we are
in this world, and how perilous it is to attempt to link like with
unlike. I am quite certain that when relations do not, in common
phrase, 'get on well with one another,' the best chance of their
remaining friends is for them to keep apart. This is gradually becoming
recognised by 'the common sense of most,' as we see by the falling-off
in those family gatherings at Christmas, which only too often partook
of the character of that assembly which met under the roof of Mr,
Pecksniff, with the disastrous result with which we are all acquainted.

The more distant the tie of blood, the less reason, of course, there is
to consider it; yet it is strange to see how even sensible men will
welcome the Good-for-nothing, who chance to be 'of kin' to them, to the
exclusion of the Worthy, who lack that adventitious claim. The effect
of this is an absolute immorality, since it offers a premium to
unpleasant people, while it heavily handicaps those who desire to make
themselves agreeable. To give a particular example of this, though upon
a large scale, I might cite Scotland, where, making allowance for the
absence of that University system, which in England is so strong a
social tie, there are undoubtedly fewer friendships, in comparison,
than there are with us; this I have no hesitation in attributing to
clanship--the exaggeration of the family tie--which substitutes
nearness for dearness, and places a tenth cousin above the most
charming of companions, who labours under the disadvantage of being
'nae kin.'

Again, what is more common than to hear it said, in apology for some
manifestly ill-conditioned and offensive person, that he is 'good to
his family'? The praise is probably only so far deserved that he does
not beat his wife nor starve his children; but, supposing even he
treated them as he should do, and, moreover, entertained his ten-times
removed cousins to dinner every Sunday, what is that to _me_ who do not
enjoy his unenviable hospitality? Let his cousins speak well of him by
all means; but let the rest of the world speak as they find. I protest
against the theory that the social virtues should limit themselves to
the home circle, and still more, that they should extend to the distant
branches of it to the exclusion of the world at large.

Of Howard, the philanthropist, it is said--and, I notice, said with a
certain cynical pleasure--that, notwithstanding his universal
benevolence, he behaved with severity ta his