for
girl; no hatred so intense and immovable as that of woman for woman."
In fact, there is immensely less indifference between women than
between men; there are incomparably more enmities; and there are a
great many more friendships. It is the enormous preponderance of the
mutual dislikes of women over those of men, which chiefly has given
rise to the fallacious belief that their mutual likes are less.
These, too, are more, though not, perhaps, so much more.

Among women, it is true, only a few of those memorable unions of soul
and life are known which entitle the parties to be ranked as pairs of
friends. Our ignorance, however, of such cases does not prove their
non-existence. There have been thousands of them. There are a great
many at this moment. It is the characteristic modesty and privacy of
the lives of women which keep these heart-histories concealed. The
most gifted, refined, and elevated natures are most likely to have
this experience; and such natures shrink with unconquerable
repugnance from all obtrusion, or betrayal, of their inmost
experiences. The lives of noble women are "so transparent and so deep
that only the subtle insight of sympathy can penetrate them:" their
open secrets baffle all the scrutiny of coarse souls. The choicest of
her sex will, to some extent, agree with the energetic sentiment of
Eugenie de Guerin "I detest those women who mount the pulpit, and lay
their passions bare." Engrossing, then, as the attachment of two
women may be, it is not often thrust into public view so as to obtain
the literary recognition won by the similar attachments of men who
act their parts in the front of society, seeking a place in history
for their achievements. As far as the public are concerned, women
merge their heart-lives in the careers of those dear to them. It is
accordingly in exceptional cases alone that a knowledge of the
friendships of women is preserved for posterity. This, indeed, holds
likewise of men, but in a much lower degree. Thus far there have been
printed accounts of the lives of hundreds of men where there has been
a printed account of the life of one woman. Allowance should be made
for this in our estimate of their comparative friendships.

And now has not something been said to shake the current opinion,
that the friendships of women are few and superficial? It is true
that women are more imperiously called to love than men are; are more
likely to be absorbed by this master-passion