Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/94

40 the very ame Intant) at the mercy or the men they mot Depie. [The Silver, being Ten Thouand Talents, is given to Thee (ays Abauerus to Haman,) The People alo, to do with them, as it eemeth good unto Thee, Ether, Cap. 3. V. 11.] Who would have Imagin'd now, that the Stiff Crosnes of a Poor Captive, hould ever have had the Power to make Haman's Seat o Uneaie to him? Or that the want of a Cap, or a Cringe, hould o Mortally Dicompoe him, as we find afterwards it did! If Large Poeions, Pompous Titles, Honourable Charges, and Profitable Commiions; If a Plentiful Iue, Court-Favours, or the Flowing Bounty of a Gracious Prince, could have made This Proud man Happy, there would have been Nothing wanting to his Etablihment. But All This did not do his Work, it eems; neither, as big as he was, did there in Truth, need any Great Matter to Unettle him. But he was as ure to ink under the Infirmity of his Own Mind, as if he had been Doom'd to Sink in the Fate of a Common Ruine.

When Haman aw Mordecai in the Kings Gate, (ays the Text) ''that he tood not up, nor Moved for hint, he was full of Indignation againt Mordecai. Nevertheles, Haman Refrained himelf, and when he came Home, he ent and call'd for his Friends, and Tereh, his Wife; and told them of the Glory of his Riches, and the Multitude of his Children, And All the Things wherein the King had Promoted him, and how he had Advanced him above the Princes and Servants of the King. Tea, Ether the Queen (ays he) did let no man come with the King unto the Banquet that he had prepaid, but my elf; and to morrow am I Invited unto her alo with the King [Yet All This Availeth Me Nothing, o long as I ee Mordecai the Jew itting at the Kings Gate, Ether'', Cap. 5. V. 9. 10, II, 12, 13.]

This Intance of Hamans Cae may erve, in a Good Meaure, for a Moral to the Arrogance of the Hore here in the Fable; only Hamans Pride was the more Invidious and Malicious of the Two. To Wind up the Story; Mordecai was an Eye-ore to Haman, and a Gallows of Fifty Cubits High was prepar'd for him by the Order of Haman, ''Cap, 5. V,'' 14. But the King, upon Examination of the Matter, Order'd Haman Himelf to be Hanged. [So they Hanged Haman upon the Gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, ''Cap. 7. V. 10] Haman'''s Pride, in fine, was a Torment to him, and he was not only Punih'd By it, and For it, but by a Righteous Judgment of Retaliation, he uffer'd Death Himelf upon the very Gibbet that he had provided for Another.

How Wretched a Creature was Haman now, even in the Carees of his Royal Mater, and in the very Rapture of all his Glories! And how Vain again were All the Marks and Enigns of his Character and Power; that were not able to upport him againt one Slighting Look of a Sorry Slave! He had the World at Will, we ee; but All was as good as Nothing to him, o long as he aw Mordecai the Jew itting in the Kings Gate. Where's the Sober Man now, that would not rather chue to be Mordecai in the Gate, upon Thee Terms, than to be Haman in the Palace? The One had the Bleing of a Concience that Fears Nothing but God; the Other was Haunted with a Fantatical Weaknes of Mind, that makes a man Dread Every thing, and tand in awe of his Own Shadow! A Word, a Thought, an Imagination, a Countenance is enough to Break his Sleep, and to Shake the very Foundations of the Babel that he has Built. He fanies Every Bolt that's Levell'd at his Vices,