The generality of mankind will not bear to be viewed too closely, or too often: they lose their value on a nearer approach; which made the honest countrymen say to his friend, who was boasting of a legacy bestowed upon him by a person, into whose company he had accidentally fallen only once in his life, "Ah, Jonathan, if he had seen thee twice, he would not have left thee a farthing."
Friendship.—Friendship is of so delicate and so nice a texture, so defenceless against evil impressions, and so apt to wither at the least blast of jealousy, that we may say with Horace,
Felices ter et amplius,
Quos irrupta tenet copula; nec malis
Divulsus querimoniis,
Suprema citius solvet amor die.
Ode 13, lib. i.
"Happy, thrice happy they, whose friendships prove