were Bach, Beethoven. Goethe, Schil-
Ter, Shakespeare, Angelo. Raphael.
Rembrandt, Carlyle, Goldsmith and
Macaulay, while the children born Of
young aggressive fathers between
twenty-five and thirty were Alexander,
Napoleon, Charlemagne. Charles XII.
Frederick Grant, Hannibal, Pompey
and many others.
In d chapter on Degeneracy. which
he defines as "a tendency toward a
development less perfect or less adj
vanced than that which Is normal or
healthy. Mr. ReddeId declares that
degeneracy as well as intellectual
strength appears most commonly in the
children OF old parents.
He cites the history DC d famous fam