Letter 93. To the Abbe .... on Friendship, with his Own Likeness

WITH HIS OWN LIKENESS.

My Dearest Brother,

You ask if my heart will not cleave to yours always and for ever? And I answer, dear brother, it is the maxim of three great lovers, all three saints, all three doctors of the Church, all three stedfast friends, all three great masters in moral theology, — namely, S. Ambrose, S. Jerome, and S. Augustine, “ Amicitia quae desinere potuit nunquam vera fuit”* There, my dear brother! there is a sacred oracle to tell you that our friendship is eternal and invariable, inasmuch as it is true and holy,* founded on truth, not vanity; on the mutual communication of spiritual gifts, not on worldly interests; and thus to love, and to be capable of ceasing to love you, are two incompatible things."

The friendships of this world are worldly; — the world passes away, and so do its friendships, but ours is of God, in God, for God. ** Ipsa autem idem ipse est, et annis ejus non deficient Mundus perit, et concupiscentia ejus; Christus non perit, nec dilectio ejus.” This is an unfailing consequence.

■ A friendship which can dimmish was never truly one.”

« “ Sainte et non feinte.”

Lttterg O

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I send you the likeness of the earthly man; I cannot refuse anything you ask. I am told that I have never been well painted, but I think it matters very little. ‘‘In imagine pertransit homo, sed et frustra conturbatur.” I have borrowed this picture for you, I have none of my own. Alas! if the likeness of my Creator were but graven on my mind, you might delight in that 1 O Jesu I tuo lumine, tuo redemptos sanguine Sana, refove, perfice, tibi conformes effice. Amen.

t<55S.] XCVI.