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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: himself to the senate or the People with a fee in his hand he will do
a good stroke of business. And for my part I am free to confess to
these gainsayers that a good many things may be done at Athens by dint
of money; and I will add, that a good many more still might be done,
if the money flowed still more freely and from more pockets. One
thing, however, I know full well, that as to transacting with every
one of these applicants all he wants, the state could not do it, not
even if all the gold and silver in the world were the inducement
offered.
Here are some of the cases which have to be decided on. Some one fails
to fit out a ship: judgement must be given. Another puts up a building
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