And also the vessel which contains the wine?
Certainly.
But does he therefore value the three measures of wine, or the
earthen vessel which contains them, equally with his son? Is not
this rather the true state of the case? All his anxiety has regard not
to the means which are provided for the sake of an object, but to
the object for the sake of which they are provided. And although we
may often say that gold and silver are highly valued by us, that is
not the truth; for there is a further object, whatever it may be,
which we value most of all, and for the sake of which gold and all out
other possessions are acquired by us. Am I not right?
Yes, certainly.
And may not the same be said of the friend? That which is only
dear to us for the sake of something else is improperly said to be
dear, but the truly dear is that in which all these so called dear
friendships terminate.
That, he said, appears to be true.
And the truly dear or ultimate principle of friendship is not for
the sake of any other or further dear.
True.
Then we have done with the notion that friendship has any further
object. May we then infer that the good is the friend?
I think so.
And the good is loved for the sake of the evil? Let me put the
case in this way: Suppose that of the three principles, good, evil,
and that which is neither good nor evil, there remained only the
good and the neutral, and that evil went far away, and in no way
affected soul or body, nor ever at all that class of things which,
as we say, are neither good nor evil in themselves;-would the good
be of any use, or other than useless to us? For if there were
nothing to hurt us any longer, we should have no need of anything that
would do us good.
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