1You have handed letters to be carried to me, as you write, to a friend of yours; 1then you warn me not to share with him everything that concerns you, because you are not in the habit of doing so even yourself; 1thus in the same letter you have both called him a friend and denied it. 1So if you used that word, proper as it is, as though it were common coin, and called him a friend in the way we call all candidates 'good men', and in the way we greet people we meet as 'master' if their name does not come to mind, let it pass. 2But if you consider anyone a friend whom you do not trust as much as yourself, you are badly mistaken and do not sufficiently know the force of true friendship.
2Do indeed deliberate over everything with a friend, but about the man himself first. 2After friendship one must trust, before friendship one must judge. 2Those people truly confuse the order of duties who, contrary to the precepts of Theophrastus, judge after they have loved, and do not love after they have judged. 2Think long whether someone should be received by you into friendship. 2When you have decided that it should be done, admit him with your whole heart; 2speak with him as boldly as with yourself. 3Live, indeed, in such a way that you entrust nothing to yourself that you could not entrust even to your enemy; 3but since certain things do come up which custom has made secret, share all your cares, all your thoughts with your friend.
3If you think him loyal, you will make him so. 3For some have taught others to deceive by fearing to be deceived, and by suspecting have given them the right to do wrong. 3What reason is there why I should hold back any words in the presence of my friend? 3What reason is there why I should not think myself alone in his presence? 4Some people tell the passers-by what ought to be entrusted only to friends, and unload into any ears whatever has been troubling them. 4Others again dread the knowledge even of those dearest to them, and, being ready, if they could, not to trust even themselves, press every secret deep within.
4Neither should be done. 4For both are faults, trusting everyone and trusting no one. 4But I would call the one fault more honourable, the other safer; 5in the same way you should blame both kinds, those who are always restless, and those who are always at rest. 5For that delight in commotion is not industry, but the running to and fro of an agitated mind. 5And that is not rest which judges all movement a nuisance, but slackness and languor. 6And so this, which I read in Pomponius, will be committed to memory: 'Some have fled so far into hiding-places that they think whatever is in the light is in turmoil.' 6These things must be blended with each other: he who rests must act, and he who acts must rest.
6Take counsel with nature; 6she will tell you that she has made both the day and the night. 6Farewell.