⚫ we should have many well-wishers, but few friends.' Sweet language will multiply friends; and a fairSpeaking tongue will increase kind greetings. Be in peace with many, nevertheless have but one counfellor of a thousand. With what prudence does he caution us in the choice of our friends? And with what ftrokes of nature (I could almost say of humour) has he defcribed the behaviour of a treacherous and felf-interested friend? If thou wouldst get a friend, prove him first, and be not hafty to credit him: for fome man is a friend for his own occafion, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble. And there is a friend, who being turned to enmity and ftrife, will difcover thy reproach. Again, Some friend is a companion at the table, and will not continue in the day of thy affliction but in thy profperity he will be as thyfelf, and will be bold over thy fervants. If thou be brought low he will be against thee, and hide himfelf from thy face. What can be more ftrong and pointed than the following verfe? Separate thyfelf from thine enemies, and take heed of thy friends. In the next words he particularizes one of those fruits of friendship which is described at length by the two famous authors above-mentioned, and falls into a general eulogium of friendship which is very just as well as very fublime. A faithful friend is a strong defence; and he that hath found fuch an one, bath found a treasure. Nothing doth countervail a faithful friend, and his excellency is unvaluable. A faithful friend is the medicine of life; and they that fear the Lord fball find him. Whefo feareth the Lord fhall direct his friendship aright; for as he is, fo fhall his neighbour (that is his friend) be also. I do not remember to have met with any saying that has pleas ed me more than that of a friend's being the medicine of life, to express the efficacy of friendship in healing the pains and anguifh which naturally cleave to our existence in the world; and am wonderfully pleased with the turn in the laft fentence, that a virVOL. I. t Сс tuous : A tuous man fhall as a blessing meet with a friend who is as virtuous as himself. There is another faying in the fame author, which would have been very much admired in an beathen writer; Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him new friend is as new wine; when it is old thou shall drink it with pleasure. With what strength of allufion, and force of thought, has he defcribed the breaches and violations of friendship? Whoso cafteth a ftone at the birds frayeth them away; and he that upbraideth his friend, breaketh friendship. Though thou draweft a fword at a friend yet despair not, for there may be a returning to favour: if thou hast opened thy mouth against thy friend fear not, for there may be a reconciliation, except for upbraiding, or pride, or difclofing of fecrets, or a treacherous wound, for, for thefe things every friend will depart. We may obferve in this, and feveral other precepts in this author, those little familiar inftances and illuftrations which are fo much admired in the moral writings of Horace and Epictetus. There are very beautiful inftances of this nature in the following paffages, which are likewife written upon the fame fubject: Whofo difcovereth fecrets, lofeth his credit, and fhall never find a friend to his mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful unto him: but if thou bewrayeft his fecrets, follow no more after him: for as a man hath destroyed his enemy, so hast thou lost the love of thy friend; as one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, fo haft thou let thy friend go, and shalt not get him again: follow after him no more, for he is too far off; he is as a roe escaped out of the fnare. As for a wound it may be bound up, and after reviling there may be reconciliation; but he that bewrayeth fecrets, is without hope. Among the feveral qualifications of a good friend, this wife man has very juftly fingled out conftancy and faithfulness as the principal: to thefe others have added virtue, knowledge, discretion, equality, in age and fortune, and, as Cicero calls it, Morum Comitas, a pleasantness of temper. If I were to give my opinion upon such an exhausted subject, I fhould join to these other qualifications a certain equability or evennefs of behaviour. A man often contracts a friendship with one whom perhaps he does not find out until after a year's conversation; when on a fudden fome latent ill-humour breaks out upon him, which he never discovered or suspected at his first entering into an intimacy with him. There are feveral perfons who in fome certain periods of their lives are inexpreffibly agreeable, and in others as odious and deteftable. Martial has given us a very pretty picture of one of this fpecies, in the following epigram: Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus, es idem, 12. In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt fuch a touchy, tefty, pleafant fellow; Haft so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee. There is no living with thee, nor without thee. It is very unlucky for a man to be entangled in a friendship with one, who, by these changes and viciffitudes of humour, is fometimes amiable and fometimes odious: and as moft men are at fome times in an admirable frame and difpofition of mind, it fhould be one of the greatest tasks of wisdom to keep ourfelves well when we are fo, and never to go out of that which is the agreeable part of our character. C No. 69. SATURDAY MAY 19. Hic fegetes, illic veniunt felicius uvæ: Gramina. Nonne vides, croceos ut Tmolus odores, VIRG. Georg. i. ver. 54. This ground with Bacchus, that with Ceres fuits; (In hopes of palms) a race of running steeds. DRYDEN. THERE is no place in the town which I fo much love to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a fecret fatisfaction, and, in fome measure, gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to fee fo rich an affembly of countrymen and foreigners confulting together upon the private business of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of Emporium for the whole earth. I must confefs I look upon high-change to be a great council, in which all confiderable nations have their reprefentatives. Factors in the trading world are what ambassadors are in the politic politic world; they negotiate affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good correfpondence between those wealthy focieties of men that are divided from one another by feas and oceans, or live on the dif ferent extremities of a continent. I have often been pleased to hear difputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and an Alderman of London, or to see a subject of the Great Mogul entering into à league with one of the Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with these feveral minifters of commerce, as they are diftinguished by their different walks, and different languages: fometimes I am juftled among a body of Armenians: fometimes I am loft in a crowd of Jews; and fometimes make one in a groupe of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman at different times; or rather fancy myfelf like the old philofopher, who, upon being asked what countryman he was, replied, That he was a citizen of the world. Though I very frequently vifit this bufy multitude of people, I am known to nobody there but my friend Sir ANDREW, who often fmiles upon me as he fees me bustling in the crowd, but at the fame time connives at my prefence without taking any further notice of me. There is indeed a mer chant of Egypt, who just knows me by fight, having formerly remitted me fome money to Grand Cairo; but, as I am not verfed in the modern Coptic, our conferences go no further than a bow and a grimace. As This grand fcene of business gives me an infinite variety of folid and substantial entertainments. I am a great lover of mankind, my heart naturally overflows with pleasure at the fight of a profperous and happy multitude, infomuch that at many pub. lic folemnities I cannot forbear expreffing my joy with tears that have stolen down my cheeks. For this reafon I am wonderfully delighted to fee fuch 3 Cc 3 a body |