IX. OF ENVY. THERE be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch but love and envy: they both have vehement wishes; they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects; which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. We see, likewise, the Scripture calleth envy an evil eye; and the astrologers call the evil influences of the stars evil aspects; so that still there 10 seemeth to be acknowledged, in the act of envy, an ejaculation, or irradiation of the eye. Nay, some have been so curious as to note that the times when the stroke or percussion of an envious eye doth most hurt are, when the party envied is beheld in glory or triumph; for that sets an edge upon envy: and besides, at such times, the spirits of the person envied do come forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the blow. But leaving these curiosities (though not unworthy to be thought on in fit place), we will handle what persons 20 are apt to envy others; what persons are most subject to be envied themselves; and what is the difference between public and private envy. A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others; for men's minds will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope to attain to another's virtue will seek to come at even handa by depressing another's fortune. A man that is busy and inquisitive is commonly envious; a to come at even hand] i. e. to come to even terms or to an equality. Lat. ut minor intersit disparitas. For this use of hand,' conf. 'Business is bought at a dear hand (Lat. magno) where there is small dispatch.' Essay 25. And, Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses ought to be but to the half of his receipts.' Essay 27. for to know much of other men's matters cannot be because all that ado may concern his own estate b; therefore it must needs be that he taketh a kind of play-pleasure in looking upon the fortunes of others: neither can he that mindeth but his own business find much matter for envy; for envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, and doth not keep home: Non est curiosus, quin idem sit malevolus. Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise; for the distance is altered; and it is 10 like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back. Deformed persons and eunuchs and old men and bastards V are envious: for he that cannot possibly mend his own case will do what he can to impair another's; except these defects light upon a very brave and heroical nature, which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his honour; in that it should be said, that a eunuch, or a lame man, did such great matters, affecting the honour of a miracle: as it was in Narses the eunuch, and Agesilaus and Tamerlane 20 that were lame men. The same is the case of men that rise after calamities 3 his own estate] i. e. his own affairs. Lat. suis rebus. Bacon, it will be seen, passim, uses state and estate indifferently. They are in fact the same word, as are special and especial; stablish and establish; statute and the old estatute. His use of estate where modern usage would give state is very common. Vide infra. 'This public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings and estates themselves.' Then, a few lines further: 'The envy though hidden is truly upon the state itself.' Conf. also, 'For that which may concern the sovereign and estate;' followed shortly after by, 'when there is matter of law intervening in business of state.' Essay 56. Conversely, in Essay 28, we find, 'Who hath a state to repair may not despise small things.' And, in Essay 34, 'A great state left to an heir is a lure to all the birds of prey.' Sometimes, too, the word has a personal sense which we should not now give to it, as when Bacon speaks of it as a happy thing 'when kings and states do often consult with judges.' Essay 56. So Segar, more distinctly still, in his chapter 'Of honourable places due to great estates,' says, 'A baron is an estate of great dignity in blood honour and habit, a peer of the realm and companion of princes.' Honor Military and Civil, bk. iv. cap. 22. © that rise after &c.] The Latin, qui e calamitatibus resurgunt, implies that and misfortunes; for they are as men fallen out with the times, and think other men's harms a redemption of their own sufferings. They that desire to excel in too many matters, out of levity and vain-glory, are ever envious, for they cannot want work: it being impossible but many, in some one of those things, should surpass them; which was the character of Adrian the emperor, that mortally envied poets and painters, and artificers in works wherein he had To a vein to excel. e Lastly, near kinsfolk, and fellows in office, and those that have been bred together, are more apt to envy their equals when they are raised; for it doth upbraid unto them their own fortunes, and pointeth at them, and cometh oftener into their remembrance, and incurreth likewise more into the note of others; and envy ever redoubleth from speech and fame. Cain's envy was the more vile and malignant towards his brother Abel, because when his sacrifice was better accepted there was no body to 20 look on. Thus much for those that are apt to envy. Concerning those that are more or less subject to envy. First, persons of eminent virtue when they are advanced are less envied. For their fortune seemeth but due unto them; and no man envieth the payment of a debt, but rewards and liberality rather. Again, envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self; and where there is no comparison, no envy; and therefore kings are not envied but by kings. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that unworthyh persons are most envied at their first coming in, and afterwards overcome it better; whereas, contrariwise, persons of worth and merit are most envied when their fortune continueth long; for by that time, though their virtue be the same, yet it hath not the same lustre; for fresh men grow up that darken it. Persons of noble blood are less envied in their rising; for it seemeth but right done to their birth: besides, there seemeth not much added to their fortune; and envy is as 10 the sunbeams, that beat hotter upon a bank or steep rising ground than upon a flat; and, for the same reason, those that are advanced by degrees are less envied than those that are advanced suddenly and per saltum. Those that have joined with their honour great travels i, cares, or perils, are less subject to envy; for men think that they earn their honours hardly, and pity them sometimes; and pity ever healeth envy: wherefore you shall observe, that the more deep and sober sort of politic persons, in their greatness, are ever bemoaning themselves what a 20 life they lead, chanting a quanta patimur; not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy. But this is to be understood of business that is laid upon men, and not such as they call unto themselves; for nothing increaseth envy more than an unnecessary and ambitious engrossing of business; and nothing doth extinguish envy more than for a great person to preserve all other inferior officers in their full rights and pre-eminences of their places; for by that means there be so many screens between him and envy. h unworthy] Probably, undeserving. Lat. indignis. A sense on the whole best suited to the passage. Lat. 1 great travels] i. e. travails. labores magnos. Conf. And most specially that the travels therein taken (i. e. in Sir Stephen Proctor's project touching penal laws) may be considered Bacon almost always uses travel where 30 Above all, those are most subject to envy which carry the greatness of their fortunes in an insolent and proud manner: being never well but while they are showing how great they are, either by outward pomp, or by triumphing over all opposition or competition: whereas wise men will rather do sacrifice to envy, in suffering themselves, sometimes of purpose, to be crossed and overborne in things that do not much concern them. Notwithstanding so much is true, that the carriage of 10 greatness in a plain and open manner (so it be without arrogancy and vain-glory) doth draw less envy than if it be in a more crafty and cunning fashion; for in that course a man doth but disavow fortune, and seemeth to be conscious of his own want in worth, and doth but teach others to envy him. Lastly, to conclude this part, as we said in the beginning that the act of envy had somewhat in it of witchcraft, so there is no other cure of envy but the cure of witchcraft; and that is, to remove the lot1 (as they call it) and to lay 20 it upon another; for which purpose the wiser sort of great persons bring in ever upon the stage somebody upon whom to derive the envy that would come upon themselves; sometimes upon ministers and servants, sometimes upon colleagues and associates, and the like; and, for that turn, there are never wanting some persons of violent and undertaking natures, who, so they may have power and business, will take it at any cost. Now, to speak of public envy: there is yet some good in public envy; whereas in private there is none; for 30 public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when * doth but disavow &c.] i. e. does but admit that fortune is to blame for having used him better than he deserved. Lat. nihil aliud facit quis, quam ut fortunam insimulet. 1 the lot] i. e. the spell cast upon a man by witchcraft. Vide note at end of Essay. m to derive] i. e. to draw off, or divert. Conf. As natural water.. is first forced up into a cistern and thence fetched and derived for use.' Works, iii. 483. |