There is Nothing either so Great, or so Little, as not to be Lyable to
the Vicissitudes of Fortune, whether for Good or for Evil. A Miserable
_Fly_ is sufficient, we see, to take down the Stomach of a _Lyon_; and
then to Correct the Insulting Vanity of That _Fly_, it falls the next
Moment into the Toyl of a _Spider_. ’Tis Highly Improvident not to
Obviate small Things; and as Ridiculous to be Baffled by them; and it
is not the Force neither, but the Importunity that is so Vexatious and
Troublesome to us. The very Teizing of the _Lyon_ Gall’d him more then an
Arrow at his Heart would have done. The Doctrine is this, That no Man is
to Presume upon his Power and Greatness, when every Pitiful Insect may
find out a Way to Discompose him. But That Pitiful Insect again is not
to Value himself upon his Victory neither; for the _Gnat_ that had the
Better of the _Lyon_, in the very next breath, was Worsted by a _Spider_.