Yea, by the dog of Egypt, I
should greatly prefer a real friend to all the gold of Darius, or even
to Darius himself: I am such a lover of friends as that. And when I
see you and Lysis, at your early age, so easily possessed of this
treasure, and so soon, he of you, and you of him, I am amazed and
delighted, seeing that I myself, although I am now advanced in
years, am so far from having made a similar acquisition, that I do not
even know in what way a friend is acquired. But want to ask you a
question about this, for you have experience: tell me then, when one
loves another, is the lover or the beloved the friend; or may either
be the friend?
Either may, I should think, be the friend of either.
Do you mean, I said, that if only one of them loves the other,
they are mutual friends?
Yes, he said; that is my meaning.
But what if the lover is not loved in return? which is a very
possible case.
Yes.
Or is, perhaps, even hated? which is a fancy which sometimes is
entertained by lovers respecting their beloved. Nothing can exceed
their love; and yet they imagine either that they are not loved in
return, or that they are hated. Is not that true?
Yes, he said, quite true.
In that case, the one loves, and the other is loved?
Yes.
Then which is the friend of which? Is the lover the friend of the
beloved, whether he be loved in return, or hated; or is the beloved
the friend; or is there no friendship at all on either side, unless
they both love one another?
There would seem to be none at all.
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