parent; while in friendship the essential feature is harmony of natures.


WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP?

No human relationship can be more beautiful, nor more abiding than
true friendship. It is a spiritual thing, a communion of souls, virtuously
exercised. How one is impressed and pleased to see another horse just
like his own, to see another dog exactly resembling his own, to meet a
person who speaks, looks, and acts like some one he has known. It is
a surprise, mingled with mystery and delight. But with what increased
surprise and delight does one meet with a "person after his own heart."
All men have recognized the strength and beauty of right self-love.
The second great law of Christ's kingdom is declared in terms of true
self-love. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Every one loves himself,
because one's self is the truest and best of other lives filtered through
his own soul. When one finds in another that which perfectly answers
to his own soul-likings and longings, he has found another self, he has
found a friend. Friendship is the communion of such souls, although
they may be absent from one another. The highest friendship may grow
more perfectly when friends are separated, then it is unmixed with the
alloy of imperfect thought and action. Then it is nourished by the past,
for only the past buries all faults; it is encouraged by the future, for
only the future veils the awkwardness and shortcomings of the present.
The character of friendship is determined by the character of friends.
Negative personalities wanting in taste, conviction, and virtue produce
only a negative friendship. Intense personalities produce intense
friendships; noble personalities, noble friendships, and spiritual
personalities, spiritual friendship. In the true, spiritual sense, before
one can become a friend, he must become an individual. He must