The New Hampshire Gazette

A Receipt to establish True Friendship.

In Pliny's Natural History, we find a curious Receipt for making the Roman Friendship; a Cordial that was universally esteemed in those Days, and very few Families of any Credit were without it. In the same Place, he says, they were indebted to the Greeks for this Receipt, who had it in the greatest Perfection.

The old Roman Friendship was a Composition of several Ingredients, of which the Principal was Union of Hearts, a fine Flower that grew in several Parts of the Empire; Sincerity, Frankness, Disinterestedness, Pity and Tenderness, of each an equal Quantity; these were all mixed together with two rich Oils, which they call perpetual kind Wishes, and Serenity of Temper; and the whole was strongly perfumed with the Desire of pleasing, which gave it a most grateful Smell, and was a sure Restorative in all Sorts of Vapours. This Cordial thus prepared, was of so durable a Nature, that no Length of Time could waste it: And what is very remarkable, says our Author, it increased in Weight and Value the longer you kept it.

The Moderns have most grofly adulterated this fine Receipt: Some of the Ingredients, indeed, are not to be found; but what they impose upon you, as Friendship, is as follows:

Outward Professions (a common Weed that grows every where) instead of the Flower of Union; the Desire of being pleased, a large Quantity; of Self Interest, Conveniency, and Reservedness, many Handfuls; a little Pity and Tenderness. But some pretend to make up without these two last; And the common Oil of Inconstancy, (which, like our Linseed Oil, is cold drawn every Hour) serves to mix them together. Most of the Ingredients being of a perishable Nature, it will not keep, and shews itself to be counterfeit, by lessening continually in Weight and Value.