ore the philosophical,
theological, and scholastic masters of the East. This sermon was so
powerful that the association published it. This was his first
appearance in print. So profoundly moved by this effort were the
churches of New England that the clergymen generally gave public thanks
to the Head of the Church for raising up so great a teacher and
preacher. Thus was born the fame of Jonathan Edwards.

It is nearly 170 years since then. Science and invention, enterprise and
ambition have done great things for America and for Americans. We have
mighty universities, libraries, and laboratories, but we have no man who
thinks more clearly, writes more logically, speaks more vigorously than
did Jonathan Edwards, and we have never had such a combination of spirit
and power in any other American. This mastery is revealing itself in
various ways in hundreds of his descendants to-day, and it has never
ceased to do it since his blood gave tonic to the thought and character
of his children and his children's children.

CHAPTER III

THE INHERITANCE AND TRAINING OF MR. EDWARDS

No man can have the intellectual power, nobility of character, and
personal grandeur of Jonathan Edwards and transmit it to his children's
children for a century and a half who has not himself had a great
inheritance. The whole teaching of the culture of animals and plants
leaves no room to question the persistency of character, and this is
so grandly exemplified in the descendants of Mr. Edwards that it is
interesting to see what inheritances were focused in him.

It is not surprising to find that the ancestors of Mr. Edwards were
cradled in the intellectual literary activities of the days of Queen
Elizabeth. The family is of Welsh origin and can be traced as far as
1282, when Edward, the conquerer, appeared. His great-great-grandfather,
Richard Edwards, who went from Wales to London about 1580, was a
clergyman in the Elizabethan period. Those were days which provided
tonic for the keenest spirits and brightest minds and professional men
profited most from the influence of Spencer, Bacon, and Shakespeare.

Among the first men to come to the new colonies in New England was
William, a son of this clergyman, born about 1620, who came to Hartford,
where his son Richard, born 1647, the grandfather of Jonathan, was an
eminently prosperous merchant. Richard was an only son. The father of
Jonathan, Timothy Edwards, was an only son in a family of se