Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	affection_n	good_a	love_n	1,136	5	5.0445	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40750	Advice to a young lord written by his father ...	Fairfax, Thomas Fairfax, Baron, 1657-1710.	1691 (1691)	Wing F255A; ESTC R13706	24,090	146

again to his sin sins more grosly than at first so to leave the Court and return thither again is such an Error that is not excusable save with this that the return was to sell Vertue and gain Wealth since 't is a great kindness of Fortune or a greatness of Vertue to escape that Gulf. Against the Envy of the Court as against the Plague there is no better preservative than a Retreat a Remedy often practised but with different success it being very dangerous for popular Persons and such as have had great Command to absent themselves without leave or dismission for it not only breeds suspicions and jealousies of their disaffection and consequently of a Rebellion but likewise exposes them to the unobstructed Designs and Malice of their Enemies which seldom end but in Ruine This is generally the Complaint of Courts wherein you must understand there is not the least concurrence of the Prince to give any such cause for it but that by Tradition the Grandees as by a Rule and ever since Monarchy was Court Arts have been and can vye precedency with any Mystery I never knew any great Favourite who practised any new ways of his own Some have been nobler and more Magnificent than others freer in access and more affable but yet still kept close to their Court Maxims nor ever did their private Vertues gain upon their publick Concerns It is possible a Man may acquire an Estate at Court but it is more probable that he may lose one that which is got there through how many Curses and Imprecations it passes That which is lost how many Tears and Deprecations attend it While you can therefore pay your Devotion and your Loyalty to your Prince at home and probably be better accepted what need have you of a dangerous and unnecessary Pilgrimage to the Shrine to pay a Personal Adoration Therefore my advice is that unless your Prince command your Personal attendance you 'd live at home among your Neighbours where your Thoughts may be at harmony and your quiet uninterrupted Of FRIENDSHIP IN Friendship you are not to use a Ranging Liberty suspicion on the one hand and reason of State on the other forbidding it But yet what you want in the Multitude of Friends who like flyes fasten on the sweets of Riches and Honour will be very well compensated if you have the happiness to find but one or two whose affections are sincere and unfeigned these far excel the many Cyphers which commonly attend on Greatness To make a right choice therefore you must first propose to your self the Inconstancy of Man the most changeable Creature in the World every breath of Wind forms him to a various shape think not therefore of making a Friendship fixt and Eternal How ardently have Men loved some even beyond the desire of dying for them when in a Moment as it were a hasty Ebullition of Choler hath rendred them exceeding offensive that hath sunk them into our hate and execration The consideration of this will keep you from over-wearying any Man and from a total trust and confidence in him and beget in you a severest exercise and consequently a firmer relyance on your own Vertues and Abilities Nothing sooner corrupts or weakens Friendship than an over hasty entertainment of it as praecoce Fruit which soonest withers and decays Judgment is the only Cement that closes and binds the affections of Men where that 's wanting 't is like building with untempered Mortar the Structure like to totter and fall on our own heads I never knew any so good and virtuous but others have thought him vile and impious and hated him And contrarywise none so bad and dissolute but others have esteemed him honest and loved him either the Ignorance the Envy or the partiality of those that judge do constitute a various Man In some Report has anticipated Judgment in some an accident is the Cause and disposes us to love or hate The Soul very often is led by secret and uninvestigable ways and motions to Love and knows not why But 't is time alone and long tryal and probation which seldom fails to give right information whereas Nature Art and Report may deceive you Of all Men a Coward and a Drunkard are the worst to make Friends of for the one upon the least probability of danger will desert you the other will divulge the Secrets you have disclosed to him The little experience which you already have will I fancy somewhat inform your judgment but for your better direction and guidance herein I shall give you these properties of Friendship which my longer observation has found to be true Characters of it He who is really your Friend will give you Counsel before you require it and that 's the reason a Man cannot keep a Friend by constraint nor oblige Secrecy by coertion Most Men regard their profit and therefore use their Friends as Men do their Beasts carefully attend and look after them not out of Love to the Creature but for their own proper Advantages But they who do so in friendship abridge themselves and want the most desirable fruition in the World which is natural and reciprocal Amity He that loves you extreamly will as extreamly hate you moderate therefore and sober Friendship is most preferable and since Friends must be had if your Happiness be to find good ones beware you incur not that unhappiness of changing them he certainly is in the best condition that is furnished with the best Men for his Friends Nevertheless let no obligation to them cause you to dispense with your Conscience or Religion and have always a care not to trust any thing to your most intimate Friend but what you cannot keep hid from time for a small distaste and a little time will discover those Faults which many years have conceal'd Never submit to your Friend if he require of you any thing unlawful and what you cannot with a safe Conscience grant nor do you use Friends as we use Flowers smell to them as long as fresh green and fragrant and then lay 'em aside for so commonly Friendships conciliated by interest or fancy usually terminate But especially beware of mercinary Love which always leaves you when your Money fails whereas true affection is durable and eternal Let your Vertues procure and get you Friends throughout the World for Love's Arms will join the distant corners of the Universe and in your good Actions you 'l not only enjoy a Complacency and Satisfaction but be a President and Example to those about you Believe it nothing will gain you so much Love and Respect as your Uprightness and sincerity Greatness was always suspicious without some conspicuous proofs of a more than ordinary Integrity Nor will true Glory attend Deceit and Hypocrisy You know how at Old Rome there was no passage to the Temple of Honour but through the Temple of Vertue NON ITVR IN TEMPLVM HONORIS NISI PER TEMPLVM VIRTVTIS