OF INDIGNATION.
Opposite in a manner to pity in _good_ men, is _indignation_; which is
grief for the prosperity of a man unworthy.
With _indignation_ there is always joined a joy for the prosperity of a
man worthy; as _pity_ is always with contentment in the adversity of
them that deserve it.
In _wicked_ men the opposite of pity is _envy_; as also the companion
thereof, _delight in the harm of_ _others_, which the Greeks in one word
have called ἐπιχαιρεκακία. But of these in the next chapter.
Men conceive _indignation_ against others, not for their virtues, as
justice, &c.; for these make men worthy; and in _indignation_ we think
men unworthy: but for those goods which men indued with virtue, and
noble men, and handsome men are worthy of. And for newly-gotten power
and riches, rather than for ancient; and especially if by these he has
gotten other goods, as by riches, command. The reason why we conceive
greater _indignation_ against new than ancient riches, is that the
former seem to possess that which is none of theirs, but the ancient
seem to have but their own: for with common people, to have been so
long, is to be so by right. And for the bestowing of goods
incongruously: as when the arms of the most valiant Achilles were
bestowed on the most eloquent Ulysses. And for the comparison of the
inferior in the same thing, as when one valiant is compared with a more
valiant; or whether absolutely superior, as when a good scholar is
compared with a good man.
_Apt_ to indignation are: they that think themselves worthy of the
greatest goods, and do possess them. And they that are good. And they
that are ambitious. And such as think themselves deserve better what
another possesseth, than he that hath it.
_Least apt_ to indignation are, such as are of a poor, servile, and not
ambitious nature.
Who they are, that rejoice or grieve not at the adversity of him that
suffers worthily, and in what occasions, may be gathered from the
contrary of what has been already said.
Whoever therefore would turn away the _compassion_ of the judge, he must
make him apt to _indignation_; and shew that his adversary is unworthy
of the good, and worthy of the evil which happens to him.
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