7
And, mark you, I for my part have discovered no ground on which you could reasonably have despised my company. For neither could I see that you were very clever and myself very stupid, nor indeed that you were surrounded with friends and myself destitute of them, nor again that you were wealthy and I poor, nor again that you were in particularly good repute and myself in ill odor, nor were my interests in danger and yours in safety. What reasonable ground, then, had I for suspecting that you were annoyed by my association with you?
8
Moreover, when you made these statements to our newest members, you did not expect that they would report them to us, and there you were, supposing it a fine stroke of cleverness to go round accusing yourselves to everyone of consenting to be in the company of evil men! As to my informant, it would be vain for you to inquire. For, first of all, you know the person who told me, before you ask: how can you not know him, the man to whom you made your statement?
9
In the second place, I should do wrong to deal with him as he did with you. For he had not the same view in reporting it to me as you had in making it to him. He reported it to my relatives out of kindness to me, but you made it to him with the intention of injuring me. And if I disbelieved his words, I should seek to test them:
