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Woman-Friendships.
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women, that we inevitably draw the inference that she sides with the unbelievers.

On the other hand, Shakspeare, that "intellectual miracle," (as he has been called), whose seer-like vision pierced deeper than the eyes of grosser mortals,—Shakspeare, whose magic plummet sounded the unreached, uncomprehended depths of the human soul, reveals the hearts of women united by adamatine links.

Instance the clinging fondness of Helena and Hermia, in Midsummer Night's Dream:"

"We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,Have, with our needles, created both one flower,Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,Both warbling of one song, both in one key,As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,Had been incorporate, So we grew together,Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,But yet a unison in partition;Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;So with two seeming bodies, but one heart,Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,Due but to one, and crownèd with one crest."

We have another illustration of woman-friendship, in its consummate beauty, portrayed in the passionate, protecting love of Beatrice for Hero, in "Much Ado About Nothing;" and in "As You Like It," a still stronger picture in the self-renouncing, absolute devotion for Rosalind of the gentle Celia, who startles her wrathful father with the declaration:

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