There Is No Rule More Invariable Than That We Are Paid
For Our Suspicions By Finding What We Suspected.
By our narrowness
and prejudices we say, I will have so much and such of you, my
Friend, no more.
Perhaps there are none charitable, none
disinterested, none wise, noble, and heroic enough, for a true
and lasting Friendship.
I sometimes hear my Friends complain finely that I do not
appreciate their fineness. I shall not tell them whether I do or
not. As if they expected a vote of thanks for every fine thing
which they uttered or did. Who knows but it was finely
appreciated. It may be that your silence was the finest thing of
the two. There are some things which a man never speaks of,
which are much finer kept silent about. To the highest
communications we only lend a silent ear. Our finest relations
are not simply kept silent about, but buried under a positive
depth of silence never to be revealed. It may be that we are not
even yet acquainted. In human intercourse the tragedy begins,
not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence
is not understood. Then there can never be an explanation. What
avails it that another loves you, if he does not understand you?
Such love is a curse. What sort of companions are they who are
presuming always that their silence is more expressive than
yours? How foolish, and inconsiderate, and unjust, to conduct as
if you were the only party aggrieved!
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