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

They sleep secure 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 salts with lemon juice,
Which does not yet like that produce
A friendly coalescence.

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
To adopt the chemist'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.

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 common place,
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.

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

Be

very

Imuch his friend indeed

To pardon or to bear it.

As similarity of mind,

Or something not to be defined,
First fixes our attention;
So manners decent and polite,

The same we practised at first sight,
Must save it from declension.

66

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

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

The man I trust, if shy to me,
Shall find me as reserved 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,

But higher far my proud pretensions rise—~
The son of parents pass'd into the skies.
And now, farewell-Time unrevoked has run
His wonted course, yet what I wish'd is done.
By contemplation's help, not sought in vain,
I seem to have lived my childhood o'er again;
To have renew'd the joys that once were mine,
Without the sin of violating thine;

And, while the wings of fancy still are free,
And I can view this mimic show of thee,
Time has but half succeeded in his theft-
Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left.

FRIENDSHIP.

WHAT virtue, or what mental grace,

But men unqualified and base
Will boast it their possession?
Profusion apes the noble part
Of liberality of heart,

And dulness of discretion.

If every polish'd gem we find,
Illuminating heart or mind,

Provoke to imitation;

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

Or rather constellation.

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No knave but boldly will pretend
The requisites that form a friend,

A real and a sound one;
Nor any fool, he would deceive,
But prove as ready to believe,

And dream that he had found one.

Candid, and generous, and just,
Boys care but little whom they trust,
An error soon corrected--

For who but learns in riper years
That man, when smoothest he

Is most to be suspected?

appears,

But here again a danger lies,
Lest, having misapplied our eyes,
And taken trash for treasure,
We should unwarily conclude
Friendship a false ideal good,
A mere Utopian pleasure.

An acquisition rather rare
Is yet no subject of despair;
Nor is it wise complaining,
If, either on forbidden ground,
Or where it was not to be found,
We sought without attaining.

No friendship will abide the test,
That stands on sordid interest,
Or mean self-love erected;

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