2
One thing which stands out among many others, as particularly antagonistic to our acquisition of friendship, is the craving for numerous friends, which is like that of licentious women, Cf. Lucian, Tozaris, 37. for because of our frequent intimacies with many different persons we cannot keep our hold on our earlier associates, who are neglected and drift away. A better comparison, perhaps, is the nursling of Hypsipyle, who seated himself in the meadow, and One after another caught up Handfuls of flowers with joyful heart, But with childhood’s yearning unsated.Presumably from the Hypsipyle of Euripides, cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag., Euripides, No. 754. Cf. also Plutarch, Moralia, 661 F. So it is with all of us: because anything new attracts us but soon palls on us, it is always the recent and freshly blooming friend that allures us and makes us change our minds, even while we are busy with many beginnings of friendship and intimacy at the same time, which go but little further, since, in our longing for the person we pursue, we pass over the one already within our grasp.
