A reverse of fortune is a mighty sifter of friendship. So is distance.
Go a little way out of town, and see how many people will take the
trouble to come to see you. Well, we must be patient and forbearing. It
is a question of intensity of need. Friendly relations depend upon
vicinity amongst other things, and there are degrees; but the best kind
of friendship has a way of bridging time and space for all that.

--_Haweis_.

* * * * *

A female friend, amiable, clever, and devoted, is a possession more
valuable than parks and palaces; and without such a muse few men can
succeed in life, none be contented.

--_Lord Beaconsfield_.

* * * * *

A true friend embraces our objects as his own. We feel another mind bent
on the same end, enjoying it, ensuring it, reflecting it, and delighting
in our devotion to it.

--_Channing_.

* * * * *

A pretended affection is not easily distinguished from a real one,
unless in seasons of distress. For adversity is to friendship what fire
is to gold--the only infallible test to discover the genuine from the