as the reply, 'where are yours? For I never hear you speak
about them.' Nor did he ever hear him, for his father-in-law never
spoke another word to him.

Nothing, of course, can be more contemptible than to neglect one's poor
relations on account of their poverty; but it is very doubtful whether
the sum of human happiness is increased by our having so much respect
for the mere tie of kindred, unaccompanied by merit. Other things being
equal, it is obviously natural that one's near relatives should be the
best of friends. But other things are not always equal. Indeed, a
certain high authority (which looks on both sides of most questions)
admits as much. 'There is a friend,' it says, 'that sticketh closer
than a brother. The connection, with its consequences, is somewhat
similar to a partnership in commercial life. If partners pull together,
and are sympathetic, nothing can be more delightful than such an
arrangement. The tie of business clenches the tie of social attraction.
For myself, I am not commercial; but I envy the old firm of Beaumont
and Fletcher, and the modern one of Erckmann and Chatrian. But if the
members of the firm do _not_ pull together? Then, surely the bond
between them is most deplorable, and a divorce _a vinculo_ should be
obtained as soon as possible.

One of the greatest mistakes--and there are many--that we fall into
from a too ready acknowledgment of the tie of kindred is the obligation
we feel under to consort with relations with whom we have nothing in
common. You may take such persons to the waters of affection, but you
cannot make them drink; and the more you see of them the less they are
likely to agree with you. Not once, nor twice, but fifty times, in a
life experience that is becoming protracted, I have seen this forcible
bringing together of incongruous elements, and the result has been
always unfortunate. I say 'forcible,' because it has been rarely
voluntary; now and then a strong, though, I venture to think, a
mistaken sense of duty may lead a man to seek the society of one with
whom he has nothing in common save the bond of race; but for the most
part they are obeying the wishes of another--the sacred injunction,
perhaps, of a parent on his death-bed. 'Be good friends,' he murmurs,
'my children,' not reflecting, in that supreme and farewell hour, how
little things, such as prejudice, difference of political or religious
opinions, conflicting interests, and the like, affect us while