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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: likes, any base fellow, may get up and discover something to the
advantage of himself and his equals. It may be retorted: "And what
sort of advantage either for himself or for the People can such a
fellow be expected to hit upon?" The answer to which is, that in their
judgment the ignorance and baseness of this fellow, together with his
goodwill, are worth a great deal more to them than your superior
person's virtue and wisdom, coupled with animosity. What it comes to,
therefore, is that a state founded upon such institutions will not be
the best state;[17] but, given a democracy, these are the right means
to procure its preservation. The People, it must be borne in mind,
does not demand that the city should be well governed and itself a
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