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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: desert you, if you are not spoiled and deformed by the Athenian people; for
the danger which I most fear is that you will become a lover of the people
and will be spoiled by them. Many a noble Athenian has been ruined in this
way. For the demus of the great-hearted Erechteus is of a fair
countenance, but you should see him naked; wherefore observe the caution
which I give you.
ALCIBIADES: What caution?
SOCRATES: Practise yourself, sweet friend, in learning what you ought to
know, before you enter on politics; and then you will have an antidote
which will keep you out of harm's way.
ALCIBIADES: Good advice, Socrates, but I wish that you would explain to me
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