Page:On Friendship (Howe, 1915).pdf/53



treated of by him in his boyhood by way of exercise only, as being a common theme and one abused in a thousand places in the books. I have no doubt but that he believed what he wrote; for he was conscientious enough not to lie even at his play: and I know moreover that had he had the choice, he would rather have been born in Venice than at Sarlac; and with good reason. But he had another maxim also sovereignly imprinted on his soul, to obey and to submit religiously to the laws under which he had been born, There was never a better citizen, or one more devoted to his country’s tranquillity, or more an enemy to the disturbances and innovations of his epoch; he would much rather have bent his talents to extinguishing them than to furnishing means to further them: he had a character moulded in the fashion of other ages than these. But, in lieu of this serious piece of work, I will substitute another, produced in the same season of his age, gayer and more playful.