Emerson: "Notwithstanding all the selfishness that chills like east
winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element
of love, like a fine ether." With Emerson, we believe that every
person carries about with him a certain circle of sympathy within
which he, and at least one friend, may temper and sweeten life. Much
of the kindness of the world is simply breathed, and yet what an aroma
of good cheer it sheds in grateful lives. Tenderness possesses a
sensitiveness of sympathy to an extreme degree. It shrinks from the
sight of suffering. It treats others with "gentleness, delicacy, thought-
fulness, and care. It enters into feelings, anticipates wants, supplies the
smallest pleasure, and studies every comfort." Says one: "It belongs
to natures, refined as well as loving, and possesses that consideration of
which finer dispositions only are capable." Tenderness is a heart
quality. It is the luxury of a pure and intense friendship. It tempers one's
entire nature, making his whole being sympathetic with grace and favor.
It is manifest in the relaxing feature, in the penetrating glance, in the
mellowing voice, in the engracing manners, and in the complete
obliteration of time and distance, while with one's friend. We recall the
friendly visits spend with our friend, Lawrence W. Rowell, during his
medical course in Rush College, Chicago, while we were in attendance
at the Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois. Rowell was
intellectual, spirited, gifted in conversation, highly sympathetic, informed,
critical, yet charitable, a close student of human nature, a love of
philosophy, of musical temperament, of noble heart, of exalted purpose.
Our visits were kept up bimonthly throughout one year. We would spent
Saturday evening and Sunday together. Those visits revealed to me the
magnetism, intensity, and tenderness of a friend. Truly, with us time and
distance were almost completely obliterated from our consciousness. I
say distance, for we would walk together. Tenderness suits the amiable
and gentle in disposition, but it comes with a peculiar charm from the