"
We shall not surrender ourselves heartily to any while we are
conscious that another is more deserving of our love. Yet
Friendship does not stand for numbers; the Friend does not count
his Friends on his fingers; they are not numerable. The more
there are included by this bond, if they are indeed included, the
rarer and diviner the quality of the love that binds them. I am
ready to believe that as private and intimate a relation may
exist by which three are embraced, as between two. Indeed, we
cannot have too many friends; the virtue which we appreciate we
to some extent appropriate, so that thus we are made at last more
fit for every relation of life. A base Friendship is of a
narrowing and exclusive tendency, but a noble one is not
exclusive; its very superfluity and dispersed love is the
humanity which sweetens society, and sympathizes with foreign
nations; for though its foundations are private, it is, in
effect, a public affair and a public advantage, and the Friend,
more than the father of a family, deserves well of the state.
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