Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-02-21
THE ART OF FRIENDSHIP.
The Times, 1t seems, Are Opposed to En-
during FrIand.hip.

SO AsthN1f - Erotusf FNt ONposca ~ A1h-
during FrIsndship.
There Is reason for a suspicion, If
not more than a suspicion. that the
art of friendship is dead among us.
The friendship of the ancients. both
of Greece and Rome, was very exact
ing. In modern times we should look
long day for such mutual regard as
that of Damon and Pythias, which
softened the heart of Dionysius aim
self. Friendship in our crowded days,
covers a wider area, but as in the
case of all extensive developments. it
has lost intensively. 1t has become.
as Swift described it, the friendship
of the mddling kind" But rarely do
we see the stubborn, stoical, mutual
regard which Cicero describes, self
aRnihilatory. seeking for excellence,
priceless, rich in trust and confidence
The emphasis of the element Of choice
in friendship, with its concomitant,
the Punishment of the element of
spontaneous affection, has done much
to render true friendship impossible
and to bring about the present de-
cay of the art.
1t is unfortunate in a utiitarian lay
that we cannot likewise choose our
parents. Friendship is fallen from its
ideals. The friendship described by
Bishop Hall nearly 200 years ago as
'diffusing its odor through the sea-
son of absence" is exchanged for the
slenderest of acquaintanceships whose
value is duly marked by our indiffer=
ent mods of greeting. So ready are we
to say that John Smith and william
Brown are unsuitable friends, be-
cause we cannot see the tie which
binds them, that the simple quality
of affection is left out of the reckon
ing altogether Were we to choose
friend for John Smith, there is
Thomas Robinson who could assist
him in business. or Joseph Jones who
would be that priceless of friends, in
the modern computation, the friend
at court.
We forget the primary necessity that
John Smith must love his friend; we
overlook the fact that as yet science
has not discovered a process Of vac
cination whereby affection may be
transplanted or infused. John Smith
may choose a valet or private secre-
tary, and if by the same process he
chooses friend, that friend will be-
in greater or less degree, an employee.
Hence it Is that the wide preaching
OF the doctrine of choice has ousted
friendship from the category of ten
der relationships. In its stead We
have visiting lists Not those whom
we love, but those whom We would
propitiate do We invite to dinner.
Those VINO would propitiate us inyi"e
us in turn. and permit us to eat their
food, air our views, and even, by in
credible pauence, TO sing our Songs,
not for their but for our own salts
faction. So far has the axiom Ct
splendid isolation infected not merely
national but personal affairs, thai the
stole who does not even confde in
his wife is rapidly coming to be re-
garded as the hero instead of as the
Turk, which he really is. We live,
alas, in the suburbs of each others
hearts. Hence we establish clubs and
societies, clubs where we eat in ac-
cord; societies where We speak in ac-
cord. These represent our modern in
dividual weakness. while friendship,
in which men think in accord, woald
represent individual strength.-Mac-
millans Magazine