Page:Friendship, love & marriage (1910) Thoreau.djvu/20

 harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to clothe and feed our bodies (neighbors are kind enough for that), but to do the like office to our spirits. For this, few are rich enough, however well disposed they may be.

Think of the importance of Friendship in the education of men. It will make a man honest; it will make him a hero; it will make him a saint. It is the state of the just dealing with the just, the magnanimous with the magnanimous, the sincere with the sincere, man with man.

All the abuses which are the object of reform with the philanthropist, the statesman and the housekeeper, are unconsciously amended in the intercourse of Friends A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us. It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak, and another to hear. How can one treat with magnanimity mere wood and stone? If we dealt only with the false and dishonest, we should at last forget how to speak truth. In our daily intercourse with men, our nobler faculties are dormant and suffered to rust. None will pay us the compliment to expect nobleness from us. "We ask our neighbor to suffer himself to be dealt with truly, sincerely, nobly; but he answers "No," by his deafness. He does not even hear this prayer. He says practically, "I will be content if you treat me as no better than I should be, as deceitful, mean, dishonest and selfish." For the 14