This is to bid Men have a care What Company they keep; for when the Good
and the Bad are taken together, they must Go together. Not but that a
Man may lie under some Obligation of Duty and Respect, to Visit, Eat
and Correspond with Many People that he does not Like. And This may be
well enough Done too; provided it be out of Decency, Discretion, or Good
Manners, rather then upon Choice and Inclination. We cannot Honestly
let a Civil Enemy into a Town that’s Besieg’d, or hold any sort of
Intelligence with him (though but in a Bare Curiosity) about the Affairs
of the Garrison. Let a Man Consider now, how much more Dangerous, and
Unwarrantable it is to take an Enemy into our Souls, then into our Forts.
With all Honour yet to a Brave Adversary, apart from his Cause.
’Tis the Fortune of many a Good Man to fall into Bad Company, and to
be Undone by’t, and yet no way Guilty all this while, of the Iniquity
of his Companions. The Letter of the Law Sweeps All in such a Case,
without Distinction of Persons: To say Nothing of the Shame and Dishonour
of being taken up with Rogues and Felons; over and above the Lash of
Publique Justice, and the Contagion of a Lewd Conversation. _Shew me the
Company_ (says the _Adage_) _and I’ll tell you the Man_. What would a
body think now of a Prime _Minister_ that should Conjobble Matters of
State with _Tumblers_ and _Buffoons_; Confer Politiques with Tinkers and
Carr-men? would not any man Judge their Souls to be of the same Standard
and Allay? and that there were no more betwixt them then Cross or Pile,
which should be the Lord, and which the Scoundrel? Or, according to the
Fable, which the _Stork_, and which the _Goose_? For ’tis not the Purple,
but the Virtue, that makes a _Man of Honour_; truly so call’d.