is indicated. When once men have conceived the inclination, they
of course try to attach themselves to the object of it, and move
themselves nearer and nearer to him. Their aim is that they may be
on the same footing and the same level in regard to affection, and
be more inclined to do a good service than to ask a return, and that
there should be this noble rivalry between them. Thus both truths
will be established. We shall get the most important material
advantages from friendship; and its origin from a natural impulse
rather than from a sense of need will be at once more dignified and
more in accordance with fact. For if it were true that its material
advantages cemented friendship, it would be equally true that any
change in them would dissolve it. But nature being incapable of
change, it follows that genuine friendships are eternal.

So much for the origin of friendship. But perhaps you would not
care to hear any more.

_Fannius_. Nay, pray go on; let us have the rest, Laelius. I take on
myself to speak for my friend here as his senior.

_Scaevola_. Quite right! Therefore, pray let us hear.

10. _Loelius_. Well, then, my good friends, listen to some
conversations about friendship which very frequently passed
between Scipio and myself. I must begin by telling you, however,
that be used to say that the most difficult thing in the world was for
a friendship to remain unimpaired to the end of life. So many
things might intervene: conflicting interests; differences of opinion
in politics; frequent changes in character, owing sometimes to
misfortunes, sometimes to advancing years. He used to illustrate