Plutarch, Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur
Frank Cole Babbitt, Ed.

Let us, then, consider this matter from the beginning. We have previously said that with most people the beginning of friendship is their congenial disposition and nature, which welcomes the same habits and traits, as nearly as may be, and takes delight in the same pursuits, activities, and avocations ; on the subject of this it has also been said:

An old man hath the sweetest tongue for old, And child for child, and woman suits her kind, A sick man suits the sick ; misfortune's thrall Hath charms for him who hath just met mischance.¹

So then the flatterer, knowing that when people take delight in the same things it is only natural that they find enjoyment and satisfaction in each other's company, adopts this course in making his first attempts to approach each victim and to secure a lodgement near him; he acts as though the man were some animal running at large in a pasture, ² and by affecting the same pursuits, the same avocations, interests and manner of life, he gradually gets close to him, and rubs up against him so as to take on his colouring, until his victim gives him some hold and becomes docile and accustomed to his touch : he is ever disapproving actions and lives and persons which he perceives his victim to dislike, while if anything pleases the other he commends, not with [p. 281] moderation, but so as plainly to outdo him in amazement and wonder, and at the same time he stoutly maintains that his affection and hatred are the result of judgement rather than of emotion.