two ſons, who have each a numerous iſſue; both theſe iſſues are lineally deſcended from John Stiles as their common anceſtor; and they are collateral kinſmen to each other, becauſe they are all deſcended from this common anceſtor, and all have a portion of his blood in their veins, which denominates them conſanguineos.
We muſt be careful to remember, that the very being of collateral conſanguinity conſiſts in this deſcent from one and the ſame common anceſtor. Thus Titius and his brother are related; why? becauſe both are derived from one father: Titius and his firſt couſin are related; why? becauſe both deſcend from the ſame grandfather: and his ſecond couſin's claim to conſanguinity is this, that they both are derived from one and the ſame great-grandfather. In ſhort, as many anceſtors as a man has, ſo many common ſtocks he has, from which collateral kinſmen may be derived. And as we are taught by holy writ, that there is one couple of anceſtors belonging to us all, from whence the whole race of mankind is deſcended, the obvious and undeniable conſequence is, that all men are in ſome degree related to each other. For indeed, if we only ſuppoſe each couple of our anceſtors to have left, one with another, two children; and each of thoſe children on an average to have left two more; (and, without ſuch a ſuppoſition, the human ſpecies muſt be daily diminiſhing) we ſhall find that all of us have now ſubſiſting near two hundred and ſeventy millions of kindred in the fifteenth degree, at the ſame diſtance from the ſeveral common anceſtors as ourſelves are; beſides thoſe that are one or two deſcents nearer to or farther from the common ſtock, who may amount to as many more[1]. And, if this calculation ſhould appear incompatible with the number of inhabitants on the earth, it is becauſe, by intermarriages among the ſeveral deſcendants from the ſame anceſtor, a hundred or a thouſand modes of conſanguinity may be conſolidated in one perſon, or he may be related to us a hundred or a thouſand different ways.
- ↑ This will ſwell more conſiderably than the former calculation: for here, though the firſt term is but 1, the denominator is 4; that is, there is one kinſman (a brother) in the firſt degree, who makes, together with the propoſitus, the two deſcendants from the firſt couple of anceſtors; and in every other degree the number of kindred muſt
