The subject is entirely too big to dispose of in a paragraph, so I am just going to content myself here with the mention of one thing, that so far as I know has never been mentioned in print—­the danger to society of exclusive friendships between man and man, and woman and woman.  No two persons of the same sex can complement each other, neither can they long uplift or benefit each other.  Usually they deform the mental and spiritual estate.  We should have many acquaintances or none.  When two men begin to “tell each other everything,” they are hiking for senility.  There must be a bit of well-defined reserve.  We are told that in matter—­solid steel for instance—­the molecules never touch.  They never surrender their individuality.  We are all molecules of Divinity, and our personality should not be abandoned.  Be yourself, let no man be necessary to you—­your friend will think more of you if you keep him at a little distance.  Friendship, like credit, is highest where it is not used.

I can understand how a strong man can have a great and abiding affection for a thousand other men, and call them all by name, but how he can regard any one of these men much higher than another and preserve his mental balance, I do not know.

Let a man come close enough and he’ll clutch you like a drowning person, and down you both go.  In a close and exclusive friendship men partake of others’ weaknesses.

In shops and factories it happens constantly that men will have their chums.  These men relate to each other their troubles—­they keep nothing back—­they sympathize with each other, they mutually condole.

They combine and stand by each other.  Their friendship is exclusive and others see that it is.  Jealousy creeps in, suspicion awakens, hate crouches around the corner, and these men combine in mutual dislike for certain things and persons.  They foment each other, and their sympathy dilutes sanity—­by recognizing their troubles men make them real.  Things get out of focus, and the sense of values is lost.  By thinking some one is an enemy you evolve him into one.

Soon others are involved and we have a clique.  A clique is a friendship gone to seed.

A clique develops into a faction, and a faction into a feud, and soon we have a mob, which is a blind, stupid, insane, crazy, ramping and roaring mass that has lost the rudder.  In a mob there are no individuals—­all are of one mind, and independent thought is gone.

A feud is founded on nothing—­it is a mistake—­a fool idea fanned into flame by a fool friend!  And it may become a mob.

Every man who has had anything to do with communal life has noticed that the clique is the disintegrating bacillus—­and the clique has its rise always in the exclusive friendship of two persons of the same sex, who tell each other all unkind things that are said of each other—­“so be on your guard.”  Beware of the exclusive friendship!  Respect all men and try to find the good in all.  To associate only with the sociable, the witty, the wise, the brilliant, is a blunder—­go among the plain, the stupid, the uneducated, and exercise your own wit and wisdom.  You grow by giving—­have no favorites—­you hold your friend as much by keeping away from him as you do by following after him.