It
is a great pity the Babylonians suspected not his falsehood, that
they might have cut off his hands too, and whipped him back again.
But the design succeeded; he betrayed the city, and was made
governor of it. What brutish master ever punished his offending
slave with so little mercy as ambition did this Zopirus? and yet how
many are there in all nations who imitate him in some degree for a
less reward; who, though they endure not so much corporal pain for a
small preferment, or some honour, as they call it, yet stick not to
commit actions, by which they are more shamefully and more lastingly
stigmatised? But you may say, "Though these be the most ordinary
and open ways to greatness, yet there are narrow, thorny, and
little-trodden paths, too, through which some men find a passage by
virtuous industry." I grant, sometimes they may; but then that
industry must be such as cannot consist with liberty, though it may
with honesty.
Thou art careful, frugal, painful. We commend a servant so, but not
a friend.
Well, then, we must acknowledge the toil and drudgery which we are
forced to endure in this assent, but we are epicures and lords when
once we are gotten up into the high places.
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