A GARDEN DIARY 229 
AUGUST 25, 1900 
Be 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 | 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- 
