Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/160

, so fatal to all society as the disposition to get more than you give; to get the whole of your friend while you give him but a part of yourself; to meet him with designs upon him who comes without designs; to make a conscious use of that relation whose fruit surpasses utility, and inspires to unconscious nobleness. That man is not my friend who for any reason withholds from me what I bestow on him.

One man wishes me to be the friend of his whim. I'll be the inveterate, relentless foe of it whenever it comes in my way. One wishes me to prove to him that I am his friend, and then he says he will be mine. How can I prove it to him in such a case? how can I prove what is not true?

I am more reinforced when I renounce entirely a hesitating and unreliable friendship than when I surround myself with such allies. My friend died long ago; why follow a body to the graveyard? why toll the bell to-day? his knell has died away. There still remain his clothes; shall we have a third service when they are decayed?

When we separate finally and completely [112]