ÍÌ f;!; Ij 302 Walking with Wife Men, 5 E R M. ffrong is this propenfity of human nature, XII. to defcend fometimes from his heights of pride and vanity, to a friendly communica- tion with his fellows. But this general inclination, or inftina I may call it, ekerteth itfelf freely, and, as I obferved before, with a great difference; and it is the agreeablenefs óf character and difpofition which direð our choice. The fenfual, the men of bufinefs, the curious triflers, the learned, and the pious, join with one another, and take pleafure in con- verfing together. To walk with wife men, then, or with the virtuos and good, is to Engle out perfons of that character, in pre- ference to all others, for our intimate com- panions. And, in the next place, it muff import the improvement of converfation for the purpofes of wifdom. If men of that cha- rafter,in any inffances depart from it, and converfe foolifhly, fpending their time in trifling vanity, or much of it in an indiffe- rent manner, about the affairs and innocent amufements of life, as often they do, in fo far they do not walk together as wife men, or to the purpofes of wifdom ; though I do not fay that, in all the cafes mentioned, they at inconfiftently with their general character
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