austere nature. It is one of the stalwart virtues, and is often concealed
behind a crusty exterior. Severity and tenderness adorn the greatest lives.


THE TEST OF FRIENDSHIP.

What is the uncertain mark of a friend? Have I a friend? How many
friends have I? I can invoice my stock, my goods, my land, my money,
can I invoice my friends? One may not always know the actual worth
of a friend, but he knows who are his friends, quite as well as he knows
who are his nephews and cousins. "A friend is one whom you need and
who needs you." Has one a bit of good news, he flies to his friend, he
wants to share it. Has one a sorrow, he seeks his friend who will gladly
share that. Does one meet with a defeat or victory, instantly he thinks
of his friend and of how it will effect him. Friends need one another,
as truly as the child needs its mother, or the mother her child. Is one
tempted to commit a wrong in thought or action, his friend, though
absent, appears at his side and begs him not to do it. If one is in doubt
or uncertainty, he summons his friend, who become a patient reasoner,
and an impartial judge. Who does not find himself, daily, looking
through other people's glasses, weighing on other people's scales,
sounding other people's voices? It is a habit that friends have with
one another. You can not deprive friends of one another, any more
than you can lovers. Ah, true friends are lovers of the heaven-born
sort; for their agreement is grounded in nature. They are not chosen,
they are discovered. Or, as Emerson says, they are "self-elected."

"Friendship's an abstract of love's noble flame,
'Tis love refined, and purged from all its dross,
'Tis next to angel's love, if not the same,