the same time, we want a friendship for the rest of our faculties and minds; and it cannot be, I believe, that one family should supply to any one of its members all that it is capable of appreciating and experiencing in the way of friendship.”  Another entry states, “I have a new friendship with M.B., which promises substantial comfort.  Just the thing I have wished for all my life.  We have exchanged two letters on each side.”  This acquaintance ripened into a connection which was afterwards steadily maintained,—­although the intercourse of the two friends was principally by letter.  That circumstance, however, has caused the preservation of thoughts and sentiments which otherwise would have been unrecorded; and, as the letters offer much of an interesting character, copious extracts from them are hereafter given: 

  8th Mo. 2d.  Letter to M.B.

* * * Surely, whoever is not a true friend to himself and to his own best interests cannot be such to another.  Here, indeed, if I may hope to have part or lot in the matter, the thing aimed at is high; but this does not insure its attainment, and there is great cause for care that the humiliating discovery of the discrepancy between the two, does not lead us to lower the one rather than seek to elevate the other.  I have a strong belief of the importance of self-scrutiny and honesty with one’s own heart, of real willingness to know and feel the worst of one’s self, and sincerity of application to the true means of remedy.  Perhaps the very sense of deficiency in this particular, makes me believe the more its value; but I dislike what I think to be the false humility of some persons, who, while seeming to claim the blessings of religion, would think it presumption to profess, or even expect, conformity to its standard.  The presumption always seems to me on the other side; and yet who is free from it altogether?  Very long it takes some persons—­of whom I am one—­to get through the seventh chapter of Romans.  Many a time they get to the twenty-fourth verse, and stick in the twenty-fifth, looking wishfully over the barrier which divides them from the eighth chapter; and yet, if thoroughly willing to know the worst of themselves, they would perhaps find that it is because a part of a man’s nature may go so far, while it requires the whole spirit to make this last transition.  I think I long for true humiliation in the evidence of my own deficiency here.

* * * * *

I did, indeed, enjoy the Yearly Meeting’s Epistle:  it is a wholesome one in these days.  How refreshing is it in thought, to abstract ourselves from the words and doings of men, and think of that one eternal unchanging truth, which can never be inconsistent with itself and which, though hid from the wise and prudent, is revealed to babes!  Here I think the belief of the identity of our own character hereafter, comes in well, and should lead