is able to countervail the goodness of his fidelity. A faithful friend is the medicine of life and immortality. He that hath found him hath found a treasure.”[1] Here the Holy Ghost speaks as of a rare thing; as if a true friend were hardly to be found on earth. How much more difficult then must it not be to find many who truly agree with each other in all things? If there were a city in which all the inhabitants lived without passion and self-interest, and in that harmony, meekness, friendship, and confidence that Our Lord recommends to the faithful, where nothing is ever done contrary to honesty, justice, decency, or the divine law, where each one truly loves his neighbor as himself: would not a city of that kind be looked on as a prodigy, and would not every one wish to live in it? But, alas! not only is there no city to be found in which the inhabitants live on such good terms with each other, but one could with reason fix a high price on even a single house in any town of which one could say with truth what Phocion the Athenian said of his when he was selling it: this house has good neighbors. Ah, there is difficulty enough in finding a family of which all the members live in love and harmony with each other, in which husband and wife, parents and children, masters and servants do not fight and quarrel.
On account of the different tastes and inclinations of men. Nor is this to be wondered at; men are the same everywhere: we are of contrary dispositions, humors, and inclinations. Every one has some faults and failings that give rise to disputes and trouble. One is clever, the other stupid; one is learned, the other ignorant; one is honest, the other crafty and cunning; one is amiable, the other obstinate; one is meek, the other quarrelsome; one is patient, the other passionate; one is humble, the other proud; one is generous, the other niggardly and sparing; one is virtuous and pious, the other wicked and godless; one is cheerful, the other melancholic. One wishes to be better than the other; to appear richer, nobler, more important than the other; no one likes to yield or give way to his neighbor. And this is properly the source from which spring all vexation, misunderstandings, quarrelings, and disunion. Moreover, if one is anxious to observe peace and charity, and to suit himself to the contrary dispositions of others, which is a great virtue, there are people who never leave one in peace; reckless men who
- ↑ Amico fideli nulla est comparatio; et non est digna ponderatio auri et argenti ad bonitatem fidei illius. Amicus fidelis medicamentum vitæ et immortalitatis. Qui autem invenit illum, invenit thesauram.—Ecclus. vi. 15, 16, 14.
