No wonder Friendship does the same,
That jewel of the purest flame,

Or rather constellation.

For who but learns with riper years
That man, when smoothest he appears,
Is most to be suspected?

But here again a danger lies;

Lest, thus deluded by our eyes,

And taking trash for treasure,

We should, when undeceived, conclude
Friendship, imaginary good,

A mere Utopian pleasure.
An acquisition, rather rare,
Is yet no subject of despair;

Nor should it seem distressful,
If either on forbidden ground,
Or where it was not to be found,

We sought it unsuccessful.

No Friendship will abide the test
That stands on sordid interest

And mean self-love erected; Nor such as may awhile subsist 'Twixt sensualist and sensualist,

For vicious ends connected.

Who hopes a friend, should have a heart

Himself well furnished for the part,

And ready on occasion

To show the virtue that he seeks;

For 'tis an union that bespeaks
A just reciprocation.

A fretful temper will divide

The closest knot that may be tied,

By ceaseless sharp corrosion:

A temper passionate and fierce
May suddenly your joys disperse,
At one immense explosion.

In vain the talkative unite
With hope of permanent delight:
The secret just committed

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No knave but boldly will pretend
The requisites that form a friend,
A real and a sound one ;—

They drop through mere desire to prate,
Forgetting its important weight,

And by themselves outwitted.

How bright soe'er the prospect seems,
All thoughts of Friendship are but dreams,

If Envy chance to creep in;

An envious man, if you succeed,

May prove a dangerous foe indeed,

But not a friend worth keeping.

As Envy pines at good possessed,
So Jealousy looks forth distressed

On good that seems approaching;
And if Success his steps attend,
Discerns a rival in a friend,

And hates him for encroaching.
Hence authors of illustrious name
(Unless belied by common fame)
Are sadly prone to quarrel;
To deem the wit a friend displays,
So much of loss to their own praise,
And pluck each other's laurel.

A man renowned for repartee,
Will seldom scruple to make free

With Friendship's finest feeling;
Will thrust a dagger at your breast,
And tell you 'twas a special jest,

By way of balm for healing.

Beware of tattlers; keep your ear
Close stopped against the tales they bear,*

Fruits of their own invention;

The separation of chief friends

Is what their kindness most intends;

Their sport is your dissension.

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* "Hear;" Eds. 1815, Southey, Bell. "Bear;" Eds. Hayley (1803), 1817 Dale.

Nor

any fool he would deceive,

But prove* as ready
as ready to believe,

And dream that he had found one.

Friendship that wantonly admits
A joco-serious play of wits
In brilliant altercation,

Is union such as indicates,

Like Hand-in-Hand insurance-plates,
Danger of conflagration.

Some fickle creatures boast a soul
True as the needle to the pole;
Yet shifting, like the weather,
The needle's constancy forego
For any novelty, and show
Its variations rather.

Insensibility makes some
Unseasonably deaf and dumb,

When most you need their pity;
'Tis waiting till the tears shall fall
From Gog and Magog in Guildhall,
Those playthings of the city.

The great and small but rarely meet
On terms of amity complete:

The attempt would scarce be madder,
Should any, from the bottom, hope
At one huge stride, to reach the top
Of an erected ladder.

Courtier and Patriot cannot mix
Their heterogeneous politics

Without an effervescence,

Such as of salts with lemon-juice,

But which is rarely known to induce,
Like that, a coalescence.

Religion should extinguish strife,
And make a calm of human life:
But even those who differ

* MS."proves."

+ MS. "has.”

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Candid, and generous, and just,

Boys care but little whom they trust,-
An error soon corrected;

Only on topics left at large,

How fiercely will they meet and charge!
No combatants are stiffer.

To prove, alas! my main intent,
Needs no great cost of argument,
No cutting and contriving;
Seeking a real friend, we seem
To adopt the chymist's golden dream
With still less hope of thriving.

Then judge or ere you choose your man,
As circumspectly as you can,

And having made election,

See that no disrespect of yours,
Such as a friend but ill endures,
Enfeeble his affection.

It is not timber, lead, and stone,
An architect requires alone,

To finish a great building;
The palace were but half complete,
Could he by any chance forget

The carving and the gilding.

As similarity of mind,
Or something not to be defined,
First rivets our attention;

So manners decent and polite,
The same we practised at first sight,
Must save from declension.

The man who hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by thumping on your back,

His sense of your great merit,

Is such a friend, that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed,

To pardon, or to bear it.

Some friends make this their prudent plan

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Say little, and hear all you can;"

Safe policy, but hateful.

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For who but learns in* riper years
That man, when smoothest he appears,
Is most to be suspected?

But here again a danger lies,
Lest, having misapplied† our eyes,
And taken trash for treasure,

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So barren sands imbibe the shower,
But render neither fruit nor flower,-
Unpleasant and ungrateful.

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They whisper trivial things, and small;
But to communicate at all

Things serious, deem improper;
Their feculence and froth they show,
But keep the best contents below,

Just like a simmering copper.

These samples (for, alas! at last
These are but samples, and a taste
Of evils yet unmentioned)
May prove the task a task indeed,
In which 'tis much if we succeed,
However well intentioned.

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