8. _Laclius_. Now you are really using force. It makes no
difference what kind of force you use: force it is. For it is neither
easy nor right to refuse a wish of my sons-in-law, particularly
when
the wish is a creditable one in itself.

Well, then, it has very often occurred to me when thinking about
friendship, that the chief point to be considered was this: is it
weakness and want of means that make friendship desired? I
mean, is its object an interchange of good offices, so that each may
give that in which he is strong, and receive that in which he is
weak? Or is it not rather true that, although this is an advantage
naturally belonging to friendship, yet its original cause is quite
other, prior in time, more noble in character, and springing more
directly from our nature itself? The Latin word for friendship-
_amicitia_-is derived from that for love-_amor_; and love is
certainly the prime mover in contracting mutual affection.
For as to material advantages, it often happens that those are
obtained even by men who are courted by a mere show of
friendship and treated with respect from interested motives. But
friendship by its nature admits of no feigning, no pretence: as far
as it goes it is both genuine and spontaneous. Therefore I gather
that friendship springs from a natural impulse rather than a wish
for help: from an inclination of the heart, combined with a certain
instinctive feeling of love, rather than from a deliberate calculation
of the material advantage it was likely to confer. The strength of
this feeling you may notice in certain animals. They show such
love to their offspring for a certain period, and are so beloved by
them, that they clearly have a share in this natural, instinctive
affection. But of course it is more evident in the case of man: first,