pass by the other. We now
heard a violent noise, when, casting our eyes forwards, we perceived a
vast number of spirits advancing in pursuit of one whom they mocked
and insulted with all kinds of scorn. I cannot give my reader a more
adequate idea of this scene than by comparing it to an English mob
conducting a pickpocket to the water; or by supposing that an incensed
audience at a playhouse had unhappily possessed themselves of the
miserable damned poet. Some laughed, some hissed, some squalled, some
groaned, some bawled, some spit at him, some threw dirt at him. It was
impossible not to ask who or what the wretched spirit was whom they
treated in this barbarous manner; when, to our great surprise, we were
informed that it was a king: we were likewise told that this manner
of behavior was usual among the spirits to those who drew the lots of
emperors, kings, and other great men, not from envy or anger, but mere
derision and contempt of earthly grandeur; that nothing was more common
than for those who had drawn these great prizes (as to us they seemed)
to exchange them with tailors and cobblers; and that Alexander the
Great and Diogenes had formerly done so; he that was afterwards Diogenes
having originally fallen on the lot of Alexander. And now, on a sudden,
the mockery ceased, and the king-spirit, having obtained a hearing,
began to speak as follows; for we were now near enough to hear him
distinctly:--

"GENTLEMEN,--I am justly surprised at your treating me in this manner,
since whatever lot I have drawn, I did not choose: if, therefore, it
be worthy of derision, you should compassionate me, for it might have
fallen to any of your shares. I know in how low a light the station to
which fate hath assigned me is considered here, and that, when ambition
doth not support it, it becomes generally so intolerable, that there
is scarce any other condition for which it is not gladly exchanged: for
what portion, in the world to which we are going, is so miserable as
that of care? Should I therefore consider myself as become by this lot
essentially your superior, and of a higher order of being than the rest
of my fellow-creatures; should I foolishly imagine myself without wisdom
superior to the wise, without knowledge to the learned, without courage
to the brave, and without goodness and virtue to the good and virtuous;
surely so preposterous, so absurd a pride, would justly render me the
object of ridicule. But far be it fro