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from the eyelid of distress the tear of delight; and illumines the countenance of sorrow with the smile of satisfaction.

The clouds doe from our presence flye;

"Tis sunshine where we cast our eye;
Where'er we tread on earth below,

A rose or lily up doth grow.

Ilawkins.

CHAPTER II.

Ir the hunter delight in the society of the hunter if the idle and the dissipated derive an illegitimate satisfaction, when recalling to their mutual recollection the follies of their youth, and feel themselves entitled to the friendship of each other, because they have partaken of the same vicious indulgences; with how much more pleasure shall polite and accomplished minds remember those persons who are, in any way, connected with scenes, which have administered to their happiness! If such are their associations, in regard to casual acquaintances, how strongly must those recollections cement the friendships, which have previously been awakened by mutual esteem! By elevating the character of thought, and by giving a decided tone to all the finer sentiments of the heart, recollections of this nature confirm the affections of those, whom we have the happiness to rank in the number of our friends :-friends not formed in courts, tried at banquets, nor cemented by slavish compliances; but contracted with those

with whose minds and feelings ours intimately harmonize; and to whom we are united by similar habits, opinions, and reflections, and by the indulgence of mutual benevolence to all mankind.

II.

Eschylus, in exhibiting the love of Electra for Orestes, paints, in a lively and affectionate manner, that species of friendship, which, of all others, is the most holy and the most enduring, viz. the friendship of brothers and sisters.

Thou dearest pledge of this imperial house,

Pride of my soul ;-for my tongue must speak ;→
The love my father shar'd, my mother shar'd,
Is centred all in thee. Thou art my father,
My mother, sister, my support, my glory,
My only aid.

Eschylus.-The Choephora.-Potter.

Friendship, which, next to love, is the most sacred of all moral bonds, and one of the most affecting of all moral obligations, has been a favourite theme in every age. Who is there so unlearned, as to be unacquainted with the excellent axioms of Ecclesiasticus; Cicero's celebrated Treatise; or, with Horace's consolatory Ode on the Death of Quintilius? Plutarch esteems it an union of two bodies in one soul, or one soul in two bodies! Aristotle associated it with virtue; Pythagoras called it an immortal union; and even Voltaire, (of a warm head, but of a cold and calculating heart), said, that it supplies our wants, and multiplies our being. It has

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its origin in heaven, says Boethius; is a sacred felicity; and ought not to be numbered with the gifts of fortune. Such are the charms and advantages of friendship and hence it arises, as a natural result, that no one, who possesses a friend, can ever be truly indigent. For as the tourmalin absorbs and emits the electric fluid, in proportion to the increase or diminution of its own heat, so, those who are capable of a sentiment so exalted as that of friendship, glow with one love; feel but one interest; burn with one resentment; and participate the same enjoyments in a measure, commensurate with their taste, feeling, and virtue. As substances, which the magnet attracts, may be rendered magnetical themselves, so those friends, whose virtues have endeared them to us, impart so much of their qualities, that if we do not largely partake of their essence, we may yet immediately be recognised, as belonging to the same province, if not to the same village. So pearls concrete, and take a tincture from the air they breathe; and evergreens, engrafted on deciduous plants, cause the latter to retain their leaves.

Watching our interests with solicitude; assisting us with promptitude and diligence; advising us with sincerity, tempered with delicacy; and combating our prejudices with logic, rather than with rhetoric; a friend becomes the partner. and the ornament of our lives! In our absence, protecting us from the shafts of others with prudential zeal; in our presence, he chides our follies, and condemns our vices, by giving credit to our virtues. Preserving all the dignity of discretion, and

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abounding in innocent compliances, he treats us with a studious and gratifying politeness. By dividing his enjoyments, he introduces us to new pleasures; and, participating in our afflictions, his consolations are medicines, and his bosom is a sanctuary.

III.

Friendship has its origin, progress, and completion in virtue'; hence is it able to subsist only in the bosom of good men:-Without it life is but a dull, uninteresting drama! In the present state of morals and of mankind, however, a friend is almost as difficult to find, as a quarry of porphyry. In our search, let us remember the fate of the unfortunate peasant, who, when drawing a mountain brook into his garden, in summer, forgot that he was introducing a friend, who, in winter, would inundate and destroy every flower and shrub in his little territory. Many are the friendships recorded in history;-As to the friendships of men in general!-where is the calm, the innocent heart, and temperate appetite, which, springing from a pure mind, bespeak a man, capable of esteem

1 Denique in solis christianis verum lumen amicitiæ mirabiliter eluxit. Cum enim amicitia à virtute nascatur, necesse est, ut vera atque perfecta amicitia in iis tantùm sit, in quibus perfecta virtus insidet. Osorius de Nobil. Christian. lib. ii. p. 406, ed. 1580.* The Japanese seem to have a great respect for this virtue. Vide Rikord's Account of his Negociations with the Japanese, p. 288.

We may compare friendship to genuine Madeira wine. This liquid sustains no injury from being congealed by frost, or thawed by heat; from being boiled; left to cool; exposed to the sun; or buried in the cellar.

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ing misfortune the greatest of all claims for respect and veneration? The Romans adopted a significative motto for the escutcheon of friendship:-" Near and far: summer and winter.”—All friendships must begin in one virtue, and end in another :-respect and gratitude.1

CHAPTER III.

If a love of Nature give additional force to the lover and the friend, it is no less productive of that high spirit of liberty, and that ardent love of true glory,2 which gives such a decided impulse and dignity to the soul. For impressive and sublime scenes, checking the more violent passions, subdue the natural arrogance of our nature, reduce ambition to humility, and place man and man upon a level with each other, by subduing the vanity of the proud, and exalting the hopes of the humble. Of this opinion was Sir William Jones; who, bred in the school of Greece, and imbibing with

1 Gratitude, said Massieu, the pupil of Sicard, is the memory of the heart. Milton's idea (book iv.) has been adopted by Rouchefoucault : perhaps both may be traced to a sentiment in Phalaris' Epistles. xvii.

2 Gloria nihil est in rebus humanis pulchrius, nihil amabilius, nihil cum virtutis altitudine copulatius. Nam et a splendore virtutis excitata est, et excellenti pulchritudine ad amorem dignitatis allicit, et homines ingenio præstantes ad virtutis studium inflammat. Omnes enim, qui maximo ingenio prædiți sunt, stimulis gloriæ concitati, res præclaras aggrediuntur. Tolle gloriæ cupiditatem, et omne studium virtutis extingues.

Osorius de Gloriâ, p. 44. ed. 1580.

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