There’s No Tryal of a True Friend but in Cases of Difficulty; as Loss,
Trouble, or Danger; for that’s the Time of Distinguishing what a Man does
for My sake, and what for his Own.
It is an Unhappy Thing that Princes and Great Men, who seem to have
the least need of Friends, should in truth have the Greatest, and yet
at the same time the Greatest Difficulty of Knowing them too, for want
of Occasions to put them to the Tryal. There is no Proof of Friendship
like Frequent Experiment. Now Princes are above the want of Those Common
Offices that pass for Friendship betwixt Man and Man, as in Matter of
Money, Liberty, Protection, and the like. People do not Flock to Court
so much for their Masters Service, as for the making of their Own
Fortunes. How shall any Man distinguish now betwixt a Parasite, and
a Man of Honour; where they are All on the Receiving Hand, and where
Hypocrisie, and Interest looks so like Duty and Affection? He that well
Considers the Practise of the World will find the Fiction of the Rich
Man in This Fable to be in some Proportion the Common case of Mankind.
An Undistinguishable Facility shall never fail of Meeting with an
Undistinguishable Infidelity; which is no Other then a Just Judgment upon
an Inconsiderate Bounty. ’Tis the Benefactors Fate in fine, to be either
Deserted or Betray’d by those that he has fed, and with _Acteon_, to be
Worry’d by _his Own Curs_. He that keeps an Open House for All Comers,
should do well to Consider, that there are _Oglios_ of _Guests_ as well
as of _Dishes_, and that the Liberty of a Common Table is as Good as
a Tacit Invitation to All sorts of Intruders; as _Buffons_, _Spies_,
_Tale-Bearers_, _Flatterers_, _Epicures_, _Indigents_, &c. Now These are
All but so many Flies that Come and Go with the Meat. And whereas the
_Mythologist_ lays the Stress upon This Point, That the Master of the
House could find but _Two Friends_ in such a Crowd of People; ’tis my
Admiration on the Other hand rather, that he should find so _Many_, in
the Licence of a Conversation that was made so Scandalous by the Company.