his divorced friend with reproaches and severe censures; it is grief enough not to speak of it at all, but he can never be provoked to speak bitterly of him; the grateful memory of the past intercourse, and of some virtue that was in the object, will preserve him from that indecency. There cannot be a greater manifestation how falsely or weakly the common friendships of the age are founded and entered into, than by every day's observation of men, who profess friendship this day to those against whom they declare tomorrow the most mortal and implacable hatred and malice; and blush not the next day to depress the same man with all the imaginable marks of infamy, whom the day before they extolled with all the commendations and praises which humanity is capable of: whereas, in truth, natural modesty should restrain men, who have been given to speak too well of some men, from speaking at all ill of the same persons, that their former excess may be thought to proceed from their abundant charity, not from the defect of their judgment. Solomon thought friendship so sacred a tie, that nothing but the discovery of secrets, which is adultery in marriage, could separate from it; and surely a greater violation of friendship cannot

be than such a discovery, and scarce any other guilt towards the person of a friend can be equal to it. But friendship may be broken and dissolved by faults committed against other persons, though of no immediate relation to the friend himself. When men cease to be of the same virtue they were, or professed and seemed to be of, when that conjunction was entered into: if they cease to be just and pious, and fall into the practice of some notorious and scandalous vice; friendship is of so delicate a temper, that she thinks her own beauty impaired by those spots, and herself abandoned by that foul practice. If the avowing a friendship for a corrupt and wicked person be so scandalous, that the best men cannot bear the reproach of it, such a departure from probity and a good name will excuse and justify the others withdrawing from that virtuous relation, so much already abandoned by the impiety of the transgressor; yet there will remain such a compassion towards the person, which is very consistent with the detestation of the vice, that he shall receive all the offices of charity, kindness, and generosity, which cannot but still spring from some root or branch of the withered and decayed former friendship, that can never be totally extin

guished, though the lustre be faded and the vigour lost.

Since, then, the temper and composition of friendship itself is so delicate and spiritual, that it admits no mere carnal ingredients, and the obligations of it are so inseparable and indispensable, we cannot but discern how many classes of men are utterly uncapable of being admitted into that relation; or rather, how very few are worthy to be received into the retinue of friendship, which all the world lays a claim to.

The

proud man can very hardly act any part in friendship, since he reckons none to be his friends but those who admire him; and thinks very few wise enough to administer advice and counsel to him, nor will admit any man to have the authority of reprehension, without which friendship cannot subsist. The choleric, angry, impatient man can be very little delighted with it, since he abhors nothing so much as contradiction; and friendship exercises no liberty more than that of contradicting, finding fault with any thing that is amiss, and is as obstinate in controuling as the most stubborn nature can be in transgressing. The licentious and lustful person is so transported with those passions which he calls love, that he abhors

nothing so much as the name of friendship; which he knows would be always throwing water upon that fire which he wishes should still inflame him, and endeavouring to extinguish all those appetites, the satisfying whereof gives him all the pleasure he enjoys in life. And, lastly, to the covetous, unjust, and ambitious person, nothing can be so uneasy, so grievous, and so odious, as friendship; which affronts all their desires and pursuits with rude discourses of the wealth of contentedness, of the fame of integrity, and of the state and glory of humility, and would persuade them to make themselves happy, by renouncing all those things which they care for. There being then such an incongruity and unaptness in these several classes of men, which comprehend so large a part of mankind, to receive and give entertainment to this transcendent virtue, which is the ornament of life, that friendship seems to be reserved only for those, who, by being already persons of that rare perfection and rectitude, can receive least benefit by it, and so is an impertinent cordial prepared only for their use who enjoy excellent health, and is not to be applied to the weak, sick, or indisposed, for their recovery or preservation; there is no doubt there

must be at least a disposition to virtue in all who would entertain, or be entertained in friendship: the several vices mentioned before, exalted into habits, have more poison in them, than the antidote of friendship can expel or delights to contend with; there must be some declension of their vigour, before they will permit the patient the leisure to walk in the gentle and temperate air of any sober and serious conversation. But as there is no such perfection in nature, nor any such accomplishment of manners, no such quality and degree of life to which friendship is not exceedingly useful, and which doth not receive infinite benefit and advantage by it and from it; (and therefore if kings and princes are incapable of it, by the sublime inequality of their persons with men of a lower rank, for friendship does suppose some kind of equality, it is such an allay to their transcendent happiness, that they shall do well, by art and condescension, to make themselves fit for that which nature hath not made them;) so it may by degrees and faint approaches be entertained by, and have operation upon, even those depraved affections and tempers, which seem most averse from, and incapable of the effects and offices of it.