Page:Friendship, love & marriage (1910) Thoreau.djvu/33

 Be not the fowler's net

Which stays my flight.

And craftily is set

T' allure the sight.

But the favoring gale

That bears me on.

And still doth fill my sail

When thou art gone.

I can not leave my sky

For thy caprice.

True love would soar as high

As heaven is.

The eagle would not brook

Her mate thus won.

Who trained his eye to look

Beneath the sun.

Nothing is so difficult as to help a Friend in matters which do not require the aid of Friendship, but only a cheap and trivial service, if your Friendship wants the basis of a thorough, practical acquaintance. I stand in the friendliest relation, on social and spiritual grounds, to one who does not perceive what practical skill I have, but when he seeks my assistance in such matters, is wholly ignorant of that one whom he deals with; does not use my skill, which in such matters is much greater than his, but only my hands. I know another, who, on the contrary, is remarkable for his discrimination in this respect; who knows how to make use of the talents of others when he does not possess the same; knows when not to look after or oversee, and stops short at his man. It is a rare pleasure to serve him, which all laborers know. I am not a little pained by the other kind of treatment. It 27