Evil Company

"I have often wondered," says Jeremy Taylor, "how the fishes can retain their fresh state, and yet live in salt waters, since every thing partakes the nature of the place where it abides, and of that which is around it. So it is with evil company; for, besides that it blemishes our reputation, and makes us thought evil though we be good, it also inclines us insensibly to ill, and works in us, if not an approbation, yet a less dislike of those sins to which our eyes and ears are thus continually inured. For this reason, by the grace of God, I will ever shun it. I may have a bad acquaintance; but I will never have a wicked companion."