plete, it was by the generosity of his attached friend. Richter that Kant was enabled to go on with his studies. In this instance, as in so many another from the days of Socrates and Aristotle onward, the friend who had money shared his means with the scholar who had none; in illustration of the proverb of the ancients, that “the property of friends is common.” Kant was never married, and he never traveled many miles from the place of his birth; but his very isolation from the outer world seemed to give intensity to his personal friendships within his limited sphere. Nearest and dearest of his personal friends was an English merchant named Green, who was resident in Königsberg. "For years," says Kant's biographer, Stückenberg, "the philosopher and the merchant were daily companions, regularly spending several hours together." And in proof of the fact that this close friendship had its shaping influence on the thoughts of the great philosopher, Stückenberg records the fact that Kant assured another friend, Jackmann, whom he desired to prepare his biography, that "he did not write a sentence in the ‘Kritik' which he had not first submitted to Green."

It were easy to continue such sketches of the friendships of great philosophers; for what has been shown of the few could also be shown of the many. But it must suffice to have given these more illustrious examples in detail, with the added assurance that a similar exhibit could be made in other cases, hardly less noteworthy, all along the record of the centuries. Thus, for instance, the three great names that followed Kant in the development of German philosophy, are Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; and friendship shows its force in the case of each and all

of these, as plainly as in the case of Kant. Fichte was indebted to the offices of his attached friend Weisse for a position at Zurich, when the death of his early friend and patron Von Miltitz had left him without the means of study; and at Zurich he won the friendship of Pestalozzi and Lavater, and received impressions that affected all his future. Schelling owed much to friendship; and, like Bacon, both the good side and the bad of his nature found quickening through his friendship with the Schlegels. Hegel, while still an undergraduate, formed ties of special friendship with two of his fellow-students-young Schelling, the philosophic thinker, and young Hölderlin,-whose poetic tastes tended to deepen Hegel's interest in Grecian literature and thought. It was after Schelling had given public proof of his interest in philosophy that Hegel wrote to him of his own growing interest in that theme, and of his desire to have such help, in bringing his thoughts to bear upon human life, as only a personal friend could supply. "Of all the men I see around me," he wrote, "you are the one in whom I should most desire to find a friend—as in other things, so especially in reference to this business of getting myself expressed, and brought into effective contact with the world." And for years these two philosophers helped each other through friendship.

And so it might be found in every portion of the field of speculative thought. The greatest philosopher is a gainer through having a friend; and even more so through being a friend.

OETRY is more to the world than philosophy; for poetry includes all that philosophy has to offer, and far more. Poetry swayed the mind of man before philosophy had a place there, and poetry is sure of an immortality that no system of philosophy can aspire to. Philosophy is from the intellect, and its appeal is to the intellect, while poetry is from the heart to the heart; and where heart-power and the power of intellect are in comparison, heart-power always leads, and will longest endure.

Love is thought to be the chief inspiration of poetry. The suggestion is:

"Never durst poet touch a pen to write

Until his pen were temper'd with love's sighs;"

and, on the other hand, it is claimed that

"Poets are all who love."

But, as friendship transcends all loves, the inspiration of

friendship to a poet is an inspiration that no craving love can supply. Impassioned love gives a burning intensity to a poet's flame; while an unselfish friendship enables a poet's light to shine out with clear and far-reaching beams, like those of the never-failing stars. The poetry of the ages owes its inspiration to friendship, more than to love. In the world's literature, poetry precedes prose; as the nursery song has its place in a child's training before the matter-of-fact narration. The earliest literature of any people is found in its epic poems, with their story of the exploits and sayings of ancient heroes; and it is in these epics that the influence of primitive passions and sentiments may be traced historically. Foremost among the world's representative epics are the Iliad, of the Greeks; the Mâhabhârata, of the Hindoos; and the Nibelungenlied, of the Germans; and in all of these epics love shows itself as a discordant element, while friendship proves a conserving force.

In the Iliad, love is little more, at its best, than refined lust. It is because Helen of Sparta is a type of physical beauty that the heroes of Greece are her rival and jealous suitors, and that, when she has been won by Menelaus, Paris of Troy violates the rights of hospitality, and carries her away captive from the home where he was a guest. It is another phase of the same selfish passion that brings Agamemnon under the wrath of Apollo, by his desire. for the daughter of Apollo's priest Chrysēs, and that again causes a breach between Agamemnon and Achilles common object of lustful craving. There is nothing ennobling or inspiring in such love as this, in the Grecian epic. But how different the influence of

over a

friendship's sentiment! There is inspiration in the selfabnegating affection of Diomedes and Ulysses; and their heroism through mutual love and fidelity is an incitement and example to succeeding ages. And the friendship of Patroclus and Achilles is the transcendent charm of the Iliad. When love for country is powerless to bring the aggrieved hero, Achilles, once more into the field against the enemies of Greece, the knowledge that his friend Patroclus has been slain, while giving battle in his name, arouses him to the purpose of rescuing his friend's body and avenging his friend's death; and on this impulse of friendship pivots the issue of the eventful war.

Friendship shows its surpassing beauty and its preeminent force, as it rises above the passions and selfish instincts of the battle-field, when Diomedes the Greek is drawn by friendship toward Glaucus the Trojan, and he proffers a covenant of love to him who is for the time his enemy.

"Henceforward I will be thy host and friend

In Argos; thou shalt be the same to me

In Lycia when I visit Lycia's towns.

And let us in the tumults of the fray

Avoid each other's spears, for there will be

Enough for me to slay whene'er a god

Shall bring them in my way. In turn, for thee
Are many Greeks to smite whomever thou
Canst overcome. Let us exchange our arms,

That even these may see that thou and I
Regard each other as ancestral guests.'

Thus having said, and leaping from their cars,

They clasped each other's hands, and pledged their
faith."1

1 Bryant's translation.