And for magnitude, as Alexander the
Great, after that he was used to great armies, and the great
conquests of the spacious provinces in Asia, when he received
letters out of Greece, of some fights and services there, which were
commonly for a passage or a fort, or some walled town at the most,
he said: --"It seemed to him that he was advertised of the battles
of the frogs and the mice, that the old tales went of." So
certainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal frame of
nature, the earth with men upon it (the divineness of souls except)
will not seem much other than an ant-hill, whereas some ants carry
corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and
fro a little heap of dust. It taketh away or mitigateth fear of
death or adverse fortune, which is one of the greatest impediments
of virtue and imperfections of manners. For if a man's mind be
deeply seasoned with the consideration of the mortality and
corruptible nature of things, he will easily concur with Epictetus,
who went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of
earth that was broken, and went forth the next day and saw a woman
weeping for her son that was dead, and thereupon said, "Heri vidi
fragilem frangi, hodie vidi mortalem mori.
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