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Hereditary Genius
273
There are 8 others who have remarkable relationships, mostly with
religious people, namely:—Knox's grandson (the son of a daughter
who married John Welch) was Josiah Welch, “the cock of the
conscience.” F. Junius had a son, also called Francis, a learned
Oxonian; by his daughter, who married J. G. Vossius, he had for
grandchildren, Dionysius and Isaac Vossius, famous for their
learning. Donne was descended through his mother from Lord
Chancellor Sir John More and Judge Rastall. Herbert was brother to
Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and had other eminent and interesting
relationships. Usher's connexions are most remarkable, for his father,
father's brother, mother's father, mother's brother, and his own
brother, were all very eminent men in their day. The mother's brother
of Lewis de Dieu was a professor at Leyden. The father and
grandfather of Mather were eminent ministers. The father and three
brothers of Saurin were remarkably eloquent.
It cannot be doubted from these facts that religious gifts are, on the
whole, hereditary; but there are curious exceptions to the rule.
Middleton's work must not be considered as free from omissions of
these exceptional cases, for neither he nor any other biographer
would conceive it to be his duty to write about a class of facts, which
are important for us to obtain; namely, the cases in which the sons of
religious parents turned out badly. I have only lighted on a single
instance of this apparent perversion of the laws of heredity in the
whole of Middleton's work, namely that of Archbishop Matthew, but
it is often said that such cases are not uncommon. I rely mostly for
my belief in their existence, upon social experiences of modern date,
which could not be published without giving pain to innocent
individuals. Those of which I know with certainty are not numerous,
but are sufficient to convince me of there being a real foundation for
the popular notion. The notoriety of some
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