a good election and iugement, that, for hope of rewarde or fauour, under the cloke of vertue be nat hidde the moste mortall poisone of flaterie.a

CHAPTER XI.

The true discription of amitie or frendship.

I HAUE all redy treated of beneuolence and beneficence generally. But for als moche as frendship, called in latine Amicitia, comprehendeth bothe those vertues more specially and in an higher degree, and is nowe so infrequent or straunge amonge

Somers to be the protector of nonjurors, Harley to make the fortunes of Whigs. But it could not move Pitt to show any favour, even to Pittites. Though the sound rule is that authors should be left to be remunerated by their readers, there will in every generation be a few exceptions to this rule. To distinguish these special cases from the mass is an employment well worthy of the faculties of a great and accomplished ruler; and Pitt would assuredly have had little difficulty in finding such cases. . . What a contrast between the way in which Pitt acted towards Johnson and the way in which Lord Grey acted towards his political enemy Scott, when Scott, worn out by misfortune and disease, was advised to try the effect of the Italian air! What a contrast between the way in which Pitt acted towards Cowper and the way in which Burke, a poor man and out of place, acted towards Crabbe! Even Dundas, who made no pretensions to literary taste, and was content to be considered as a hard-headed and somewhat coarse man of business, was, when compared with his eloquent and classically educated friend, a Mæcenas or a Leo. Dundas made Burns an exciseman with seventy pounds a year; and this was more than Pitt, during his long tenure of power, did for the encouragement of letters. Even those who may think that it is, in general, no part of the duty of a government to reward literary merit, will hardly deny that a government which has much lucrative Church preferment in its gift, is bound, in distributing that preferment, not to overlook divines whose writings have rendered great service to the cause of religion. But it seems never to have occurred to Pitt that he lay under any such obligation.'-Biographies, p. 184-187, ed. 1860.

* Cicero can find no term sufficiently opprobrious to apply to this vice. 'Habendum est, nullam in amicitiis pestem esse majorem, quàm adulationem, blanditiam, assentationem. Quamvis enim multis nominibus est hoc vitium notandum, levium hominum atque fallacium, ad voluntatem loquentium omnia, nihil ad veritatem.'-Cic. de Amicit. cap. 25.

mortall men, by the tyrannie of couetise and ambition, whiche haue longe reigned, and yet do, that amitie may nowe unethe be knowen or founden throughout the worlde," by them that sceke for her as diligently, as a mayden wolde seeke for a small siluer pinne in a great chamber strawed with white russhes, I will therfore borowe so moche of the gentle redar

So Patrizi says: 'Idcirco rarò admodum hæc amicitia esse cernitur. . . Non parva conditio haberi debet ea, quam Euripides tragicus præscribit, tà tŵv píλwv Koà, hoc est, amicorum omnia communia, et præsertim nostris temporibus, in quibus avaritia aded plerosque invasit, ut quotidiano cibo ac victu seipsos defraudent, nemini benigniores sint, nihil amico inopi, etiam ex his rebus quæ eis superfluunt, impertiantur, vixque ab alienis manus abstineant. Quinetiam amicitiæ jam vulgo non virtute, sed utilitate aut voluptate probantur.'-De Regno et Reg. Instit. lib. viii. tit. II.

'Unfortunately,' says a modern writer, 'from the vast complication of selfish considerations in which most men in a society like ours are involved, it is scarcely possible for any to experience the full enjoyment which is to be derived from friendship. We see this happiness at its height only in the young, who have as yet few cares. In the middle of life, our hearts are scarcely better fitted for the culture of this delightful sentiment than is the highway for the rearing of flowers. Few, therefore, can have the noted advantage of going on with certain friends through their whole career, until, in their elderly days, they feel towards them in so intensely sympathetic a manner that they appear as parts of the same being. These were joys appropriate, I fear, only to Arcadian times.'-Chambers' Essays, vol. iii. p. 237, ed. 1847.

• This was from time immemorial the substitute for carpets, and remained so until the 17th century. Mr. Wright tell us that in the middle ages floor-carpets were sometimes used in the chambers, but this was uncommon, and they seem to have been more usually, like the hall, strewed with rushes. It appears that sometimes, as a refinement in gaiety, flowers were mixed with the rushes. In an old French fabliau (Méon, Nouv. Recueil de Fabliaux, tom. i. p. 75), a lady who expects her lover, lights a fire in the chamber, and spreads rushes and flowers on the floor.

"Vient à l'ostel, lo feu esclaire,

Jons et flors espandre par l'aire.”—Dom. Man. in Eng. p. 246. Paul Hentzner, who visited England in 1598, speaking of the Royal Palace of Greenwich, where the Queen was then keeping her Court, says that even the floor of the Royal Presence Chamber was so covered. His words are 'pavimentum, uti in Angliâ moris est, fano erat constratum.'-Itinerarium, p. 135, ed. 1617. Horace Walpole, who translated this work, renders the word 'hay,' but adds in a note, 'he probably means rushes.' Even in the palaces of royalty the floors were generally strewed with rushes and straw, sometimes mixed with sweet herbs. the Household Roll of Edward II. we find an entry of money paid to John de

'In

thoughe he be nigh wery of this longe mater, barrayne of eloquence and pleasaunt sentence, and declare some what by the way of very and true frendship. Whiche perchaunce may be an allectife to good men to seeke for their semblable, on whom they may practise amitie. For as Tulli saieth, Nothinge is more to be loued or to be ioyned to gether, than C. Offi. i. similitude of good maners or vertues; where in be the same or semblable studies, the same willes or desires, in them. it hapneth that one in an other as moche deliteth as in him selfe.a

But nowe let us enserche what frendship or amitie is.

Carleford for going from York to Newcastle to procure straw for the King's chamber. Froissart, relating the death of Gaston, Count de Foix, says that 'the Count went to his chamber, which he found ready strewed with rushes and green leaves; the walls were hung with boughs, newly cut, for perfume and coolness, as the weather was marvellously hot.'-Turner's Dom. Arch. in Eng. vol. ii. p. 99, ed. 1853. 'In 1464, Sir John Howard,' we are told, 'paid sixteenpence “to the gromys off chambre ffor rushis" for his parlour. In the household of Ed. IV. the serjeant of the hall was to see that sufficient quantity of rushes were provided for the royal apartments.'-Ubi supra, vol. iii. p. 111, ed. 1859. Whilst, according to the Household Book of that King, it was the duty of the groom of the chamber to bring 'rushes and litter for the paylettes all the yere.' Mr. Turner says, 'Straw and rushes were used for covering the floors as late as the time of Henry VIII.' And he refers to vol. iv. of the Archæologia, p. 312, where is contained the Ceremonial of making the King's bed,' but nothing is said about rushes or straw for the floor; and the only mention of straw is a direction that a yeoman, with a dagger, is to search the straw of the King's Bed,' which manifestly implies that it was the pallet upon which the bed was made, and not a substitute for a floor cloth. However, although Mr. Turner does not adduce any instances to show the use of rushes or straw instead of carpets in this reign, it is certain that the former continued to be employed till a much later period. In Archæologia, vol. xix., extracts from the Household Book of Lord North, beginning Jan. 1, 1575, are printed, and Mr. Stevenson, by whom they were communicated, writing in 1819, in a note upon an item 'for matting,' says, 'Although mats and carpets were now in use, they had not superseded the ancient custom of strewing rushes over the floors of the apartments. A custom still kept up, at least a few years ago, in the Trinity House, Hull, and here (i.e. in Lord North's H. Book) we have frequent charges for them "for the chambers."-P. 296.

⚫ 'Nihil autem est amabilius nec copulatius, quàm morum similitudo bonorum. In quibus enim eadem studia sunt, eædemque voluptates, in his fit, ut æque quisque altero delectetur, ac seipso.'-De Off. lib. i. cap. 17.

Tulli de

Aristotle saieth that frendship is a vertue, or ioyneth with Ethic. vi. vertue; whiche is affirmed by Tulli, sayenge, that frendship can nat be without vertue, ne but in good Amicitia. men onely. Who be good men, he after declareth to be those parsones, whiche so do beare them selfes and in such wyse do lyue, that their faithe, suertie, equalitie and liberalitie be sufficiently proued. Ne that there is in them any couetise, wilfulnes, or foole hardinesse, and that in them is great stabilitie or constaunce; them suppose I (as they be taken) to be called good men, whiche do folowe (as moche as men may) nature, the chiefe capitayne or guide of mannes lyfe. Moreouer the same Tulli defineth frendship in this maner, sayenge, That it is none other thinge, but a parfecte consent of all thinges appertayninge as well to god as to man, with beneuolence and charitie; and that he knoweth nothinge giuen of god (except sapience) to man more commodius. Which definition is excellent and very true. For in god, and all thinge that commeth of god, nothing is of more greatter estimation than loue, called in latine Amor, whereof Amicitia commeth, named in englisshe frendshippe or amitie; the whiche taken a way from the lyfe of man, no house shall abide standinge, no felde shall be in culture. And that is

• Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα περὶ φιλίας ἕποιτ ̓ ἂν διελθεῖν· ἔστι γὰρ ἀρετή τις ἢ μετ' ἀρετὴς. -Eth. lib. viii. cap. I.

Nec sine virtute amicitia esse ullo pacto potest.'-De Amicit. cap. 6.

'Qui ita se gerunt, ita vivunt, ut eorum probetur fides, integritas, æquitas, liberalitas, nec sit in illis ulla cupiditas, vel libido, vel audacia, sintque magnâ constantiâ, ut ii fuerunt, modo quos nominavi; hos viros bonos, ut habiti sunt, sic etiam appellandos putemus ; quia sequantur, quantum homines possunt, naturam, optimam bene vivendi ducem.'-De Amicit. cap. 5.

Est autem amicitia nihil aliud, nisi omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum cum benevolentiâ et caritate, summa consensio: quâ quidem haud scio an, exceptâ sapientiâ, nihil quidquam melius homini sit a diis immortalibus datum.'— De Amicit. cap. 6.

e

'God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.'-1 John iv. 6.

1 'Amor enim, ex quo amicitia nominata, princeps est ad benevolentiam conjungendam.'-Cic. de Amicit. cap. 8.

'Quod si exemeris ex naturâ rerum benevolentiæ conjunctionem, nec domus

lightly parceiued, if a man do remember what commeth of dissention and discorde. Finally he semeth to take the sonne from the worlde, that taketh frendshippe from mannes life.a

b

Sens frendshippe can nat be but in good men, ne may nat be without vertue, we may be assured that therof none iuell may procede, or therewith any iuell thinge may participate. Wherfore in as moche as it may be but in a fewe parsones (good men being in a small nomber),a and also it is rare and seldome (as all vertues be communely), I will declare after the opinion of Philosophers, and partly by commune experience, who amonge good men be of nature moste apte to frendshippe.

Betwene all men that be good can nat all way be amitie, but it also requireth that they be of semblable or moche like

ulla, nec urbs stare poterit; ne agri quidem cultus permanebit.'-Cic. de Amicit. cap. 7.

* 'Solem enim è mundo tollere videntur, qui amicitiam è vitâ tollunt.'-Cic. de Amicit. cap. 13. 'Friendship,' says Professor Brown, 'is indeed the sunshine of those who otherwise would walk in darkness; it beams with unclouded radiance on our moral path, and is itself warmth and beauty to the very path along which it invites us to proceed.'-Philosophy of the Mind, vol. iv. p. 262, ed. 1851.

Ita fit verum illud, quod initio dixi, amicitiam, nisi inter bonos, esse non posse.'-Cic. de Amicit. cap. 18.

• Men of virtue only,' says Adam Smith, 'can feel that entire confidence in the conduct and behaviour of one another, which can at all times assure them that they can never either offend or be offended by one another. Vice is alway capricious-virtue only is regular and orderly. The attachment which is founded upon the love of virtue, as it is certainly of all attachments the most virtuous, so it is likewise the happiest, as well as the most permanent and secure. Such friendships need not be confined to a single person, but may safely embrace all the wise and virtuous with whom we have been long and intimately acquainted, and upon whose wisdom and virtue we can upon that account entirely depend.'—Theory of Moral Sentiments, p. 330, ed. 1853.

The author had evidently Juvenal's famous saying in his mind: 'Rari quippe boni,' which is, however, only a little less epigrammatic than Cicero's own remark, in the dialogue to which Sir Thos. Elyot makes frequent reference in the course of this chapter. Digni autem sunt amicitiâ, quibus in ipsis inest causa, cur diligantur. Rarum genus (et quidem omnia præclara rara), nec quidquam difficilius, quàm reperire, quod sit omni ex parte in suo genere perfectum.'-De Amicitia,

cap. 21.