th the love of nature.

Friendship, or love, gratifies self-love; for it tacitly acknowledges
that we must possess some good qualities to attract beyond the mere love
of nature. Coleridge justly observes, "that it is well ordered that the
amiable and estimable should have a fainter perception of their own
qualities than their friends have, otherwise they would love
themselves." Now, friendship, or love, permits their doing this
unconsciously: mutual affection is a tacit avowal and appreciation of
mutual good qualities,--perhaps friendship yet more than love, for the
latter is far more an aspiration, a passion, than the former, and
influences the permanent character much less. Under the magic of love a
girl is generally in a feverish state of excitement, often in a wrong
position, deeming herself the goddess, her lover the adorer; whereas it
is her will that must bend to his, herself be abnegated for him.
Friendship neither permits the former nor demands the latter. It
influences silently, often unconsciously; perhaps its power is never
known till years afterwards. A girl who stands alone, without acting or
feeling friendship, is generally a cold unamiable being, so wrapt in
self as to have no room for any person else, except perhaps a lover,
whom she only seeks and values as offering his devotion to that same
idol, self. Female friendship may be abused, may be but a name for
gossip, letter-writing, romance, nay worse, for absolute evil: but that
Shakespeare, the mighty wizard of human hearts, thought highly and
beautifully of female friendship, we have his exquisite portraits of
Rosalind and Celia, Helen and the Countess, undeniably to prove; and if
he, who could portray every human passion, every subtle feeling of
humanity, from the whelming tempest of love to the fiendish influences
of envy and jealousy and hate; from the incomprehensible mystery of
Hamlet's wondrous spirit, to the simplicity of the gentle Miranda, the
dove-like innocence of Ophelia, who could be crushed by her weight of
love, but not reveal it;--if Shakespeare scorned not to picture the
sweet influences of female friendship, shall women pass by it as a theme
too tame, too idle for their pens?

THE ORDER OF KNIGHTHOOD

From 'The Days of Bruce'

A right noble and glorious scene did the great hall of the palace
present the morning which followed this eventful night. The king,
surrounded by his highest prelates and nobles, mingling indiscriminately