tience and courage of that true undaunted fortitude that inspires the real hero,

"Who asks no omen but his country's cause." •

Distrust and danger vanish at its radiance; constancy and indefatigable perseverance crown it with the noblest success, and with immortal honour: even the weakness of constitutional cowardice may be relieved by it from a thousand anxious fears, and raised, upon any extraordinary occasion, into an absolute disregard of all those unreal evils, which so swell the sickly list of apprehension.

In friendship, a mutual confidence is of so absolute necessity, that it is scarcely possible it should subsist for any time, without it. When once upon reason and experience we have given persons an allowed title to our esteem, it is the highest injury both to them and to ourselves, to remove it upon less than an entire certainty; and there are some degrees of esteem that ought to outweigh the very strongest appearances. In such cases we should misdoubt all judgments of our own, rather than suspect the fidelity of a tried friend; and never give it up till we have allowed them the fullest opportunity for vindicating themselves, if appearances have injured them: by this means, nothing will

* Pope's translation of

Εις οιωνός άριστος αμυνεσθαι περι πατρης.

IL. xii. 243.

remain perplexed or uneasy upon the anxious mind, but every thing will be fair, clear, and honest.

When truth is presupposed as the foundation, this dependence follows of course, even when the circumstances do not admit of a present explanation." Appearances would give me reason to be uneasy at your behaviour, if friendship did not forbid my suspecting you."- "It is very true: and I cannot yet explain those appearances."--What a world of trouble and distrust would such short explanations avoid.

There are few things which have more struck my imagination, than the meek answer of Balaam's ass, when his master unreasonably corrected him, for what had only the appearance of a fault, and was, in reality, the highest instance of duty and care in which, after having received a very passionate return to a very gentle expostulation, she only replies, "Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?"

XVIII.

On True Friendship.

THE only unshaken basis of friendship is religion. True friendship is an union of interests, inclinations, sentiments: where these greatly clash, here may, indeed, be outward civility, but there can be nothing more.—What, then, becomes of all those fair ideas, and many fair histories too, of generous friendship sacrificing every interest of its own? What becomes of that worthiest complaisance that bends disagreeing humours into perfect sympathy? What becomes of that powerful affection, that makes often so thorough a change in the sentiments and tempers of persons? All these may consist with a maxim appearing so contrary: for few people look so deep as the real and solid foundation of all; but take those for important interests and essential points, which, indeed, are but a temporary superstructure, liable to perpetual alterations.

Whoever to the constancy and faith of friendship sacrifices the interests of fortune or the indulgence of inclination, pursues still his true and essential interests, since he is strictly performing an important duty. However the opinion of the good

may differ in a thousand things, in this they agree; that there" is one thing needful," and that in all lesser points, caudour, complaisance, and good nature, are the temper of mind it requires.

Agreed in this, their inclinations, their pleasures, their pursuits in all that is important, must be the What openness of heart, what harmony of sentiments, what sweetness of mutual conversation must be the consequence!

same.

Truth, perfectly clear and undisguised, constancy unchangeable through all the varieties of humour and circumstances; the kindest affection and the most winning manners flow almost naturally from this source of every good disposition. This infallible rule is a sure guard against all those errors and extremes which the best affections are liable to run into: it makes particular friendships keep within such bounds as not to interfere with general charity and universal justice: it teaches to distinguish between those errors and frailties of human nature, which in true friendship must be absolutely past over, and those contagious faults which necessarily dissolve it it heightens the delights of happy friendship, while it teaches us to look upon our friends as blessings indulged to us by the All-Giver; and it provides the only balm that can heal the wounds of friendship cut short by death: it softens every kind anxiety we can feel for those we love, and must feel frequently, in a world so full of varied distresses, by bidding us look up to the Almighty Friend and Father of all, "who careth for all

alike," and trust in him to give them that assistance and relief, of which we poor helpless creatures can, at best, be but very poor instruments: to him we can pour out the affectionate fulness of our hearts, when overwhelmed with a tender concern for their welfare; and may rest assured, that he will guide and prosper our sincere endeavours for their real good.

When the heart has long been used to the delightful society of beloved friends, how dreadful is absence, and how irksome solitude! But these phantoms of absence and solitude vanish before the sun-shine of religion: every change of life, every variety of place allotted us by an all-ruling Providence, grows welcome to us; and while we consider ourselves and our friends, however distant, as equally under the care and protection of the same gracious and omnipresent Being, our common Creator, Redeemer, and Preserver, the distance between us, with all its terrors, is annihilated; while solitude and retirement give us but the opportunity for a wider range of thought on subjects that ennoble friendship itself: then may our minds look forward through an endless succession of ages, in which the spirits of just men made perfect, renewing in a happier world the affectionate engagements just began, as it were, in the days of their mortality, shall rejoice in one another's continually improving happiness and goodness to all eternity. Blessed mausious, where we shall meet again all those beloved persons whose remembrance is so dear to us! Our friendship shall then, probably,