CHAP. XXXI.
Of Love and Friendship.
FRiendship, properly so termed, is made by a mutuall recipro∣call benevolence. This is, when either is as much concerned for the happinesse of the ot••er, as of his own, which equality is preserved only by similitude of manners: For, the like is friend to its like, if they be both moderate; but, the intemperate cannot agree, either with themselves, or the moderate.
There are other things which are thought friendships, but are are not such, in which there appeareth some shew of vertue. Of these, is the naturall goodwill of Parents to their Children, and of Kindred one to another, as also that which is called civill and sociable: These are not alwaies accompanyed with mutual be∣nevolence. Likewise, the amatory art is a kind of friendship. That which is honest is proper to a generous soul, dishonest, to a per∣verse; mean, to one meanly affected. For, as the habit of the ra∣tionall soul is three-fold, right, dishonest, and mean; so many different kinds are there of love, which appeareth most clearly in the difference of the ends they propose unto themselves. The dishonest aimes only at corporeall pleasure, and therefore is ab∣solutely bruitish. The honest considereth the minde only, as far as vertue appeareth in it. The mean desireth both the beauty of the soul and of the body; of which love, he who is worthy, is mean likewise; that is, neither absolutely honest nor dishonest. Hence that love which aimeth only at the body, ought to be tearmed a Demon (rather then a Deity, which never descendeth to an human bodie) transmitting divine things to men, and human to God.
Of the three kinds of love, that which is proper to a good man,