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What it does seem to be is the starting point of a Friendship;

just as pleasure, received through the sight, is the commencement

of Love: for no one falls in love without being first pleased

with the personal appearance of the beloved object, and yet he

who takes pleasure in it does not therefore necessarily love, but

when he wearies for the object in its absence and desires its

presence. Exactly in the same way men cannot be friends without

having passed through the stage of Kindly Feeling, and yet they

who are in that stage do not necessarily advance to Friendship:

they merely have an inert wish for the good of those toward whom

they entertain the feeling, but would not join them in any

action, nor put themselves out of the way for them.