Martinsburg weekly independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1873-1875, 1874-07-25
SEX In FRIENDSHIP.

| One reason Of the disbelief in
friendship between the sexes, is
that its consistence is miscompre-
hended. Friendship is ordinarily
thought ito be the strongest at
tachment between men and wo-
men. IL the feeling be of two gen
ders it is called love, because it
has been so called, which is sup
posed to be a finality. The regu-
lar mode of arriving at truth is to
give thing a name, and stick TO
it in the face of refutation. Per-
istence, with the multitude, has
every advantage of philosophy.
Men lovo each other; so dc women
and men and women are the best
of friends. Thus it has been from
the first, and will be to the last.
Sex is not determined altogether
by physiology temperament
more nearly settles it. Many men
are masculine and feminine toeach
other; many women likewise. If
love were possible between the
sexes alone, they might be and
often are, represented by the same
sex; so that regarding love as the
only natural affection of men for
women, or of women for men, 1t
might be rechristened friendship
and the acceptance of the postu-
late thus enforced. But style them
what you may, and notwithstand-
ing their indistinction, love and
friendship are very different. al
belt not obedient to gender. Sex,
as we know, enters into materials
as well as animated nature, and is
as we hold, independent of corpor
atty. In friendship, not less than
in love sex, has its part. Wheth-
er two men or two Womenbe
friends, one is masculine and the
other feminine one to the other
as much as when man woman are
friends. There friendship be-
tween the sexes is more natural
because physically conformable,
than between members of the
same sex. Then the relation is
more clearly defined ,.better estab-
lished, less exposed to external
influence. Disguises are not need
ed; assumptions are superfuous
the harm onies are preserved; the
form answers to the spirit.
In all genuine friendships the
positive and negative are combin-
ed-so subtly, often, as to be bare
ly susceptible, but acting fully
AID freely nevertheless. The pos
tive portrays the masculine,
the negative the feminine,
in the chief concerns of life
though, they may shift,
under different circumstances
There never were two friends, even
when they were strong men, who
were not positive and negative so
one another; in altered words, mat
culine and feminine Patrocus
plainly symbolized the woman
Achilles; as Hephes'on did to AL
exander, Jonathan to David, Alvah
to Philip Ii. Shelley was feminine
to Byron Louis XIV to Mantle
non Charles VII to Jeanne D'Arc;
Leicester to Elizabeth Petrarch
to Laura Antony to Caesar. Caesar
himself was masculine to every
body except to Cleopatra at times;
Napoleon Bonaparte was mascu-
line to all his marshals-to the en-
tire French nation, indeed. A man
may be masculine to one man and
feminine to another. A woman
may be masculine to her husband
and feminine to her lover. Sex
varies with the nature it is brought
in contact with. Feminine souls
are constantly getting into mascu-
line bodies, and feminine bodies
growing about masculine souls.
Inevery close relation where one
and one, in defiance of arithmetic,
make one, there must be a control
ling mind frequently controlling
so gently, perchanceso involuntar-
lily, as to render control insensible.
The controlling mind is positive.
Whenever two positive natures, be
the sex the same or different, come
in contact, they rebound, and in
any attempt to cohere jar so per-
petually that rest liz secured solely
| by separation. Hence many men
positiveness should be mans pre-
rogative-admirably adapted to
friendshipeannot be friends toeach
other. They demand too much
and grant too little. by the impulse
of their being, for the required
complement of q condition SO ex-
acting. Friends they can gain in
abundance, but friends blessed with
a measurable quantity ofnegation.
Such as they cherish mutual es-
teem,an oblique way Of self-respect
and like one another keyond a
clashing range They are the CEN
tiers Of circles, not to be pressed By
social revulsion into any part Of
| the periphery ! On them may be