Friendship Summary and Analysis

Friendship and goodwill create a "cordial goodwill" that is evident everywhere; we grow intellectually and spiritually through affection, Emerson says. Through friendship. two people can meet on common ground and then be inspired, lifted up to a higher level of consciousness. Through friendship, we learn to fully appreciate and sincerely admire the assets and accomplishments of another; our friend's successes and goodness give us joy, according to Emerson. In the presence of a friend, "there is no winter and no night; all tragedies, all ennuis vanish." At the same time we appreciate the fine qualities of our friends, a part of us knows the humanity and fallability of ourselves as well as the other. One purpose of friendship, Emerson says, is to allow our soul to enter into a deeper solitude because "in strict science all persons underlie the same condition...