William Penn. (1644–1718). Fruits of Solitude.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Friendship
106. Friendship is the next Pleasure we may hope for: And where we find it not at home, or have no home to find it in, we may seek it abroad. It is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.
107. There can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom. Friendship loves a free Air, and will not be penned up in streight and narrow Enclosures. It will speak freely, and act so too; and take nothing ill where no ill is meant; nay, where it is, ’twill easily forgive, and forget too, upon small Acknowledgments.
108. Friends are true Twins in Soul; they Sympathize in every thing, and have the Love and Aversion.
109. One is not happy without the other, nor can either of them be miserable alone. As if they could change Bodies, they take their turns in Pain as well as in Pleasure; relieving one another in their most adverse Conditions.
110. What one enjoys, the other cannot Want. Like the Primitive Christians, they have all things in common, and no Property but in one another.