author, thofe little familiar inftances and illustrations which are fo much admired in the moral writings of Horace and Epictetus. There are very beautiful instances 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 betrayeft his fecrets, follow no more after him. For as a man hath deftroyed his enemy, fo baft thou the love of thy friend ;. as one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, fa 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 betrayeth 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, difcretion, equality in age and fortune, and as Cicero calls it, morum comitas, a pleafantnefs of temper. If I were to give my opinion upon fuch an exhaufted fubject, 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 till after a year's converfation; when on a fudden some latent ill humour breaks out upon him, which he never discovered or fufpected at his firft 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: Dificilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idems Nec tecum poffum vivere, nec fine te. Epig. 47. 1. 12. 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 most men are at fome times in an admirable frame and difpofition of mind, it fhould be one of the greatest tasks of wifdom to keep ourfelves well when we are so, and never to go out of that which is the agreeable part of our character.-C. SPECTATOR, Vol. I. No. 68. I intend the paper for this day as a loose effay upon friendfhip, in which I fhall throw my obfervations together without any fet form, that I may avoid repeating what has been often faid on this fubject. Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two perfons to promote the good and happiness of one another. Though the pleasures and advantages of friendfhip have been largely celebrated by the best moral writers, and are confidered by all as great ingredients of human happinefs, we very rarely meet with the practice of this virtue in the world. Every man is ready to give in a long catalogue of thofe virtues and good qualities he expects to find in the perfon of a friend, but very few of us are careful to cultivate them in ourselves. Love and efteem are the first principles of friendfhip, which always is imperfect where either of these two is wanting. As, on the one hand, we are foon afhamed of lov-ing a man whom we cannot efteem; fo, on the other, though we are truly fenfible of a man's abilities, we can never raife ourselves to the warmths of friendship, without an affectionate good-will towards his perfon. Friendship immediately banifhes envy under all its difguifes. A man who can once doubt whether he fhould rejoice in his friend's being happier than himfelf, may depend upon it that he is an utter stranger to this virtue. There is fomething in friendship fo very great and noble, that in thofe fictitious ftories which are invent ed to the honour of any particular perfon, the authors have thought it as neceffary to make their hero a friend as a lover. Achilles has his Patrælus, and Æneas his Achates. In the first of these inftances we may obferve, for the reputation of the fubject I am treating of, that Greece was almost ruined by the hero's love, but was preferved by his friendship. The character of Achates fuggefts to us an obfervation we may often make on the intimacies of great men, who frequently choose their companions rather for the qualities of the heart, than thole of the head, and prefer fidelity in an easy, inoffenfive, complying temper, to thofe endowments which make a much greater figure among mankind. I do not remember that Achutes, who is represented as the first favorite, either gives his advice, or ftrikes a blow through the whole Enced. A friendship which makes the leaft noife, is very often most useful; for which reason I should prefer a prudent friend to a zealous one. Atticus, one of the best men of ancient Rome, was a very remarkable instance of what I am here speaking. This extraordinary perfon, amid the civil wars of his country, when he faw the defigns of all parties equally tended to the fubverfion of liberty, by conftantly preferving the esteem and affection of both the competitors, found means to ferve his friend on either fide; and while he fent money to young Marius, whofe father was declared an enemy of the commonwealth, he was himself one of Scylla's chief favourites, and always near that General, During the war between Cæfar and Pompey, he ftill maintained the fame conduct. After the death of Cæfar, he fent money to Brutus in his troubles, and did a thousand good offices to Antony's wife and friends when that party feemed ruined. Laftly, even in that bloody war between Antony and Auguftus, Atticus still kept his place in both their friendships, infomuch that the firft, fays Cornelius Nepos, whenever he was abfent from Rome in any part of the empire, writ punctually to him what he was doing, what he read, and whither he intended to go; and the latter gave him conftantly an exact account of all his affairs. A likeness of inclinations in every particular is fo far from being requifite to form a benevolence in two minds towards each other, as it is generally imagined, that I believe we fhall find fome of the firmeft friendships to have been contracted between perfons. of different humours; the mind being oft pleafed with thofe perfections which are new to it, and which it does not find among its own accomplishments. fides, that a man in fome meafure Tupplies his own defects, and fancies himself at fecond hand poffeffed of thofe good qualities and endowments, which are in the poffeffion of Him who in the eye of the world is looked on as his other felf. Be The most difficult province in friendship is the letting a man fee his faults and errors, which should, if poffible, be fo contrived, that he may perceive our advice is given him not fo much to please ourselves as for his own advantage. The reproaches therefore of a friend fhould always be ftrictly juft, and not too frequent. The violent defire of pleafing in the perfon reproved, may otherwife change into a defpair of doing it, while he finds himfelf cenfured or faults he is not confcious of. A mind that is foftened and humanized by friendship, cannot bear frequent reproaches; either it muft quite fink under the oppreffion, or abate confiderably of the value and efteem it had for him who bestows them. The proper bufinefs of friendship is to infpire life and courage; and a foul, thus fupported, outdoes itfelf; whereas if it be unexpectedly deprived of these fuccours, it droops and languithes. We are, in fome measure, more inexcufable if we violate our duties to a friend, than to a relation ; fince the former arife from a voluntary choice, the latter from a neceflity to which we could not give our own confent. As it has been faid on one fide, that a man ought not to break with a faulty friend, that he may not. expose the weakness of his choice; it will doubtless hold much stronger, with refpect to a worthy one, that he may never be upbraided for having loft fo valuable a treasure which was once in his poffeffion. SPECTATOR, Vol. V. No. 385. X. FUTURE STATE. THE defire of knowing future events, is one of the ftrongest inclinations in the mind of man. Indeed an ability of forefeeing probable accidents is what, in the language of men, is called wifdom and prudence : But, not fatisfied with the light that reason holds out, mankind hath endeavoured to penetrate more compendioufly into futurity. Magic, oracles, omens, lucky hours, and the various arts of fuperftition owe their rife to this powerful caufe. As this principle is founded in felf love, every man is fure to be folicitous in the first place about his own fortune, the courfe of his life, and the time and manner of his death. If we confider that we are free agents, we fhall difcover the abfurdity of fuch inquiries. One of our actions, which we might have performed or neglected, is the cause of another that fucceeds it, and fo the whole chain of life is linked together. Pain, poverty, or infamy, are the natural product of vicious and imprudent acts; as the contrary bleffings are of good ones; fo that we cannot fuppofé our lot to be determined without impiety. A great enhancement of pleasure arifes from its being unexpected; and pain is doubled by being foreseen. Upon all these, and several other accounts, we ought to reft fatisfied in this portion bestowed on us; to adore the hand that hath fitted every thing to our nature, and hath not more difplayed his goodness in our knowledge than in our ig norance. It is not unworthy cur obfervation, that fuperftitious inquiries into future events prevail more or less, in proportion to the improvement of liberal arts and ufeful knowledge in the feveral parts of the world. |