Page:On Friendship (Howe, 1915).pdf/48

 Mihi sic usus est ; tibt, ut opus est facto, face. (My way is thus: do you, as you think well) For table-companions I choose agreeable people, not prudent ones; in bed, beauty before goodness; for social conversation, ability even without wisdom: similarly elsewhere. Like the man who was discovered astride a stick playing with his children, and begged that person who surprised him to say nothing about it until he was a father himself, believing that the passion which would then spring up in his soul would make him a fair judge of such actions, I should wish also to speak to people who have experienced what I am saying: but knowing how remote such a friendship is from ordinary customs, and how rare it is, I do not expect to find any good judge; for even the writings antiquity has left us on this subject seem weak to me compared with the feeling I have; and on this point experience surpasses even the precepts of philosophy. Nil ego contulerim jucundo sanus amico. (Nothing will I compare, while sane, to a pleasant friend)