Candles Graphics

A Good Friend

To have a child who is a good friend is of the highest delights of life; to be a good friend to a child is one of the noblest and most difficult undertakings.

Friendship depends not upon fancy, imagination or sentiment, but upon character. There is no one so poor that he is not rich if he had a friend; there is no one so rich that he is not poor without a friend. But the friendship of one's child is more than can be encompassed in words or covered in a relationship. Real friendship is abiding. Like charity, it suffereth long and is kind. Like love, it vaunteth not itself, but pursues the even tenor of its way, unaffrighted by ill-report, loyal in adversity, the solvent of infelicity, the shining jewel of happy days.


Being friends with one's child has not the iridescent joy of love, though it is closer than is often known to the highest, truest love. Its heights are ever serene, its valleys know few clouds.



To aspire to friendship with one's child, one must cultivate a capacity for faithful affection, a beautiful disinterestedness, a clear discernment. Friendship is a gift, but it is also an acquirement. It is like the rope with which climbers in the high mountains bind themselves for safety, and only a coward cuts the rope when a comrade is in danger.

From Cicero to Emerson, and long before Cicero, and forever after Emerson, the praises of friendship have been set forth. Even fragments of friendship with one's child are precious and to be treasured. But to have a whole, real friend in one's child is the greatest of earth's gifts save one. To be a whole, real friend with one's child is a worthy high endeavor, for faith, truth, courage and loyalty bring one close to the kingdom of heaven.
From The National Magazine Contest (1906)