fer money to friendship, where shall we look for those who put
friendship before office, civil or military promotions, and political
power, and who, when the choice lies between these things on the one
side and the claims of friendship on the other, do not give a strong
preference to the former? It is not in human nature to be indifferent
to political power; and if the price men have to pay for it is the
sacrifice of friendship, they think their treason will be thrown into
the shade by the magnitude of the reward. This is why true friendship
is very difficult to find among those who engage in politics and the
contest for office. Where can you find the man to prefer his friend's
advancement to his own? And to say nothing of that, think how grievous
and almost intolerable it is to most men to share political disaster.
You will scarcely find anyone who can bring himself to do that. And
though what Ennius says is quite true,--" the hour of need shews the
friend indeed,"--yet it is in these two ways that most people betray
their untrustworthiness and inconstancy, by looking down on friends when
they are themselves prosperous, or deserting them in their distress. A
man, then, who has shewn a firm, unshaken, and unvarying friendship in
both these contingencies we must reckon as one of a class the rarest in
the world, and all but superhuman.

18. Now, what is the quality to look out for as a warrant for the
stability and permanence of friendship? It is loyalty. Nothing that
lacks this can be stable. We should also in making our selection look
out for simplicity, a social disposition, and a sympathetic nature,
moved by what moves us. These all contribute to maintain loyalty.
You can never trust a character which is intricate and tortuous.
Nor, indeed, is it possible for one to be trustworthy and firm who is
unsympathetic by nature and unmoved by what affects ourselves. We may
add, that he must neither take pleasure in bringing accusations against
us himself, nor believe them when they are brought. All these contribute
to form that constancy which I have been endeavouring to describe.
And the result is, what I started by saying, that friendship is only
possible between good men.

Now there are two characteristic features in his treatment of his
friends that a good (which may be regarded as equivalent to a wise) man
will always display. First, he will be entirely without any make-believe
or pretence of feeling; for the open displ