own son. I have not that
intimate acquaintance with the circumstances which, to judge by the
confidence of their assertions, his traducers possess, but I should be
slow to believe, in the case of such a father, that the son did not
deserve all he got, or was not forgiven even to the seventy times
seventh offence. There is, however, no little want of reason in the
ordinary acceptation of the term, 'loving forgiveness.' He must be a
very morose man who does not forgive a personal injury, especially when
there has been an expression of repentance for it; but there are
offences which, quite independently of their personal sting, manifest
in the offender a cruel or bad heart, and 'loving forgiveness' is in
that case no more to be expected than that we should take a serpent who
has already stung us to our bosom. 'It is his nature to,' as the poet
expresses it, and if that serpent is my relative it is my misfortune,
and by no means impresses me with a sense of obligation. Indeed, in the
case of an offensive relation, so far from his having any claim to my
consideration, it seems to me I have a very substantial grievance in
the fact of his existence, and that he owes me reparation for it.

It is perhaps from a natural reaction, and is a sort of unconscious
protest against the preposterous claims of kinship, that our
connections by marriage are so freely criticised, and, to say truth,
held in contempt. No one enjoins us to love our wife's relations,
indeed, our own kindred are generally dead against them, and especially
against her mother, to whom the poor woman very naturally clings. This
is as unreasonable in the way of prejudice, as the other line of
conduct is in the way of favouritism. It is, in short, my humble
opinion that, if everyone stood upon his or her own merits, and was
treated accordingly, this world of ours would be the better for it; and
of this I am quite sure--it would have fewer disagreeable people in it.
I am neither so patriotic nor so thorough-going as the American
citizen, who, during the late Civil War, came to President Lincoln, and
nobly offered to sacrifice on the altar of freedom 'all his able-bodied
relations;' but I think that most of us would be benefited if they were
weeded out a bit.

_INVALID LITERATURE._

It has always struck me as a breach of faith in Charles Lamb to have
published the fact that dear, 'rigorous' Mrs. Battle's favourite suit
was Hearts: and is in my eyes, notwithsta