single condition? Is the Bachelor entitled to glory in his choice, or to boast of a superior degree of felicity? He, who has no one that naturally cares for his person -no one that takes a lively interest in his concerns— no one that participates of his feelings of joy, or deeply sympathizes in his adversities, sicknesses and sorrows -no tenderly-throbbing bosom, on which to rest his weary head. On the reverse of this picture, behold the married man. Perhaps his spouse is not, in some respects, quite as he would wish. Perhaps she has turns of unpleasant humour, and sometimes gives him pain by her peevishness or obstinacy. Yet she is faithful to his bed, and to his interests. Though, at times, she herself spars him with her tongue, on no account will she suffer any body else to do it. His joys and his sorrows are hers. In his out-goings, her heart blesses him ; and after weeks or days of absence, she affectionately greets him on his return. His food, his apparel, the decencies of his appearance, are objects of her daily attention. His every ailment of body, meets her sympathy and quickens her care. In his heavy sicknesses, scarcely does she give sleep to her eyes, or slumber to her eye-lids. "With a soft and silent tread, Nimble she moves about the bed." Anxiously she watches the symptoms; carefully she administers the medicines; she responds to every groan, and with eagerness catches at every glimmer of hope. Judge now, which of the two is the happier man. NUMBER XLIII. Of friendship and the choice of friends? "Give me the man, whose liberal mind In the choice of friends, considerable regard is to be had to the qualities of the head, but a much greater still to those of the heart; for if that be radically wanting in integrity and honour, the more alluring is every thing else in personal character, the more dangerous. Cataline, with the worst of hearts, was possest of per sonal accomplishments in a transcendant degree. He had the art of accommodating his manners and conversation to people of all tempers and ages. Cicero said of him, He lived with the sad severely, with the cheerful agreeably, with the old gravely, with the young pleas untly. All-accomplished as he was, the viciousness of his moral character was manifold the more seductive, contagious, and pernicious to community at large, and to the young especially. He easily insinuated himself into the friendship of the Roman youth, whom he corrupted and ruined. Close intimacies, suddenly formed, often end in disappointment and disgust, and to the injury of one or other of the parties. It is a dangerous imprudence to trust any one as a friend, without good evidence of his being trust-worthy; without good evidence that he has neither a treacherous heart, a fickle temper, nor a babbling tongue. Often, very often, have the young, of both sexes, smarted under the consequences of such imprudence. Equality in point of external circumstances, is not always a necessary preliminary to intimate and permanent friendship. The Friendship between David and Jonathan, for unshaken fidelity and sublime ardour, has scarcely a parallel in history; yet the one was a shepherd of mean rank, whilst the other was of blood royal, and heir apparent to a throne. But though it is not always necessary that two close friends should be about equal in their worldly conditions, it is necessary that their deeds and offices of kindness be reciprocal ; else one becomes a patron, and the other a dependant. If one be greatly outdone by his friends in acts of kindness, or receive benefits at their hands which he can never in any wise repay, they will regard him as their debtor on the score of friendship, and he himself must be wounded with the mortifying consciousness of bankruptcy in that respect. Hence there have been instances of proud-hearted men becoming the enemies, and even the destroyers, of their greatest benefactors, in order to rid themselves of a burdensome debt of gratitude. One should be careful to shew as much fidelity, as much attention, as much kindness to his friend, as he would require of him in similar circumstances. Between frail, imperfect creatures, there cannot be perfect friendship; and when one discards a friend for some trifling negligence, for an ungracious expression, or for his not having added the hundredth, to his ninety-nine obliging acts; he is not worthy of having a friend, nor can he have one long. It has been said that warm friends make warm ene. mies; but it is seldom so, except in cases of flagrant infidelity on the one side or the other. The truth is, very warm friendships, (unless in the domestic state are rarely lasting, by reason that they are above the ordinary tone of human nature; and therefore require much attention and a constant exchange of obliging offices, to keep them good. Whenever attention abates on one side or the other, such friendship experiences a chill, and gradually cools down at length to indifference; but no positive enmity necessarily follows. The friendship between persons notoriously wicked, (if friendship it may be called,) naturally turns to fear. As they know they cannot trust one another, so they constantly harbour a mutual jealousy, bordering upon, and often ending in, downright hatred. There is too much truth, generally speaking, in the following lines of Goldsmith: "And what is friendship but a name, A shade that follows wealth or fame, The book in the heart, is the Bible. stance; as liberal as When a man falls into misfortune, it often happens that some of those he had most befriended while in prosperity, are the first to forsake, and even to censure and reproach him. The reason is plain: they forsake him because they think him a pigeon no longer worth the plucking; and they reproach him to balance old scores. world that best unfolds the human There we find a man, of vast subhe was rich, and as pious as liberal. A man who was 66 eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame;" who" was a father to the poor;" and whose charitable hand and consoling voice "made the widow's heart sing for joy. While "the candle of the Lord shined upon his head," unbounded respect was paid him. The old as well as young, princes and nobles as well as peasants, did him obeisance, He had friends with out number; close friends-friends fixedly determined never to forsake him in his-prosperity. With unerring aim, and to answer the mysterious purposes of infinite wisdom, heaven's arrow was pointed at the bosom of this very man. In a single hour he fell from the height of prosperity to the lowest depths of human wretchedness. Bereft of all his children at a stroke, reduced to poverty and need, covered from bead to foot with disease, he sat upon the ground ;left there to weep his woes by himself. His friends, as well as his fortune had left him. They stood aloof, and with scorn rather than commiseration, eyed him afar off. He called after them-Have pity upon me! have pity upon me !-but called in vain. Even the very few that drew near, ostensibly to comfort him, did but add grief to his sorrow. With rugged hands and unfeeling hearts, they tore yet wider his bleeding wounds; but poured in no balsam. Suddenly," the Lord turned the captivity" of this self same man, and even doubled the prosperity of his best days. And no sooner was that known, than his old friends who had forsaken him came back of their own accord, and were ready enough to hook themselves upon him.-Then, and not till then-" all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house."2 His good cheer restores him to their good liking. Yet, unfeeling as the world is, there are some in it, and I hope not a few, who stick as close, nay closer, in the bleak night of adversity, than in the sunshine of prosperity. These, whether male or female, are of the right stamp.-Reader, hast thou a friend of this sort; one who had been thy father's or thy mother's friend in distress; one who has readily befriended thyself in |