A friend even to the altar, that is, who will do every thing that is not offensive to good morals, or that will not oblige him to a breach of his duty to God, to his family, or neighbours. Such was the answer of Pericles to a friend, who had required of him in a certain cause to give a false testimony. He was not unmindful of his obligation to his friend, but he dared not violate his duty to the gods. It was the custom anciently for persons taking an oath, to lay one of their hands on the altar, whence the adage.
The following, from Beloe's translation of Aulus Aulus Gellius, places the character of Chilo, the Lacedemonian, in so pleasing a light, that I am induced to lay it before the reader. It has also some reference to the adage before us. When death was approaching, he thus spake to his surrounding friends: «That there is very little of all that I have said and done in the course of a long life, which has given me cause of repentance, ye may, perhaps, well know. At this period, I certainly do not delude myself when I say, that I have never done any thing, the remembrance of which gives me uneasiness, one incident alone excepted. I was once a judge with two others, on the life of a friend. The law was such as to require his condemnation. Either, therefore, a friend was to be lost by a capital punishment, or the law was to be evaded. In this case, I silently gave my own vote for his condemnation, but I persuaded my fellow judges to acquit him. Thus I neither violated the duty of the friend, nor of the judge. But the fact gives me this uneasiness; I fear that it was both perfidious and criminal, to persuade others to do that, which in my own judgment was not right».