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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: piercing of our bodily senses; though not by that is wisdom seen; her
loveliness would have been transporting if there had been a visible image
of her, and the other ideas, if they had visible counterparts, would be
equally lovely. But this is the privilege of beauty, that being the
loveliest she is also the most palpable to sight. Now he who is not newly
initiated or who has become corrupted, does not easily rise out of this
world to the sight of true beauty in the other; he looks only at her
earthly namesake, and instead of being awed at the sight of her, he is
given over to pleasure, and like a brutish beast he rushes on to enjoy and
beget; he consorts with wantonness, and is not afraid or ashamed of
pursuing pleasure in violation of nature. But he whose initiation is
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