ACTIONS, NOT WORDS.

A slender acquaintance with the world, must convince every man, that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends; and that the most liberal professions of good-will are very far from being the surest marks of it. I should be happy, if my own experience had afforded fewer examples of the little dependence to be placed upon them.

PROFESSIONS OF FRIENDSHIP.

The arts of dissimulation I despise; and my feelings will not permit me to make professions of friendship, to the man I deem my enemy, and whose system of conduct forbids it.

LETTERS OF FRIENDSHIP.

It is not the letters of my friends, which give me trouble, or add aught to my perplexity.

To correspond with those I love, is among my highest gratifications.

Letters of friendship require no study the com

munications they contain, flow with ease; and allow'ances are expected and made.

HOSPITALITY OF FRIENDSHIP.

If the assurances of the sincerest esteem and affection, if the varieties of uncultivated nature, the novelty of exchanging the gay and delightful scenes of Paris, with which you are surrounded, for the rural amusements of a country in its infancy, if the warbling notes of the feathered songsters of our lawns and meads, can, for a moment, make you forget the melody of the opera, and the pleasures of the court, these all invite you to give us this honor, and the opportunity of expressing to you, personally, those sentiments of attachment and love, with which you have inspired us.

1786

I repeat to you † the assurances of my friendship, and of the pleasure I should feel in seeing you in the shade of those trees which my hands have planted; and which, by their rapid growth, at once indicate a knowledge of my declining years, and their disposition to spread their mantles over me before I go hence to return no more. For this, their gratitude, I will nur

ture them while I stay.

1784.

*The Marchioness de Lafayette.

The Chevalier de Chastellux.

FRIENDSHIP IN ADVERSITY.

My friendship, so far from being diminished, has increased in the ratio of his misfortunes.

1796.

RENEWAL OF FRIENDSHIP'S COVENANT.

The friendship I have conceived, will not be impaired by absence; but it may be no unpleasing circumstance to brighten the chain, by a renewal of the

covenant.

PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP AND POLITICAL DISAGREEMENT.

The friendship which I ever professed and felt for you, met with no diminution, from the difference of our political sentiments.

I know the rectitude of my own intentions; and, believing in the sincerity of yours, lamented, though I did not condemn your renunciation of the creed I had adopted.

Nor do I think any person or power ought to do it,

*Lafayette, imprisoned at Olmütz.

The Rev. Bryan Fairfax, an Episcopalian clergyman, of Alexandria, Virginia. He afterward became the eighth and last Lord Fair fax.

whilst your conduct is not opposed to the general interest of the people, and the measures they are pursuing.

Our actions, depending upon ourselves, may be controlled, while the powers of thinking, originating in higher causes, cannot always be moulded to our wishes.

1778.

II. BENEVOLENCE.

Amid all the tumult of the camp, and all the excesses inseparable from civil war, humanity took refuge under his tent, and never was repolled from it. In triumphs and in adversity, he was ever tranquil as wisdom, and simple as virtue. The gentle affections abode in the depths of his heart, even in those moments when the claims of his own cause seemed to sanction in a manner the laws of vengeance.

M. FONTANES.

There was a gravity and reserve, indeed, in his countenance and deportment, partly natural, and partly the effect of habitual cares for the public weal; but theso were wholly unmixed with the least austerity or moroseness.

True native dignity was happily blended with the most placid mildness and condescension. J. M. SEWALL, Portsmouth, N. II. Dec. 31, 1799.

SOCIAL COURTESY.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried, before you give them your confidence.

Every action in company, ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.

COMPANY.

The company in which you will improve most, will be least expensive to you.