Page 464 of 734

Friendship then under these circumstances is permanent, as we

should reasonably expect, since it combines in itself all the

requisite qualifications of friends. I mean, that Friendship of

whatever kind is based upon good or pleasure (either abstractedly

or relatively to the person entertaining the sentiment of

Friendship), and results from a similarity of some sort; and to

this kind belong all the aforementioned requisites in the parties

themselves, because in this the parties are similar, and so

on:[4] moreover, in it there is the abstractedly good and the

abstractedly pleasant, and as these are specially the

object-matter of Friendship so the feeling and the state of

Friendship is found most intense and most excellent in men thus

qualified.