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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: iv. 28.
IV
But if he was thus careful in the education of the stripling,[1] the
Spartan lawgiver showed a still greater anxiety in dealing with those
who had reached the prime of opening manhood; considering their
immense importance to the city in the scale of good, if only they
proved themselves the men they should be. He had only to look around
to see what wherever the spirit of emulation[2] is most deeply seated,
there, too, their choruses and gymnastic contests will present alike a
far higher charm to eye and ear. And on the same principle he
persuaded himself that he needed only to confront[3] his youthful
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