WOMAN-FRIENDSHIPS.
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ll the world gives ready credence to the possibility of friendship between man and man; some people are even inclined to believe that the immutable attachment of Orestes and Pylades, of Æneas and Achates, may be repeated among men in these inconstant, modern times; but the devotion of woman to one of her own sex, the sincerity with which she clasps the hand or presses the lip of woman, the genuineness of her self-sacrifices daily made for a beloved sister, are subjects of a vast amount of skepticism. Philosophic writers, poets, wits, have openly declared their disbelief in the existence of the strange phenomena of woman-friendships. Even Diana Mullock, who has written so many lines of woman which bear the impress of truth and wisdom, who has solved so many of the enigmas inseparable from woman's nature, gravely shakes her head when she touches upon "female friendships," and calls up such a doubting host of "ifs" and "buts" to usher in the possibility of perfect love between
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