quit the stage

After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the affections, and support of the
judgment), followeth the last fruit; which is like the pomegranate, full of many kernels; I
mean aid, and bearing a part, in all actions and occasions. Here the best way to represent
to life the manifold use of friendship, is to cast and see how many things there are, which
a man cannot do himself; and then it will appear, that it was a sparing speech of the
ancients, to say, that a friend is another himself; for that a friend is far more than
himself. Men have their time, and die many times, in desire of some things which they
principally take to heart; the bestowing of a child, the finishing of a work, or the like.
If a man have a true friend, he may rest almost secure that the care of those things will
continue after him. So that a man hath, as it were, two lives in his desires. A man hath a
body, and that body is confined to a place; but where friendship is, all offices of life are
as it were granted to him, and his deputy. For he may exercise them by his friend. How many
things are there which a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man
can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them; a man cannot sometimes
brook to supplicate or beg; and a number of the like. But all these things are graceful, in
a friend’s mouth, which are blushing in a man’s own. So again, a man’s person hath many
proper relations, which he cannot put off. A man cannot speak to his son but as a father; to
his wife but as a husband; to his enemy but upon terms: whereas a friend may speak as the
case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. But to enumerate these things were
endless; I have given the rule, where a man cannot fitly play his own part; if he have not a
friend, he may quit the stage.