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| Chapter XXI. Esther in danger of her life followed the grace of virtue; nay, even a heathen king did so, when death was threatened to a man most friendly to him. For friendship must ever be combined with virtue, as the examples of Jonathan and Ahimelech show.
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Chapter XXI.
Esther in danger of her life followed the grace of
virtue; nay, even a heathen king did so, when death was threatened to a
man most friendly to him. For friendship must ever be combined
with virtue, as the examples of Jonathan and Ahimelech show.
123. Why did Queen
Esther749
expose herself to death and not fear the
wrath of a fierce king? Was it not to save her people from death,
an act both seemly and virtuous? The king of Persia himself also,
though fierce and proud, yet thought it seemly to show honour to the
man who had given information about a plot which had been laid against
himself,750
to save a free
people from slavery, to snatch them from death, and not to spare him
who had pressed on such unseemly plans. So finally he handed over
to the gallows751
the man that stood
second to himself, and whom he counted chief among all his friends,
because he considered that he had dishonoured him by his false
counsels.
124. For that commendable friendship which
maintains virtue is to be preferred most certainly to wealth, or
honours, or power. It is not wont to be preferred to virtue
indeed, but to follow after it.752
| 752 Cic. de
Off. III. 10, § 43. | So it was
with Jonathan,753
who for his
affection’s sake avoided not his father’s displeasure nor
the danger to his own safety. So, too, it was with Ahimelech,
who, to preserve the duties of hospitality, thought he must endure
death rather than betray his friend when fleeing.754
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