And make our friendship perfect as before;
Do not our wiser selves ourselves condemn, 100
And yet we dearly love their faults and them?
So our reproofs to tender minds are shown:
We treat their wanderings as we treat our own;
We are each other’s conscience, and we tell
Our friend her fault, because we wish her well;
We judge, nay prejudge, what may be her case,
Fore-arm the soul, and shield her from disgrace.
Creatures in prison, ere the trying day,