Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-12-25
THE VALUE OF
FRIENDSHIP.
(By The Optimist.)

not. IN the OlQ Testament you Will md:
Forsake not an old friend. for the new is not
comparable unto him. A new friend is as new
wine: when it is old thou shall drink it with
pleasure
The chief value of this advice lies in
the firstpart of it, to my mind: ''For-
sake not an old friend" No friends
should be lightly forsaken, for there are
few of US in this world, even the most
fortunate, who are blessed with friends
enough. do not mean mere acquaint-
ances, for most of us have too many of
these-people that do not really mean
anything to us, that occupy our time,
and help US waste the valued hours in
mereemptiness and giving US no return,
so that one feels like the lover in
MAUD"
1 loathe the squares and streets
And the faces that one meets.
Hearts with no love for me-
There is something in the very quality
Of friendship that will not admit of its
being sown broadcast. Itneeds concen-
tration for its life; to try to scatter it is
to kill it. AS Gay in his Fables" says:
rnenoship ike love, Is but name
Unless to one you stint the fame.
The child whom many fathers share
Hath seldom known a fathers care
'Ts thus in friendship; who derend
On many. rarely find a friend.
Old friends, like old books, are best,
and that friendship which begins in
early youth usually lasts the longest and
is the more sincere. 1t is, perhaps,
only in youth that one can give out of
himself, in utter confidence, the roman
tically unselfish loyalty that true friend
ship demands. Later in life, after
there have been disappointments and
bitterness it becomes harder for the
right spirit to go out of man, and in
perfect friendship that which We give
that also shall ye receive. Happy the
man who can say:
count myself in nothing else SO happy
As In asoul remembering my good friends.
For it implies qualities within himself
that signify he has been blessed of God.
To get friendship one must be of a quail
ity to give it, and the man of middle age
looking over the list of those whom he
may call his friends may see, if he will.
In them some mirror of himself-his
own tastes, his own ideals, his own
ambitions, his own failures. For
In companions
That do converse and waste the time together
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love.
There needs must be like proportion
or lneaments. of manncrs and of spirit
What wonderful part they play in
our day-dreams, these friends of ours:
and when we get the backward vision of
life is there aught more beautiful there
than the memory of the trysting place
where friend breathed to friend his in
most hopes, his fears? Can we not re-
member how, with dear friend, we
planned the future? Alasl that the plans
should have so far fallen short. Is there
not something sacred in such memories?
and do they not, even in moments of
our deepest dependency serve to up-
lift us and to give us courage to face the
unknown future?
What thrill goes straight to a man s
heart at the hand-clasp of friend. In
the eyes of a friend one may see shining
the light of that love that passeth un-
derstanding beautiful and tender
and with something of divinity in it.
The knowledge that one has just one
real friend is enough to arm him against
most of the ills and misfortunes of this
life, for in the heart of friendship there
| is a perfect refuge, tower of strength
and deep well of sympathy. Ant
Emerson says the final word:
o friend my bosom said.
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red:
| All things through thee take nobler form
And look beyond the earth.
The mIll-round Of our fate appears
sun-path in thy worth.
Me. too. thy nobleness has taught
Tomaster my despair:
The fountains of my hidden life
Are. through thy friendship fair.