is found advocating the disuse of tails, he is at once suspected, and
his influence greatly limited. For the world is waking up to the
meanness of envy. The world, in its better moments, is rising above it.
It is one of our principal duties, on entering the Temple of Life, to
search our hearts for the little fox with the sharp tooth. When we find
ourselves about to enter upon a course of action, either momentary or
long continuous, which will be adverse to another of our
fellow-creatures, let us ask: "Is there anything of envy in this act?"
If there be, let us refrain from acting--the soul is not yet pure, the
body fragrant.
Let us see how ignorant this contemptible quality of envy becomes under
the lenses of practical life. "Base envy withers at another's joy." What
has caused it? In nine cases out of every ten, it is simply the
one-sided view of an ignorant mind, which sees only the bare result of
unceasing efforts. Envy sees Fame on the peak. Envy therefore hates
Fame, and declares that there are no crags, or rifts, or snows, or
storms on the way up--that, the path is an easy one, over which all who
ever went that way traveled in preference to all other routes!
I lay upon a boarding-house bed day after day, one summer, sick of a
fever. On the one side, a building was going up, and workmen filled the
air with mighty din. On the other side, a young man sang
"DO, HOORAY, ME, FAH, SOLE, LAH, SE, DO!"
I thought: "The one will be a grand house, and the other will be a great
tenor, but oh the way is long. The feet grow weary!"
It has often seemed to me that this was my first true view of life, and
nowadays, when--I am tired, especially,--I do not envy the truly great
in any avenue of distinction. The walker has walked, the builder has
groaned, the fighter has fought, the scribe has scribbled, the statesman
has lied and betrayed. Any one of them will tell you his pay has been
sadly inadequate.