Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/190

 simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity to others.

“If any man consider the present aspects of what is called by distinction, society, he will see the need of these ethics.” I must remark, that if any one will seriously observe human nature, as it commonly is, he will easily see that a moral code, such as Emerson's, would produce conceited and selfish beings, and that it is merely calculated for natures as pure and beautiful as his own, and which form the exception to the general rule. That which he in all cases mistakes is the radical duality of human nature. Yet with what freshness, invigoration, does not this exclamation come to our souls, “Be true; be yourself!” &quot; Especially when coming from a man who has given proofs that in this truth a human being may fulfil all his human duties, as son, brother, husband, father, friend, citizen. But—a true Christian does all this, and—something more.

I must give you two examples of Emerson's doctrines, as relates to the relationship of friend with friend, and on friendship; because they accord with my own feelings, and act as an impulse in the path which for some time I have chosen for myself.

“Friendship requires that rare mean betwixt likeness and unlikeness that piques each with the presence of power and of consent in the other party. Let me be alone to the end of the world, rather than that my friend should overstep by a word or a look his real sympathy. I am equally balked by antagonism and by compliance. Let him not cease an instant to be himself. The only joy I have in his being mine is that the not mine is mine. It turns the stomach, it blots the daylight—when I looked for a manly furtherance, or, at least, a manly resistance—to find a mush of concession. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo. The