if he sees any one in the mighty throng who is more rich and honorable
than himself, he is neither dejected in his mind nor countenance, nor
doth he pensively sit down deploring his unhappiness, but he walks
abroad publicly with an honest assurance. He celebrates his own good
genius, and boasts of his good fortune in that it is happier than a
thousand other men’s which are in the world. In the Olympic games you
cannot gain the victory choosing your antagonist. But in human life
affairs allow thee to excel many and to bear thyself aloft, and to
be envied rather than envious; unless indeed thou dost match thyself
unequally with a Briareus or a Hercules. Therefore, when thou art
surprised into a false admiration of him who is carried in his sedan,
cast thy eyes downward upon the slaves who support his luxury. When
thou art wondering at the greatness of Xerxes crossing the Hellespont,
consider those wretches who are digging through Mount Athos, who are
urged to their labor with blows, blood being mixed with their sweat;
call to mind that they had their ears and noses cut off, because the
bridge was broken by the violence of the waves; think upon that secret
reflection they have, and how happy they would esteem thy life and
condition. Socrates hearing one of his friends crying out, How dear
things are sold in this city! the wine of Chios costs a mina, the
purple fish three, and a half pint of honey five drachms,—he brought
him to the meal-shop, and showed him that half a peck of flour was
sold for a penny. ’Tis a cheap city, said he. Then he brought him to
the oil-man’s, and told him he might have a quart of olives for two
farthings. At last he went to the salesman’s, and convinced him that
the purchase of a sleeveless jerkin was only ten drachms. ’Tis a cheap
city, he repeated. So, when we hear others declare that our condition
is afflicted because we are not consuls and in eminent command, let
us then look upon ourselves as living not only in a bare happiness
but splendor, in that we do not beg our bread, and are not forced to
subsist by carrying of burthens or by flattery.
11. But such is our folly, that we accustom ourselves rather to live
for other men’s sakes than our own; and our dispositions are so prone
to upbraidings and to be tainted with envy, that the grief we conceive
at others’ prosperity lessens the joy we ought to take in our own. But
to cure thee of this extravagant emulation, look not upon the outside
of these applauded men, which is so gay and brilliant, but draw the
gaudy curtain and carry thy eyes inward, and thou shalt find most
gnawing disquiets to be dissembled under these false appearances. When
the renowned Pittacus, who got him so great a name for his fortitude,
wisdom, and justice, was entertaining his friends at a noble banquet,
and his spouse in an angry humor came and overturned the table; his
guests being extremely disturbed at it, he told them: Every one of you
hath his particular plague, and my wife is mine; and he is very happy
who hath this only.
The pleading lawyer’s happy at the bar;
But the scene opening shows a civil war.
For the good man hath a domestic strife,
He’s slave to that imperious creature, wife.
Scolding without doors doth to him belong,
But she within them doth claim all the tongue.
Pecked by his female tyrant him I see,
Whilst from this grievance I myself am free.
These are the secret stings which are inseparable from honor,
riches, and dominion, and which are unknown to the vulgar, because a
counterfeit lustre dazzleth their sight.
All pleasant things Atrides doth adorn;
The merry genius smiled when he was born.[80]
And they compute this happiness from his great stores of ammunition,
his variety of managed horses, and his battalions of disciplined men.
But an inward voice of sorrow seems to silence all this ostentation
with mournful accents:—