in a quiet way, and, lastly, those who are wholly given up to sensual
pleasure. They all agree that without friendship life cannot be, if one
only means to live in some form or measure respectably. [Footnote: Latin
_liberaliter_ that is, worthily of a free man.] For friendship somehow
twines through all lives and leaves no mode of being without its
presence. Even if one be of so rude and savage a nature as to shun and
hate the society of men, as we have learned was the case with that Timon
of Athens, [Footnote: Plutarch says that Timon had an associate,
virtually a friend, not unlike himself, Apemantus, on whom he freely
vented his spite and scorn for all the world beside and that he also
took a special liking to Alcibiades in his youth, perhaps as to one
fitted and destined to do an untold amount of mischief.] if there ever
was such a man [Footnote: Latin, _nescio, quem_, I know not whom, or of
whom I am ignorant, that is, there may or may not have been such a man.]
he yet cannot help seeking some one in whose presence he may vomit the
venom of his bitterness. The need of friendship would be best shown,
were such a thing possible, if some god should take us away from this
human crowd, and place us anywhere in solitude, giving us there an
abundant supply of all things that nature craves but depriving us
utterly of the sight of a human countenance. Who could be found of so
iron make that he could endure [Footnote: Latin, tam ... _ferreus,_ qiu
... _ferre_ posset,--an assonance which cannot be represented by
corresponding English words.] such a life, and whom solitude would not
render incapable of enjoying any kind of pleasure? That is true then
which, if I remember aright, our elders used to say that they had heard
from their seniors in age as having come from Archytas of Tarentum--"If
one had ascended to heaven and had obtained a full view of the nature of
the universe and the beauty of the stars, yet his admiration would be
without delight, if there were no one to whom he could tell what he had
seen" Thus Nature has no love for solitude, and always leans as it were,