"This is what I would like, - to be as intimate with you as our
spirits are intimate, - respecting you as I respect my ideal.
Never to profane one another by word or action, even by a
thought. Between us, if necessary, let there be no
acquaintance."
"I have discovered you; how can you be concealed from me?"
The Friend asks no return but that his Friend will religiously
accept and wear and not disgrace his apotheosis of him. They
cherish each other's hopes. They are kind to each other's
dreams.
Though the poet says, "'Tis the pre-eminence of Friendship to
impute excellence," yet we can never praise our Friend, nor
esteem him praiseworthy, nor let him think that he can please us
by any _behavior_, or ever _treat_ us well enough. That kindness
which has so good a reputation elsewhere can least of all consist
with this relation, and no such affront can be offered to a
Friend, as a conscious good-will, a friendliness which is not a
necessity of the Friend's nature.
The sexes are naturally most strongly attracted to one another,
by constant constitutional differences, and are most commonly and
surely the complements of each other. How natural and easy it is
for man to secure the attention of woman to what interests
himself. Men and women of equal culture, thrown together, are
sure to be of a certain value to one another, more than men to
men.
