i257: ‘THE SHIPWRECK.

interested friendship to the love of virtue and the obser-
- vance of the means that conduct to it!

But, when we speak of friendship, we mean not that
murderous friendship which incites to evil, and associates
us with the wicked. In vain do these criminal intimacies |
usurp this sacred title. They are as pernicious as hatred
and revenge. They present the hideous picture of men
lavishipg on each other all the tokens of genuine affection, .
only to render their mutual destruction more easy and
certain. They extend the hand to those whom they de-
sire to drag into the mire of voluptuousness, or to preci-
pitate with themselves into the bottomless gulf of despair.

Let us then love one another: but with that true love »
which inspires to good actions and exalted self-sacrifice—
with that generous love which knows how to bear an in-
jury and pardon an offence—with that pure and holy love
which spurns, and elevates itself above, the gratification
of the passions, and exalts us even to that Gop from whom
it emanates, and to whom it returns.

THE END.