at length bring that, too, to a conclusion.

27. Well, then, Fannius and Mucius, I repeat what I said before. It
is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship. On
it depends harmony of interest, permanence, fidelity. When Virtue has
reared her head and shewn the light of her countenance, and seen and
recognised the same light in another, she gravitates towards it, and in
her turn welcomes that which the other has to shew; and from it springs
up a flame which you may call love or friendship as you please. Both
words are from the same root in Latin; and love is just the cleaving
to him whom you love without the prompting of need or any view to
advantage--though this latter blossoms spontaneously on friendship,
little as you may have looked for it. It is with such warmth of feeling
that I cherished Lucius Paulus, Marcus Cato, Galus Gallus, Publius
Nasica, Tiberius Gracchus, my dear Scipio's father-in-law. It shines
with even greater warmth when men are of the same age, as in the case of
Scipio and Lucius Furius, Publius Rupilius, Spurius Mummius, and myself.
_En revanche_, in my old age I find comfort in the affection of young
men, as in the case of yourselves and Quintus Tubero: nay more, I
delight in the intimacy of such a very young man as Publius Rutilius and
Aulus Verginius. And since the law of our nature and of our life is that
a new generation is for ever springing up, the most desirable thing is
that along with your contemporaries, with whom you started in the
race, you may also teach what is to us the goal. But in view of
the instability and perishableness of mortal things, we should be
continually on the look-out for some to love and by whom to be loved;
for if we lose affection and kindliness from our life, we lose all that
gives it charm. For me, indeed, though torn away by a sudden stroke,
Scipio still lives and ever wilt live. For it was the virtue of the man
that I loved, and that has not suffered death. And it is not my eyes
only, because I had all my life a personal experience of it, that never
lose sight of it: it will shine to posterity also with undimmed glory.
No one will ever cherish a nobler ambition or a loftier hope without
thinking his memory and his image the best to put before his eyes. I
declare that of all the blessings which either fortune or nature has
bestowed upon me I know none to compare with Scipio's friendship. In
it I found sympathy in public, counsel in private busin