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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: clothes, covered with dust and dirt, and put on my noble court dress,
and thus becomingly re-clothed I pass into the ancient courts of the
men of old, where, being lovingly received by them, I am fed with that
food which is mine alone; where I do not hesitate to speak with them,
and to ask for the reason of their actions, and they in their
benignity answer me; and for four hours I feel no weariness, I forget
every trouble, poverty does not dismay, death does not terrify me; I
am possessed entirely by those great men. And because Dante says:
Knowledge doth come of learning well retained,
Unfruitful else,
I have noted down what I have gained from their conversation, and have
 The Prince |