The Second Law
The second law deals with the persons with whom we are to take our recreation (cum quibus ludendum). In the same way as when you are about to take a journey, or to go to a banquet, you look about diligently to see who are to be your future boon companions or fellow travellers, so in considering your recreation, you should reflect with whom you will play, so that they may be men known to you. For there is a great danger with the unknown, and it is a true proverb of Plautus: “A fellow-man is a wolf to a man who does not know what manner of associate he has got.” Companions should be agreeable, festive, with whom there is no danger of quarrelling or fighting, of either doing or saying anything disgraceful or unbecoming! Let them not be blasphemers of God, or users of oaths! Nor should they be impure in speech, lest your morals should be rubbed against by the contagion of what is depraved or profligate. Lastly, they should bring to the game no other purpose than your own, viz., the idea of thorough rest from labour, and the freedom from mental strain.