From the heart of a friend

Selected By AMY ADDINGLEY
New York THE PLATT & PECK CO.
Copyright, 1910, by THE PLATT & PECK COMPANY
There is something in the very name of FRIEND that quickens the pulse and warms the heart. The most beautiful relationship in human intercourse is friendship, and it is at once the easiest and most difficult of attainment. In friendship’s name much is endured, much attempted and many sacrifices are made, and the greatest happiness is gained. Friends may come and go with the passing years, but the sweet memory of friendship’s happy hour remains.

Deliberate long before thou consecrate a friend; and when thy impartial judgment concludes him worthy of thy bosom, receive him joyfully and entertain him wisely; impart thy secrets boldly, and mingle thy thought with his; he is thy very self; and use him so. If thou firmly believe him faithful, thou makest him so.
—Quarles.
In the hours of distress and misery, the eyes of every mortal turn to friendship. In the hour of gladness and conviviality, what is your want? It is friendship. When the heart overflows with gratitude, or with any other sweet and sacred sentiment, what is the word to which it would give utterance? A Friend.
—Landor.
A man’s best female friend is a wife of good sense and good heart, whom he loves, and who loves him. If he have that, he need not seek elsewhere. But supposing the man be without such a helpmate, female friendship he must have, or his intellect will be without a garden, and there will be many an unheeded gap even in its strongest fence.
—Lytton.