Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... HTRODUCTION. Ancestry! Patrimony! Family! Heredity! Posterity! What wonderful words, laden with such wonderful meaning! They unite the whole world into one family. One thinks of looking back to the beginning of time and counting his forefathers, then examining himself, and glancing down through futurity. He thinks of Adam's race, and what a large family he would have, if himself and wife and children and grand-children were all living; at the present time. What a lot turkey gobblers he would have to butcher, if he were to prepare them all a regular modern-styled, fashionable Thanksgiving dinner! And one naturally thinks, too, of his own race of people, and compares their number and peculiarities with others. It has been commonly reckoned and conceded that the Smith family is second to the entire race of Adam, and the writer has figured largely on it that the Tope kindred should come in about third. Yet, how insignificant in number when compared, anil how fortunate when getting ready for Thanksgiving! t The family is a errand divine institution. It is the center, the foundation, the mainspring of all human institutions, --a God-conferred boon among civilized and savage peoples. It radiates from the home and its constituent elements converge in the home, as the spokes of a wheel converge in the hub. Oh, that its regulations and practices could always be right, sacred and pure, and its individual members, and all collectively, always noble and happy. To come of a good family is something to be grateful for, if not to be proud of. Yet, of course, there may be differences of opinion as to what constitutes a good family. Some pride on their ancestors for the intellectual smartne-ss they possessed, or the philanthropy evinced, or the wealth..
