g would do that
except failure in his allegiance to his better self. We should love our
friends not for what they are to us, but for what they are in themselves.
Of course, it may be said that fickleness to us is a flaw in his better
self, but if we stop to think how many tiresome ways we probably have, we
shall be lenient to the friends who show consciousness of them.

It is a natural instinct with all of us to claim love; those who seem
most richly blessed with it probably have some one from whom they desire
more than they receive; every one has to learn, sooner or later, that "an
unnavigable ocean washes between all human souls,"--

"We live together years and years,
And leave unsounded still
Each other's depths of hopes and fears,
Each other's depths of ill.

"We live together day by day,
And some chance look or tone
Lights up with instantaneous ray
An inner world unknown."

We all have to learn, sooner or later, that nothing less than Divine Love
can satisfy us, but because our natural longings are so often denied, some
say they are wrong and should be crushed out. It is wrong to give way to
them, to yield to the tendency which is so strong with some, to let all
their interests be personal,--to care for places and natural beauty and
subjects only because they are associated with people,--to let life be
dull to us unless our personal affections are in play. Women ought to make
it a point of conscience to learn to care for things impersonally. We are
too apt to be like Recha in "Nathan," when she only looked at the palm
trees because the Templar was standing under them; when her mind
recovered its balance, she could see the palm trees themselves.

"Nun werd' ich auch die Palmen wieder sehen
Nicht ihn bloss untern Palmen."

If God sends us the trial of loneliness, it may be that He has a special
work for us, which needs a long and lonely vigil beside our armour. He may
be depriving us of earthly comfort to draw us closer to Himself, that we
may learn from Him to be true Sons of Consolation.

"When God cuts off the shoots of our own interests," it has been well
said, "it is that we may graft on our hearts the interests of others."

Nothing but knowing what loneliness is can teach us to feel for it in
others. Nine-tenths of the world do suffer from it at some time or other;
you may not now, but you will some day; and, if you are spared it,
nine-tenths of the sor