Page:On Friendship (Howe, 1915).pdf/34

 faint and languid; pleasure is lost, as having a carnal aim which is subject to satiety. Friendship, on the contrary, is enjoyed in the same measure that it is desired; nor does it begin, feed, and grow but through enjoyment, as being spiritual, and the soul being sharpened by usage.

Beneath the perfect friendship, these volatile affections formerly had their place with me, not to speak of him, who confesses it only too much in his verses: thus in me these two passions have come to a knowledge of each other, but to a comparison, never; the first keeping on its way in a high, proud flight, and disdainfully watching the other spread her wings very far below.

As for marriage, besides that it is a bargain whose entrance only is free, its duration being compelled and forced and dependent on circumstances beyond our choice, and a bargain too which is ordinarily made for other purposes, there come to light here many fortuitous kinks to disentangle, sufficient to break the thread and trouble the course of a lively affection: whereas in friendship, there is no other business or concern but friendship itself. Then too, to say the truth, the ordinary capacity of women is not