My first thought was "that is REALLY awful writing". My second was "Hang on, a couple of hundred years ago it wouldn't have been.". My third thought, after a little digging, was "It IS from a couple of hundred years ago". It's from an essay by William Hazlitt who lived in the early 1800's. I don't want to discourage you from reading older English literature but you do need to be aware that the language has evolved considerably since then. The writing style of the 1700's and early 1800's was, on the whole, more stilted and formal. In some cases it was also a lot more "flowery" than contemporary English. (What do I mean by that? "I apprehend" and "a refined and abstracted friendship", for example. Nobody would write like that in the present day unless it was some kind of parody. ) It's easy for someone who has English as a second language to get lost in this older type. If we extend Hazlitt's quote a bit further we can see what it means: "The difference of age, of situation in life, and an absence of all considerations of business have, I apprehend, something of the same effect in producing a refined and abstracted friendship. The person whose doors I enter with most pleasure and quit with most regret, never did me the smallest favour. I once did him an uncalled-for service, and we nearly quarreled about it. If I were in the utmost distress, I should just as soon think of asking his assistance, as of stopping a person of the highway. " What he is saying is that the best friendships occur when you owe them nothing and they owe you nothing. You don't do favours for each other. You don't conduct business with each other in the way that, say, two merchants might, though in this case "business" seems to have a wider meaning than simple commerce. It also covers any of the normal affairs of two people who help each other out in life. (Note the last sentence above; he would not ask those people for help.)