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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: 'Some of us have fathers and mothers still living, and we would urge them,
if, as is likely, we shall die, to bear the calamity as lightly as
possible, and not to condole with one another; for they have sorrows
enough, and will not need any one to stir them up. While we gently heal
their wounds, let us remind them that the Gods have heard the chief part of
their prayers; for they prayed, not that their children might live for
ever, but that they might be brave and renowned. And this, which is the
greatest good, they have attained. A mortal man cannot expect to have
everything in his own life turning out according to his will; and they, if
they bear their misfortunes bravely, will be truly deemed brave fathers of
the brave. But if they give way to their sorrows, either they will be
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