toward each
other as being what they are, and not in an accidental way; their
friendship, therefore, lasts as long as their virtue, and that is a
lasting thing. Such friendships are uncommon, for such people are rare.
Such friendship requires long and familiar intercourse. For they cannot
be friends till each show and approve himself to the other as worthy to
be loved. A wish to be friends may be of rapid growth, but not
friendship. Those whose love for one another is based on the useful, do
not love each other for what they are, but only in so far as each gets
some good from the other. These friendships are accidental; for the
object of affection is loved, not as being the person or character that
he is, but as the source of some good or some pleasure. Friendships of
this kind are easily dissolved, as the persons do not continue
unchanged; for if they cease to be useful or pleasant to one another,
their love ceases. On the disappearance of that which was the motive of
their friendship, their friendship itself is dissolved, since it existed
solely with a view to that. For pleasure then or profit it is possible
even for bad men to be friends with one another; but it is evident that
the friendship in which each loves the other for himself is only
possible between good men; for bad men take no delight in each other
unless some advantage is to be gained. The friendship whose motive is
utility is the friendship of sordid souls. Friendship lies more in
loving than in being loved; so that when people love each other in
proportion to their worth, they are lasting friends, and theirs is
lasting friendship."

THE DUTY.

+The interest of our friend should be our interest; his welfare, our
welfare; his wish, our will; his good, our aim.+--If he prospers we
rejoice; if he is overtaken by adversity, we must stand by him. If he is
in want, we must share our goods with him. If he is unpopular, we must
stand up for him. If he does wrong, we must be the first to tell him of
his fault: and the first to bear with him the penalty of his offense. If
he is unjustly accused we must believe in his innocence to the last.
Friends must have all things in common; not in the sense of legal
ownership, which would be impracticable, and, as Epicurus pointed out,
would imply mutual distrust; but in the sense of a willingness on the
part of each to do for the other all that is in his power. Only on the
high plane of such absolute, whole-souled devoti