perfect solitude, and then should supply us in
abundance with everything necessary to our nature, and yet take from us
entirely the opportunity of looking upon a human being. Who could steel
himself to endure such a life? Who would not lose in his loneliness the
zest for all pleasures? And indeed this is the point of the observation
of, I think, Archytas of Tarentum. I have it third hand; men who were my
seniors told me that their seniors had told them. It was this: "If a man
could ascend to heaven and get a clear view of the natural order of
the universe, and the beauty of the heavenly bodies, that wonderful
spectacle would give him small pleasure, though nothing could be
conceived more delightful if he had but had some one to whom to tell
what he had seen." So true it is that nature abhors isolation, and ever
leans upon something as a stay and support; and this is found in its
most pleasing form in our closest friend.

24. But though Nature also declares by so many indications what her wish
and object and desire is, we yet in a manner turn a deaf ear and will
not hear her warnings. The intercourse between friends is varied and
complex, and it must often happen that causes of suspicion and offence
arise, which a wise man will sometimes avoid, at other times remove,
at others treat with indulgence. The one possible cause of offence
that must be faced is when the interests of your friend and your own
sincerity are at stake. For instance, it often happens that friends need
remonstrance and even reproof. When these are administered in a kindly
spirit they ought to be taken in good part. But somehow or other there
is truth in what my friend Terence says in his _Andria_:

Compliance gets us friends, plain speaking hate.

Plain speaking is a cause of trouble, if the result of it is resentment,
which is poison of friendship; but compliance is really the cause of
much more trouble, because by indulging his faults it lets a friend
plunge into headlong ruin. But the man who is most to blame is he who
resents plain speaking and allows flattery to egg him on to his ruin. On
this point, then, from first to last there is need of deliberation and
care. If we remonstrate, it should be without bitterness; if we reprove,
there should be no word of insult. In the matter of compliance (for I
am glad to adopt Terence's word), though there should be every courtesy,
yet that base kind which assists a man in vice should be far from us,
for i