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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: his estate well, without, in the first place, knowing what he
requires, and, in the second place, taking pains, item by item, to
supply his wants. But since this city consists of more than ten
thousand houses, and it is not easy to pay minute attention to so many
all at once, how is it you did not practise yourself by trying to
augment the resources of one at any rate of these--I mean your own
uncle's? The service would not be thrown away. Then if your strength
suffices in the single case you might take in hand a larger number;
but if you fail to relieve one, how could you possibly hope to succeed
with many? How absurd for a man, if he cannot carry half a
hundredweight, to attempt to carry a whole![13]
The Memorabilia |
