faults he is not conscious of. A mind that is softened and humanized by
friendship, cannot bear frequent reproaches: either it must quite sink
under the oppression, or abate considerably of the value and esteem it
had for him who bestows them.

35. The proper business of friendship is to inspire life and courage;
and a soul, thus supported, out-does itself; whereas if it be
unexpectedly deprived of those succours, it droops and languishes.

36. We are in some measure more inexcusable if we violate our duties to
a friend, than to a relation; since the former arise from a voluntary
choice, the latter from a necessity, to which we could not give our own
consent.

37. As it has been said on one side, 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 respect to a worthy one, that he
may never be upbraided for having lost so valuable a treasure which was
once in his possession.




_Detraction and Falsehood_


1. I have not seen you lately at any of the places where I visit, so
that I am afraid you are wholly unacquainted with what passes among my
part of the world, who are, though I say it, without controversy, the
most accomplished and best bred in the town.