Envy will merit as its shade pursue,
But, like a shadow, proves the substance true.
Pope.--Essay on Criticism.
No passion has been more universally recognized than envy
as the basest of all the traits that undermine the nobility of man; and
yet there is no obnoxious quality so universal in men's characters. In
the life of the good man it reminds one of the mice, in our houses,
which eat their way to our attention and their own destruction; for
there are few men who have looked into their own hearts who have not
seen the small but odious traces of this gnawing evil. Again, the mind
of the bad man, who has given himself entirely up to envy, is