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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=534744" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Temple of Friendship</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sacred to peace, within a wood's recess,<br>A blest retreat, where courtiers never press,<br>A temple stands, where art did never try<br>With pompous wonders to enchant the eye;<br>There are no dazzling ornaments, nor vain,<br>But truth, simplicity, and nature reign:<br>The virtuous Gauls raised erst the noble shrine,<br>And sacred vowed to Friendship's power divine.<br>Mistaken mortals who believed their race,<br>Would never cease to crowd to such a place!<br>Orestes' name, and Pylades' appear,<br>Wrote on the front, names still to Friendship dear:<br>Pirithous' medal of uncommon size,<br>Those of soft Nisus and Achates wise.<br>All these are heroes, and as friends renowned,<br>These names are great, but still in fable found;<br>The power to this remote retreat retired,<br>Nor Tripod boasts, nor priests with truth inspired;<br>She miracles but seldom can effect,<br>No popish saint e'er met with such neglect.<br>Still in her presence faithful truth attends,<br>And to the goddess needful succor lends:<br>Truth's every ready to enlighten all,<br>But few on truth for kind assistance call.<br>In vain she waits for votaries at her shrine,<br>None come, though all at wanting her repine;<br>Her hand holds forth the register exact,<br>Of every generous, every friendly act;<br>Favors in which esteem with friendship vied,<br>Received not meanly, not conferred with pride:<br>Such favors as those who confer forget,<br>And who receive, declare without regret.<br>This history of the virtues of mankind,<br>Within a narrow compass is confined;<br>In Gothic characters all these are traced<br>Upon two sheets, by time almost defaced.<br>By what strange frenzy is mankind possessed,<br>Friendship is banished now from every breast;<br>Yet all usurp of Friend the sacred name,<br>And vilest hypocrites bring in their claim.<br>All that they're faithful to her laws maintain,<br>And even her enemies her rights profane:<br>In regions subject to the pope's command,<br>Thus we see beads oft in an atheist's hand.<br>'Tis said the goddess, each pretended friend,<br>Once in her presence summoned to attend;<br>She fixed the day on which they should be there,<br>A prize proposing for each faithful pair;<br>Who with a tenderness like hers replete,<br>Amongst true friends might justly claim a seat;<br>Then quickly came allured by such a prize,<br>The French who novelty still idolize:<br>A multitude before the temple came,<br>And first, two courtly friends preferred their claim,<br>By interest joined, thy walked still hand in hand,<br>And of their union Friendship thought the band:<br>Post-haste a courier came and made report,<br>That there was then a vacancy at court;<br>Away each friend polite that moment flies,<br>Forsakes at once the temple and the prize;<br>Thus in a moment friends are turned to foes,<br>Each swears his rival warmly to oppose:<br>Four devotees next issue from the throng,<br>Poring on prayer-books as they pass along;<br>Their charity to mankind overflows,<br>And with religious zeal their bosom glows.<br>A pampered prelate one with fat o'ergrown,<br>Triple-chinned, much to apoplexy prone;<br>The swine quite gorged with tithes, and overfed,<br>At length by indigestion's force lies dead:<br>Quick the confessor clears the sinner's score,<br>His soles are greased, his body sprinkled o'er,<br>And spruced up by the curate of the place,<br>To go his heavenly journey with good grace;<br>His three friends o'er him merrily say prayers,<br>His benefice alone excites their cares:<br>Devoutly rivals grown, each still pretends<br>Attachment most sincere to both his friends;<br>Yet all in making interest at the court,<br>Their brothers downright Jansenists report.<br>Two youths of fashion next came arm in arm,<br>Their eyes and hearts, their mistress letters charm:<br>These as they passed along they read aloud,<br>And both displayed their persons to the crowd;<br>Some favorite airs they sing, while they advance<br>Up to the altar, just as to a dance:<br>They fight about some trifle, one is slain,<br>And Friendship's altar hence receives a stain;<br>The less mad of the two with conquest crowned,<br>Left his dear friend expiring on the ground.<br>Next Lisis, with her much loved Chloe came,<br>From infancy their pleasures were the same;<br>Alike their humor, and alike their age,<br>Those trifles which the female heart engage;<br>Lisis was prone to Chloe to impart,<br>They spoke the overflowings of the heart;<br>At last one lover touched both female friends,<br>And strange to tell! here all their Friendship ends;<br>Lisis and Chloe Friendship's shrine forsake,<br>And the high road to Hatred's temple take.<br>The beauteous Zara shone forth in her turn,<br>With eyes that languish, whilst our hearts they burn:<br>'What languor,' said she, 'reigns in this abode!<br>By that sad goddess, say what joy's bestowed?<br>Here dismal melancholy dwells alone,<br>For love's soft joys are ever here unknown.'<br>Leaving the place, crowds followed her behind,<br>And struck with envy, twenty beauties pined:<br>Where next my Zara went, is known to none,<br>And Friendship's glorious prize could not be won:<br>The goddess everywhere so much admired;<br>So little known, and yet by all admired;<br>With cold upon her sacred altar froze--<br>Hence hapless mortals, hence derive your woes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Voltaire">Voltaire</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=534744" data-title="The Temple of Friendship de Voltaire" data-description="Sacred to peace, within a wood's recess,
A blest retreat, where courtiers never press,
A temple stands, where art did never try
With pompous wonders to enchant the eye;
There are no dazzling ornaments, nor vain,
But truth, simplicity, and nature r..."></div>
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