The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

298 IwELIUS
; OR,
severe demeanour may be very proper,
I confess, in
certain characters, to give them their proper impression ;
but friendship should wear a more pleasing aspect, and
at all times appear with a complacent, affable, and
unconstrained countenance.
And here I cannot forbear taking notice of an extra
ordinary question which some, it seems, have considered
as not altogether without difficulty. It has been asked,
Is the pleasure of acquiring a new friend, supposing him
endued with virtues which render him deserving our
choice, preferable to the satisfaction of possessing an old
one ? On the same account I
presume, as we prefer
a young horse to one that is
grown old in our service, for
never, surely, was there a doubt proposed more unworthy
of a rational mind ! It is not with friendships as with
acquisitions of most other kinds, which, after frequent
enjoyment, are generally attended with satiety on the
;
contrary, the longer we preserve them, like those sorts
of wine that will bear age, the more relishing and valuable
they become. Accordingly the proverb justly says that
one must eat many a peck of salt with a man before
he can have sufficient opportunities to approve himself a
thorough friend not that new connexions are to be
declined, provided appearances indicate that in due time
they may ripen into the happy fruits of a well contracted
amity. Old friendships, however, certainly have a claim
to the superior degree of our esteem, were it for no other
reason than from that powerful impression which ancient
habitudes of every kind naturally make upon the human
heart. To have recourse once more to the ludicrous
instance I just now suggested who is there that would
not prefer a horse whose paces
lie had been long accustomed
to before one that was new and untrained to his hand ?
Even things inanimate lay a strong hold on the mind by
the mere force of custom, as is observable in that rooted
affection we bear towards those places, though never so