brave and heroical nature, which thinketh to make his natural wants part of his honour°; in that it should be said that an eunuch or a lame man did such great matters; affecting the honour of a miracle: 5 as it was in Narses the eunuch, and Agesilaus and Tamberlanes, that were lame men.

The same is the case of men that rise after calamities and misfortunes; for they are as men fallen out with the times, and think other men's harms a redemption 10 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. 15 Which was the character of Adrian, the emperor, that mortally envied poets and painters and artificers, in works wherein he had a vein to excel.

Lastly, near kinsfolks, and fellows in office, and those that have been bred together, are more apt to 20 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. 25 Cain's envy was the more vile and malignant towards his brother Abel because, when his sacrifice was better accepted, there was nobody to look on.° Thus much. for those that are apt to envy.

Concerning those that are more or less subject 30 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, 5 no envy; and therefore kings are not envied but by kings. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that unworthy persons are most envied at their first coming in, and afterwards overcome it better; whereas contrariwise, persons of worth and merit are most envied 10 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, 15 there seemeth not much added to their fortune, and envy is as 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, 20 and per saltum.°

Those that have joined with their honour great travels, 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 25 envy. Wherefore you shall observe that the more deep and sober sort of politic persons, in their greatness, are ever bemoaning themselves what a life they lead, chanting a "Quanta patimur°;" not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy. 30

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; 5 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.

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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 com15 petition; 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 greatness in a plain and open 20 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 25 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 lot,° 30 as they call it, and to lay 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 5 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 10 none. For public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great; and therefore it is a bridle also to great ones, to keep them within bounds.

This envy, being in the Latin word invidia, goeth in 15 the modern languages by the name of "discontentment," of which we shall speak in handling sedition. It is a disease in a state like to infection; for as infection spreadeth upon that which is sound, and tainteth it, so when envy is gotten once into a 20 state, it traduceth even the best actions thereof, and turneth them into an ill odour. And therefore there is little won by intermingling of plausible actions; for that doth argue but a weakness and fear of envy, which hurteth so much the more; as it is likewise 25 usual in infections, which, if you fear them, you call them upon you.

This public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon principal officers or ministers, rather than upon kings and estates themselves. But this is a sure 30

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rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great when the cause of it in him is small, or if the envy be general in a manner upon all the ministers of an estate, then the envy, though hidden, is truly upon the 5 state itself. And so much of public envy or discontentment, and the difference thereof from private envy, which was handled in the first place.

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We will add this in general, touching the affection of envy, that of all other affections it is the most 10 importune and continual; for of other affections there is occasion given but now and then, and therefore it was well said, Invidia festos dies non agit," for it is ever working upon some or other. And it is also noted that love and envy do make a man pine, 15 which other affections do not, because they are not so continual. It is also the vilest affection and the most depraved, for which cause it is the proper attribute of the devil, who is called "the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the wheat by 20 night;" as it always cometh to pass that envy worketh subtilely and in the dark, and to the prejudice of good things, such as is the wheat.

X. OF LOVE

THE stage is more beholding to love than the life of man. For, as to the stage, love is ever matter 25 of comedies and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a siren,