"Kind Nature's laws are outraged here

By holy wedlock's rite:

Two children of relations born,
With idiotic blight.

"So consanguinity of blood

Its baneful fruits supply;

Rather than curse one's offspring thus, 'Twere better far to die."

CHAPTER VII.

Marrying with Relations, and its Consequences.

"They tell me I am happy, and

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I try to think it true;

They say I have no cause to weep,
My sorrows are so few ;

That in the wilderness we tread,
Mine is a favour'd lot,-
My petty griefs are fantasies,

Would I but heed them not.

'It may be so-the cup of life

Has many a bitter draught,

Which those who drink with silent lips
Have smil'd on while they quaff'd !

It may be so, I cannot tell

What others have to bear;
But sorry should I be to give

Another heart my share.

They bid me to the festive board-
I go, a smiling guest,-

Their laughter and their revelry

Are torture to my breast;

They call for music, and there comes
Some old familiar strain;

I dash away the starting tear,

Then turn, and smile again.

"But oh! my heart is wandering
Back to my father's home;
Back to my sisters at their play,-
The meadows in their bloom;
The blackbird on the scented thorn,
The murm'ring of the stream,
The sounds upon the evening breeze,
Like voices in a dream."

N an early period of the world's history God permitted the marriage of relations for the purpose of keeping true believers together, and to prevent them from mixing up with the idolatrous nations around. Abraham married his half-sister, but there was a special reason for it; they both believed in the one living and true God. In later times, God, speaking by the mouth of His servant Job, forbade such marriages. The worshippers of the Most High were then more numerous, and there was no excuse for such unions.

Moses ordained that a man was not to marry his second cousin, much less his first cousin.

Amongst some heathen nations to this day intermarriage with relations is illegal even to the fourth cousin.

To marry a first cousin is the very height of absurdity and foolishness, if not wickedness. It is contrary to nature. The commingling of the blood of such close relations has been proved over and over again to be detrimental. The