It is of no small importance in life to be cautious what company we
keep, and with whom we enter into friendship; for though we are ever so
well disposed ourselves, and free from vice, yet if those with whom
we frequently converse, are engaged in a lewd, wicked course, it will
be almost impossible for us to escape being drawn in with them. If we
are truly wise, and would shun those rocks of pleasure upon which so
many have split, we should forbid ourselves all manner of commerce and
correspondence with those who are steering a course, which reason tells
us is not only not for our advantage, but would end in our destruction.
All the virtue we can boast of, will not be sufficient to insure our
safety, if we embark in bad company; for though our philosophy were
such as would preserve us from being tainted and infected with their
manners, yet their characters would twist and entwine themselves along
with ours, in so intricate a fold, that the world would not take the
trouble to unravel and separate them. Reputation is of a blending
nature, like water; that which is derived from the clearest spring, if
it chance to mix with a foul current, runs on undistinguished, in one
muddy stream, and must ever partake of the colour and condition of its
associate.
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