Page:Essays Vol 1 (Ives, 1925).pdf/273

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BOOK I, CHAPTER XXVIII
253

reply as treasonable do not well understand this mystery, and do not admit — as is the fact — that he held the mind of Gracchus in his hand, both through influence and through knowledge.[1] (c) They were more friends than citizens, more friends than friends or enemies of their country, than friends of ambition and turmoil. Being completely pledged each to the other, each completely held the reins of the other’s inclinations; and assuming this team[2] to be guided by virtue and governed by reason (as indeed it is quite impossible otherwise to conduct it), the reply of Blosius is what it should have been. If their acts did not mutually fit together, they were neither friends one of the other, nor friends to themselves, by my measure. (a) Besides, that reply signifies nothing more than mine would, if, to one who should make this enquiry of me: "If your will bade you kill your daughter, would you kill her?” I should answer affirmatively. For that is no evidence of my readiness to do the deed, because I have no suspicion of my will, and as little of that of such a friend. It is not in the power of all the arguments in the world to dislodge me from my certainty of the intentions and judgements of my friend: no act of his could be presented to me, no matter what aspect it might wear, that I should not instantly discern its motive. Our souls journeyed together so in unison,[3] they regarded each other with such ardent affection, and with like affection revealed themselves one to the other, to their inmost depths, that not only did I know his soul as intimately as my own, but I would surely have trusted myself to him more freely than to myself.

Let no one place in the same rank those other everyday friendships; I have as much knowledge as any man of them, and of the most perfect in their kind; (b) but I advise no one to confuse their rules: he would be deluded. In these other friendships one must walk, bridle in hand, with prudence and caution; the tie is not fastened in such wise that one has not reason to distrust it. “Love him,” says Chilo,

  1. ↑ Il tenoit la volonté de Gracchus en sa manche, et par puissance et par connoissance.
  2. ↑ Cet harnois.
  3. ↑ Nos ames ont charrié si uniement ensemble.
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