declared himself to be Orestes, that he might die in his stead, while
the real Orestes kept on asserting that it was he. The audience rose
_en masse_ and clapped their hands. And this was at an incident in
fiction: what would they have done, must we suppose, if it had
been in real life? You can easily see what a natural feeling it is,
when men who would not have had the resolution to act thus
themselves, shewed how right they thought it in another.

I don't think I have any more to say about friendship. If there is any
more, and I have no doubt there is much, you must, if you care to
do so, consult those who profess to discuss such matters.

_Fannius_. We would rather apply to you. Yet I have often
consulted such persons, and have heard what they had to say with a
certain satisfaction. But in your discourse one somehow feels that
there is a different strain.

_Scaevola_. You would have said that still more, Fannius, if you
had been present the other day in Scipio's pleasure-grounds when
we had the discussion about the State. How splendidly he stood up
for justice against Philus's elaborate speech.

_Fannius_. Ah! it was naturally easy for the justest of men to
stand up for justice.

_Scaevola_. Well, then, what about friendship? Who could
discourse on it more easily than the man whose chief glory is a
friendship maintained with the most absolute fidelity, constancy,
and integrity?