Memorabilia

But how does friendship come?There are spells, they say, wherewith those who know charm whom they will and make friends of them, and drugs which those who know give to whom they choose and win their love.

How then can we learn them?You have heard from Homer the spell that the Sirens put on Odysseus. It begins like this:

1. Hither, come hither, renowned Odysseus, great glory of the Achaeans.

No, only for those that yearned for the fame that virtue gives.You mean, I take it, that the spell must be fitted to the listener, so that he may not take the praise for mockery.Yes; for to praise one for his beauty, his stature and his strength who is conscious that he is short, ugly and puny, is the way to repel him and make him dislike you more.Do you know any other spells?

No, but I have heard that Pericles knew many and put them on the city, and so made her love him.And how did Themistocles make the city love him?Not by spells: no, no; but by hanging some good amulet about her.[*](i.e., not by his words, but by protecting Athens with ships and fortifications.)

I think you mean, Socrates, that if we are to win a good man’s friendship, we ourselves must be good in word and deed alike?But you imagined that a bad man could win the friendship of honest men?

I did, answered Critobulus, for I saw that poor orators have good speakers among their friends, and some who are incapable of commanding an army are intimate with great generals.

Coming then to the point under discussion, do you know cases of useless persons making useful friends?Assuredly not; but if it is impossible that the bad should gain the friendship of gentlemen, then I am anxious to know whether it is quite easy for a gentleman as a matter of course to be the friend of gentlemen?