Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1869-04-01
For the Tirginia Free Press.
friendship.

Friendship is love without its alloy Of excln-
siyeness. The former is passion; the latter
! septimnt:-each seeking for happiness in
and through the objects of its tenderness, tho
friendship is only Prime Minister while love is
crowned Emperor at the court Of theaffections
Friendship cannot WELD loves sceptre, howSo-
ever regal its sway, or wear loves crown
though its duties are sacred and holy as dying
to redeem a world.
Oh! not at the grave Of father, mother, Sis
ter or brother did Jesus weep when on earth,
but sorrowcd for Lazarus-hjS .friend-with a
kcener paug than a(terward in Gethsemane
when he prayed the cup might pass" Who
would not rather have been tue poor thief
whose prayer was-"God be merciful to me, a
sinner" than the pharisee who despiSed, or the
priest and the Leyite who passed by. Even
the Magdaleu, at whom no stone was cast,
trailing her soiled and tattcred robes at the
Redeemers feet, is spotleSS compared to Peter
who denied, or a Judas who betrayed. In re-
membering the beautiful bond which united
David and johnathan, we should not forget
the melancholy destinies of Annanias and
Sapphira. and the thirty pieces Of silver; and
oh! my dear reader, let us strive to live 50
that when we shall come to stand with those
we loved on earth beside the everlasting throne,
no face may be upraised to ours upon whose
fairness your hand or mine has planted one
pallid track by means of the doubt or waver-
ing which is loves crucifxion-friendship's
death.
Friendship bears the features Of the mind,
the fruits of the spirit; only the finest souls are
capable of its realization in all the length and
depth and breadth of its comprehensive sisnifi-
canoe; only the purest hearts can grasp it in
all its multtudinous bearings upon life, or IA
thom its vast possibilities, ever holding dimles'
this prophetic shadowing forth Of the glory ol
the after life of the soul.
During the period Of the religious revolution
in England-in the days Of Cromwell-what
cared Lord Stafford for the defeat Of the royal
arms. after hearing that Charles the First had
signed his death warrant? What to him in
his lonely prison cell was more terrible than
the treachery of the king-his friend? There
must have been something Of the Et h, Brute
of Casar's last appeal, in the tones which were
pregnant with more than deaths retributive
bitterness as they ruug out in words Of warning
down the centuries: Put not your trust in
Princes"
Damon and Pythias were to me even as
child the heroes Of perfection in human char
actcr, because their friendship has reality, not
sham. and withstood all test5-even "untc
death.
There could be nothing more beautiful than
the significance attached to this sentiment by
Madam Recamier who was the chosen friend
and Corrinne of Madam dc Stdel! the imper-
sonation Of Lamartine's Raphael; The mode
of the Beatrice of Canova, the political conf,
dante of the Duke de Luvae and the Montmo-
rencies. The one only social JOY Of the great
Ballanche. She was peer ofthe choicest spirits
in Europe-who numbered among her admi-
rers the Emperor Napoleon and his brother u
lien. Who was one lifelong love Of the great
Chatubriand, with whose inspired soul her OWE
was identified whose hand she heldin ias'
impassioned clasp while passing that shadowS
silent land "where the good sleep and th'
beautiful" Her life, pure and stainless as thu
SHOWS of Zembra, was to her friends perpetua
well-spring of truth and joy, whose memory II
fragrant as the anemones of heaven.
On this momentous subject no one has eve
spoken more forcibly than an Eastern poet
Hafx, whose compact of friendship with all 1t
boundless signifcances-itsv varied acquisitions
was embodied in the trite sentence-"Lether
/ be truth 5et,ccen rs t,co torerer."
+ Alb for this Is the secret Of all: The sub