This is a most
benign influence to exercise, and for it, above all other benefits,
gratitude is due. Therefore have you an inexhaustible bank of
gratitude to draw from. Bless God that he has allotted to you such a
ministry."
The following extracts from her letters will show how profusely
Margaret poured out her treasures upon her friends; but they reveal,
too, the painful processes of alchemy whereby she transmuted her lead
into gold.
'Your idea of friendship apparently does not include
intellectual intimacy, as mine does, but consists of mutual
esteem and spiritual encouragement. This is the thought
represented, on antique gems and bas-reliefs, of the meeting
between God and Goddess, I find; for they rather offer one
another the full flower of being, than grow together. As in
the figures before me, Jupiter, king of Gods and men, meets
Juno, the sister and queen, not as a chivalric suppliant, but
as a stately claimant; and she, crowned, pure, majestic, holds
the veil aside to reveal herself to her august spouse.'
* * * * *
'How variously friendship is represented in literature!
Sometimes the two friends kindle beacons from afar to apprize
one another that they are constant, vigilant, and each
content in his several home.
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