The Nicomachean Ethics — trans. F. H. Peters (1881)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (F. H. Peters). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
p. 261
^lien friends are living together, they take pleasure in, and do good to, each other ; when they are asleep or at a distance from one another, they are not acting as friends, but they have the disposition which, if manifested, issues in friendly acts ; for distance does not destroy friendship simply, but the manifestation of friendship. But if the absence be prolonged, it is thought to obliterate even friendship ; whence the saying—
" Full many a friendship hath ere now been loosed
By lack of converse."
Old men do not seem apt to make friends, nor morose men ; for there is little in them that can give pleasure : but no one can pass his days in intercourse with what is painful or not pleasant ; for our nature seems, above all things, to shun the painful and seek the pleasant.
Those who accept each other's company, but do not live together, seem to be rather well-wishers than friends. For there is nothing so characteristic of friendship as living together : * those who need help seek it thus, but even those who are happy desire company ; for a solitary life suits them least of all men. But people cannot live together unless they are pleasant to each other, nor unless they take delight in the same things, which seems to be a necesary condition of comradeship.
The truest friendship, then, is that which exists between good men, as we have said again and again.
* To a Greek, of course, this does not necessarily imply living under the same roof, as it does to us with our very different conditions of life.
p. 262
For that, it seems, is lovable and desirable which is good or pleasant in itself, but to each man that which is good or pleasant to him; and the friendship of good men for one another rests on both these grounds.
But it seems that while love is a feeling, friendship is a habit or trained faculty. For inanimate things can equally well be the object of love, but the love of friends for one another implies purpose, and purpose proceeds from a habit or trained faculty. And in wishing well for their sakes to those they love, they are swayed not by feeling, but by habit. Again, in loving a friend they love what is good for themselves; for he who gains a good man for his friend gains something that is good for himself. Each then, loves what is good for himself, and what he gives in good wishes and pleasure is equal to what he gets ; for equality is friendliness, as they say. All these characteristics, then, are found in the highest degree in the friendship of good men. Impossible to 6. Morosc men and elderly men are less apt i nave many "^ ^ true friends, to make frieuds in proportion as they are harsher in temper, and take less pleasure in society ; for delight in society seems to be, more than anything else, characteristic of friendship and productive of it. So young men are quick to make friends, but not old men (for people do not make friends with those who do not please them), nor morose men. Such people may, indeed, be well-wishers, for they wish each other good and help each other in need; but they are by no means friends, since they do not live with nor delight in each other, which things are thought to be, more than anything else, characteristic of friendship.
I
p. 263
It is impossible to have friendship, in the full iise of the word, for many people at the same time,
>t as it is impossible to be in love with many persons at once ; for it seems to be something intense, which may naturally be felt for one person, while it not easy for one man to find at one time many ry agreeable persons, perhaps not many good
Kjnes. Moreover, they must have tested and become accustomed to each other, which is a matter of great difficulty. But in the way of profit or pleasure, it is quite possible to find many* agreeable persons; for such people are not rare, and their services can be rendered in a short time.