Without Steadiness or Perseverance no Virtue can long subsist;
and however honest and well-meaning a Man's Principles may be, the
Want of this is sufficient to render them ineffectual, and useless to
himself or others. Nor can a Man pretend to enjoy or impart the
lasting Sweets of a strict and glorious Friendship, who has not
Solidity enough to despise the malicious Misrepresentations
frequently made use of to disturb it, and which never fail of Success
where a mutual Esteem is not founded upon the solid Basis of
Constancy and Virtue. An Intimacy of this sort, contracted by
chance, or the Caprice of an unstable Man, is liable to the most
violent Shocks, and even an intire Ruin, from very trifling Causes.
Such a Man's Incapacity for Friendship, makes all that know his
Character absolutely indifferent to him: His known Fickleness of
Temper renders him too inconsiderable to be fear'd as a Foe, or
caress'd as a Friend.
I may venture to say there never was a Man eminently famous but
what was distinguish'd by this very Qualification; and few if any can
live comfortably even in a private Life without it; for a Man who has
no End in View, no Design to pursue, is like an irresolute Master of
a Ship at Sea, that can fix upon no one Port to steer her to, and
consequently can call not one Wind favourable to his Wishes.
'Tis by his firm and unshaken Adherence to his Country's Cause,
his constant Bravery in her Defence, and his burying himself but in
her Ruins, that the rigid and severe _Cato_ shines thro' those
admirable Lines of _Lucan_, of which my Motto is a part, superior to
the learn'd and eloquent _Cicero_, the great and majestick _Pompey_,
or the mighty and invincible _Caesar_ himself.
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