feldom that the great enjoy the sweet"nefs of Friendship, or have much re"lish for the charms of being loved. "They have not indeed efteem enough "for mankind, to be touched by their "affection. Prepoffeffed with a conceit, "that others owe every thing to them,

they fancy that they owe nothing to "others. They are not fufficiently ac"quainted with the value of a heart.

Long accuftomed to receive fictitious. "regards, they become infenfible to real "tendernefs. The refpect due to rank "they miftake for that which belongs "to merit only. They are more follici"tous to procure homage, than to en66 gage attachment. Friendship being "more fincere than adulation, and there"fore lefs eager, lefs officious, appears "to them a dry and barren thing. "Friendship, that beft refource under "all the chagrins of life, that delightful "bond of fociety, is to their feeling an

66 uneafy tie, and to their tafte an infipid "pleasure."

Is it necessary to say, that these remarks ftand confirmed by a cloud of witnesses? Have you not read of multitudes, who, fascinated by the fmiles, and transported with the profeffions, of "men of high "degree," long courted and long trusted them, till, difenchanted by their treachery or their caprice, they were forced, with the King of Ifrael, who knew them full well, to pronounce them "A Lie?” You may believe he did not mean to apply so heavy a charge univerfally; and you may be affured we do not.

But if you afk, Why at all this pains to expose the worthleffness of the unprincipled Great, with whom but few of you, comparatively speaking, can have much connexion; I anfwer, Becaufe young men in particular fituations have been often tempted by falfe ambition to give up

their time, their independence, and their integrity, for the precarious phantom of favour with thofe, whofe attachment or confidence, even when purchased at fo dear a rate, is only a tranfient humour, in which there is little fincerity, lefs zeal, and no fteadiness: but these inconfiderate Youth, bewitched by a fpecies. of vanity, which not many in the fame circumftances are endowed with fufficient ftrength of mind to refift, and relying on the most deceitful of all poffeffions,. have funk at length into the loweft fycophants, and the mereft flaves; when, pray obferve had they fcorned fuch debasement, and bravely exerted their talents in different ways, they might have fecured the most folid and permanent advantages, with the additional confcioufnefs of dignity and virtue.

In short, though we readily acknowledge, that perfons of eminence, who confer luftre on their condition, inftead

of only receiving it thence, are worthy of double honour, and though we certainly think that you should behave to them accordingly, as occafion may offer, yet ftill we would advise you to feek the joys of Friendship chiefly among your fellows, in that happy nearness of rank, that unbought complacence, and unftudied communication of fentiment and kindness, with which Friendship muft ever be defective and unfatisfactory.

You will take notice, Gentlemen, that I faid, Nearness of rank; as not conceiving an exact equality requifite to the intercourfe in queftion, though this has been frequently fuppofed. They, alas! are ill qualified for the most delicate and generous of all unions, who would measure their regards by fo trifling a confideration as that of standing a little higher in the fcale of fociety. Spirits of true worth, and raised understanding, lose sight of such

difparity, wherever they fee a correfpondent mind. Such difparity has, by fome wife men, been accounted even defirable; probably, as affording the means of greater usefulness on one fide, while it fupplied the other with opportunities of giving comfort and relief under the ceremonies and cares attendant on places of elevation.

We know that Jonathan, in his choice of a Friend, overlooked a very wide difference of condition. The fon and heir apparent of a king, preffed to his heart a fhepherd from the fold. "The foul of

Jonathan was bound up in the foul of "David, and Jonathan loved him as his

own foul." The obfcurity of David's ftation had not been able to fupprefs, or hide, those extraordinary virtues and accomplishments, which were formed to kindle into a blaze the congenial bofom of the young prince: and this glorious youth preferred the fweets of fuch a Friendship to all the luxuries of a court, VOL. II. C