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Article ON FRIENDSHIP. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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On Friendship.
union . Connected together by foul deeds , they swear fidelity to each other ; sincere tears flow from their ferocious eyes ; -their horrible compact exhibits the outlines of an immaculate , though disfigured , sensation ; they support , they comfort each other ; and generosity blazes even in the dark recesses where they whet their poignards . Behold one of them taken and condemned to the punishment he
deserves ' . he does not betray the tie of mutual confidence . A compassionate courage still subsists in his degraded and guilty mind ; he refuses to name his accomplices , he wishes to preserve them from the tortures he dares with so much intrepidity . He loves them then ; he thinks himself bound by the services he has received : at the foot of the scaffold he does not belie his constancy ; and , struggling between
anguish and fear , he does not betray any cowardly or perfidious weakness ; a remnant , of virtue breaks forth in this wretch , crushed under the executioner ' s bar ; he expires with his ideal g lory ; he descends to the grave , pleased not to have violated , in spite -of torments , the covenant of secrecy and friendship .-How I love to indulge tlie thought of indissoluble sympathy ! —
And why should there npt be an intimate connection between men of sensations ? I will allow there is no relation between inactive and mute matter ; but that hearts ,, formed for each other , should not fly to meet ; that they should not guess , that they should not recognize one another , cannot be adopted-by any one who has felt the attractive and repelling force of love and aversion .
Voltaire has defined friendship to be the marriage of two souls .-That is well expressed . He who only lives for himself cannot be happy ; he who would concenter all in self , will be alone ; whoever ' lives alone , is deprived of the delig ht of sentiment ; for sentiment is only the reaction of two hearts united . Friendship , like love , owes all its energy to strength of mind ; such a sacrifice that such a one cannot conceive , js executed freely and
with rapture by another . Pyrrhus ' s attendants , consoling him for the loss of a friend , among other arguments , represented the inutility of grief . " 1 know it , " replied he ; ' ' but he died before -1 could return him the pleasure hegave me . "—A noble-sentiment , and well expressed !• ' Ajax , when with Philostrates , spoke thus to-Achilles ' : " Which of
thy heroic actions made thee forget danger most ? " " Those , " . replied he , " I undertook for a friend . " - — " And which , " said Ajax ; f- was the easiest ? " " The same , " replied Achilles . " And of thy wotindsj which was the most painful ? " " That which Hector gave me . " " Hector ! I did not know he wounded thee . " " He mortally wounded me—he killed Patroclus I "
It is said , friendship may require , but not extort . That proposition is false . Friendship should extort ; it ought even to be haughty , because that rig ht is reciprocal . Abstracted' from that , friendship is but a mere connection . I know nothing but foul deeds that can put a bar to friendship : hut for our friend , we should hid defiance to taunting and ridicule .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Friendship.
union . Connected together by foul deeds , they swear fidelity to each other ; sincere tears flow from their ferocious eyes ; -their horrible compact exhibits the outlines of an immaculate , though disfigured , sensation ; they support , they comfort each other ; and generosity blazes even in the dark recesses where they whet their poignards . Behold one of them taken and condemned to the punishment he
deserves ' . he does not betray the tie of mutual confidence . A compassionate courage still subsists in his degraded and guilty mind ; he refuses to name his accomplices , he wishes to preserve them from the tortures he dares with so much intrepidity . He loves them then ; he thinks himself bound by the services he has received : at the foot of the scaffold he does not belie his constancy ; and , struggling between
anguish and fear , he does not betray any cowardly or perfidious weakness ; a remnant , of virtue breaks forth in this wretch , crushed under the executioner ' s bar ; he expires with his ideal g lory ; he descends to the grave , pleased not to have violated , in spite -of torments , the covenant of secrecy and friendship .-How I love to indulge tlie thought of indissoluble sympathy ! —
And why should there npt be an intimate connection between men of sensations ? I will allow there is no relation between inactive and mute matter ; but that hearts ,, formed for each other , should not fly to meet ; that they should not guess , that they should not recognize one another , cannot be adopted-by any one who has felt the attractive and repelling force of love and aversion .
Voltaire has defined friendship to be the marriage of two souls .-That is well expressed . He who only lives for himself cannot be happy ; he who would concenter all in self , will be alone ; whoever ' lives alone , is deprived of the delig ht of sentiment ; for sentiment is only the reaction of two hearts united . Friendship , like love , owes all its energy to strength of mind ; such a sacrifice that such a one cannot conceive , js executed freely and
with rapture by another . Pyrrhus ' s attendants , consoling him for the loss of a friend , among other arguments , represented the inutility of grief . " 1 know it , " replied he ; ' ' but he died before -1 could return him the pleasure hegave me . "—A noble-sentiment , and well expressed !• ' Ajax , when with Philostrates , spoke thus to-Achilles ' : " Which of
thy heroic actions made thee forget danger most ? " " Those , " . replied he , " I undertook for a friend . " - — " And which , " said Ajax ; f- was the easiest ? " " The same , " replied Achilles . " And of thy wotindsj which was the most painful ? " " That which Hector gave me . " " Hector ! I did not know he wounded thee . " " He mortally wounded me—he killed Patroclus I "
It is said , friendship may require , but not extort . That proposition is false . Friendship should extort ; it ought even to be haughty , because that rig ht is reciprocal . Abstracted' from that , friendship is but a mere connection . I know nothing but foul deeds that can put a bar to friendship : hut for our friend , we should hid defiance to taunting and ridicule .