The Duchess of Argyll is reported to have written to various
European monarchs asking them whom they envied. Among the
answers was one from the Czar of Russia, as follows: “I
sincerely envy every man who is not loaded down with the cares
of a great empire, and who has not to weep for the woes of a
people.”
Not infrequently the envied are the envying, because each one is apt to
think his own lot the hardest.
(931)
* * * * *
Good men are often hated for their goodness by bad men, who can not
endure the contrast with themselves. An unidentified writer points out
this kind of envy in the following verse:
A glowworm sat in the grass;
As I passed through the wood I found it;
Bright as a diamond it shone,
With a halo of light around it.
A toad came up from the fen;
It was ugly in every feature;
Like a thief it crept to the worm,
And spat on the shining creature.
“What have I done,” said the worm,
“As I sat here in silence nightly?”
“Nothing,” replied the toad;
“But why did you shine so brightly?” (Text.)
(932)