mily tree.

The gratitude of the ancient poet that "God has set the solitary in
families" is not a sentiment to be outgrown. Those who feel that it
is, lose something precious from the basis of human affection. The
adjustment of this old bond to the new individualistic life is not yet
made even in the Western world, while in the Eastern the vital
problems of family adjustment press in supreme unrest. The one
principle that should guide us in this as in all inheritance from the
past is surely this, that while the sacredness of personality of any
one member of any group, even of the family, shall not be wholly
sacrificed to the needs and demands of any other member, yet "they
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak" in the old
spirit of unselfish service.

QUESTIONS ON BROTHERS, SISTERS, AND NEXT OF KIN

1. In the monogamic system of the family what, in general, has
been the legal responsibility toward blood kin?

2. Is the inherited legal and social responsibility for the care
and well-being of relatives lessened at the present time? If
so, is that for good or for ill in the wider social fabric?

3. How far should accepted obligations toward near relatives be
met in ways to bring under one roof more than the fathers and
mothers and children of a given generation?

4. Should natural kinship weigh heavily in considering
arrangements for material relief in poverty? In the care of
orphans and half-orphans? And in provisions for aid to the
aged, the sick, and those out of work?

5. What special conditions make appeal to family feeling difficult
in a population like that of the United States with many
immigrants and great mobility in industrial relations?

6. Is there any way of strengthening family feeling without
attempting return to older forms of family autonomy?

CHAPTER VI

FRIENDS AND THE CHOSEN ONE

"The path by which we twain did go,
Which led by tracts that pleased us well,
Thro' four sweet years arose and fell,
From flower to flower, from snow to snow:

And we with singing cheer'd the way,
And, crown'd with all the season lent,
From April on to April went,
And glad at heart from May to May.

And all we met was fair and good,
And all was good that Time could bring,
And all the secret of the Spring
Moved in the chambers of the blood."