Friendship,
'the wine of life[879],' should like a well-stocked cellar, be thus
continually renewed; and it is consolatory to think, that although we
can seldom add what will equal the generous _first-growths_ of our
youth, yet friendship becomes insensibly old in much less time than is
commonly imagined, and not many years are required to make it very
mellow and pleasant. _Warmth_ will, no doubt, make a considerable
difference. Men of affectionate temper and bright fancy will coalesce a
great deal sooner than those who are cold and dull.
[Page 300: Garrick's complimentary epigram. A.D. 1755.]
The proposition which I have now endeavoured to illustrate was, at a
subsequent period of his life, the opinion of Johnson himself. He said
to Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'If a man does not make new acquaintance as he
advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir,
should keep his friendship _in constant repair_.'
The celebrated Mr. Wilkes, whose notions and habits of life were very
opposite to his, but who was ever eminent for literature and vivacity,
sallied forth with a little _Jeu d'Esprit_ upon the following passage in
his Grammar of the English Tongue, prefixed to the _Dictionary_: '_H_
seldom, perhaps never, begins any but the first syllable.' In an Essay
printed in _The Publick Advertiser_, this lively writer enumerated many
instances in opposition to this remark; for example, 'The authour of
this observation must be a man of a quick _apprehension_, and of a most
_compre-hensive_ genius.
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