Fast as the rolling seasons bring
The hour of fate to those we love,
Each pearl that leaves the broken string
Is set in friendship's crown above.
As narrower grows the earthly chain,
The circle widens in the sky;
These are our treasures that remain,
But those are stars that beam on high.

O. W. Holmes

True friendship between man and man is infinite and immortal.

Plato

Sweet human hand and lips and eye,
Dear heavenly friend that canst not die;
Strange friend, past, present and to be;
Loved deeplier, darklier understood;
Behold I dream a dream of good,
And mingle all the world with thee.
Thy voice is on the rolling air;
I hear thee where the waters run;
Thou standest in the rising sun,
And in the setting thou art fair.

Tennyson

Not mine the sad and freezing dream
Of souls that, with their earthly mould,
Cast off the loves and joys of old,—
· · · · ·
No!—I have friends in Spirit Land,—
Not shadows in a shadowy band,
Not others, but themselves are they.
And still I think of them the same
As when the Master's summons came.