Pagina 465 de 734

Rare it is probable Friendships of this kind will be, because men

of this kind are rare. Besides, all requisite qualifications

being presupposed, there is further required time and intimacy:

for, as the proverb says, men cannot know one another "till they

have eaten the requisite quantity of salt together;" nor can they

in fact admit one another to intimacy, much less be friends, till

each has appeared to the other and been proved to be a fit object

of Friendship. They who speedily commence an interchange of

friendly actions may be said to wish to be friends, but they are

not so unless they are also proper objects of Friendship and

mutually known to be such: that is to say, a desire for

Friendship may arise quickly but not Friendship itself.

Well, this Friendship is perfect both in respect of the time and

in all other points; and exactly the same and similar results

accrue to each party from the other; which ought to be the case

between friends.