There is no doubt that sons take after their fathers. The Barons of
the Middle Ages transmitted to their children a heritage of heroic
qualities. Frederick the Great obtained a race of gigantic grenadiers
by marrying men of six feet to women of five feet six. The children of
a clever man are not fools, provided their mother has not failed in
her duties; and when the Cretins of the Alps intermarry, they produce
Cretins. We know dogs are slow or fast, keen-scented or keen-sighted,
according to their breed, and we buy a two-year-old colt upon the
strength of his pedigree. Can we consistently admit nobility among
horses and dogs, and deny it among men?
Add to this, that the pride of bearing an illustrious name is a
powerful incentive to well-doing. Noblemen have duties to fulfil both
towards their ancestors and their posterity. They must walk uprightly
under the penalty of dishonouring an entire race. Tradition obliges
them to follow a path of honour and virtue, from which they cannot
stray a single step without falling. They never sign their names
without some elevated thought of an hereditary obligation.
I must admit that everything degenerates in the end, and that the
purest blood may occasionally lose its high qualities, as the most
generous wine turns to molasses or vinegar. But we have all of us met
in the world a young man of loftier and prouder bearing, more
high-minded and more courageous, than his fellows; or a woman so
beautiful and simple and chaste, that she seemed made of a finer clay
than the rest of her sex.
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