Thy soul must overflow if thou
Another soul wouldst reach.
It needs the overflowing heart
To give the lips full speech.
Think truly, and thy thought
Shall the world's famine feed.
Speak truly, and thy word
Shall be a fruitful seed.
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.

CHAPTER IV.

FRIENDS.

By friends we mean those whom we admit to the inner circle of our
acquaintance.--All of us know many people. We are bound to do so; to
meet with men of all classes, sects, beliefs, opinions. But with most
of us there are a few persons who stand to us in a different relation
from the rest. We are intimate with them. We take pleasure in their
company; we tell them our thoughts: we speak to them of things we would
not speak of to others; we confide in them, and in joy and in sorrow it
is to them we go. It is of this inner circle, and of those we ought to
admit to it, that we have now to speak.

Friendship has been regarded in all ages as one of the most important
relationships of life.--Cicero, who dedicates an essay to it says that
"it is the only thing on the importance of which mankind are agreed."
It has been defined by Addison, the great English writer, as "a strong
habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness
of each other." It has been termed by another "the golden thread that
ties the hearts of the world." "A faithful friend" has been called
"the medicine of life." Ambrose, one of the Christian Fathers, says,
"It is the solace of this life to have one to whom you can open your
heart, and tell your secrets; to win to yourself a faithful man, who
will rejoice with you in sunshine, and weep in showers. It is easy and
common to say, 'I am wholly thine,' but to find it true is as rare."
And Jeremy Taylor, the great preacher, calls friendship "the ease of
our passions, the discharge of our oppressions, the sanctuary to our
calamities, the counsellor of our doubts, the charity of our minds, the
emission of our thoughts, the exercise and improvement of what we
meditate." The great preachers, philosophers and poets of all time
have dwelt on the importance and sweetness of friendship. The _In
Memoriam_ of Tennyson is a glorification of this relationship.

The highest of all examples of friendship is to be found in
Christ.--"His behaviour in this beautiful relationship is the very
mirror in which all true friendship must see and mirror i