|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: tyrants to partake. And first, let us examine with ourselves and see
if friendship is truly a great boon to mortal man.
How fares it with the man who is beloved of friends? See with what
gladness his friends and lovers hail his advent! delight to do him
kindness! long for him when he is absent from them![1] and welcome him
most gladly on his return![2] In any good which shall betide him they
rejoice together; or if they see him overtaken by misfortune, they
rush to his assistance as one man.[3]
[1] Reading {an ate}, or if {an apie}, transl. "have yearning hearts
when he must leave them."
[2] See Anton Rubinstein, "Die Musik and ihre Meister," p. 8, "Some
|