"gave promise of extraordinary genius." He was killed in the battle of Ball's Bluff, aged twenty-one. Another nephew, Col. Charles Russell Lowell, was killed in the Civil War, aged twenty-nine. "He was a young man of great promise," and already one of the most distinguished cavalry officers in the Federal service.
The poetical gifts of William Cullen Bryant showed themselves in a lesser degree in his brother, John Howard Bryant.
William Ellery Channing, one of America's most eloquent preachers, was a grandson of William Ellery, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Two brothers and two nephews of the celebrated divine became eminent in professional life.
General William Tecumseh Sherman counts one "eminent" relative in his brother John Sherman, senator and member of the cabinet.
George Bancroft, the famous historian, counts also one "eminent" relative through his father, Rev. Aaron Bancroft. The father was also noted as an author. Besides a great number of sermons, he published a "Life of Washington" which obtained great popularity.
Thus, 26 of the 46 men in the Hall of Fame show close eminent relationships. In total relationships, they tally 57, which, as already said, is from 500 to 1,000 times what random expectation calls for.
Much might be said concerning the families of others in the Hall of Fame, such as Emerson, Longfellow, Audubon, Eli Whitney, Phillips Brooks and J. Lothrop Motley, but they do not happen to show "eminent" relationships by the method here used.
All the above material has been collected in a systematic way, in order that its value may have a scientific and impartial basis. If the names of more or less distinguished relatives do not have separate articles devoted to them, in the afore-mentioned dictionaries, they have not been utilized in the above list. These two books have been used, not because they are considered infallible guides, but because they are convenient and are good enough for the purpose at hand. The same sort of result would be obtained if any good test were employed.
The proportion is the same the world over, for men of the highest caliber, one in two, or better, show relationship with other distinguished men, and these usually in their own field of activity.
The present writer has investigated the personalities and pedigrees of some 3,000 members of the royal families of Europe—published under the title "Mental and Moral Heredity in Royalty"—and has found that the same principles hold. Nearly all of the great names, or at least more than half, are closely associated by blood with those of similar stamp. About half of all the greatest rulers have been the descendants of comparatively mediocre ancestors; the other half have been the direct and immediate descendants of those as great or nearly as great as themselves. In other words, the vast horde (say ninety-nine
