Several questions have been debated concerning Friendship,--Is it based on likeness or unlikeness?
Can bad men be friends?
Is there but one species of Friendship, or more than one?
(I.) Some progress towards a solution of these questions may be made by considering what are the objects of liking; these are the good, the pleasant, the useful.

By the good is not meant the absolute good of Plato, but the apparent good.

Inanimate things must be excluded, as wanting reciprocation (II.).

The varieties of friendship follow these three modes of the likeable.

The friendships for the useful and the pleasant, are not disinterested, but self-seeking; they are therefore accidental and transitory; they do not involve intimate and frequent association.