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THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF MANKIND. [Part Ill.

party, may unexpectedly have caused alienation of feeling, — or,lastly, our friend may have forsaken the path of honor and virtue,and after all possible attempts to reclaim him, we may have beenunsuccessful. By the last of these contingencies, all friendshipmust inevitably be broken ; and, by each of the others, its disso-lution is threatened. From these very contingencies, however,certain grave duties arise.

(1.) The first of these duties is this. When alienation offeeling is threatened from any cause, or has commenced, weought to use our best endeavours to remove the cause, and restorethe confidence and good feeling which once existed. Betweengood men, earnest and sincere endeavours, and a reasonableshare of moderation and mutual forbearance, will most gener-ally insure this happy result. There are few misunderstandingsbetween friends, which, in the first stages, may not be reconciled,if reconciliation is prudently attempted and earnestly desired.

(2.) But, even if all efforts of this kind have proved unsuc-cessful, it is still a high duty of friendship not to violate theconfidence which has been mutually reposed. It is sufficientlyunhappy, that the bond of a relation so intimate must be broken ;the duty still remains of permitting nothing to be disclosed, whichwas imparted under the seal of confidence. ' The only exceptionto this, is, when a former friend has himself first broken the sealof confidence, and has so far violated this duty, as to make it aground of assailing our conduct and character. In such a case,we must be permitted to defend ourselves ; and, to this end, wemay rightfully use what has been imparted to us under the con-fidence of a friendship, broken without our fault, and now at-tempted to be used to injure us.