were united by
blood and nature. For nothing can be more eager, or rather greedy, for
what is like itself than nature. So, my dear Fannius and Scaevola, we
may look upon this as an established fact, that between good men there
is, as it were of necessity, a kindly feeling, which is the source of
friendship ordained by nature. But this same kindliness affects the many
also. For that is no unsympathetic or selfish or exclusive virtue, which
protects even whole nations and consults their best interests. And that
certainly it would not have done had it disdained all affection for the
common herd.

Again, the believers in the "interest" theory appear to me to destroy
the most attractive link in the chain of friendship. For it is not so
much what one gets by a friend that gives one pleasure, as the warmth
of his feeling; and we only care for a friend's service if it has been
prompted by affection. And so far from its being true that lack of means
is a motive for seeking friendship, it is usually those who being most
richly endowed with wealth and means, and above all with virtue (which,
after all, is a man's best support), are least in need of another, that
are most openhanded and beneficent. Indeed I am inclined to think that
friends ought at times to be in want of something. For instance, what
scope would my affections have had if Scipio had never wanted my advice
or co-operation at home or abroad? It is not friendship, then, that
follows material advantage, but material advantage friendship.

15. We must not therefore listen to these superfine gentlemen when they
talk of friendship, which they know neither in theory nor in practice.
For who, in heaven's name, would choose a life of the greatest wealth
and abundance on condition of neither loving or being beloved by any
creature? That is the sort of life tyrants endure. They, of course, can
count on no fidelity, no affection, no security for the goodwill of
any one. For them all is suspicion and anxiety; for them there is no
possibility of friendship. Who can love one whom he fears, or by whom he
knows that he is feared? Yet such men have a show of friendship offered
them, but it is only a fair-weather show. If it ever happen that they
fall, as it generally does, they will at once understand how friendless
they are. So they say Tarquin observed in his exile that he never knew
which of his friends were real and which sham, until he had ceased to
be able to repay either. Tho