… versus public selfhood. Concepts > Social interaction Concepts > Character Concepts > Feelings & Emotions Mots-clés Benevolence Family Literature Morality Philosophy The language of friendship was close to ubiquitous in Enlightenment … Writers could also object to the tradition of ideal friendship on the basis that it stood opposed to Christian benevolence. This was the problem confronted by Samuel Johnson when he discussed the nature of friendship with the Quaker … Quaker usage of the word ‘Friend’ as reliant on generalisation and indiscriminate generosity, he argued that ‘universal benevolence’ was indeed ‘contrary to the virtue of friendship, as described by the ancient philosophers’. However, in the …