1There are, moreover, several degrees of human society. 1For, to leave that boundless one aside, closer is the society of the same race, tribe and language, by which men are most closely joined; 1more intimate still is it to be of the same state; 1for citizens have many things in common with one another: the forum, temples, colonnades, roads, laws, rights, law courts, votes, and besides these, customs and friendships and the many dealings and business ties of many with many. 1Tighter still is the bond of the society of kinsmen; 1for from that vast society of the human race it is narrowed into a small and confined one. 54For since it is common to living creatures by nature that they have the desire to procreate, the first society is in marriage itself, the next in children, then one household with all things shared; 54and this is the beginning of the city and, as it were, the seed-bed of the state.
54Then follow the bonds of brothers, and after them those of first and second cousins, who, since they can no longer be contained in one house, go out into other houses as if into colonies. 54Then follow marriages and connections by marriage, from which come still more kinsmen; 54and this propagation and offspring is the origin of states. 54The bond of blood, moreover, binds men fast by goodwill and by affection; 55for it is a great thing to have the same memorials of ancestors, to practise the same sacred rites, to have tombs in common. 55But of all societies none is more excellent, none more firm, than when good men, alike in character, are joined in close friendship; 55for that honourable quality of which we often speak, even if we see it in another, moves us and makes us friends to the one in whom it seems to reside.
56And although every virtue draws us to itself and makes us love those in whom it seems to reside, yet justice and liberality do this most of all. 56Nothing, moreover, is more lovable or more binding than likeness of good character; 56for when people have the same pursuits and the same wishes, it comes about that each delights in the other as much as in himself, and what Pythagoras requires in friendship is achieved, that one is made out of many. 56Great too is that fellowship which is formed from benefits given and received in turn; and while these are mutual and welcome, those between whom they pass are bound together in a firm society.
57But when you have surveyed everything with reason and mind, of all societies none is weightier, none dearer than that which each of us has with the state. 57Dear are our parents, dear our children, kinsmen and friends, but our country alone has embraced all the affections of all of us; for her what good man would hesitate to meet death, if he would be of service to her? 57All the more detestable is the savagery of those men who have torn their country apart with every crime and both are and have been busy with destroying her utterly. 58But if some contest and comparison should arise as to who should be rendered the most duty, first should be our country and our parents, to whose benefits we are most deeply bound; next our children and our whole household, which looks to us alone and can have no other refuge; then kinsmen who are on good terms with us, with whom our fortune too is generally shared.
58Therefore the necessary supports of life are owed most to those whom I have just named; but a shared life and living, counsel, conversation, encouragement, consolation, and sometimes even rebuke flourish most in friendships, and that friendship is the most delightful which likeness of character has joined.