Self-love and self-admiration expose a man to the attempts of flatterers, 100. Mean, poor, and worthless people are not flattered, but those of a generous and noble nature, 101. In the choice of friends, let us be wary, yet not over scrupulous, 102. A parasite who is cringing and obsequious is not difficult of detection, 103. The great danger is from those who personate the true friend, yet are selfish and insincere, 104. True friendship arises from a conformity of tempers and dispositions, 105. The flatterer attempts such a conformity, 106. It is not natural and uniform, but a mere disguise, 107. The flatterer is mutable and inconstant, 109. He only reflects the humors of other men, 109. The true friend imitates and commends only what is worthy, 110. The flatterer copies the faults and blemishes of friends, 110, 111. He pretends to have the same diseases, 111. And to suffer the same ill-treatment, 112. Counterfeiting the good qualities of a friend, he yields him the pre-eminence, 112. The flatterer often overdoes, in the effort to make himself agreeable, 114. The true friend is sometimes under the necessity of giving pain, 115. The flatterer deals out undeserved encomium, against which our own conscience protests, 116. Sometimes he utters praise as if he heard it from a third person, 119. Sometimes he flatters men in their vices by deriding the contrary virtues, 119, 120. There is a silent flattery, as when a man yields his place to another, 121. The parasite praises the man of money, 122. His censures, if he deliver any, fall upon venial faults, not on real crimes, 124. He flatters, even while pretending to blame, 125. Men, are flattered when reproved for faults directly the reverse of their real ones, 126. The friend aims at the improvement of our character; the flatterer works on our weak spots, 128, 129. The friend is open-hearted and natural; the flatterer ceremonious and obsequious, 130. The real friend will assist in no dishonest endeavor: the flatterer has no scruples about the proposal, 131, 132, 134, 135. The kindness of a friend is without parade; that of a flatterer is attended with bustle and show, 133. The flatterer reminds us of his past services; the true friend never, 134. An accurate self-knowledge defends against flattery, 137, 138. We have no need of flattery, 138. Causeless censure may be equally mischievous with causeless praise, 138. How to avoid causeless reprehension of others, 139, et seq. Eliminate from the affair all self-interest, 140. Free our speech from reproachful words, 141. Deliver ourselves with seriousness and dignity, 142. Make our reproofs seasonable, 143. The prosperous need reproof rather than the afflicted, 144. When is severe reproof allowable? 145. Reprove not in presence of another, 148; especially not before inferiors, 149. A reprover should not himself need reproof, 150. In reproving, confess