The Washington times., 1905-06-04
Friendship.

flower OF friendship will not grow in
modern times. In the Contributors
Club of the June issue of the Atlantic
Monthly a whole page is devoted to
THE Passing of Friendship" but the
writer is afflicted with the far-sight
that attacks those who dwell too
much upon the glories OF the past.
He has not proved his theorem: he
has merely alleged the changes of
conditions which would render ridicu-
lous the expression of friendship now
in the terms of long ago.
Friendship is q flower as rare as
love and as delicate as purity; it was
never common, nor is It's rarity today
any greater than il was IN the dim
days Of yore. 'Tis distance lends en-
chantment To the view: it Is the ecIec-
ticism OF time that giIds and glorifies
the past and by condenging the quint-
essence OF the flowers makes their
abundance seem greater then than
now.
There can be no true friendship
save between minds OF great nobility.
Let their capacities vary as they may.
let their powers be expressed IN DIFF
ferent exceIleneiea: let them be sep
arated by space. aye. even by time.
nobility will answer to nobility and
between them VIII spring the rare,
the delicate, the beautiful flower Of
friendship. II these minds meet in
time and space there is also the COM
panionship that sIorif1es friendship,
but cannot make it.
Because we can, by turning a few
pages within the reach Of every man
Of letters, cite example after example
Of the most perfect development of
friendship; because 1t is difficult. nay.
impossible, to reach out and get In
touch with all the blossoms of the
present day, because the plant often
develops best away from the beaten
path and the garish roadside; be-
cause, when it does grow in the open,
1t frequently adopts the protective
coIoring of its environment; and be-
cause Of our natural love of magnify
ing the past. many are prone to say
that friendship is extinct and can be
studied only IN historic records.
Friendship is alive today: it will
increase with the spread of knowl-
edge; it will become stronger and
more beautiful with the development
of our souls and the ennoblement OF
our characters; but it will never be-
come common. II has always been,
II is now. 1t will ever be. q rare thing:
for true friendship can exist only be-
tween the noblest souls Of the race.
while companionship. eomradeship
must ever be the highest approxima-
tions to it for the majority of us.
The expression Of friendship varies
with the manners of the times and
with the mutations of that most
vehicle of thought, Ian
guage. What has been said of 1t is
easily at hand. and while much Of
that applies more exactly to COM
and comradeship. 1t Is well
to note that the greatest minds have
ever held it IN the highest esteem.
Bacon devotes to friendship one Of
the longest of his essays Taking ex-
cerpts from it at random, he says:
a principal fruit of friendship is
the ease and discharge of the fulness
and swellings of the heart. which pas
sions OF all kinds do cause and in
duce. No receipt opeaeth the
heart but true friend; to whom you
may impart griefs. joys, fears. hopes.
suspicious, counsels, and whatsoever
lieth upon the heart TO oppress 1T.
in a kind of civil shrift or confes-
sion Certainly, those that
want friends to open themselves unto
are cannibals of their own hearts.
This communicating Of a
mans self 10 his friends works two
contrary effects: for it redoubleth
joys, and cutteth griefs in halfs. For
there is no man that lmparteth his
joys to his friend but he joyeth the
more; and no man that imparteth
his griefs to his friend but he grieyeth
the less" What Bacon has to say is
generally too good not to quote. He
adds:
The second fruit of friendship is
healthfuI and sovereign for the un-
derstanding, as the first is for the
affections. For friendship maketh in
deed fair day in the affections from
storm and tempests; but 1t maketh
daylight in the understanding, out of
darkness and confusion of thoughts;
neither is this to be understood only
of faithful counsel, whi5h man re-
ceiveth from his friend: but before
you come to that, certain 1t is, that
whosoeyer hath his mind fraught
with many thoughts, his wits and un-
derstanding do clarity and break up,
In the communicating and discussing
with another; he tosseth his thoughts
more easily: he marshaleth them