Io8 THE LORD HATES A PROUD LOOK.

the meaning of some strange dreams. One dream, Daniel
said, meant that God would drive him from his throne to
punish his pride. Twelve months after the dream, the
king stood proudly on the very top of his palace; his long
robe swept the marble steps, his embroidered sleeves
hung over his folded hands; his jewels and his crown
gleamed in the light as his eyes looked at the towers,
marble images, carved figures, and blooming gardens,
bridges and fountains; and he felt, This is all my majesty
and my power, for he said, "Is not this great Babylon
that I have built?"
 A voice came from heaven, O Neb-u-chad-nez-zar,
the kingdom is departed from thee." That very hour his
reason was gone, he was no more fit to reign; for seven
years a crazy man, he wandered like the oxen in the fields,
no crown, no robes of state, no table of choice food, but
ate like the beasts, with matted hair, and sharp, stiff nails
that grew to be like the claws of the birds that flew
around him.
 God gave him back his reason and his throne, after
he had punished his pride; but Babylon became such a
ruin that now nothing is left to tell of the great king but
his story and the carved stones and colored bricks that
have been found deep in the vast heaps of rubbish, having
on them pictures and the name Neb-u-chad-nez-zar.