226 He continued to drink wine with his guests, and listen to their idle flatteries, till his mind became confused, and his heart more than usually lifted up with pride. Being thus quite prepared to perform any act of great folly and impiety, he madly commanded his servants to bring the gold and silver vessels which his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, where they had been sacred to the worship of the One true God. When they were brought, Belshazzar and his guests & a drank wine in them, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.” They poured out libations too, it is likely, to these false gods, from the vessels which had been consecrated to Jehovah. This was no doubt intended as a direct insult to the God of the Hebrews, and it was speedily and awfully punished. In the midst of his impious mirth the king happening to turn his eyes towards s part of the room opposite a brilliant chandelier, what was his astonishHABIìt when he saw, as it were, the fingers of a man's hand writing upon the wall in characters quite
