e, and is far from being as well-looking
as his brother, who is a large comely man; not unlike the Duke Bernard
of Saxe-Weimar, so well known in America. All the princes of the Saxon
duchies that I have seen, are large, well-formed men, while those of
Saxe Royal, as the kingdom is called, are the reverse. A diplomatic man,
here, once remarked to me, that this rule held good as to most of the
protestant and catholic princes, throughout Europe, the close
intermarriages of the latter in his opinion, affecting the stock. The
imagination has had something to do with this notion, for there are
certainly many exceptions on both sides, if, indeed, it be a rule at
all. I think, there is little doubt that the habits of the mind, mode of
living, and climate, contribute essentially to vary the physiognomy; but
I cannot subscribe fully to the influence of these intermarriages,
which, by the way, are nearly, if not quite, as circumscribed among the
Protestants as among the Catholics. The portion of Europe that is
governed by princes, is divided among forty-four different states,[21]
of whom twenty-eight are Protestant, one a Greek, one a Mahomedan, and
the rest are Catholics. These forty-four sovereigns claim to be
descended from nineteen different roots: thus, the direct _male_
descendants of Hugh Capet occupy the thrones of France, Spain, Naples,
Lucca, and Portugal; the latter being derived from an illegitimate son
of a Duke of Burgundy, before the accession of the Bourbon branch. The
houses of Austria, Baden, Tuscany, and Modena, are derived from a Duke
of Alsace, who flourished in the seventh century. I was mistaken in a
former letter, in saying that the family of Lorraine is different from
that of Habsbourg, for it is said to be derived in the male line equally
from this Prince of Alsace. The Hohenzollerns are on the throne of
Prussia, and possess the two little principalities of that name; while
the Emperor of Russia is merely a Prince of Holstein. These families
have been intermarrying for a thousand years, and it is not possible
that they should have entirely escaped some personal peculiarities;
still, as a whole, they are quite as fine physical specimens of
humanity, as the average of their subjects. The Princes of Russia are
singularly fine men; the house of Denmark well-looking; the Saxons, the
royal branch excepted, more than usually so; the house of Wurtemburg
very like the English family; the Bourbons, as a family, are a