The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
EsSnys on Erlenflship

tions in Birmingham bookstore l found a volume of essays in which Emerson Friendship appeared; and in glancins at this fine contribution to our literature ] I noticed that the editor had changed word with which the illustrious author had begun his second sentence said a man. Emerson wrote many chamins es- says but this on friendship Is so full or truth and heart, and it's dietion Is so 1 beautiful that it is easily my faVorte. 1 Ii is more generally read, too, l heheve' than any other of Emerson's essays. rms | IS the second sentence the great man wrote 1t: Maugre all the selhshness that ehlls like the east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like fine ether The modern editor has substituted for 'maugre the more familiar word barring. Now I do not think the editor or publisher was justified in making the change. It struck me, now ever as bit peculiar when l first read the essay that Emerson, who was con- spicuously an apostle of American Ideals and who showed a marked preference for words used in ordinary English, should have hit upon 'maugre, spelled also 'mauger.' It may have been in more gen. eral use in Mr. Emersons time than to- day. But no matter, as he used maugre it should remain untouched.
 Speaking of friendship, 1t Is interest ing to recall how many great men wrote of it. It is a trite theme. Every school boy and school girl has written a 'compo- sition' entitled Friendship but one of Ciceros greatest and one of his most widely read essays is De Amicitia'-'Of Friendship or as the English transla- tions have it, On Friendship Cicero is not only wise and luminous, but his style is as gossipy as if he were of the Nine teenth or Twentieth century. There is great deal of shrewdness in this essay and likewise great deal of broad states manship. No philosopher had quicker insight into human motives and human nature generally than the great Roman. His aphorsms are delightful and his grace and wit are unsurpassed. we may lay down this rule,' says Cicero. neither ask nor consent to do what Is wrong, for the plea for friendships sake IS a QlSCItulldDit unt dhQ hob NO M admitted for moment
 Says Cicero again, As flor Carbo, thanks to the punishment recently in flicted on Tiberius Gracchus, we have by hook or by crook managed to hold out against his attacks. But what to expect of the trbuneship of Caius Gracchus do not like to forecast. One thing leads 10 1A J ward course proceeds with ever-increas- l ing velocity. There is the case of the ballot: what a blow was inflicted first by the lex Cabinia. and two years aft erwards by the lex Cassa. I seem al- ready to see the people estranged from the senate, and the most important af- fairs at the mercy of the multitude. For you may be sure that more people will learn how to set such things in motion than how to stop them. What is the point of these remarks? This: No one ever makes any attempt of this sort without friends to help him
 "Bacons essay Of Friendship Is cie- gant and phiosophic, of course, but it Is dry compared with Cicero's. A very fine | Newman's which is found in the first chapter of his story Loss and Gain;
 "'The minds of young people are pliaole and elastic. and easily acommodate themselves to any one they fall in with. They find grounds of attraction both where they agree with one another and where they differ; what is congenlal to themselves creates sympathy; what is correlative, or supplemental, creates ad- miration and esteem. And what is thus begun Is often continued In after-life by the force of habit and the claims of memory. Thus, in the choice Of friends, chance often does for us as much as the most careful selection could have effected :
 "Other great men may have written on l friendship, but those essays which will abide, and they have recently been joined together in one little volume, are Elmer sons and Cicero's'