*
'There are some pains,' said he, 'too acute for
consolation, or I would bring them to my kind consoler.'
*
But there are duties which come before gratitude and
offences which justly divide friends, far more
acquaintances.
*
Life, though largely, is not entirely carried on by
literature. We are subject to physical passions and
contortions; the voice breaks and changes, and speaks by
unconscious and winning inflections; we have legible
countenances, like an open book; things that cannot be said
look eloquently through the eyes; and the soul, not locked
into the body as a dungeon, dwells ever on the threshold
with appealing signals. Groans and tears, looks and
gestures, a flush or a paleness, are often the most clear
reporters of the heart, and speak more directly to the
hearts of others.
*
We are different with different friends; yet if we look
closely we shall find that every such relation reposes on
some particular apotheosis of oneself; with each friend,
although we could not distinguish it in words from any
other, we have at least one special reputation to preserve:
and it is thus that we run, when mortified, to our friend
or the woman that we love, not to hear ourselves called
better, but to be better men in point of fact. We seek
this society to flatter ourselves with our own good
conduct. And hence any falsehood in the relation, any
incomplete or perverted understanding, will spoil even the
pleasure of these visits.
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