ed the aspiration.
The more one observed her, the more surprising appeared the variety,
earnestness, and constancy of her friendships. Far and wide reached
her wires of communication, and incessant was the interchange of
messages of good-will. She was never so preoccupied and absorbed as
to deny a claimant for her affectionate interest; she never turned
her visitors back upon themselves, mortified and vexed at being
misunderstood. With delicate justice she appreciated the special
form, force, tendency of utterly dissimilar characters and her heart
responded to every appeal alike of humblest suffering or loftiest
endeavor. In the plain, yet eloquent phrase of the backwoodsman, "the
string of her door-latch was always out," and every wayfarer was free
to share the shelter of her roof, or a seat beside her hearth-stone.
Or, rather, it might be said, in symbol of her wealth of spirit, her
palace, with its galleries of art, its libraries and festal-halls,
welcomed all guests who could enjoy and use them.

She was, indeed, The Friend. This was her vocation. She bore at her
girdle a golden key to unlock all caskets of confidence. Into
whatever home she entered she brought a benediction of truth, justice,
tolerance, and honor; and to every one who sought her to confess, or
seek counsel, she spoke the needed word of stern yet benignant wisdom.
To how many was the forming of her acquaintance an era of renovation,
of awakening from sloth, indulgence or despair, to heroic mastery of
fate, of inward serenity and strength, of new-birth to real self-hood,
of catholic sympathies, of energy consecrated to the Supreme Good.
Thus writes to her one who stands among the foremost in his own
department: "What I am I owe, in large measure, to the stimulus you
imparted. You roused my heart with high hopes; you raised my aims from
paltry and vain pursuits to those which tasked and fed the soul;
you inspired me with a great ambition, and made me see the worth
and meaning of life; you awakened in me confidence in my own powers,
showed me my special and distinct ability, and quickened my individual
consciousness by intelligent sympathy with tendencies and feelings
which I but half understood; you gave me to myself. This is a most
benign influence to exercise, and for it, above all other benefits,
gratitude is due. Therefore have you an inexhaustible bank of
gratitude to draw from. Bless God that he has allotted to you such a
ministry."

The foll