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.