ever think himself authorized to follow a friend to the extent of making
war upon his country,--an extremity which, indeed, considering the
course that our public affairs have begun to take, may, for aught I
know, be reached at some future time. I speak thus because I feel no
less concern for the fortunes of the State after my death than as to its
present condition.

13. Let this, then, be enacted as the first law of friendship, that we
demand of friends only what is right, and that we do for the sake of
friends only what is right. [Footnote: This is a virtual repetition of
the law of friendship announced at the beginning of the previous
section, and Cicero probably so intended it. He states the rule, then
demonstrates its validity, then repeats it in an almost identical form,
implying what the mathematician expresses when he puts at the end of a
demonstration _Quod erat demonstrandum._] This understood, let us not
wait to be asked. Let there be constant assiduity and no loitering in a
friend's service. Let us also dare to give advice freely; for in
friendship the authority of friends who give good counsel may be of the
greatest value. Let admonition be administered, too, not only in plain
terms, but even with severity, if need be, and let heed be given to such
admonition. On this subject some things that appear to me strange have,
as I am told, been maintained by certain Greeks who are accounted as
philosophers, and are so skilled in sophistry that there is nothing
which they cannot seem to prove. Some of them hold that very intimate
friendships are to be avoided; that there is no need that one feel
solicitude for others; that it is enough and more than enough to take
care of your own concerns, and annoying to be involved to any
considerable extent in affairs not belonging to you; that the best way
is to have the reins of friendship as loose as possible, so that you can
tighten them or let them go at pleasure; for, according to them, ease is