The great Roman orator, Cicero, remarks with truth
that it increases happiness and diminishes misery by the doubling of our joy
and the dividing of our grief. When we do well, it is delightful to have
friends who are so proud of our success that they receive as much pleasure from
it as we do ourselves. For the friendless man the attainment of wealth, power,
and honor is of little value. South possessions contribute to our happiness
‘most by enabling us to do good to others, but if all those whom we -are able
to benefit are strangers. We take far less pleasure in our beneficence than if
it were exerted on behalf of friends whose happiness? Is as dear to us as our
own. Further. When we do our duty in spite of temptation the menial
satisfaction obtained from the approval of our consciences is heightened by the
praise of our friends: for their judgment is as it were a second conscience,
encouraging us in good and deterring us from evil. Our amusements have little
zest and soon fall upon us if we engage in them in solitude, or with
uncongenial companions, for whom we can feel no affection. Thus in every case
our joys are rendered more intense and more permanent by being shared with
friends.
When fortune has inflicted a heavy unavoidable blow
upon us, our grief is alleviated by friendly condolence, and by the thought that,
as long a’s our friends are left ‘to us, life is still worth living. Grief
loses its intensity in the presence of friends. That is why it is said that he
not poor who has friends but the poor is ‘one who has no friends. Said that he
not poor who has friends but the poor is ‘one who has no friends.
But many misfortunes which threaten us are not
inevitable and in escaping such misfortunes, the advice and active assistance
of our friends may be invaluable. The friendless man stands alone, exposed
without protection to his enemies and to the blows of fortune but whoever has
loyal friends is thereby provided with a strong defense against the worst that
fortune can do to him.
Thus in good and evil fortune, in our work and in
our hours of recreation, the possession of true friends is the most important
means to the attainment of happiness and the alleviation or avoidance of
misery. It must be remembered, however, that these remarks only apply to
friends really worthy of the name. The evil that may be affected by bad friends
is as great as good secured by the possession of good friends. On this account
the right selection of friends is a matter of vital importance. We should
select our friends with the greatest care, and, when we have won them, and
found them worthy. We should take care to retain them, till we are severed from
them b death.
It is also said that friends are thieves of time.
Time is the most precious thing in the world. To some extent it is true. But
most of the friends are very sensible. They do not waste any body’s time for
nothing. They do not cause trouble rather they are blessing.