whether, again, a wife or a hushand should have any intimate friend, besides his or her partner in marriage. The answer to this latter question is rather perplrxing, and would probably bf' different in different countrie" (cp. S)mpos. p. 182J. \l\Thik we do not deny that great good may result from such attachments, for the mind may be drawn out and the charactPr enlarged by them; yet we feel also that they are attended with many dangers, and that this Romance of Heavenly Love requires a strength, a freedom from passion, a self control, which, in youth especially, are rarely to be found. The propriety of such friendships must he estimated a good deal by the manner in which public opinion regards them; they rnust he reconciled wilh the ordinary duties of life; and they must be Justified by the result.
Yet another question, 10). Admitting that friend!:>hips cannot be always permanent, we may ask when and upon what conditions
<ahould they be dissolved. 1t would be futile to retain the name when the reality has ceased to be. That two fnends !"houlcl part company whenever the relation between them begins to drag may be better for both of them. Dut then arises the con sideration, how should these friends in youth or friends of the past regard or be regarded by one another? They are parted, but there still remain duties mutually owing by them. They will not admit the world to share in their difference any more than in their friendship; the memory of an old attachment, like the memory of the dead, has a kind of sacredness for them on which they will not allow others to intrude. Neither, if they were ever worthy to bear the name of friends, will either of them entertain any enmity or dislike of the other who was once so much to him. Neither will he by 'shadowed hint reveal' the secrets great or small which an unfortunate mistake has placed within his reach. He who is of a noble mind will dwell upon his own faults rather than those of another, and will be ready to take upon him self the blame of their separation. He will feel pain at the loss of a friend; and he will remember with gratitude his ancient kindness. But he will not lightly renew a tie which has not been lightly broken....These are a few of the Problems of Friendship, some of them suggested by the Lysis, others by modern life, which he who wishes to make or keep a friend may profitably study. (Cp. Bacon, Essay on Friendship; Cic. de Amicitia.)
