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But a man who loves wealth and is enthralled by gold and measures happiness by purple and power, who has not tasted liberty or tested free speech or contemplated truth, whose constant companions are flattery and servility; a min who has unreservedly committed his soul to pleasure and has resolved to serve none but her, fond of extravagant fare and fond of wine and women, full of trickery, deceit and falsehood; a man who likes to hear twanging, fluting and emasculated singing—
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"Such folk,” said he, “should live in Rome, for every street and every square is full of the things they cherish most, A reminiscence of Aratus (Phaenom. 2): ‘ And every human-street and every square is full of the presence of God.” and they can admit pleasure by every gate—by the eyes, by the ears and nostrils, by the throat and reins, Its everflowing, turbid stream widens every street; it brings in adultery, avarice, perjury and the whole family of the vices, and sweeps the flooded soul bare of self-respect, virtue, and righteousness; and then the ground which they have left a desert, ever parched with thirst, puts forth a rank, wild growth of lusts.” That was the character of the city, he declared, and those all the good things it taught.
