uth better
by your eyes than your ears; in short, never take a character upon
common report, but enquire into it yourself; for common report, though
it is right in general, may be wrong in particulars.

24. Beware of those who, on a slight acquaintance, make a tender of
their friendship, and seem to place a confidence in you; 'tis ten to one
but they deceive and betray you: however, do not rudely reject them upon
such a supposition; you may be civil to them, though you do not entrust
them. Silly men are apt to solicit your friendship, and unbosom
themselves upon the first acquaintance: such friends cannot be worth
hearing, their friendship being as slender as their understanding; and
if they proffer their friendship with a design to make a property of
you, they are dangerous acquaintance indeed.

25. Not but the little friendships of the weak may be of some use to
you, if you do not return the compliment; and it may not be amiss to
seem to accept those of designing men, keeping them, as it were, in
play, that they may not be openly your enemies; for their enmity is the
next dangerous thing to their friendship. We may certainly hold their
vices in abhorrence, without being marked out as their personal enemy.
The general rule is to have a real reserve with almost every one, and a
seeming reserve with almost no one; for it is very disgusting to seem
reserved, and very dangerous not to be so. Few observe the true medium.
Many are ridiculously misterious upon trifles and many indiscreetly
communicative of all they know.

36. There is a kind of short-lived friendship that takes place among
young men, from a connection in their pleasures only; a friendship too
often attended with bad consequences. This companion of your pleasures,
young and unexperienced, will probably, in the heat of convivial mirth,
vow a perpetual friendship, and unfold himself to you without the least
reserve; but new associations, change of fortune, or change of place,
may soon break this ill-timed connection, and an improper use may be
made of it.

27. Be one, if you will, in young companies, and bear your part like
others in the social festivity of youth; nay, trust them with your
innocent frolics, but keep your serious matters to yourself; and if you
must at any time make _them_ known, let it be to some tried friend of
great experience; and that nothing may tempt him to become your rival,
let that friend be in a different walk of life from yourself