Amicorum communia omnia

Among, friends all things should be in common. Erasmus thought he could not begin his Collection better than with this apothegm, which is of great antiquity, and much celebrated, and for the same reason it is here placed. first Nothing so frequent in our mouths, nor is any thing less common than such a conjunction of minds as deserves the name of Friendship. When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow, for he is another self No hay mejor espejo, que el amigo viejo. Like a glass he will discover to you your own defects; and Más vale buen, amigo, que pariente primo, a good friend is better than a near relation. A man, the Italians say, without friends is like a body without a soul. "Chi si trova senz'amici, è come un corpo senz'anima". The French, by a very delicate phrase, denominate friendship love that is without wings, L'amitié est l'amour sans ailes, meaning that it should be a permanent affection, and not easily to be obliterated. Ova d'un ora, pane d'un di, vino d'un anno, amico di trenta; that is, eggs of an hour, bread of a day, wine of a year, but a friend of thirty years is best; and Azeyte, y vino, y amigo antiguo, oil, wine, and friends improve by age. Friendship, Montaigne says, "unlike to love, which is weakened by fruition, grows up, thrives, and increases by enjoyment; and being of itself spiritual, the soul is reformed by the practice of it". And according to Sallust, Idem velle et nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est, to have the same desires and dislikes, to love or hate the same persons, is the surest test of friendship. But instances of such exalted friendship, if they do exist, are very rare. "Tantum ego fucorum, tantum perfidiæ in hominum amicitiis reperio, non in his modo vulgaribus, verum his quoque quas Pyladeas vocant, ut mihi jam non libeat novarum periculum facere" -I find so much dissembling, says the good Erasmus, so much perfidy among friends, not only those between whom there subsists only a slight intimacy, but those connected, as it would seem, by the strongest ties of affection, that I have altogether given up the search after such a phenomenon. The same writer, at a more advanced stage of his life, and as the result of long experience, says, "Quin in totum, eo degenerarunt hominum mores, ut hodie, cygnus niger, aut corvus albus, minus rarus sit avis, quam fidelis amicus". In short, men are become so degenerate, (a complaint that has been made in every age), that a black swan, or a white crow, are not so rarely to be met with as a faithful friend. And another writer says, "We talk of friendship as of a thing that is known, and as we talk of ghosts-but who has seen either the one or the other!" "Friendship", Lord Verulam says, "easeth the heart and cleareth the understanding, making clear day in both; partly by giving the purest counsel, apart from our interest and prepossessions, and partly by allowing opportunity to discourse; and by that discourse to clear the mind, to recollect the thoughts, to see how they look in words; whereby men attain that highest wisdom, which Dionysius, the Areopagite, saith 'is the daughter of reflection'". Spenser gives a beautiful detlcription of three kinds of affection, to women, to our offspring, and to our friend, and gives the preference to the latter. "For natural affection soon doth cess, And quenched is with Cupid's greater flame; But faithful friendship doth them both suppress, And them with mastering discipline doth tame, Through thoughts aspiring to eternal fame. For as the soul doth rule the earthly mass, And all the service of the body frame, So love of soul doth love of body pass, No less than purest gold surmounts the meanest brass".