Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/245

 RISTOTLE was one of Thoreau's favorite authors; it would seem as if the New England poet-philosopher applied in his life the definition of friendship given by the Greek sage,—"One soul abiding in two bodies." The affinity demanded by Thoreau is seldom approximated in the most perfect loyalty of friends. In the essay, first published in "A Week," are many rhapsodic suggestions akin to Emerson's transcendental ideas upon the same theme of friendship. Thoreau's aspiration, which became virtually an exaction, was that the true friend, "a pure, divine affinity," should be so closely in touch with his friends, in their thoughts especially, that he should treat them "not as what they were, but as what they aspired to be." In turn, the true friend will be content with this recognition of his potential nobleness and will ask no other boon. He will strive daily to merit such apotheosis,—"Friends should live not in harmony but in melody."

It has been suggested, with some plausibility,