Friendship
from the introduction:
In spite of the selfishness which seems to blight all life, our hearts tell us that there is possible a nobler relationship of disinterestedness and devotion. Friendship in its accepted sense is not the highest of the different grades in that relationship, but it has its place in the kingdom of love, and through it, we bring ourselves into training for a still larger love.
The natural man may be self-absorbed and self-centred, but in a truer sense, it is natural for him to give up himself and link his life to others. Hence the joy with which he makes the great discovery, that he is something to another and another is everything to him. It is the higher-natural for which he has hitherto existed. It is a miracle, but it happens.
The cynic may speak of the now obsolete sentiment of friendship, and he can find much to justify his cynicism. Indeed, on the first blush, if we look at the relative place the subject holds in ancient as compared with modern literature, we might say that friendship is a sentiment.
that is rapidly becoming obsolete. In Pagan, writers friendship takes a much larger place than it now receives. The subject bulks largely in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Cicero. And among modern writers, it gets most im- portance in the writings of the more Pagan-spirited, such as Montaigne. In all the ancient systems of philosophy, friendship was treated as an integral part of the system.
To the Stoic, it was a blessed occasion for the display of nobility and the native virtues of the human mind. To the Epicurean, it was the most refined of the pleasures which made life worth living. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle makes it the culminating point, and Out of ten books gives two to the discussion of Friendship.
He makes it even the link of connection between his treatise on Ethics and his companion ' treatise on Politics but is to him both the perfection of the individual life and the bond that holds states together.
Download Friendship by Hugh Black PDF ebook