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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: wrestling bout. Consider the day's round of his existence. The sides
are being picked up in a football match,[2] but he is left out as the
odd man: there is no place for him. During the choric dance[3] he is
driven away into ignominious quarters. Nay, in the very streets it is
he who must step aside for others to pass, or, being seated, he must
rise and make room, even for a younger man. At home he will have his
maiden relatives to support in isolation (and they will hold him to
blame for their unwedded lives).[4] A hearth with no wife to bless it
--that is a condition he must face,[5] and yet he will have to pay
damages to the last farthing for incurring it. Let him not roam abroad
with a smooth and smiling countenance;[6] let him not imitate men
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