Henry David Thoreau 193 



what we are capable of being." Again: "It 

 is the merit and preservation of friendship that 

 it takes place on a higher level than the actual 

 characters of the parties would seem to war- 

 rant. Is this not light in a dark place? We 

 are different with different friends; yet if we 

 look closer, we shall find that every such re- 

 lation reposes on some particular hypothesis of 

 one's self." Yet this analyst of friendship 

 was not friendly with many persons and was 

 intimate with none. Thoreau had no illusions; 

 he does not give way to love any more than to 

 hatred, but preserves them both with care, like 

 valuable curiosities. He is an egoist ; he does 

 not remember that in these near intimacies we 

 are ninety-nine times disappointed in our beg- 

 garly selves for once that we are disappointed 

 in our friends; that it is we who seem most 

 frequently undeserving of the love that unites 

 us. Thoreau is after profit in these intimacies ; 

 moral profit to be sure, but still profit to him- 

 self. "If you will be the sort of friend I 

 want," he remarks, "my education cannot 

 dispense with your society." As though his 



friend were a dictionary. And with all this, 

 13 



