Sometimes, indeed, the wandering traveller may become the patient
and contented inhabitant; but it is generally the other way, and
the best friendships are most often those that seem at first sight
dully made for us by habit and proximity, and which reveal to us by
slow degrees their beauty and their worth.
* * * * * *
Thus far had I written, when it came into my mind that I should
like to see the reflection of my beliefs in some other mind, to
submit them to the test of what I may perhaps be forgiven for
calling a spirit-level! And so I read my essay to two wise, kindly,
and gracious ladies, who have themselves often indeed graduated in
friendship, and taken the highest honours. I will say nothing of
the tender courtesy with which they made their head-breaking balms
precious; I told them that I had not finished my essay, and that
before I launched upon my last antistrophe, I wanted inspiration. I
cannot here put down the phrases they used, but I felt that they
spoke in symbols, like two initiated persons, for whom the corn and
the wine and the oil of the sacrifice stand for very secret and
beautiful mysteries; but they said in effect that I had been
depicting, and not untruly, the outer courts and corridors of
friendship.
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