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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: are you not all honourable men?[20] If I then be so beautiful and
affect you, even as I also am affected by him whose fair face here
attracts me,[21] I swear by all the company of heaven I would not
choose the great king's empire in exchange for what I am--the beauty
of the world, the paragon of animals.[22] And at this instant I feast
my eyes on Cleinias[23] gladlier than on all other sights which men
deem fair. Joyfully will I welcome blindness to all else, if but these
eyes may still behold him and him only. With sleep and night I am sore
vexed, which rob me of his sight; but to daylight and the sun I owe
eternal thanks, for they restore him to me, my heart's joy,
Cleinias.[24]
The Symposium |
