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Therefore, true friendships are very hard
to find among those whose time is spent in office
or in business of a public kind. For where can you
find a man so high-minded as to prefer his friend's
advancement to his own? And, passing by material
considerations, pray consider this: how grievous
and how hard to most persons does association in
another's misfortunes appear! Nor is it easy to
find men who will go down to calamity's depths
for a friend. Ennius, however, is right when he
says:
When Fortune's fickle the faithful friend is found;
yet it is on these two charges that most men are
convicted of fickleness: they either hold a friend
of little value when their own affairs are prosperous,
or they abandon him when his are adverse. Whoever, therefore, in either of these contingencies, has
shown himself staunch, immovable, and firm in
friendship ought to be considered to belong to that
class of men which is exceedingly rare—aye, almost
divine.