foftered and kept alive by obfervances, obligations, compliances, fubmiffions, that are the effects of defign, of study, of a syftem referring immediately to interests and gratifications of the felfifh kind; while the latter is maintained by the vigour of its own native movements, and nourished by a fpontaneous flow of affectionate feelings, kind offices, and confidential communications. In fo many refpects, Gentlemen, does that Friendship, which, as I faid before, is common and imperfect,. differ from that which is peculiar and tranfcendent; a difference long ago remarked by the best writers of antiquity, and which ferves to prove this melancholy truth, that the fublimeft relation in human life must neceffarily be rare, as is the cafe with every thing excellent, fince it can only exist among minds fuperlatively liberal and great, whofe number, we have too much caufe to fufpect, never was, and never will be, confiderable.

If this be true, what are we to think of thofe, whofe undiftinguishing vanity, or artificial plan, promifcuously includes, under the denomination of their Friends, every worthless and every vulgar creature, with whom they happen to have any connexion, no less than the most elegant and virtuous characters? For my own part, I am apt to conclude, that all who thus degrade the name of Friendship, are ftrangers to its nature, and that such language is the contrivance of knaves, or the effufion of fools. I mean not, you may believe, to comprehend, in this charge, the profeffional mode commonly observed by a well-known religious fect, of calling each individual they addrefs, Friend,-in imitation of an ancient idiom, which many of them have too much understanding, and integrity, to confound with the dictate of the heart, when it would express a particular and appropriating regard.

In looking round for the bleffing we celebrate, fome of you, who are struck

with its fuperior dignity, may probably hope to enjoy it among those whose elevated rank fhould infpire them with elevated fentiments. That fuch are fometimes fufceptible of genuine Friendship for their equals, and for others nearly fo, I have no doubt; but muft take the liberty of faying, that I do not wish you to be too ambitious of cultivating close attachments among perfons who are much above you in ftation. Converfe with them, if you will, as often as you have a fair opportunity, that is, as often as you can see them without being intrufive, or making yourfelves dependent, or refigning any better object for their acquaintance. By this intercourse you may acquire a more extenfive knowledge of the world, on many accounts ufeful, with a gentility of addrefs and manner, by no means to be neglected. But, as for that commerce of hearts which unites real Friends, which fuppofes the utmost eafe and freedom, which difdains every claim to fuperiority,

and every air of ftatelinefs, you have but little reafon to expect it where your fitua tion is very unequal.

There is no abfurdity too grofs to be fwallowed by felf-love, when long pampered. It is ufual for people of birth to meet with fuch indulgence and fubmiffion in their earliest years, and as they grow up to find fuch refpect and adulation paid them on all hands, that we are not to wonder if they commonly entertain much too exalted an opinion of their own importance. In reality, one would be tempted to think, they confidered themselves as a fpecies different from the rest of mankind, and imagined that all others are obliged by nature, as well as cuftom, to study, admire, applaud, and ferve them on every occafion, and to deem it a fufficient recompence, if they are gracioufly pleafed to accept the humble tribute. Yet, would you believe it?—this abfurd arrogance is often affociated with the utmost mean

nefs. There is no condefcenfion, no humiliation, however low or mortifying, which those great ones of the earth have not, many of them, practifed towards their inferiors, when they had a point to carry. But mark, I befeech you, with what facility they can lay afide, as well as put on, the mask! When they come to have no farther ufe for you, they fhall be capable of throwing you off, with a tranquillity the moft undisturbed, and forgetting you, to all appearance, as completely as if you had never been known to them, or as if it were the privilege of Quality, not to blush at those things which would cover a plain man with confufion.

To adopt the words of a pious and eloquent preacher, formerly at the Court of France, who, animated with a zeal as bold as it was enlightened, fcrupled not to deliver the most unpalatable truths in the very centre of flattery, "It is but