OCR Rendition - approximate

rela the pro the dis ontilive. Lines e, or list; hers ;ious love, Gen. late nent fohn our We," ~ur "sin, the ntal isti ordinary person. Social po especially important aid to statesmanship and generalshi notorious that neither the Leg -the army afford, in their hig an open arena to the ables The sons of the favoured cla troduced early in life to fields of trial, with every went to support them. Th lower classes are delayed and in their start ; and when th the coveted goal, they find aged. They are too late : tl beaten by the superior mer contemporaries, but by tim once touchingly remarked Lacy Evans. In order to test the value tary influence with greater pr should therefore extract fro graphical list the names (the of those that have achieved in the more open fields of literature. There is no f beyond the advantage of a tion. Whatever spur may b the desire to maintain the f and whatever opportunities by abundant leisure, are neutralised by those influe commonly lead the heii's of idleness and dilettantism. No. G8.-voL. xii. Azeglio, Massimo, statesman a d painter. Azeglio, Marquis, nephew of abo e, diplomatist and painter. So if we examine the b graphics of artists. In Bryan's large 1 ictionary of Painters," the lettorAcontai, s 391 names of men, of whom 65 are n ar relatives, or 1 in 6 ::._33 of them are athers and sons, 30 ar© brothers. In etis " Biographic Universelle des Mu iciens " the letter A contains 515 nam:c of which 50 are near relations, or 1 i 10. Twothird are fathers and sons, o e-third are brothers. It is justly to be urged, in limitation of the enormous effect o hereditary influence, implied by the a ove figures, that when a parent has ac ieved great eminence, his son will be laced in a more favourable position f r advancement, than if he had been t) e son of an Recurring to our list, we find fifty-one literary men who have distinguished relations. Therefore, no less than Wr, or one distinguished man in every twelve, has a father, son, or brother, distinguished in literature. To take a round number at a venture, we may be sure that there have been far more than a million students educated in Europe during the last four centuries, being an average of only 2,500 in each a year. According to our list, about 330 of these, or only 1 in 3,000, achieved eminent distinction : yet of those who did so, I in .12 was related to a distinguished man. Keeping to literature alone, it is 51 to 330 = 1 to 6~,, that a very distinguished literary man has a very distinguished literary relative,, and it is (leaving out the Gronovius and Stephenses) 20 to 330 = 1 to 16, and 12 to 330 =1 to 28, that the relationship is father and son, or brother and brother, respectively. The Law is, by far, the most open to fair competition of all the professions; and of all offices in the law there is none that is more surely the reward of the most distinguished intellectual capacity than that of the Lord Chancellor. It therefore becomes an exceedingly interesting question to learn what have been the relationships of our Lord Chancellors. Are they to any notable degree the children, or the parents, or.. the brothers of very eminent men? Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors " forms a valuable biographical dictionary for the purpose of this investigation. I have taken it just as it stands; including, as Lord Campbell does, certain Lord Keepers and Commissioners of the Great Seal, as of equal rank with the. Chancellors. I may further mention, that many expressions in Lord, works show that he was a disbe liover in hereditary influence. Now what are the. facts ? Since Henry VIIL's time, when Chancellors ceased to be ecclesiastics, and were capable of marrying, we have had thirtynine Chancellors, &c. whose lives have been written by Lord, Campbell, of whom the following had eminent relationships :- at ition is an success in • for, it 'is slature nor lest ranks, intellects. ses are inoth these encourageso of the iscouraged y are near hemselves ey are not t of their • as was y Sir Dc e, 'r of vine An -cle ,hor ,;eel ries tact i and 807 6 nle. ical lien. ter of of lm, osiider of heredicision, we our bioare 330) distinction cience and your here od educagiven by ily fame, ro afforded ore than ces which fortune to I