oul seeks communion
with our common Father; and when I strive most earnestly to overcome
some evil propensity, or to make some generous sacrifice, the thought
of you gives me strength not my own."

There is something especially attractive, solacing, and noble in such
a relation as the foregoing. It covers a large class of friendships
existing between Protestant clergymen and the women who, blessed by
their instructions and personal interest, have formed an attachment
to them of grateful reverence and sympathy. Such an attachment is
often a communication of profit and pleasure most precious to both
parties.

Several instances are recorded in the memoirs of Theodore Parker. His
friendship with Miss Frances Power Cobbe is particularly worthy of
notice. She wrote her gratitude to him for the benefits her mind had
derived from his writings. Gratefully appreciating her worth and high
aims, he continued to correspond with her by letter until his death.
How cordial their relation became; what kind deeds went across it;
what delights it yielded; what a deep and pure blessing of
encouragement, joy, and peace it was to them both--appears in the few
letters given to the public. When they first met, the titanic toiler,
outworn with his cares and battles, was at the edge of death. "Do
not," said the expiring athlete, "do not say what you feel for me; it
makes me too unhappy to leave you." During those lingering days of
transition from the earthly state to the heavenly, he dared not trust
himself to see her often. As he said, "it made his heart swell too
high." A class of friendships of extreme moral value, and often of
great attractiveness, results from the relations of noble and royal
women with the scholars and philosophers chosen to serve them as
tutors or advisers. The names of Zenobia and Longinus give us an
example of it in antiquity. If the annals of the crowned houses of
Europe, imperial and provincial, were searched with reference to this
point, a large number of admirable instances would be brought to
light. On the one side power, rank, grace, patronage, every courtly
charm; on the other side, learning, experience, gratitude, devoted
service, eminent personal worth--could not fail in many instances to
give birth to the most cordial esteem, and lead to a charming
intercourse. Such was the case with both Wieland and Herder, and
those queenly ladies, the Duchess Mother and the reigning Duchess of
the court of Weimar. The re