The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1910-03-17
ACOUAINTANCES AND FRIENDS.

AcQUAINTANcEs AND FRIENDS.
Persons often make very invidious dis
tinction between acquaintance and friends.
To say that you are only acquainted with
man is understood to mean very differ
ent thing from saying that he is your friend.
And indeed the distinction is very real
one, for ''friend" is a very sacred term,
and has received its crown in the saying,
ga friend that sticketh closer than q
BROTHER But there is no necessity for
the invidious distinction that is made.
Acquaintance are as necessary as friends,
and without them the business of the
world would come to an end and life would
lose half its pleasure, for it is with &C
quaintances rather than with friends that
most of our business is transacted, and in
intercourse with them we find large ele-
ment of our diversion.
There is another objection also to the
invidious distinction, for at first sight, at
least, it leads one to think that there is a
degree of hostility in the attitude of man
toward man unless they are on terms OF
friendship, whereas the truth of the matter
is that acquaintance is virtually degree
of friendship and represents the normal
attitude of those who are brought in contact
into that closer union of heart interests to
which the higher title is accorded.
The real difference between acquaintance
and friendship is to be looked for in this
union of heart and interests. Acquaint-
ances are supposed to have separate in
terests, each regarding the other as unit
totally distinct from himself, but with the
common humanity in virtue of which they
are brought into occasional intercourse;
while friends have much more in common
than humanity, and find that heart and
soul have common standing ground.
For somewhere in their natures sympathy,
similar mode of feeling and thinking,
however difficult it may be at times to dis
cover and describe it. We see this in the
historic friendships, such as that of David
and Jonathan. Totally different as the
characters of these two friends may ap-
pear to be, no one can read the dirge which
David pronounced over his dead friend
without discovering common nobleness
of nature which had been the bond of their
friendship, and kindred sympathy which
makes that friendship understandable.
The more we study acquaintance and
friendship, the more we see that, while the
former is the normal attitude of man to man
when brought together by circumstance or
business, the two are but degrees of the
same feeling, and that is why acquaintance
develop so frequently into friends upon
''futher acquaintance" As Eusden says
acquaintance grew; tn acquaintance they improve
To friendship, friendship npened into love-"
So, after all, the world is not 80 bad a
place as some would try to make US believe.
There is not that native hostility toward
each other among civilized men which
some grumblers SO readily assume to exist
Things have moved apace since the savage
was to savage natural enemy, and things
will yet move onward as man finds that
common interests are better for him and
his race than divided interests; when he
finds that it is better for himself and others
that men should be friends, in the best
sense of the word, rather than mere &C.
quaintances. But even then there will be
ideal friendships where one cleaves "closer
than a brother" 1t is we'll to realize this
advancing civilization. In fact, it is being
realized, especially by the young, who
more and more are forming societies and
associations, on one pretext or another
which bring them together to form &C.
quaintances and gradually to deepen the
acquaintance into friendship. This is a
marked feature of the present day. But
at the same time, there is danger of de.
grading the term friendship" Itshould
never be allowed to fell from its high and
sacred position as the Hottest feeling which
can possibly rule the human heart. Well
indeed, did Cowper write:
eff every polished gem we find
Illuminating heart or mind,
Provoke to imitation;
No wonder friendship does the same,
That jewel of the finest flame,
Or rather constellation"
Love, beyond all doubt, is lower feel.
ing than friendship, however much it is
lauded by the poets, for it seeks its own
qualification in the possession of the object
loved; while, as Crabbe says, friendship
on the other hand, is altogether disinter.