Christopher Columbus, but of Whittier it must be added that his father was one of eleven children, his grandfather one of nine children and his greatgrandfather one of ten children. Constituting one of a family of three was Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe, David Hume, Victor Hugo, Robert Browning and Edmund Burke. Albert Gallatin, Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, J, J. Rousseau and Aaron Burr make up the personages who can claim but a single brother or sister, though the mother of Alexander Pope, it is worthy of mention, was one of seventeen children. William M. Thackeray, Robert L. Stevenson, John Ruskin (whose father was likewise an only child) and Alexander Hamilton were single offspring.
A studied effort to swell the larger numbers by reference to biographies other than those mentioned would, it is needless to say. have added many a name to the lists, and fuller inquiry might show that of those whose names appear among the smaller numbers not a few could boast an ancestry noteworthy for numerous offspring, as in the case of Whittier, Pope and others. It has not, however, been our purpose to warp biography in the remotest degree to support or to refute a theory.
By casting together the historic names we have given and dividing the gross number of children by the total number of names we arrive at a figure a fraction less than seven—a number which we believe the statistics of population will show to exceed by not a little the number of children in the average family. It is true, of course, that statisticians, in computing the average number of children in families at large, would consider in the calculation families wholly without children, which would make the disparity less glaring—none the less the average progeny in families from which eminent personages have sprung would still be so large as to be striking.
It is apparent, upon a careful study of the figures we have given, that those who were members of large families were in general distinguished for great firmness of character—such as Napoleon, Peter the Great, Cromwell, Nelson, Washington and others. This is perhaps explained by the self-dependence one of many children reared by the same parents would acquire in the course of his youth; and the necessity of accommodating his enjoyments to those of his numerous brothers and sisters would serve a highly useful purpose in teaching him self-control, and also, perhaps, in teaching him resourcefulness. Among those, on the other hand, who were single children, or one of but two or three, no few displayed precisely the opposite qualities. However, we indulge in no theories—we call attention to the facts merely. Some reader of inquiring mind, perhaps, may be tempted to explore the subject farther.
