A friend is a person with whom I may be sin
cere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presen
ce of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation,
courtesy, and se
cond thought, whi
ch men never put off, and may deal with him with the simpli
city and wholeness with whi
ch one
chemi
cal atom meets another.