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who continue friends and whose
friendship is lasting.
[5]
Also it is by rendering affection in proportion to desert that friends who are not equals
may approach most nearly to true friendship, since this will make them equal. Amity
consists in equality and similarity, especially the similarity of those who are alike in
virtue; for being true to themselves, these also remain true to one another, and neither
request nor render services that are morally degrading. Indeed they may be said actually
to restrain each other from evil: since good men neither err themselves nor permit their
friends to err. Bad men on the other hand have no constancy in friendship, for they do not
even remain true to their own characters; but they can be friends for a short time, while
they take pleasure in each other's wickedness.
[6]
The
friendships of useful and pleasant people last longer, in fact as long as they give each
other pleasure or benefit. It is friendship based on utility that seems most frequently to
spring from opposites, for instance a friendship between a poor man and a rich one, or
between an ignorant man and a learned; for a person desiring something which he happens to
lack will give something else in return for it. One may bring under this class the
friendship between a lover and the object of his affections, or between a plain person and
a handsome one. This is why lovers sometimes appear ridiculous when they claim that their
love should be equally reciprocated; no doubt if they are equally lovable this is a
reasonable demand, but it is ridiculous if they have nothing attractive about them.
[7]
But perhaps there is no real attraction between opposites