There can be no True Friendship, properly so Call’d, but betwixt Equals.
The Rich and the Poor, the Strong and the Weak will never agree together:
For there’s Danger on the One side, and None on the Other, and ’tis the
Common Interest of All Leagues and Societies, to have the Respective
Parties Necessary to One Another. And there needs no Ill Will, or Malice
neither, to do the Mischief, but the Disparity, or Disproportion Alone
is enough to do the Work. The same Quantity of Wine that makes One Man
Drunk, will not Quench Another Man’s Thirst. The same Expence that breaks
One Man’s Back is not a Flea-biting to Another: Wherefore, Men should
sort themselves with their Equals; for a Rich Man that Converses upon the
Square with a Poor Man, shall as certainly Undoe him, as a _Brass-Pot_
shall break an _Earthen_ One, if they Meet and Knock together.