of affectionate regard,--persons, indeed, who are not to be neglected,
but who are on a somewhat different footing from that of friends.
Friendships formed solely from early associations cannot last; for
differences of character grow out of a diversity of pursuits, and
unlikeness of character dissolves friendships. Nor is there any reason
why good men cannot be the friends of bad men, or bad men of good,
except that the dissiliency of pursuits and of character between them is
as great as it can be.

It is also a counsel worthy of heed, that excessive fondness be not
suffered to interfere, as it does too often, with important services
that a friend can render. To resort again to fable, Neoptolemus could
not have taken Troy [Footnote: Or rather, could not have borne the
indispensable part which it was predicted that he should bear in the
taking of Troy.]if he had chosen to comply with the wishes of Lycomedes,
who brought him up, and who with many tears attempted to dissuade him
from his expedition. Equally in actual life there are not infrequently
important occasions on which the society of friends must be for a time
abandoned; and he who would prevent this because he cannot easily bear
the separation, is of a weak and unmanly nature, and for that very
reason unfit to fill the place of a friend. In fine, in all matters you
should take into consideration both what you may reasonably demand of
your friend, and what you can fitly suffer him to obtain from you.

21. The misfortune involved in the dissolution of friendships is
sometimes unavoidable; for I am now coming down from the intimacies of
wise men to common friendships. Faults of friends often betray
themselves openly--whether to the injury of their friends themselves, or
of strangers--in such a way that the disgrace falls back upon their
friends. Such friendships are to be effaced by the suspension of