Religion should extinguish strife,
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 stiffer.

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

No cutting and contriving

Seeking a real friend we seem
T'adopt the chymist's golden dream,
With still less hope of thriving.

Sometimes the fault is all our own,

Some blemish in due time made known

By trespass or omission;

Sometimes occasion brings to light

Our friend's defect long hid from sight,

And even from suspicion.

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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 secrets are a sacred trust,

That friends should be sincere and just,

That constancy befits them,

Are observations on the case,

That savour much of commonplace,

And all the world admits them.

But 'tis not timber, lead, and stone,

An architect requires alone,

To finish a fine building

The palace were but half complete,

If he could possibly forget

The carving and the gilding.

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The man that hails you Tom or Jack,

And proves by thumps upon your back

How he esteems your merit,

Is such a friend, that one had need

As similarity of mind,

Or something not to be defin'd,

First fixes our attention;

So manners decent and polite,

The same we practis'd at first sight,

Must save it from declension.

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Some act upon this prudent plan,

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Say little, and hear all you can.”

Safe policy but hateful

So barren sands imbibe the show'r,
But render neither fruit nor flow'r,
Unpleasant and ungrateful.

The man I trust, if shy to me,

Shall find me as reserv'd as he,

No subterfuge or pleading
Shall win my confidence again,
I will by no means entertain
A spy on my proceeding.

These samples for alas! at last
These are but samples, and a taste
Of evils yet unmention'd_
May prove the task a task indeed,
In which 'tis much if we succeed

However well-intention'd.

Pursue the search, and you will find

Good sense and knowledge of mankind

To be at least expedient,

And, after summing all the rest,

Religion ruling in the breast

A principal ingredient.

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The noblest Friendship ever shown.

The Saviour's history makes known,

Though some have turn'd and turn'd it;

And, whether being craz'd or blind,

Or seeking with a biass'd mind,

Have not, it seems, discern'd it.

O friendship!. if my soul forego
Thy dear delights while here below;
To mortify and grieve me,

May I myself at last appear
Unworthy, base, and insincere,

Or may my friend deceive me!

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