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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: shield to sickle, and from sickle to shield.
But while Christ did not say to men, 'Live for others,' he pointed
out that there was no difference at all between the lives of others
and one's own life. By this means he gave to man an extended, a
Titan personality. Since his coming the history of each separate
individual is, or can be made, the history of the world. Of
course, culture has intensified the personality of man. Art has
made us myriad-minded. Those who have the artistic temperament go
into exile with Dante and learn how salt is the bread of others,
and how steep their stairs; they catch for a moment the serenity
and calm of Goethe, and yet know but too well that Baudelaire cried
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