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[3]
The idea of noble birth refers to
excellence of race, that of noble character to not degenerating from the family
type, a quality not as a rule found in those of noble birth, most of whom are
good for nothing. For in the generations of men there is a kind of crop as in
the fruits of the field; sometimes, if the race is good, for a certain period
men out of the common are born in it, and then it deteriorates. Highly gifted
families often degenerate into maniacs, as, for example, the descendants of
Alcibiades and the elder Dionysius; those that are stable into fools and
dullards, like the descendants of Cimon, Pericles, and Socrates.
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