Also parents know their offspring with more
certainty than children know their parentage; and progenitor is more attached to progeny
than progeny to progenitor, since that which springs from a thing belongs to the thing
from which it springs—for instance, a tooth or hair or what not to its
owner—whereas the thing it springs from does not belong to it at all, or only in
a less degree. The affection of the parent exceeds that of the child in duration also;
parents love their children as soon as they are born, children their parents only when
time has elapsed and they have acquired understanding,1
or at least perception.
why parental affection is stronger in the mother. Parents then love their children as
themselves （one's offspring being as it were another self—other because
）; children love their parents as the
source of their being; brothers love each other as being from the same source, since the
identity of their relations to that source identifies them with one another, which is why
we speak of ‘being of the same blood’ or ‘of the same
stock’ or the like; brothers are therefore in a manner the same being, though
embodied in separate persons.
But friendship between
brothers is also greatly fostered by their common upbringing and similarity of age;
‘two of an age agree,’4
and ‘familiarity breeds fellowship,’ which
is why the friendship between brothers resembles that between members of a comradeship.