A friendship, that in frequent fits
Of controverfial rage emits

The fparks of disputation,

Like hand in hand insurance plates,

Moft unavoidably creates

The thought of conflagration.

Some fickle creatures boast a foul

True as a needle to the pole,

Their humour yet fo various

They manifeft their whole life through

The needle's deviations too,

Their love is fo precarious.

The great and fmall but rarely meet
On terms of amity complete,

Plebeians muft furrender,

And yield fo much to noble folk,
It is combining fire with fmoke,
Obfcurity with splendour.

Some are so placid and ferene
(As Irish bogs are always green)

They fleep fecure from waking;

And are indeed a bog, that bears
Your unparticipated cares

Unmoved and without quaking.

Courtier and patriot cannot mix
Their heterogeneous politics

Without an effervescence,

Like that of falts with lemon juice, Which does not yet like that produce A friendly coalefcence.

Religion should extinguish ftrife,
And make a calm of human life;

But friends that chance to differ

On points, which God has left at large, How freely will they meet and charge, No combatants are ftiffer!

To prove at last my main intent
Needs no expence of argument,

No cutting and contriving-
Seeking a real friend we seem
To adopt the chymists golden dream,
With ftill less hope of thriving.

Sometimes the fault is all our own,

Some blemish in due time made known

By trefpafs or omiffion;

Sometimes occafion brings to light

Our friend's defect long hid from fight, And even from fufpicion.

Then judge yourself, and prove your man As circumspectly as you can,

And having made election,

Beware no negligence of

yours,

Such as a friend but ill endures,

Enfeeble his affection.

That fecrets are a facred truft,

That friends fhould be fincere and juft,

That conftancy befits them,

Are obfervations on the cafe,

That favour much of common place,

And all the world admits them.

But 'tis not timber, lead, and ftone,
An architect requires alone

To finish a fine building―

The palace were but half complete,

If he could poffibly forget

The carving and the gilding.

The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by thumps upon your back
How he efteems your merit,

Is fuch a friend, that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.

As fimilarity of mind,

Or fomething not to be defined,

First fixes our attention;

So manners decent and polite,
The fame we practised at first fight,
Muft fave it from declenfion.

Some act upon this prudent plan,
66 Say little and hear all you can."
Safe policy but hateful-

So barren fands imbibe the fhower,
But render neither fruit nor flower,

Unpleasant and ungrateful.

The man I truft, if shy to me,
Shall find me as referved as he,
No fubterfuge or pleading
Shall win my confidence again,
I will by no means entertain
A fpy on my proceeding.

These famples for alas! at laft
These are but famples, and a tafte
Of evils yet unmentioned-
May prove the task a task indeed,
In which 'tis much if we fucceed
However well-intentioned.

Pursue the fearch, and you will find
Good fenfe and knowledge of mankind

To be at least expedient,

And after fumming all the rest,
Religion ruling in the breaft

A principal ingredient.

The nobleft Friendship ever shewn
The Saviour's history makes known,

Though fome have turned and turned it;