The past tense is used deliberately as whether man would educate himself or be educated by certain exemplary figures was a common issue at the time.

Halfway through this very long book he confronts us with a person different from the exemplary figure to which we had been introduced.

His devotion to republicanism and civic virtue made him an exemplary figure among early American politicians.

Legends, raising no such universal claim, may be understood as narratives of pious imagination celebrating an exemplary figure.

Many of them later become leaders or exemplary figures in the transformation of Mars or its new society.

Using this active receptiveness, a relatively average person can experience a transformation of goals and become an exemplary figure over time.

Mencius' mother is often held up as an exemplary female figure in Chinese culture.

They were exemplary figures, traces of whose plantings she preserves for sentimental reasons.

This was the spirit that America had given to the world-its best gesture, its exemplary figure.

Some observers see him as an exemplary figure.