The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

296 L^LIUS; OR,
moral qualifications to the test. A very inconsiderable
article of money may be sufficient to prove the levity of
some men s professions of friendship ; whilst a much
larger sum in contest will be necessary to shake the
constancy of others. But
should there be a few, perhaps,
who are actuated by too generous a spirit to suffer any
pecuniary interest to stand in competition with the claims
of amity, yet where shall we find the man who will not
readily surrender his friendship
to his ambition when
they happen to interfere ? Human nature is, in general,
much too weak to resist the charms which surround these
glittering temptations and men are apt to flatter them
;
selves that although they should acquire wealth or power
by violating the duties of friendship, the world will be
to take
too much dazzled by the splendour of the objects
notice of the unworthy sacrifice they make to obtain them.
And hence it is that real, unfeigned amity is so seldom to
be met with among those who are engaged in the pursuit
or possession of the honours and the offices of the common
wealth.
To mention another species of trial which few likewise
have the firmness to sustain. How severe is it
thought
by the generality of mankind to take a voluntary share
in the calamities of others ! And yet
it is in the hour of
adversity, as Ennius well observes, that Friendship must
principally prove her truth and strength. In short, the
deserting of a friend in his distress, and the neglecting of
him in one s own prosperity, are the two tests which
discover the weakness and instability of most connexions
of this nature. To preserve, therefore, in those seasons of
probation, an immovable and unshaken fidelity is a virtue
so exceedingly rare that I had almost called it more than
human.
The great support and security of that invariable
constancy and steadiness which I
require in a friend
is a strong and delicate sense of honour ;
for there can be