their souls, withers their bodies, makes them hollow-eyed, [1691]pale,
lean, and ghastly to behold, Cyprian, ser. 2. de zelo et livore.
[1692]As a moth gnaws a garment, so, saith Chrysostom, doth envy
consume a man; to be a living anatomy: a skeleton, to be a lean and
[1693]pale carcass, quickened with a [1694]fiend, Hall in Charact. for
so often as an envious wretch sees another man prosper, to be enriched,
to thrive, and be fortunate in the world, to get honours, offices, or
the like, he repines and grieves.
[1695]———intabescitque videndo
Successus hominum—suppliciumque suum est.
He tortures himself if his equal, friend, neighbour, be preferred,
commended, do well; if he understand of it, it galls him afresh; and no
greater pain can come to him than to hear of another man's well-doing;
'tis a dagger at his heart every such object. He looks at him as they
that fell down in Lucian's rock of honour, with an envious eye, and
will damage himself, to do another a mischief: Atque cadet subito, dum
super hoste cadat. As he did in Aesop, lose one eye willingly, that his
fellow might lose both, or that rich man in [1696]Quintilian that
poisoned the flowers in his garden, because his neighbour's bees should
get no more honey from them. His whole life is sorrow, and every word
he speaks a satire: nothing fats him but other men's ruins. For to
speak in a word, envy is nought else but Tristitia de bonis alienis,
sorrow for other men's good, be it present, past, or to come: et
gaudium de adversis, and [1697]joy at their harms, opposite to mercy,
[1698]which grieves at other men's mischances, and misaffects the body
in another kind; so Damascen defines it, lib. 2. de orthod. fid.
Thomas, 2. 2. quaest. 36. art. 1. Aristotle, l. 2. Rhet. c. 4. et 10.
Plato Philebo. Tully, 3. Tusc. Greg. Nic. l. de virt. animae, c. 12.
Basil, de Invidia. Pindarus Od. 1. ser. 5, and we find it true. 'Tis a
common disease, and almost natural to us, as [1699]Tacitus holds, to
envy another man's prosperity. And 'tis in most men an incurable
disease. [1700]I have read, saith Marcus Aurelius, Greek, Hebrew,
Chaldee authors; I have consulted with many wise men for a remedy for
envy, I could find none, but to renounce all happiness, and to be a
wretch, and miserable for ever. 'Tis the beginning of hell in this
life, and a passion not to be excused. [1701]Every other sin hath some
pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of an excuse; envy alone wants
both. Other sins last but for awhile; the gut may be satisfied, anger
remits, hatred hath an end, envy never ceaseth. Cardan, lib. 2. de sap.
Divine and humane examples are very familiar; you may run and read
them, as that of Saul and David, Cain and Abel, angebat illum non
proprium peccatum, sed fratris prosperitas, saith Theodoret, it was his
brother's good fortune galled him. Rachel envied her sister, being
barren, Gen. xxx. Joseph's brethren him, Gen. xxxvii. David had a touch
of this vice, as he confesseth, [1702]Psal. 37. [1703]Jeremy and
[1704]Habakkuk, they repined at others' good, but in the end they
corrected themselves, Psal. 75, fret not thyself, &c. Domitian spited
Agricola for his worth, [1705]that a private man should be so much
glorified. [1706]Cecinna was envied of his fellow-citizens, because he
was more richly adorned. But of all others, [1707]women are most weak,
ob pulchritudinem invidae sunt foeminae (Musaeus) aut amat, aut odit,
nihil est tertium (Granatensis.) They love or hate, no medium amongst
them. Implacabiles plerumque laesae mulieres, Agrippina like, [1708]A
woman, if she see her neighbour more neat or elegant, richer in tires,
jewels, or apparel, is enraged, and like a lioness sets upon her
husband, rails at her, scoffs at her, and cannot abide her; so the
Roman ladies in Tacitus did at Solonina, Cecinna's wife, [1709]because
she had a better horse, and better furniture, as if she had hurt them
with it; they were much offended. In like sort our gentlewomen do at
their usual meetings, one repines or scoffs at another's bravery and
happiness. Myrsine, an Attic wench, was murdered of her fellows, [1710]
because she did excel the rest in beauty, Constantine, Agricult. l. 11.
c. 7. Every village will yield such examples.
SUBSECT. VIII.—_Emulation, Hatred, Faction, Desire of Revenge, Causes_.
Out of this root of envy [1711]spring those feral branches of faction,
hatred, livor, emulation, which cause the like grievances, and are,
serrae animae, the saws of the soul, [1712]consternationis pleni
affectus, affections full of desperate amazement; or as Cyprian
describes emulation, it is [1713]a moth of the soul, a consumption, to
make another man's happiness his misery, to torture, crucify, and
execute himself, to eat his own heart. Meat and drink can do such men
no good, they do always grieve, sigh, and groan, day and night without
intermission, their breast is torn asunder: and a little after,
[1714]Whomsoever he is whom thou dost emulate and envy, he may avoid
thee, but thou canst neither avoid him nor thyself; wheresoever thou
art he is with thee, thine enemy is ever in thy breast, thy destruction
is within thee, thou art a captive, bound hand and foot, as long as
thou art malicious and envious, and canst not be comforted. It was the
devil's overthrow; and whensoever thou art thoroughly affected with
this passion, it will be thine. Yet no perturbation so frequent, no
passion so common.
[1715]Καὶ κεραμεὺς κεραμεῖ κοτέει καὶ τεκτονι τέκτων,
Καὶ πτωχὸς πτωχῷ φθονέει καὶ ἀοίδος ἀοιδῶ.
A potter emulates a potter:
One smith envies another:
A beggar emulates a beggar;
A singing man his brother.
Every society, corporation, and private family is full of it, it takes
hold almost of all sorts of men, from the prince to the ploughman, even
amongst gossips it is to be seen, scarce three in a company but there
is siding, faction, emulation, between two of them, some simultas, jar,
private grudge, heart-burning in the midst of them. Scarce two
gentlemen dwell together in the country, (if they be not near kin or
linked in marriage) but there is emulation betwixt them and their
servants, some quarrel or some grudge betwixt their wives or children,
friends and followers, some contention about wealth, gentry,
precedency, &c., by means of which, like the frog in [1716]Aesop, that
would swell till she was as big as an ox, burst herself at last; they
will stretch beyond their fortunes, callings, and strive so long that
they consume their substance in lawsuits, or otherwise in hospitality,
feasting, fine clothes, to get a few bombast titles, for ambitiosa
paupertate laboramus omnes, to outbrave one another, they will tire
their bodies, macerate their souls, and through contentions or mutual
invitations beggar themselves. Scarce two great scholars in an age, but
with bitter invectives they fall foul one on the other, and their
adherents; Scotists, Thomists, Reals, Nominals, Plato and Aristotle,
Galenists and Paracelsians, &c., it holds in all professions.
Honest [1717]emulation in studies, in all callings is not to be
disliked, 'tis ingeniorum cos, as one calls it, the whetstone of wit,
the nurse of wit and valour, and those noble Romans out of this spirit
did brave exploits. There is a modest ambition, as Themistocles was
roused up with the glory of Miltiades; Achilles' trophies moved
Alexander,
[1718]Ambire semper stulta confidentia est,
Ambire nunquam deses arrogantia est.
'Tis a sluggish humour not to emulate or to sue at all, to withdraw
himself, neglect, refrain from such places, honours, offices, through
sloth, niggardliness, fear, bashfulness, or otherwise, to which by his
birth, place, fortunes, education, he is called, apt, fit, and well
able to undergo; but when it is immoderate, it is a plague and a
miserable pain. What a deal of money did Henry VIII. and Francis I.
king of France, spend at that [1719]famous interview? and how many vain
courtiers, seeking each to outbrave other, spent themselves, their
livelihood and fortunes, and died beggars? [1720]Adrian the Emperor was
so galled with it, that he killed all his equals; so did Nero. This
passion made [1721]Dionysius the tyrant banish Plato and Philoxenus the
poet, because they did excel and eclipse his glory, as he thought; the
Romans exile Coriolanus, confine Camillus, murder Scipio; the Greeks by
ostracism to expel Aristides, Nicias, Alcibiades, imprison Theseus,
make away Phocion, &c. When Richard I. and Philip of France were fellow
soldiers together, at the siege of Acon in the Holy Land, and Richard
had approved himself to be the more valiant man, insomuch that all
men's eyes were upon him, it so galled Philip, Francum urebat Regis
victoria, saith mine [1722]author, tam aegre ferebat Richardi gloriam,
ut carpere dicta, calumniari facta; that he cavilled at all his
proceedings, and fell at length to open defiance; he could contain no
longer, but hasting home, invaded his territories, and professed open
war. Hatred stirs up contention, Prov. x. 12, and they break out at
last into immortal enmity, into virulency, and more than Vatinian hate
and rage; [1723]they persecute each other, their friends, followers,
and all their posterity, with bitter taunts, hostile wars, scurrile
invectives, libels, calumnies, fire, sword, and the like, and will not
be reconciled. Witness that Guelph and Ghibelline faction in Italy;
that of the Adurni and Fregosi in Genoa; that of Cneius Papirius, and
Quintus Fabius in Rome; Caesar and Pompey; Orleans and Burgundy in
France; York and Lancaster in England: yea, this passion so
rageth[1724]many times, that it subverts not men only, and families,
but even populous cities. [1725]Carthage and Corinth can witness as
much, nay, flourishing kingdoms are brought into a wilderness by it.
This hatred, malice, faction, and desire of revenge, invented first all
those racks and wheels, strappadoes, brazen bulls, feral engines,
prisons, inquisitions, severe laws to macerate and torment one another.
How happy might we be, and end our time with blessed days and sweet
content, if we could contain ourselves, and, as we ought to do, put up
injuries, learn humility, meekness, patience, forget and forgive, as in
[1726]God's word we are enjoined, compose such final controversies
amongst ourselves, moderate our passions in this kind, and think better
of others, as [1727]Paul would have us, than of ourselves: be of like
affection one towards another, and not avenge ourselves, but have peace
with all men. But being that we are so peevish and perverse, insolent
and proud, so factious and seditious, so malicious and envious; we do
invicem angariare, maul and vex one another, torture, disquiet, and
precipitate ourselves into that gulf of woes and cares, aggravate our
misery and melancholy, heap upon us hell and eternal damnation.
SUBSECT. IX.—_Anger, a Cause_.
Anger, a perturbation, which carries the spirits outwards, preparing
the body to melancholy, and madness itself: Ira furor brevis est, anger
is temporary madness; and as [1728]Picolomineus accounts it, one of the
three most violent passions. [1729]Areteus sets it down for an especial
cause (so doth Seneca, ep. 18. l. 1,) of this malady. [1730]Magninus
gives the reason, Ex frequenti ira supra modum calefiunt; it overheats
their bodies, and if it be too frequent, it breaks out into manifest
madness, saith St. Ambrose. 'Tis a known saying, Furor fit Iaesa
saepius palienlia, the most patient spirit that is, if he be often
provoked, will be incensed to madness; it will make a devil of a saint:
and therefore Basil (belike) in his Homily de Ira, calls it tenebras
rationis, morbum animae, et daemonem pessimum; the darkening of our
understanding, and a bad angel. [1731]Lucian, in Abdicato, tom. 1, will
have this passion to work this effect, especially in old men and women.
Anger and calumny (saith he) trouble them at first, and after a while
break out into madness: many things cause fury in women, especially if
they love or hate overmuch, or envy, be much grieved or angry; these
things by little and little lead them on to this malady. From a
disposition they proceed to an habit, for there is no difference
between a mad man, and an angry man, in the time of his fit; anger, as
Lactantius describes it, L. de Ira Dei, ad Donatum, c. 5, is
[1732]saeva animi tempestas, &c., a cruel tempest of the mind; making
his eye sparkle fire, and stare, teeth gnash in his head, his tongue
stutter, his face pale, or red, and what more filthy imitation can be
of a mad man?
[1733]Ora tument ira, fervescunt sanguine venae,
Lumina Gorgonio saevius angue micant.
They are void of reason, inexorable, blind, like beasts and monsters
for the time, say and do they know not what, curse, swear, rail, fight,
and what not? How can a mad man do more? as he said in the comedy,
[1734] Iracundia non sum apud me, I am not mine own man. If these fits
be immoderate, continue long, or be frequent, without doubt they
provoke madness. Montanus, consil. 21, had a melancholy Jew to his
patient, he ascribes this for a principal cause: Irascebatur levibus de
causis, he was easily moved to anger. Ajax had no other beginning of
his madness; and Charles the Sixth, that lunatic French king, fell into
this misery, out of the extremity of his passion, desire of revenge and
malice, [1735]incensed against the duke of Britain, he could neither
eat, drink, nor sleep for some days together, and in the end, about the
calends of July, 1392, he became mad upon his horseback, drawing his
sword, striking such as came near him promiscuously, and so continued
all the days of his life, Aemil., lib. 10. Gal. hist. Aegesippus de
exid. urbis Hieros, l. 1. c. 37, hath such a story of Herod, that out
of an angry fit, became mad, [1736]leaping out of his bed, he killed
Jossippus, and played many such bedlam pranks, the whole court could
not rule him for a long time after: sometimes he was sorry and
repented, much grieved for that he had done, Postquam deferbuit ira, by
and by outrageous again. In hot choleric bodies, nothing so soon
causeth madness, as this passion of anger, besides many other diseases,
as Pelesius observes, cap. 21. l. 1. de hum. affect. causis; Sanguinem
imminuit, fel auget: and as [1737]Valesius controverts, Med. controv.,
lib. 5. contro. 8, many times kills them quite out. If this were the
worst of this passion, it were more tolerable, [1738]but it ruins and
subverts whole towns, [1739]cities, families, and kingdoms; Nulla
pestis humano generi pluris stetit, saith Seneca, de Ira, lib. 1. No
plague hath done mankind so much harm. Look into our histories, and you
shall almost meet with no other subject, but what a company [1740]of
harebrains have done in their rage. We may do well therefore to put
this in our procession amongst the rest; From all blindness of heart,
from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred and malice,
anger, and all such pestiferous perturbations, good Lord deliver us.
SUBSECT. X.—_Discontents, Cares, Miseries, &c. Causes_.
Discontents, cares, crosses, miseries, or whatsoever it is, that shall
cause any molestation of spirits, grief, anguish, and perplexity, may
well be reduced to this head, (preposterously placed here in some men's
judgments they may seem,) yet in that Aristotle in his [1741]Rhetoric
defines these cares, as he doth envy, emulation, &c. still by grief, I
think I may well rank them in this irascible row; being that they are
as the rest, both causes and symptoms of this disease, producing the
like inconveniences, and are most part accompanied with anguish and
pain. The common etymology will evince it, Cura quasi cor uro, Dementes
curae, insomnes curae, damnosae curae, tristes, mordaces, carnifices,
&c. biting, eating, gnawing, cruel, bitter, sick, sad, unquiet, pale,
tetric, miserable, intolerable cares, as the poets [1742]call them,
worldly cares, and are as many in number as the sea sands. [1743]Galen,
Fernelius, Felix Plater, Valescus de Taranta, &c., reckon afflictions,
miseries, even all these contentions, and vexations of the mind, as
principal causes, in that they take away sleep, hinder concoction, dry
up the body, and consume the substance of it. They are not so many in
number, but their causes be as divers, and not one of a thousand free
from them, or that can vindicate himself, whom that Ate dea,
[1744]Per hominum capita molliter ambulans,
Plantas pedum teneras habens:
Over men's heads walking aloft,
With tender feet treading so soft,
Homer's Goddess Ate hath not involved into this discontented
[1745]rank, or plagued with some misery or other. Hyginus, fab. 220, to
this purpose hath a pleasant tale. Dame Cura by chance went over a
brook, and taking up some of the dirty slime, made an image of it;
Jupiter eftsoons coming by, put life to it, but Cura and Jupiter could
not agree what name to give him, or who should own him; the matter was
referred to Saturn as judge; he gave this arbitrement: his name shall
be Homo ab humo, Cura eum possideat quamdiu vivat, Care shall have him
whilst he lives, Jupiter his soul, and Tellus his body when he dies.
But to leave tales. A general cause, a continuate cause, an inseparable
accident, to all men, is discontent, care, misery; were there no other
particular affliction (which who is free from?) to molest a man in this
life, the very cogitation of that common misery were enough to
macerate, and make him weary of his life; to think that he can never be
secure, but still in danger, sorrow, grief, and persecution. For to
begin at the hour of his birth, as [1746]Pliny doth elegantly describe
it, he is born naked, and falls [1747]a whining at the very first: he
is swaddled, and bound up like a prisoner, cannot help himself, and so
he continues to his life's end. Cujusque ferae pabulum, saith
[1748]Seneca, impatient of heat and cold, impatient of labour,
impatient of idleness, exposed to fortune's contumelies. To a naked
mariner Lucretius compares him, cast on shore by shipwreck, cold and
comfortless in an unknown land: [1749]no estate, age, sex, can secure
himself from this common misery. A man that is born of a woman is of
short continuance, and full of trouble, Job xiv. 1, 22. And while his
flesh is upon him he shall be sorrowful, and while his soul is in him
it shall mourn. All his days are sorrow and his travels griefs: his
heart also taketh not rest in the night. Eccles. ii. 23, and ii. 11.
All that is in it is sorrow and vexation of spirit. [1750]Ingress,
progress, regress, egress, much alike: blindness seizeth on us in the
beginning, labour in the middle, grief in the end, error in all. What
day ariseth to us without some grief, care, or anguish? Or what so
secure and pleasing a morning have we seen, that hath not been overcast
before the evening? One is miserable, another ridiculous, a third
odious. One complains of this grievance, another of that. Aliquando
nervi, aliquando pedes vexant, (Seneca) nunc distillatio, nunc epatis
morbus; nunc deest, nunc superest sanguis: now the head aches, then the
feet, now the lungs, then the liver, &c. Huic sensus exuberat, sed est
pudori degener sanguis, &c. He is rich, but base born; he is noble, but
poor; a third hath means, but he wants health peradventure, or wit to
manage his estate; children vex one, wife a second, &c. Nemo facile cum
conditione sua concordat, no man is pleased with his fortune, a pound
of sorrow is familiarly mixed with a dram of content, little or no joy,
little comfort, but [1751]everywhere danger, contention, anxiety, in
all places: go where thou wilt, and thou shalt find discontents, cares,
woes, complaints, sickness, diseases, encumbrances, exclamations: If
thou look into the market, there (saith [1752] Chrysostom) is brawling
and contention; if to the court, there knavery and flattery, &c.; if to
a private man's house, there's cark and care, heaviness, &c. As he said
of old,
[1753]Nil homine in terra spirat miserum magis alma?
No creature so miserable as man, so generally molested, [1754]in
miseries of body, in miseries of mind, miseries of heart, in miseries
asleep, in miseries awake, in miseries wheresoever he turns, as Bernard
found, Nunquid tentatio est vita humana super terram? A mere temptation
is our life, (Austin, confess. lib. 10. cap. 28,) catena perpetuorum
malorum, et quis potest molestias et difficultates pati? Who can endure
the miseries of it? [1755]In prosperity we are insolent and
intolerable, dejected in adversity, in all fortunes foolish and
miserable. [1756]In adversity I wish for prosperity, and in prosperity
I am afraid of adversity. What mediocrity may be found? Where is no
temptation? What condition of life is free? [1757]Wisdom hath labour
annexed to it, glory, envy; riches and cares, children and
encumbrances, pleasure and diseases, rest and beggary, go together: as
if a man were therefore born (as the Platonists hold) to be punished in
this life for some precedent sins. Or that, as [1758]Pliny complains,
Nature may be rather accounted a stepmother, than a mother unto us, all
things considered: no creature's life so brittle, so full of fear, so
mad, so furious; only man is plagued with envy, discontent, griefs,
covetousness, ambition, superstition. Our whole life is an Irish sea,
wherein there is nought to be expected but tempestuous storms and
troublesome waves, and those infinite,
[1759]Tantum malorum pelagus aspicio,
Ut non sit inde enatandi copia,