NUMB. 64. SATURDAY, October 27, 1750.

Idem velle, et idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia eft. SALLUST. To live in friendship is to have the fame defires and the fame averfions.

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HEN Socrates was building himself a house at Athens, being afked by one that observed the littleness of the defign, why a man fo eminent would not have an abode more fuitable to his dignity? he replied, that he should think himself fufficiently accommodated, if he could fee that narrow habitation filled with real friends. Such was the opinion of this great mafter of human life, concerning the infrequency of fuch an union of minds as might deferve the name of friendship, that among the multitudes whom vanity or curiofity, civility or veneration, crouded about him, he did not expect, that very spacious apartments would be neceffary to contain all that should regard him with fincere kindnefs, or adhere to him with steady fidelity.

So many qualities are indeed requifite to the poffibility of friendship, and fo many accidents must concur to its rife and its continuance, that the greatest part of mankind content themselves without it, and fupply its place as they can, with intereft and dependance.

Multitudes are unqualified for a conftant and warm reciprocation of benevolence, as they are incapacitated for any other elevated excellence, by perpetual attention to their intereft, and unrefifting subjection to their paffions. Long habits may fuperinduce inability

inability to deny any defire, or reprefs, by fuperior motives, the importunities of any immediate gratification, and an inveterate selfishness will imagine all advantages diminished in proportion as they are communicated.

But not only this hateful and confirmed corruption, but many varieties of difpofition, not inconfiftent with common degrees of virtue, may exclude friendship from the heart. Some ardent enough in their benevolence, and defective neither in officioufness nor liberality, are mutable and uncertain, soon attracted by new objects, difgufted without offence, and alienated without enmity. Others are foft and flexible, easily influenced by reports or whispers, ready to catch alarms from every dubious circumftance, and to liften to every fufpicion which envy and flattery shall fuggeft, to follow the opinion of every confident adviser, and move by the impulse of the last breath. Some are impatient of contradiction, more willing to go wrong by their own judginent, than to be indebted for a better or a safer way to the fagacity of another, inclined to confider counsel as infult, and enquiry as want of confidence, and to confer their regard on no other terms than unreferved fubmiffion, and implicit compliance. Some are dark and involved, equally careful to conceal good and bad purposes; and pleased with producing effects by invifible means, and fhewing their defign only in its execution. Others are univerfally communicative, alike open to every eye, and equally profuse of their own fecrets and thofe of others, without the neceffary vigilance of caution, or the honeft arts of prudent integrity, ready to accuse without

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without malice, and to betray without treachery. Any of these may be useful to the community, and pass through the world with the reputation of good purposes and uncorrupted morals, but they are unfit for clofe and tender intimacies. He cannot properly be chofen for a friend, whose kindness is exhaled by its own warmth, or frozen by the first blast of flander; he cannot be a useful counsellor, who will hear no opinion but his own; he will not much invite confidence whose principal maxim is to fuspect; nor can the candour and franknefs of that man be much esteemed, who fpreads his arms to humankind, and makes every man, without distinction, a denizen of his bofom.

That friendship may be at once fond and lafting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the fame kind; not only the fame end must be proposed, but the fame means must be approved by both. We are often, by fuperficial accomplishments and accidental endearments, induced to love those whom we cannot esteem; we are fometimes, by great abilities, and inconteftible evidences of virtue, compelled to esteem those whom we cannot love. But friendship, compounded of esteem and love, derives from one its tenderness, and its permanence from the other; and therefore requires not only that its candidates fhould gain the judgment, but that they fhould attract the affections; that they fhould not only be firm in the day of diftrefs, but gay in the hour of jollity; not only useful in exigencies, but pleafing in familiar life; their prefence fhould give cheerfulnefs as well as courage, and difpel alike the gloom of fear and of melancholy.

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To this mutual complacency is generally requifite an uniformity of opinions, at least of those active and confpicuous principles which difcriminate parties in government, and fects in religion, and which every day operate more or lefs on the common business of life. For though great tenderness has, perhaps, been fometimes known to continue between men eminent in contrary factions; yet fuch friends are to be shewn rather as prodigies than examples, and it is no more proper to regulate our conduct by fuch inftances, than to leap a precipice, because fome have fallen from it and escaped with life.

It cannot but be extremely difficult to preferve private kindness in the midst of publick oppofition, in which will neceffarily be involved a thousand incidents, extending their influence to converfation and privacy. Men engaged, by moral or religious motives, in contrary parties, will generally look with different eyes upon every man, and decide almost every question upon different principles. When fuch occafions of difpute happen, to comply is to betray our caufe, and to maintain friendship by ceafing to deserve it; to be filent, is to lose the happinefs and dignity of independence, to live in perpetual constraint, and to defert, if not to betray: and who shall determine which of two friends fhall yield, where neither believes himself mistaken, and both confefs the importance of the queftion? What then remains but contradiction and debate? and from those what can be expected, but acrimony and vehemence, the infolence of triumph, the vexation of defeat, and, in time, a wearinefs of conteft, and an ex

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tinction of benevolence? Exchange of endearments and intercourse of civility may continue, indeed, as boughs may for a while be verdant, when the root is wounded; but the poifon of difcord is infused, and though the countenance may preferve its fmile, the heart is hardening and contracting.

That man will not be long agreeable, whom we fee only in times of seriousness and severity; and therefore to maintain the softness and serenity of benevolence, it is neceffary that friends partake each other's pleasures as well as cares, and be led to the fame diverfions by fimilitude of taste. This is, however, not to be confidered as equally indifpenfable with conformity of principles, because any man may honeftly, according to the precepts of Horace, refign the gratifications of taste to the humour of another, and friendship may well deferve the facrifice of pleafure, though not of confcience.

It was once confeffed to me, by a painter, that no profeffor of his art ever loved another. This declaration is fo far juftified by the knowledge of life, as to damp the hopes of warm and conftant friendfhip, between men whom their ftudies have made competitors, and whom every favourer and every cenfurer are hourly inciting against each other. The utmost expectation that experience can warrant, is, that they should forbear open hoftilities and secret machinations, and when the whole fraternity is attacked, be able to unite against a common foe. Some however, though few, may perhaps be found, in whom emulation has not been able to overpower generofity, who are distinguished from lower beings by

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