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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: between the power of those who "do and teach," and who are greatest
in the kingdoms of earth, as of heaven--and the power of those who
undo, and consume--whose power, at the fullest, is only the power of
the moth and the rust? Strange! to think how the Moth-kings lay up
treasures for the moth; and the Rust-kings, who are to their
peoples' strength as rust to armour, lay up treasures for the rust;
and the Robber-kings, treasures for the robber; but how few kings
have ever laid up treasures that needed no guarding--treasures of
which, the more thieves there were, the better! Broidered robe,
only to be rent; helm and sword, only to be dimmed; jewel and gold,
only to be scattered;--there have been three kinds of kings who have
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