f Niceratus, gave even six hundred crowns
for one slave to be inspector of his silver mines. Do you think we might
likewise set prices upon friends?" "I believe we may," answered
Antisthenes; "for there are some men by whom I would rather choose to be
loved than to have twenty crowns; others for whose affection I would not
spend five. I know some, too, for whose friendship I would give all I am
worth." "If it be so," said Socrates, "it would be well that each man
should consider how much he can be worth to his friends, and that he
should endeavour to render himself as valuable as he can in their regard,
to the end they might not abandon him; for when I hear one complain that
his friend has betrayed him; another that he, whom he thought faithful,
has preferred a small gain to the preservation of his friendship, I
reflect on these stories, and ask whether, as we sell a good-for-nothing
slave for what we can get for him, we are not likewise tempted to get rid
of an ill-friend when we are offered more for him than he is worth?
because I do not see men part with their slaves if they be good, nor
abandon their friends if they be faithful."

CHAPTER VI. OF THE CHOICE OF FRIENDS.

The following conversation of Socrates with Critobulus may teach us how
we ought to try friends, and with whom it is good to contract
friendship:--"If we were to choose a friend," said Socrates to him, "what
precaution ought we to take? Ought we not to look out for a man who is
not given to luxury, to drunkenness, to women, nor to idleness? For with
these vices he could never be very useful to his friend nor to himself."
"That is certain," answered Critobulus. "Then," said Socrates, "if we
found a man that loved to live great, though he had not an estate to
support the expense, and who having daily occasion to employ the purses
of his friends should show by his actions that whatever you lend him is
so much lost, and that if you do not lend him he will take it ill of you,
do you not think that such a man would be very improper to make a friend
of?" "There is no doubt of it," said Critobulus. "And if we found
another," continued Socrates, "who was saving of what he had, but who, on
the other hand, was so covetous that it would be quite unfit to have
anything to do with him, because he would always be very ready to receive
and never to give again?" "In my opinion," said Critobulus, "this would
be a worse friend than the former. And if w