The position is next examined—­that the love felt by benefactors is stronger than the love felt by those benefitted.  It is not a sufficient explanation to say, the benefactor is a creditor, who wishes the prosperity of his debtor.  Benefactors are like workmen, who love their own work, and the exercise of their own powers.  They also have the feeling of nobleness on their side; while the recipient has the less lovable idea of profit.  Finally, activity is more akin to love than recipiency (VII.).  Another question raised for discussion is—­’Ought a man to love himself most, or another?’ On the one hand, selfishness is usually condemned as the feature of bad men; on the other hand, the feelings towards self are made the standard of the feelings towards friends.  The solution is given thus.  There is a lower self (predominant with most men) that gratifies the appetites, seeking wealth, power, &c.  With the select few, there is a higher self that seeks the honourable, the noble, intellectual excellence, at any cost of pleasure, wealth, honour, &c.  These noble-minded men procure for themselves the greater good by sacrificing the less:  and their self-sacrifice is thus a mode of self.  It is the duty of the good man to love himself:  for his noble life is profitable, both to himself, and to others; but the bad man ought not to love himself. [Self-sacrifice, formerly brought under Courage, is here depicted from another point of view] (VIII.).

By way of bringing out the advantages of friendship, it is next asked, Does the happy man need friends?  To this, it is answered, (1) That happiness, being the sum of all human good, must suppose the possession of the greatest of external goods, which is friendship. (2) The happy man will require friends as recipients, of his overflow of kindness. (3) He cannot be expected either to be solitary, or to live with strangers. (4) The highest play of existence is to see the acts of another in harmony with self. (5) Sympathy supports and prolongs the glow of one’s own emotions. (6) A friend confirms us in the practice of virtue. (7) The sense of existence in ourselves is enlarged by the consciousness of another’s existence (IX.).  The number of friends is again considered, and the same barriers stated—­the impossibility of sharing among many the highest kind of affection, or of keeping up close and harmonious intimacy.  The most renowned friendships are between pairs (X.).  As to whether friends are most needed in adversity or in prosperity—­in the one, friendship is more necessary, in the other more glorious (XI.).  The essential support and manifestation of friendship is Intercourse.  Whatever people’s tastes are, they desire the society of others in exercising them (XII.).

Book Tenth discusses Pleasure, and lays down as the highest and perfect pleasure, the exercise of the Intellect in Philosophy.