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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: Whatever the poets pretend, it is plain they give immortality to
none but themselves; it is Homer and Virgil we reverence and
admire, not Achilles or AEneas. With historians it is quite the
contrary; our thoughts are taken up with the actions, persons, and
events we read, and we little regard the authors.
When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this
sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Men who possess all the advantages of life, are in a state where
there are many accidents to disorder and discompose, but few to
please them.
It is unwise to punish cowards with ignominy, for if they had
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