Lysis

than Darius himself: so much a friend of companions am I. 212a So when I see you two, you and Lysis, I am amazed, and count you happy, that being so young you are able to acquire this possession quickly and easily, and you have acquired him as a friend so quickly and so thoroughly, and he in turn you; but I am so far from the possession that I do not even know how one becomes a friend of another; and that is just what I want to ask you, as one who has experience of it.

“And tell me: when someone loves someone, which 212b becomes a friend of which, the one who loves of the one loved, or the one loved of the one who loves? Or does it make no difference?” — “No difference,” he said, “it seems to me, at least.” — “What do you mean?” I said. “Then do both become friends of each other, if the one alone loves the other?” — “It seems so to me,” he said. — “What then? Is it not possible for one who loves not to be loved back by the one he loves?” — “It is.” — “What then? Is it possible for one who loves even to be hated? As lovers, I take it, sometimes seem to be treated by their darlings: for though they love them 212c as much as possible, some think they are not loved back, and some that they are even hated. Or don’t you think that is true?” — “Very true,” he said. — “Then in such a case,” I said, “the one loves, and the other is loved?” — “Yes.” — “Which of them, then, is a friend of which? Is the one who loves a friend of the one loved, whether he is loved back or even hated, or the one loved a friend of the one who loves? Or again, in such a case, is neither a friend of the other, unless both love each other?” — “It seems, at any rate, 212d to be so.” — “Then it seems otherwise to us now than it seemed before. For then, if one loved, both were friends; but now, unless both love, neither is a friend.” — “It looks like it,” he said. — “Then nothing is a friend to the one who loves unless it loves him back.” — “It seems not.” — “Then they are not friends of horses