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Now as for friends who are intended for use, the maxim I have

quoted will, it seems, fit in exceedingly well, because to

requite the services of many is a matter of labour, and a whole

life would not be long enough to do this for them. So that, if

more numerous than what will suffice for one's own life, they

become officious, and are hindrances in respect of living well:

and so we do not want them. And again of those who are to be for

pleasure a few are quite enough, just like sweetening in our

food.

But of the good are we to make as many as ever we can, or is

there any measure of the number of friends, as there is of the

number to constitute a Political Community? I mean, you cannot

make one out of ten men, and if you increase the number to one

hundred thousand it is not any longer a Community. However, the

number is not perhaps some one definite number but any between

certain extreme limits.