Envy not allowed.

Qualifications of a friend.

you to trifle with his feelings, and which, of course, will prevent his trifling with yours. Great familiarity is inconsistent with any abiding friendship.

"The man who hails you Tom, or Jack,
And proves, by thumping on your back,
His sense of your great merit,

Is such a friend that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed,

To pardon or to bear it."

You will soon be ashamed to love one for whom you have not a high esteem. Love will only follow esteem. In order to have or keep a friend, you must not have a particle of envy towards him, however exalted his character or merits. Says a beautiful writer, "He who can once doubt whether he should rejoice in his friend's being happier than himself, may depend upon it, that he is an utter stranger to this virtue."

You will always observe that those friendships which are the purest, and the most abiding, are chosen for the good qualities of the heart, rather than for those of the head. I should be sorry to give the impression, that the finest qualities of the heart may not accompany the highest intellectual character; and I am satisfied that there is no good reason why they do But it has been shrewdly remarked, "I do not remember that Achates, who is represented as the first favorite, either gives his advice, or strikes a blow, through the whole Æneid."

not.

How to keep friends. The great duty of friendship.

Prudence is a prime quality in a friend; and zeal and noise are not always indicative of the greatest ability or desire to do you good. But in order to have a true friend, you must determine to be to him just what you wish him to be to you. While I would recommend every young man to commit to memory the whole of Cowper's beautiful description of "Friendship," I would particularly request him to keep the following sentiment uppermost:

"Who seeks a friend, should come disposed
T’exhibit, in full bloom disclosed,
The graces and the beauties
That form the character he seeks;
For 'tis a union that bespeaks

Reciprocated duties."

A similarity of inclinations is by no means essential to a perfect and abiding friendship. We admire those traits of character which we do not ourselves possess. They are new to us, and we feel that from them we can supply our own defects.

Although it is considered one great duty of friendship to discover faults, and give reproofs, yet it is a dangerous duty. It must be done very delicately and kindly, and be sure not too frequently. There were once two friends, room-mates, who agreed that, every night, they would tell each other every thing, which they had seen during the day, which was in the least degree out of the way. They did so a while. They

The true duty of a friend.

Veracity essential.

did it kindly; but it was too much for poor human nature. They soon parted, and took new rooms, but without ever disclosing to each other the true cause, even if they were conscious of it at the time. I do not, on the whole, believe it is the appropriate business of a friend to discover faults and reprove you— but it is, to support you in high and noble pursuits, raising your spirits, and adding to your courage, till you out-do yourself. Are those families the happiest, where every member is to be tried by a constant or frequent fault-finding? Far from it. If you wish your friend to do well, encourage him, sustain him when in trials or troubles, and thus you become the "medicine of life." Cultivate your old friends: but you must form new ones also; for our changes by removal and death are so frequent, that he who now makes no new friends will soon find himself without any. Need it be said, that a strict and unwavering regard for truth is absolutely essential to having friends? We do not wish to be associated with those whose veracity can, in the least, be suspected. "When speech is employed as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave, and seek prey only for himself," and in vain ask or seek for a friend.

I have dwelt somewhat on this point, longer, perhaps, than was to be expected, under the title of this chapter. But it is my wish that all my readers may

Part of daily habits to cultivate friends.

have friends, select, disinterested friends; and I know that they cannot, unless they make it a part of their daily habits and business to cultivate their own hearts, and render themselves worthy of being beloved. The tree cannot live and thrive without great care ; but if it receive that care, it will bear fruit abundantly for many years. How often has the heart of my reader thrilled at the warm greetings of one who said, "Your father and I were friends!" Friendship can lessen no joy by having a sharer. It brightens every one. At the same time, it diminishes sorrow, in every shape, by dividing the burden.

"Hast thou a friend?-thou hast indeed

A rich and large supply—

Treasure to serve your every need,

Well managed, till you die.”

CHAPTER III.

STUDY.

WHEN the company had wearied themselves in trying to make an egg stand on its end, they were amazed at the simplicity of the thing, when once they had seen Columbus do it.

"Why, any body can do that!"

"Why, then, did you not?" was the searching reply.

It seems to be an easy affair to study. There is the room, and there the books and there the lesson: what more do you want? You want to know how to go to work-how to study. The interruptions to study, even when the student has nothing else to do, —not a care, not a burden of any kind to trouble him, -are numerous and vexatious. Deductions must be made for ill health, and seasons when the spirits droop, and when there is a total disrelish for study, and a want of courage, by which the mind can be brought up to action; for a total ignorance of the best methods of studying; for the interruptions of companions who have yawned over their own books, till they could make little or nothing out of them, and then have come to get sympathy and countenance from others; for