Hazlitt cuts against the sentimentality of his era—and ours—by suggesting that true friendship demands something of us beyond mere presence. The "haggard manner" isn't just about neediness; it's the exhaustion that comes from treating friendship as a life raft rather than a genuine relationship between two whole people. When you find yourself texting an old friend only during crises, or calling someone solely because you're lonely, you've drifted into exactly what he scorns. Real friendship, by his lights, requires the vigor to show up as your actual self, not as a clinging vine.