social benefit to speak of that select and sacred relation which is a kind of absolute and which even leaves the language of love and common so much is this purer and ii � o much divine i do not wish to treat bat with courage when they are real thej are not glass threads or but the thing we know for now after so many ages of experience what do we know of nature or of ourselves not one step has man taken toward the solution of the problem of liis destiny in one of folly stand the whole universe of men but tlie sweet sincerity of joy and peace which draw from this alliance with my brother s soul is the nut itself whereof all nature and all thought is but the and shell happy is the that a friend it might well be built like a bower or arch to entertain him a single day happier if he know the solemnity of that relation and honor friendship law he who offers himself a candidate for that comes up like an to the great games where the first bom of the world are the he himself for where time want danger are in the lists and he alone is victor who has truth enough in his constitution to preserve the delicacy of liis beauty from the wear and tear of these the gifts of fortune may be present or absent but all the speed in that contest depends on and the tempt of trifles there are two elements that go to the composition of friendship each so sovereign that i can detect no superiority in either no reason why either should be first named one is truth a friend is a person with whom i may be sincere before him i may think aloud i am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal that i may drop even those garments of courtesy and second thought which men never put off and may deal with him with the simplicity and with which one meets another sincerity is the luxury allowed like and authority only to the highest rank that being permitted to speak truth as having none above it to court or unto every man alone is sincere at the entrance of a second person begins we and the approach of our fellow man by compliments by essay bj amusements by affairs we cover up oar thought from him under a hundred folds i knew a man who under a certain religious cast off this and all compliment and commonplace spoke to the conscience of every person he encountered and that with great insight and beauty at first he was resisted and all men agreed be was mad but as indeed he could help doing for some time in this course he attained to the advantage of bringing every man of his acquaintance into true relations with him no man would think of speaking with him or of putting him off with any chat of or reading rooms but every man was constrained by so sincerity to the like and what love of nature what poetry what symbol of truth be had he did certainly show him but to most of us society shows not its face and eye but its side and its back to stand in true relations with men in a age is worth a fit of insanity b it not we seldom go erect almost every man we meet requires some civility � requires to be he has some fame some talent some whim of religion or in his head that is not to be questioned and which spoils all conversation with him but a friend is a sane man who exercises not my in but me my friend gives me entertainment without requiring any on my a friendship friend therefore is a sort of in nature i who alone am i who see nature whose existence i can affirm with equal evidence to my own behold now the semblance of my being in all its height variety and curiosity in a foreign form so that a friend may well be reckoned the of nature the other element of friendship is tenderness we are to men by every sort of tie by blood by pride by fear by hope by by lust by hate by admiration by every circumstance and and trifle but we can scarce believe that so much character can in another as to draw us by love can another be so blessed and we so that we can offer him tenderness when a man becomes dear to me i have touched the goal of fortune i find very written directly to the heart of this matter in books and yet i have one text which i cannot choose but remember my author says � i myself faintly and to those whose i effectually am and tender myself least to him to whom i am the most devoted i wish that friendship should have feet as well as eyes and eloquence it must plant itself on the ground before it over the moon i wish it to be a little of a citizen before it is quite a we the citizen because he makes love a it is an exchange of gifts of useful it is good neighbourhood it watches with the tl sick it the pall at the funeral and sight of the and of the but though we cannot find the god under this disguise of a yet on the other hand we cannot forgive the poet if he thread too fine and does not his romance by the of justice fidelity and pity i hate the of the name of friendship to signify and worldly i much prefer the company of and tin to the silken and which its days of encounter by a frivolous display by rides in a and dinners at the 