HE world's history is the history of individuals whom God has used in the helping forward of the world's progress. Every epoch of history has its center in some man who, for the time being, is the embodiment of the mental and moral forces that are making and marking that epoch. And, back of the man who is the leader of men, there is always the special force of that sentiment which influences and impels him in the direction of his providential leading. Hence it follows that the sentiment which is most potent as a factor in man's best being and doing is most potent as a factor in the world's highest achieving and truest progress.

Ambition and avarice and love are known to have power over men in every field of human endeavor, and patriotism and religion are recognized as supreme incitements to self-denying efforts on the part of the children of men. But friendship is a sentiment that transcends all loves, and that represents the purest, the most self

abnegating, and the noblest affection, in a man's relations to his fellows, to his country, and to his God; and therefore the sentiment of friendship is, in its nature, of surpassing potency in swaying those persons who, in their generation, are enabled to sway the forces of the living world. It is the master-passion of humanity.

This is not a matter of unprovable theory; on the contrary, it is one capable of illustration and proof out of all the pages of human history. In the councils of state, in the clash of arms, in the molding of social customs, in the aspirations of religious endeavor, in the movements of civil reform, in the researches of philosophic thought, in the creations of literature and art, and in every other realm of thinking or doing, friendship has evidenced itself as an element of charactershaping and character-swaying, beyond any other sentiment or passion that shows itself as a factor in controlling and directing the human mind and heart.

Friendship has, in all ages, shown its power to restrain ambition, to hold avarice in check, to triumph over selfish love, to render more wisely effective the best instincts of patriotism, and to give increased purity and sacredness to religious thought and feeling and action. Friendship has had its strongest hold on those who were strongest, and has done its best work in the best natures. Not the base but the nobler, not the low but the lofty, not the dependent but the self-contained, in all spheres of life, seem to value most, and to be best fitted for, the gains and privileges and responsibilities of friendship. And therefore it is that friendship is most potent with those whose potency with others is greatest.

No new suggestion is this; it is a truth of the ages. "To the rich, and to those who possess office and authority," says Aristotle, “there seems to be an especial need of friends." Similarly Cicero affirms: “Just in proportion as a man has most confidence in himself, and as he is most completely fortified by worth and wisdom, so that he needs no one's assistance, and feels that all his resources reside in himself,—in the same proportion is he most highly distinguished for seeking out and forming friendships." Of the upward outlook that promotes the exercise of this sentiment, Jean Paul Richter says earnestly: "When man stands before the sea, and on mountains, and before pyramids and ruins, and in the presence of misfortune, and feels himself exalted, then does he stretch out his arms after the great friendship."

And of the spirit and character that incline one to friendship, Sir Thomas Browne, acute observer of his fellows, says positively: "This noble affection falls not on vulgar and common constitutions, but on such as are marked for virtue;" similarly, the keen-witted La Bruyère declares: "Pure friendship is something which men of an inferior nature can never taste;" while great-hearted Charles Kingsley asseverates: "It is only the greathearted who can be true friends: the mean and cowardly can never know what true friendship means.” The possibilities and the needs of friendship are largest in the nature of those whose position and personal characters make them more influential over their fellows and over their surroundings.

In an effort to test the correctness of this estimate of

the lessons of history, it will obviously suffice to pass rapidly from mountain-peak to mountain-peak of the world's historic panorama, and to note in passing the personal friendships which had their share in uprearing or in capping those lofty summits. Such a survey is now to be attempted; and the claim is confidently made that it will disclose unmistakably the surpassing potency of human friendship in the world's essential forces.