The Nicomachean Ethics — trans. F. H. Peters (1881)
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The translator’s English as printed (F. H. Peters). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Children also seem to be a bond that knits man and wife together (which is a reason why childless unions are more quickly dissolved) ; for children are a good which both have in common, but that which people have in common holds them together.
To ask on what terms a man should live with his wife, and generally friend with friend, seems the same as to ask what justice requires in these cases; for what is required from a man towards his friend is different from what is required of him towards a stranger, a comrade, or a travelling companion.
13. There are three kinds of friendship, as we said oftketerm* at the outset, and in each kind there are both equal dk^n^^ and and unequal friendships ; I mean that sometimes two taiZaH»ing equally good persons make friends, and sometimes a.Tria!atkip*. better and a worse (and so with those who are pleasant to one another, and with those who are friends with a view to profit) — effecting equality by the services they exchange, even though they are themselves different.
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Now, those who are equal should effect equality by loving one another, etc., equally, but those who are unequal should effect equality by making what each renders proportionate to the greater or less merit of the other. •
But accusations and reproaches arise solely or mostly in friendships whose motive is profit, as we should expect. For those whose friendship is based on virtue are eager to do good to each other ; for this is the office of virtue and friendship. And between people who are thus vieing with one another no accusations or quarrels can arise ; for a man cannot be embittered against one who loves him and does him a service, but, if he be of a gracious nature, requites him with a like service. But the superior will not reproach his friend, since he gets what he desires ; * for each desires what is good.
Such quarrels, again, are not apt to arise in friendships whose motive is pleasure ; for both get at the same time that which they desire, if they delight in each other's company ; but if one were to accuse the other for not being agreeable to him, he would make himself ridiculous, seeing that he was under no compulsion to associate with him.
But the friendship whose motive is utility is fruitful in accusations ; for as the friends here use each other solely with a view to their own advantage, each always wants the larger share and thinks he has less than his due, and reproaches the other with not doing for him so much as he requires and deserves ; though, in truth, it is impossible for the one who * Tor lie desires the good of his friend.
I
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doing a service to supply all that the other iints.
As the rules of justice are twofold, the unwritten and those that are set down in laws, so the friendship hose motive is profit is of two kinds — one resting on sposition, the other on contract. And accusations e most apt to arise when the relation is understood one sense at the commencement, and in the other use at the conclusion.
That which rests on contract is that in which ere are specified conditions, and it is of two kinds :
3 is purely commercial, on the principle of cash
. yments ; the other is less exacting in point of time, though in it also there is a specified quid pro quo.
In the latter case, what is due is evident and cannot be disputed, but there is an element of Mendliness in the deferment of payment; for w^hich reason, in some states, there is no recovery by law in such cases, but it is held that when a man has given credit he must take the consequences.
That which rests on disposition has no specified conditions, but one gives another presents (or whatever else it may be) as a friend. But afterwards he claims as much or more in return, regarding what he gave not as a gift, but as a loan. And thus, wishing to terminate the relation in a difierent spii-it from that in which he entered upon it, he will accuse the other.* And this is apt to happen because all or nearly
* In the papers of October 8, 1880, a suit is reported in which A tries in vain to recover from B certain goods given during courtship,— according to B as presents, according to A ivl ^tjtojs, viz. on condition of marriage, which condition had not been fulfilled.