THE LIFE WORTH LIVING. 185 



his friend were a dictionary. And with all this, 

 not one word about pleasure, or laughter, or 

 kisses, or any quality of flesh and blood. It 

 was not inappropriate, surely, that he had such 

 close relations with the fishes. We can under- 

 stand the friend already quoted when he cried : 

 "As for taking his arm, I would as soon think 

 of taking the arm of an elm tree." It is not 

 surprising that he experienced but a broken 

 enjoyment in his intimacies ; he went to see 

 his friends as one might stroll in to see a cricket- 

 match not simply for the pleasure of the 

 thing, but with some afterthought of self- 

 improvement. It was his theory that people 

 saw each other too frequently ; they had noth- 

 ing fresh to communicate ; friendship with him 

 meant a society for mutual improvement. 



" The only obligation," says he, " which I 

 have a right to assume is to do at any time 

 what I think right." " Why should we ever go 

 abroad, even across the way to ask a neighbor's 

 advice ? " " There is a nearer neighbor within 

 who is incessantly telling us how we should be- 

 have. But we wait for the neighbor without to 

 tell us of some faults." " The greater part of 

 what my neighbors call good I believe in my 



