ses does better than a virtue--as on
some organs 'the wrong note in certain passages has a better effect than
the right.' But, as I was saying, with all my faults, I have never yet
changed toward a friend; I will not admit even to the ante-chamber of my
heart a single thought untrue to my friend. Though it is true my friends
are so few that I could more than count them on my fingers, had I but
one hand.... And these few friends--what shall I say of them? They have
become so a part of my constant thoughts and feelings, so a part of
myself, that I can not project them--if I may so speak--from my own
interior self, so as to portray them. Have you not such friends? Are
there none whom to love has become so a _habit_ of your life that you
are almost unconscious of it--that you hardly think of it, any more than
you think--_'I breathe'_?

There is probably no one who has not some time in his or her life felt
the dreariness of fancied friendliness. I can recall in my own
experience at least one time when this dreary feeling came over me. It
was during a twilight walk home from a visit. I can convey to you no
idea of the utter loneliness of the unloved feeling; it seemed that not
even the love of God was mine, or if it was, there was not individuality
enough in it; it was so diffused; this one, whom I disliked--that
insignificant person, might share in it. I know not how long I indulged
in these thoughts, with my eyes on the ground, or seeing all things 'as
though I saw them not,' but when I did raise them to take cognizance of
any thing, there was, a few degrees above the horizon, the evening star;
it shone as entirely on me as though it shone on me _exclusively_. It is
thus, I thought, with _His_ love; thus it melts into each individual
soul. Such gentle thoughts as these, long after the star had sunk behind
the western mountains, were a calm light in my soul. And I awoke the
next morning, the old cheerful

MOLLY O'MOLLY.

VI.

I have often thought what splendid members of the diplomatic corps women
would make, especially married women. As much delicate management is
required of them, they have as much financiering to do as any minister
plenipotentiary of them all. Let a woman once have an object in view,
and 'o'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare; with
head, hands, or feet, _she_ pursues _her_ way, and swims, or sinks, or
wades, or creeps, or flies;' but _she attains her object_.

You poor, ho