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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: is to be the delight of the lover's heart, and a curse to himself. Verily,
a lover is a profitable guardian and associate for him in all that relates
to his mind.
Let us next see how his master, whose law of life is pleasure and not good,
will keep and train the body of his servant. Will he not choose a beloved
who is delicate rather than sturdy and strong? One brought up in shady
bowers and not in the bright sun, a stranger to manly exercises and the
sweat of toil, accustomed only to a soft and luxurious diet, instead of the
hues of health having the colours of paint and ornament, and the rest of a
piece?--such a life as any one can imagine and which I need not detail at
length. But I may sum up all that I have to say in a word, and pass on.
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