Of Friendship
There is nothing to which nature has more addressed us than to society. And Aristotle says that perfect law-givers have had more regardful care of friendship than of justice. And the utmost drift of its perfection is this. For generally, all those amities which are forged and nourished by voluptuousnesse or profit, public or private need, are thereby so much the less fair and generous, and so much the less true amities, in that they intermeddle other causes, scope, and fruit with friendship, than itself alone.
Nor doe those four ancient kinds of friendships, Naturall, social, hospitable, andvenerial, either particularly or conjointly beseem the same.
Those we ordinarily call friends and amities, are but acquaintances and familiarities, tied together by some occasion or commodities, by meanes whereof our mindes are entertained. In the amity I speake of, they entermix and confound themselves one in the other, with so universal a commixture, that they weave out and can no more find the seam that has conjoined them together. If a man urge me to tell
wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed, but by answering; Because it was he, because it was myself.
论友谊
人类在任何方面的追求,都无法与其喜欢结交朋友的天性相提并论。亚里士多德曾说过,即使最称职的执法者也会看重友谊胜过公正。这正是对我与拉博埃西之间的友谊最完美的诠释。因为,一般说来,友谊是由欲望、利益、共同的或个人的需要来建立和维系的,因此,假如带有过多的动机和私欲,就很难见到纯洁和高尚的友谊了,当然,真正的友谊也就不复存在了。
自古以来,友谊的形式不外乎四种:血缘形式、社交形式、礼仪形式以及男女相爱形式,但其中任何一种或与之相关的友谊都无法与我心中最完美的友谊相媲美。
我们通常所说的朋友和友谊，往往因为彼此间志趣相投而走到一起，经过长时间的频繁交往才会达到亲密无间的程度。我眼中的友谊,应该是两个人相互交融、不分彼此,甚至连两人交汇的连接点也无迹可寻。如果有人非让我说出喜欢他的理由,我真不知道该如何表达这份感情，只能说:“正因为是他,所以我才喜欢。”
I know not what inexplicable and fatal power is a mean and media of this indissoluble union. We sought one another before we had seen one another, and by the reports we heard one of another; which wrought a greater violence in us, than the reason of reports may well bear; I think by some secret ordinance of the heavens, we embraced one another by our names. And at our first meeting, which was by chance at a great feast, and solemn meeting of a whole township, we found ourselves so surprised, so known, so acquainted, and so combinedly bound together, that from thence forward, nothing was so near unto us as one unto anothers. He wrote an excellent Latin Saire since published; by which he excuses and expounds the precipitation of our acquaintance, so suddenly come to her perfection; Sit hence it must continue so short a time, and begun so late (for we were both grown men, and he some years older than myself) there was no time to be lost. And it was not to be modeled or directed by the patern of regular and remiss friendship, wherein so many precautions of a long conversation are required. Thís has no other idea than of itself, and can have no reference but to itself. It is not one especial consideration, nor two, nor three, nor four, nor a thousand: It is I will not what kind of quintessence, of all this commixture, which having seized all my will, induced the same to plunge and lose it selfe in his, which likewise having secized all his wil, brought it to lose and plunge it selfe in mine, with a mutual greediness, and with a semblable concurrance. 1 may truly say, lose, reserving nothing unto us, that might properly be called our own, nor that was either his or mine.
我无法用言语解释是何种力量构筑了我和拉博埃西之间这份坚不可摧的友谊。也许是天意,我们在未曾相识之前，,就在别人的言谈中相互寻觅着对方的名字,并且莫名其妙地对彼此产生了好感。一次偶然的机会,我与拉博埃西在城镇举办的一次大型宴会上相遇了。初次相见,我们便觉得一见如故,情投意合。从那以后,我们便成了形影不离的好朋友,任何一种情感都无法取代我与拉博埃西之间的友谊。后来,他写了一首非常优美的拉丁文抒情诗来赞美我们的友谊,并得以发表。诗中,他描述了我们的相见是如何的短暂,但友谊却日臻完美。我们的友谊开始得太晚(因为我们相识之时,都已是成人,他比我大几岁)P,因此不可以浪费一分一秒。与人们平日里所熟悉的友谊形式不同，我与拉博埃西之间的友谊并非通过小心谨慎或长期交往的方式发展的。我们之间的友谊风格独特,根本没有可参照的蓝本。它不是由某种特别的,或多种、甚至是上千种元素组成,而是从所有的元素中提炼出来的一种难以表达的精髓。我们将全部的意志融人到这份友谊之中,彼此心灵相通。可以说,我们之间已经失去了自我，不再把持着自己所拥有的东西,因为,我们之间已经不分你我了。
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