em, or that of those who once lived in this country, and
enlightened, by their institutions and instructions, Magna Graecia[30]
(which now indeed is entirely destroyed, but then was flourishing),
or of him who was pronounced by the oracle of Apollo to be the wisest
of men, who did not say first one thing and then another, as is
generally done, but always the same; namely, that the souls of men are
divine, and that when they have departed from the body, a return to
heaven is opened to them, and the speediest to the most virtuous and
just. This same opinion was also held by Scipio; for he indeed, a very
few days before his death, as if he had a presentiment of it, when
Philus and Manilius were present, and many others, and you also,
Scaevola, had gone with me, for three days descanted on the subject of
government; of which discussion the last was almost entirely on the
immortality of souls, which he said he had learned in sleep through a
vision from Africanus. If this be the fact, that the spirit of the
best man most easily flies away in death, as from the prison-house and
chains of the body, whose passage to the gods can we conceive to have
been readier than that of Scipio? Wherefore, to be afflicted at this
his departure, I fear, would be the part rather of an envious person
than of a friend....

But yet I so enjoy the recollection of our friendship that I seem to
have lived happily because I lived with Scipio, with whom I had a
common anxiety on public and private affairs, and with whom my life
both at home and abroad was associated, and there existed that,
wherein consists the entire strength of friendship, an entire
agreement of inclinations, pursuits, and sentiments. That character
for wisdom, therefore, which Fannius a little while ago mentioned does
not so delight me, especially since it is undeserved, as the hope that
the recollection of our friendship will last forever. And it is the
more gratifying to me because scarcely in the history of the world are
three or four pairs of friends mentioned by name; and I indulge in the
hope that the friendship of Scipio and Laelius will be remembered....

I can only urge you to prefer friendship to all human possessions; for
there is nothing so suited to our nature, so well adapted to
prosperity or adversity. But first of all, I am of opinion that except
among the virtuous friendship can not exist; I do not analyze this
principle too closely, as they do who inquire with too