A GARDEN DIARY 229 



AUGUST 25, 1900 



T^ROM gropings along unlit ways, and towards 

 -^ an undiscoverable goal, what a pleasant 

 experience it is to turn suddenly back to the 

 well-trodden paths of a near and a tried com- 

 panionship! It is almost an exact parallel to the 

 sensations of the child who, having rushed out of 

 its home into the wild winter night, full of hollow 

 reverberations, and perturbing gleams, suddenly 

 retreats, and finds itself once more beside the 

 hearth, with an absolutely new sense of its 

 security, and wide-armed delightfulness. 



Upon few topics has more ink been expended 

 than upon this one of friendship. As regards 

 one point all the pens have I think been agreed, 

 and that is that diversity constitutes its soundest 

 basis. If a truism, this is at least one of those 

 truisms that every day's experience throws into 

 new relief. Friendship demands absolutely no 

 conformity, but lives, thrives, and has its being 

 upon the most absolutely radical differences. 

 Friend and friend may differ by nearly every- 



