Book 7
9
Some people then give this account of a friend; but others say that opposite is dear to opposite, since it is what is loved and desired that is dear to everybody, and the dry does not desire the dry but the wet (whence the sayings—Earth loveth rain,Quoted as from Euripides, Aristot. Nic. Eth. 1154a 34; the play is not known. and In all things change is sweet— Eur. Orest. 234. change being transition to the opposite), whereas like hates like, for Potter against potter has a grudge, Hes. WD 25 ('Two of a trade never agree'). and animals that live on the same food are hostile to one another.
10
These opinions, therefore, are thus widely variant. One party thinks that the like is friend and the opposite foe— The less is rooted enemy to the more For ever, and begins the day of hate, Eur. Phoen. 539f. ἐχθρᾶς ἡμέρας = ἔχθρας, cf. δούλιον ἦμαρ = δουλεία, Paley.
11
and moreover adversaries are separated in locality, whereas friendship seems to bring men together. The other party say that opposites are friends, and HeracleitusThe natural philosopher of Ephesus, fl. end of 6th cent. B.C. rebukes the poet who wrote— Would strife might perish out of heaven and earth, Hom. Il. 18.107 for, he says, there would be no harmony without high and low notes, and no animals without male and female, which are opposites.
