Essays

Cicero's two late essays, written in 44 BC, on growing old and on what actually binds friends together. His argument is that real friendship is only possible between people of good character, and that it cannot be bought or traded.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The complete essays in the Cotton translation, including Of Friendship, written after the death of Etienne de La Boetie. Montaigne insists the bond he is describing shows up perhaps once in three centuries.

Michel de Montaigne

Bacon's collected essays, with Of Friendship arguing that talking things through with a friend is the only real relief for a crowded mind. The volume also carries New Atlantis and long pieces by Milton and Browne.

Francis Bacon

Books eight and nine hold the oldest sustained analysis of friendship in Western philosophy. Aristotle sorts friendship into three kinds, built on usefulness, pleasure, or character, and argues only the last one survives.

Aristotle