y is as futile as to seek the end of a
rainbow for its bag of gold. A true friend is always useful in the
highest sense; but we should beware of thinking of our friends as
brother members of a mutual-benefit association, with its periodical
demands and threats of suspension for non-payment of dues._

TRUMBULL.

Contents

I

THE MIRACLE OF FRIENDSHIP

II

THE CULTURE OF FRIENDSHIP

III

THE FRUITS OF FRIENDSHIP

IV

THE CHOICE OF FRIENDSHIP

V

THE ECLIPSE OF FRIENDSHIP

VI

THE WRECK OF FRIENDSHIP

VII

THE RENEWING OF FRIENDSHIP

VIII

THE LIMITS OF FRIENDSHIP

IX

THE HIGHER FRIENDSHIP

The Miracle of Friendship

But, far away from these, another sort
Of lovers linked in true heart's consent;
Which loved not as these for like intent,
But on chaste virtue grounded their desire,
Far from all fraud or feigned blandishment;
Which, in their spirits kindling zealous fire,
Brave thoughts and noble deeds did evermore aspire.

Such were great Hercules and Hylas dear,
True Jonathan and David trusty tried;
Stout Theseus and Pirithoeus his fere;
Pylades and Orestes by his side;
Mild Titus and Gesippus without pride;
Damon and Pythias, whom death could not sever;
All these, and all that ever had been tied
In bands of friendship, there did live forever;
Whose lives although decay'd, yet loves decayed never.

SPENSER, The Faerie Queene.

The Miracle of Friendship

The idea, so common in the ancient writers, is not all a poetic
conceit, that the soul of a man is only a fragment of a larger whole,
and goes out in search of other souls in which it will find its true
completion. We walk among worlds unrealized, until we have learned the
secret of love. We know this, and in our sincerest moments admit this,
even though we are seeking to fill up our lives with other ambitions
and other hopes.

It is more than a dream of youth that there may be here a satisfaction
of the heart, without which, and in comparison with which, all worldly
success is failure. In spite of the selfishness which seems to blight
all life, our hearts tell us that there is possible a nobler
relationship of disinterestedness and devotion. Friendship in its
accepted sense is not the highest of the different grades in that
relationship, but it has its place in the kingdom of love, and through
it we bring ourselves into training for a still larger lov