Nevertheless he thinks himself
ill-used if his son, on entering life, falls a victim to designing
persons whose knowledge of how money is made and lost is greater than
his own.
The Family
i
I believe that more unhappiness comes from this source than from any
other--I mean from the attempt to prolong family connection unduly
and to make people hang together artificially who would never
naturally do so. The mischief among the lower classes is not so
great, but among the middle and upper classes it is killing a large
number daily. And the old people do not really like it much better
than the young.
ii
On my way down to Shrewsbury some time since I read the Bishop of
Carlisle's Walks in the Regions of Science and Faith, {31} then just
published, and found the following on p. 129 in the essay which is
entitled "Man's Place in Nature." After saying that young sparrows
or robins soon lose sight of their fellow-nestlings and leave off
caring for them, the bishop continues:-
"Whereas 'children of one family' are constantly found joined
together by a love which only grows with years, and they part for
their posts of duty in the world with the hope of having joyful
meetings from time to time, and of meeting in a higher world when
their life on earth is finished."
I am sure my great-grandfather did not look forward to meeting his
father in heaven--his father had cut him out of his will; nor can I
credit my grandfather with any great longing to rejoin my great-
grandfather--a worthy man enough, but one with whom nothing ever
prospered.
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