5
Just as Zeuxis, Cf. Plutarch, Life of Pericles, chap. xiii. (p. 159 D). when some persons charged him with painting slowly, retorted by saying, Yes, it takes me a long time, for it is to last long, so it is necessary to preserve friendship and intimacy by adopting them only after spending a long time in passing judgement upon them. Is it, then, true that while it is not easy to pass judgement on a large number of friends, yet it is easy to associate with a large number at the same time, or is this also impossible? Now it is a fact that the enjoyment of friendship lies in its intimacy, and the pleasantest part of it is found in association and daily companionship: Never in life again shall we take counsel together Sitting apart from our comrades.Homer, Il. xxiii. 77; the words are spoken by the ghost of Patroclus to Achilles. And in regard to Odysseus, Menelaus says: Else there were nothing Which could have parted us twain in the midst of our love and enjoyment; No, not till Death’s dark cloud had wrapped its shadow around us.Homer, Od. iv. 178; Plutarch quoted the first two lines in Moralia, 54 F. Now what is commonly called having a multitude of friends apparently produces the opposite result. For friendship draws persons together and unites them and keeps them united in a close fellowship by means of continual association and mutual acts of kindness— Just as the fig-juice fastens the white milk firmly and binds it, as Empedocles Probably adapted by Empedocles from Homer, Il.v. 902; cf.Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, i. p. 239. puts it (for such is the unity and consolidation that true friendship desires to effect); but, on the other hand, having a multitude of friends causes disunion, separation, and divergence, since, by calling one hither and thither, and transferring one’s attention now to this person, now to that, it does not permit any blending or close attachment of goodwill to take place in the intimacy which moulds itself about friendship and takes enduring form. This at once suggests also the inequality there must be and embarrassment about rendering services, since the very useful elements in friendship are rendered practically useless by having many friends. For In divers men solicitude excites conduct diverse.Bergk, Peirithoüs iii. p. 721, Adespota, No. 99. For neither do our natures tend in the same direction as our impulses, nor do we, day in and day out, meet with the same sort of fortune; and the occasions which prompt our various actions, like the winds, help some friends on their way, and are adverse to others.
