OF PITY OR COMPASSION.
_Pity_ is a perturbation of the mind, arising from the apprehension of
hurt or trouble to another that doth not deserve it, and which he thinks
may happen to himself or his.
And because it appertains to _pity_ to think that he, or his, may fall
into the misery he pities in others; it follows that they be _most
compassionate_: who have passed through misery. And old men. And weak
men. And timorous men. And learned men. And such as have parents, wife
and children. And such as think there be honest men.
And that they are _less compassionate_: who are in great despair. Who
are in great prosperity. And they that are angry; for they consider not.
And they that are very confident; for they also consider not. And they
that are in the act of contumely; for neither do these consider. And
they that are astonished with fear. And they that think no man honest.
The _things_ to be pitied are: such as grieve, and withal hurt. Such as
destroy. And calamities of fortune, if they be great: as none or few
friends, deformity, weakness, lameness, &c. And evil that arrives where
good is expected. And after extreme evil, a little good. And through a
man’s life to have no good offer itself; or being offered, not to have
been able to enjoy it.
_Men_ to be pitied are: such as are known to us, unless they be so near
to us, as their hurt be our own. And such as be of our own years. Such
as are like us in manners. Such as are of the same, or like stock. And
our equals in dignity. Those that have lately suffered, or are shortly
to suffer injury: and those that have the marks of injury past. And
those that have the words or actions of them that be in present misery.
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