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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: loss; and he would like him to be wifeless, childless, homeless, as well;
and the longer the better, for the longer he is all this, the longer he
will enjoy him.
There are some sort of animals, such as flatterers, who are dangerous and
mischievous enough, and yet nature has mingled a temporary pleasure and
grace in their composition. You may say that a courtesan is hurtful, and
disapprove of such creatures and their practices, and yet for the time they
are very pleasant. But the lover is not only hurtful to his love; he is
also an extremely disagreeable companion. The old proverb says that 'birds
of a feather flock together'; I suppose that equality of years inclines
them to the same pleasures, and similarity begets friendship; yet you may
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