a vulgar proverb, which would seem to assure us that there is "honour even among thieves," yet I very much doubt the truth of it; indeed, I think it is not founded upon reason or common sense; for he that will rob a stranger will rob his companion; and we hear of many instances where plunderers have murdered their associates, that they might keep the whole booty for them

selves.

It is for that very reason, that (though not, immediately belonging to this division of the work) I most earnestly caution you, in this place, against forming any unlawful female connexion; for the same principle directs the conduct of a woman in keeping, as that of a bad man with whom you have formed an unlawful connexion in an iniquitous business. She will consider it as no injustice to wheedle you out of all she can, and then rob you of the rest, when she thinks you have nothing more to give her;---nor can you have recourse to law to recover your property, because your actions are in themselves contrary to law, and having illicitly cohabited with her, it will be very difficult to prove that she actually robbed you; for in such cases magistrates will always lean to the woman's side, and, if they can, suffer the man who has acted such an immoral part to pay for his folly.---The fear of exposure will prevent you from pursuing the business too far, and you must quietly put up with your loss.

But

But this is not all if you have been weak enough to entrust such a woman with the secret of your affairs, the names of your connexions. and friends, she will not hesitate to disclose every thing to the latter, and, impudently making her own story good, ruin you in their eyes, and then unfeelingly make a laughing-stock of you. Nay, if you have put yourself in her power, she will even be the most active in bringing you to justice, and to an untimely end, to screen herself from being supposed to have countenanced or participated in your crimes or the fruits of your roguery, though she may herself have been the principal instigator of them.

If you doubt the truth of this, read the tragedy of GEORGE BARNWELL, and you will not find my picture too high-coloured; for, I assure you, I have drawn it from the life, and from facts which are at this moment within my own observation in a similar case.

If, therefore, ingenuous youth! you form a friendship, let it be with the virtuous and good only; or, if you place your happiness in a female connexion, let the object be chaste and worthy, and marriage cement the bond; for, be assured, once more, there is no happiness or safety with the bad of either sex; and when enmity is once roused, of the two, the female will carry it to the greatest lengths; so that it is a prostitution of the word love to apply it to an unlawful connexion.

But

1

is proper

But to return to the subject of friendship: it that you should know, ingenuous youth! how far its sincerity and influence is, in t present day, to be reckoned upon. Ancient stories, indeed, talk of friends who mutually contended which should die for the other; and Grecian writers have not been sparing in trumpeting forth their praises; but, even from their manner of celebrating these heroes in friendship, it is very evident that such examples were extremely rare; our records, at least, shew none such. The love of interest seems to be the reigning spirit in our bosoms; but wherever this pure and delicate union is to be attempted, "meum & tuum", i. e. "mine and your's," ought to be words utterly unknown.

Friendship, therefore, in the strict meaning of the word, is not very often the growth of our climate; and, according to the idea we entertain of it, is confined within very narrow bounds. For instance, I may have lived for a number of years in the strictest habit of intimacy with a particular man; we may have adventured in the same business, shared in the same pleasures, interchanged continual good offices, and treated one another with an unrestrained confidence; but on these conditions---that nothing should be required, on either side, to the prejudice of our darling self-interest; that obligations should be exactly balanced; and that, on the least rupture, we should mutually be at liberty to complain of each

other's

other's ingratitude. From which you are to understand, that, in general, our very friendships are but a barter of services and civilities, and are not so much calculated to gratify the honest undesigning instincts of the heart, as for schemes to appear to be practising disinterested friendship, while at the same time we are contriving snares to re-demand our own with usury, by receiving more than we give.

This being the foundation of modern intimacies, you cannot be too wary in the choice of him whom you would wish to form a friendship with, nor suffer your affections to be so far engaged as to be wholly at his devotion. It is dangerous trusting one's happiness in another person's keeping; or to be without the power to refuse what may be your ruin to grant. But, if ever the appearance of wisdom, integrity, and every other virtue, should lead you to cultivate a more than ordinary friendship, never profess more than you design to make good, and, when you oblige, let it be freely, politely, and without the mercenary view of a rigid equivalent. Never put your friend to the pain of soliciting a kindness, when you know he wants it; but spare his delicacy, and thus shew him that you are happy in having an opportunity of serving him; but in this, as in all other matters, some discretion must be observed. As you ought never to apply to another for what would endanger his fortune, and, of course, ruin

7

his family, so never be induced, on any consideration, to run the same risque yourself. Whatever interest you can make, whatever time you can devote, or whatever ready-money you can spare, for the advantage of your friend, is nobly disposed of; and never upbraid him, even if he should prove ungrateful, but preserve your fortune safe, to assist him effectually, if he should happen to fail, and want it more pressingly; for, if he is embarrassed in his pecuniary affairs, your money would only, perhaps, go to stop his creditors' clamours for a time.

SECT. 2.

Of unlawful Love, Seduction, and early Marriage.

For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. PROVERBS.

HOWEVER modesty and chastity may, in this licentious age, be considered as ornaments peculiar to the female sex only, and the breach of them consequently excusable in the men, in whom courage is supposed to be the corresponding virtue with chastity in the women, yet, be not deceived, ingenuous youth! by this seemingly plausible but fallacious opinion. It is a perfectly false notion, that, because the male sex, from their superiority of

mental