"Sweet language will multiply
friends; and a fair-speaking tongue will increase kind greetings.
Be in peace with many, nevertheless have but one counsellor of a
thousand." With what prudence does he caution us in the choice of
our friends! And with what strokes of nature, I could almost say of
humour, has he described the behaviour of a treacherous and self-
interested friend! "If thou wouldest get a friend, prove him first,
and be not hasty to credit him: for some man is a friend for his
own occasion, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble. And
there is a friend who, being turned to enmity and strife, will
discover thy reproach." Again, "Some friend is a companion at the
table, and will not continue in the day of thy affliction: but in
thy prosperity he will be as thyself, and will be bold over thy
servants. If thou be brought low, he will be against thee, and hide
himself from thy face." What can be more strong and pointed than
the following verse?--"Separate thyself from thine enemies, and take
heed of thy friends." In the next words he particularises one of
those fruits of friendship which is described at length by the two
famous authors above-mentioned, and falls into a general eulogium of
friendship, which is very just as well as very sublime.
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