Part 2

X. JOSEPH ADDISON

The Qualifications of Friendship 161

XI. FRANCIS BACON

Of Friendship 173

XII. MONTAIGNE

Of Friendship 193

XIII. ANTHUSA TO ST. JOHN

Ideal Friendship 231

XIV. ARISTOTLE

The Blessings of Friendship 247

ILLUSTRATIONS

From Water-Colour Drawings by H. C. PRESTON MACGOUN, R.S.W.

‘We snatch at the slowest fruit in the whole garden of God’ Frontispiece

Facing page

‘My friends have come to me unsought. The great God gave them to me’ 56

‘It is a spiritual gift, worthy of him to give and of me to receive’ 136

‘Then shall we meet ... as water with water’ 216

SELECTED AND EDITED BY ALFRED H. HYATT

TO MY FRIEND

FRED. G. BOWLES

FRIENDSHIP

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

FRIENDSHIP

We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. Maugre all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. How many persons we meet in houses whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honour, and who honour us; how many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! Read the language of these wandering eye-beams. The heart knoweth.

The effect of the indulgence of this human affection is a certain cordial exhilaration. In poetry, and in common

speech, the emotions of benevolence and complacency which are felt towards others are likened to the material effects of fire; so swift or much more swift, more active more cheering are these fine inward irradiations. From the highest degree of passionate love, to the lowest degree of goodwill, they make the sweetness of life.

Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection. The scholar sits down to write, and all his years of meditation do not furnish him with one good thought or happy expression; but it is necessary to write a letter to a friend--and, forthwith, troops of gentle thoughts invest themselves on every hand with chosen words. See, in any house where virtue and self-respect abide, the palpitation which the approach of a stranger causes. A commended stranger is expected

and announced, and an uneasiness betwixt pleasure and pain invades all the hearts of a household. His arrival almost brings fear to the good hearts that would welcome him. The house is dusted, all things fly into their places, the old coat is exchanged for the new, and they must get up a dinner if they can. Of a commended stranger, only the good report is told by others, only the good and new is heard by us. He stands to us for humanity. He is what we wish. Having imagined and invested him, we ask how we should stand related in conversation and action with such a man, and are uneasy with fear. The same idea exalts conversation with him. We talk better than we are wont. We have the nimblest fancy, a richer memory, and our dumb devil has taken leave for the time. For long hours we