s the door to true friendship or to real
acquaintance. It does not bring people near to one another, but keeps
them apart. It is as if men thought that they could be better friends
by bumping their heads together.

Our freedom comes in realizing that all the energy of life should come
primarily from a love of principles and not of persons, excepting as
persons relate to principles. If one man finds another living on
principles that are higher than his own, it means strength and freedom
for him to cling to his friend until he has learned to understand and
live on those principles himself. Then if he finds his own power for
usefulness and his own enjoyment of life increased by his friendship,
it would indeed be weak of him to refuse such companionship from fear
of being dependent. The surest and strongest basis of freedom in
friendship is a common devotion to the same fundamental principles of
life; and this insures reciprocal usefulness as well as personal
independence. We must remember that the very worst and weakest
dependence is not a dependence upon persons, but upon a sin,--whether
the sin be fear of public opinion or some other more or less serious
form of bondage.

The only true independence is in obedience to law, and if, to gain the
habit of such obedience, we need a helping hand, it is truly
independent for us to take it.

_We all came into the world alone, and we must go out of the world
alone, and yet we are exquisitely and beautifully dependent upon one
another._

A great German philosopher has said that there should be as much space
between the atoms of the body, in relation to its size, as there is
between the stars in relation to the size of the universe,--and yet
every star is dependent upon every other star,--as every atom in the
body is dependent upon every other atom for its true life and action.
This principle of balance in the macrocosm and the microcosm is equally
applicable to any community of people, whether large or small. The
quiet study and appreciation of it will enable us to realize the
strength of free dependence and dependent freedom in the relation of
persons to one another. The more truly we can help one another in
freedom toward the dependence upon law, which is the axis of the
universe, the more wholesome and perfect will be all our human
relations.

XI

_Self-control_

TO most people self-control means the control of appearances and not
the control of realities. Thi