20.  Such were our feelings for each other, when we had thus supported, as Pindar26    Olymp. Od. vi. 1. has it, our “well-built chamber with pillars of gold,” as we advanced under the united influences of God’s grace and our own affection.  Oh! how can I mention these things without tears.

We were impelled by equal hopes, in a pursuit especially obnoxious to envy, that of letters.  Yet envy we knew not, and emulation was of service to us.  We struggled, not each to gain the first place for himself, but to yield it to the other; for we made each other’s reputation to be our own.  We seemed to have one soul, inhabiting two bodies.  And if we must not believe those whose doctrine is “All things27    All things, etc., i.e. Empedocles and Anaxagoras. are in all;” yet in our case it was worthy of belief, so did we live in and with each other.  The sole business of both of us was virtue, and living for the hopes to come, having retired from this world, before our actual departure hence.  With a view to this, were directed all our life and actions, under the guidance of the commandment, as we sharpened upon each other our weapons of virtue; and if this is not a great thing for me to say, being a rule and standard to each other, for the distinction between what was right and what was not.  Our associates were not the most dissolute, but the most sober of our comrades; not the most pugnacious, but the most peaceable, whose intimacy was most profitable:  knowing that it is more easy to be tainted with vice, than to impart virtue; just as we can more readily be infected with a disease, than bestow health.  Our most cherished studies were not the most pleasant, but the most excellent; this being one means of forming young minds in a virtuous or vicious mould.

Οὕτω δὴ τὰ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἔχοντες, καὶ τοιαύτας ὑποστήσαντες εὐτειχεῖ θαλάμῳ χρυσέας κίονας, ὅ φησι Πίνδαρος, οὕτως ᾔειμεν εἰς τὸ πρόσω, Θεῷ καὶ πόθῳ συνεργοῖς χρώμενοι. Ὤ! πῶς ἀδακρυτὶ τὴν τούτων ἐνέγκω μνήμην! Ἶσαι μὲν ἐλπίδες ἦγον ἡμᾶς πράγματος ἐπιφθονωτάτου, τῶν λόγων: φθόνος δὲ ἀπῆν, ζῆλος δὲ ἐσπουδάζετο. Ἀγὼν δὲ ἀμφοτέροις, οὐχ ὅστις αὐτὸς τὸ πρωτεῖον ἔχοι, ἀλλ' ὅπως τῷ ἑτέρῳ τούτου παραχωρήσειεν: τὸ γὰρ ἀλλήλων εὐδόκιμον ἴδιον ἐποιούμεθα. Μία μὲν ἀμφοτέροις ἐδόκει ψυχὴ δύο σώματα φέρουσα: καὶ εἰ τό, πάντα ἐν πᾶσι κεῖσθαι, μὴ πειστέον τοῖς λέγουσιν, ἀλλ' ἡμῖν γε πειστέον, ὡς ἐν ἀλλήλοις καὶ παρ' ἀλλήλοις ἐκείμεθα. Ἓν δ' ἀμφοτέροις ἔργον ἡ ἀρετή, καὶ τὸ ζῆν πρὸς τὰς μελλούσας ἐλπίδας, πρὶν ἐνθένδε ἀπελθεῖν ἐνθένδε μεθισταμένοις: πρὸς ὃ βλέποντες, καὶ βίον καὶ πρᾶξιν ἅπασαν ἀπηυθύνομεν, παρά τε τῆς ἐντολῆς οὕτως ἀγόμενοι καὶ ἀλλήλοις τὴν ἀρετὴν παραθήγοντες καί, εἰ μὴ μέγα ἐμοὶ τοῦτο εἰπεῖν, κανόνες ὄντες ἀλλήλοις καὶ στάθμαι, οἷς τὸ εὐθὲς καὶ μὴ διακρίνεται. Ἑταίρων τε γὰρ ὡμιλοῦμεν, οὐ τοῖς ἀσελγεστάτοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς σωφρονεστάτοις, οὐδὲ τοῖς μαχιμωτάτοις ἀλλὰ τοῖς εἰρηνικωτάτοις καὶ οἷς συνεῖναι λυσιτελέστατον: εἰδότες, ὅτι κακίας ῥᾷον μεταλαβεῖν ἢ ἀρετῆς μεταδοῦναι, ἐπεὶ καὶ νόσου μετασχεῖν μᾶλλον ἢ ὑγίειαν χαρίσασθαι. Μαθημάτων δὲ οὐ τοῖς ἡδίστοις πλέον ἢ τοῖς καλλίστοις ἐχαίρομεν: ἐπειδὴ κἀντεῦθέν ἐστιν ἢ πρὸς ἀρετὴν τυποῦσθαι τοὺς νέους ἢ πρὸς κακίαν.