without imploring the reader to exterminate this characteristic of envy
altogether. Because it is at first so little and so ridiculous, envy
often escapes the hand of discipline. Yet the homely saying is a true
one that "they which play with the devil's rattles will be brought by
degrees to wield his sword," and the force of a nature given up to envy
is truly a two-edged sword from the bottomless pit, cutting both the
fiend who smites and the victim who smarts.