THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3415, 29 August 1919, Page 53

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 313. By Duncan Wkight, Dunedin. ENVY. The word has a nasty sound about it. What is meant by the word? Here is the dictionary definition : "To look upon with a grudging eye." Or this : "Grief at the sight of another's success." Or this : "A wicked desire to supplant one." The epitaph by the Duke of Buckingham on Lord Fairfax makes wholesome reading : He never knew what Envy was or Hate, His soul was fixed with Worth and Honesty, And with another thing quite out of date, Called Modesty. Now I feel Of what coarse metal ye are moulded—envy. How eagerly you follow my disgraces, As if it fed ye I and how sleek and wanton Ye appear in everything may bring my_ruin! Follow your envious courses, men of ma-iice; You've Christian warrant for them, and, no doubt, In time-you will find your fit rewards. i —Shakespeare. "Let ..us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and. drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying." "Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another." "But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth." "This -wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish." "For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work." — Scripture. Is Jeremy Taylor far out when he writes this message? * "God has not promised us horses and coaches [or motor cars, should we add ?], rich houses and jewels, Tyrian silks and Persian carpets; neither has He promised to minister to our needs in such circumstances as we shall appoint, but such as Himself shall choose.''* LORD CLARENDON has this clarion note : "Envy is a weed that grows in all soils and climates, and is no less luxuriant in the country than in the Court; it is not confined to any rank of men or extent of fortune, but rages in the breasts of all degrees. Alexander was prouder than Diogenes; and it maybe, if we would endeavour to surprise it in its most gahdy dress and attire, and in the exercise of its full empire and tyranny, we should find it in schoolmasters and scholars, or in some country lady, or the knight, her husband; all which ranks of people more despise their neighbours than all the degrees of honour in which Courts abound; and it rages as much in a sordid affected dress as in all the silks and embroideries which the excess of the age and the folly of youth delight to be adorned with. Since then it keepe all sorts of company," and wriggles itself into the liking of the most contrary natures and dispositions, and yet carries so much poison and venom with it, that it alienates the affections from heaven, and raises rebellion against God Himself; it is worth our utmost care to watch it in all its guises and approaches, that we may discover it in its first entrance, and dislodge it before it procures a shelter or retiring-place to lodge itself and be concealed." "We are often infinitely mistaken (says Bishop Hall), and take the falsest measures, when we envy the happiness of rich and great men; we know not the inward canker that eats out all their joy and delight and makes them really much more miserable than ourselves." O envy! hide thy bosom, hide it* deep: A thousand snakes, with black envenomed mouths Nest there, and hiss, and feed through all thv heart! —Pollock. If it were well for all of us to use reverently and act out in every-day life the well-known words of the Book of Common Prayer :—■ "Have mercy upon us miserable sinners. "From envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness. "The world, the flesh, and the devil." Good Lord deliver us ! Base Envy withers at another's joy And hates that excellence it cannot reach. —James Thomson.

John Angel James reminds us somewhere of the following examples of Envy. "We shall find it in Cain, the protomurderer, who slew his brother at the instigation of envy. We shall find it in the dark and gloomy and revengeful spirit of Saul, who, under the influence of envy, plotted for years the slaughter of David. We shall find it in the King of Israel, when he pined for the vineyard of Naboth, and shed his blood to gain it. Yes, it was envy that perpetrated the . most atrocious crime ever planned in hell or executed on earth, on which the sun refused to look, and at which Nature gave signs of abhorrence by the rending of the rocks; I mean the crucifixion of Christ; for the Evangelist tells us that for envy the Jews delivered our Lord." Socrates wrote :—"The greatest flood

has the soonest ebb; the sorest tempest the most sudden calm; the hottest love the coldest end; and from the deepest desire oftentimes ensures the deadliest hate. A wise man had rather been envied for providence, than pitied for prodigality. Revenge barketh only at the stars, and spite spurns at that she cannot reach. An envious man waxeth lean with the fatness of His neighbors. Envy is the daughter ci pride, the adthor of murder and revenge, the beginner of secret sedition, and the perpetual tormentor of virtue. Envy is the filthy slime of the soul; a, venom, a poison, or quick silver which consumeth the flesh and drieth up the marrow of the bones." A countryman presented Louis XI with a turnip of unusual bigness. The king delighted with the simplicity of the man, commanded that»he be'presented with a thousand crowns, and the turnip (wrapped up in silk) to bo preserved among hia treasures. A covetous courtier, observing this, in hopes of a greater sum, brought a very handsome horse and made a present of him to the king, who cheerfully accepted the gift, and gave orders that the turnip should be brought to him* telling him it cost a thousand crowns. My mind to ine a kingdom is; Such perfect joy therein I find, , As far exceeds all earthly bliss That world affords, or grows by kind: Tho' much I want what most men have, Yet doth my mind forbid me crav^, ~ / I laugh not at another's loss; I grudge not another's gain; No worldly wave my mind oaii toss; I brook that is another's pain: I fear no foe: I scorn no friend: I dread not death: I fear no end. Some have too much, yet etill they ervf, I little have, yet seek no more: ■ They are but poor, tho' much they have, And I am rich with little store. They poor, I rich: they beg, I give:; They lack, I lend: they pine, I live. I wish but what I have at will: I wander not to seek for more: I like the plain, I climb no hill: In greatest storm I sit on shore, And laugh at those who toil in vain, To get what must be lost again. This is my choice, for why ?—I find No wealtb is like- a quiet mind. JOHN RUSKIN . ■ has for all of us a weighty message on our subject of to-day : "There are two forms of discontent: one laborious, the other indolent and complaining. • Wo respect the man of laborious desire, but let us not suppose that his restlessness ia peace, or his ambition 'meekness. It ia because of the special connection of meek-. - ness with contentment that it is promised that the meek shall 'inherit the earth.' Neither covetous men, nflr the grave, can inherit anything ; they can bait consume. Only contentment can possess. And, ia order to teach men how to bo satisfied, it is necessary fully to understand the art and joy of humble life—this, at present, of all arts or sciences being the only ono most needing study. Humble life, that is to say, proposing to itself no future exaltation, but only sweet continuance; nob excluding the idea of foresight, but wholly, of fore-sorrow, and taking no troublous thought for coming days : so, also, not excluding the idea of providence or provision, but wholly of accumulation —tho life of domestic affection and domestie peace, full of sensitiveness to all elements of costless and kind pleasure; therefore, chiefly to the loveliness of the natural world." . ' COLUMBUS after-his discovery of America, was persecuted by the envy of the Spanish courtiers for the honours which were heaped upon him by the Sovereign; and once at a table when all decorum was banished by the heat of wine, they murmured loudly at' the caresses he ,received, having, as they said, with mere animal resolution pushed! his voyage a few leagues beyond what any one had chanced to have done before. Columbus heard them with great patience, and taking an egg from the dish, proposed that they should exhibit their ingenuity by making it stand on end. It went all round; but no one succeeded. "Give it to me, gentlemen," said Columbus; who then took it, and breaking it at one of the ends, it stood at once. They all cried out, "Why! I could have done that." "Yes, if the thought had struck you," replied Columbus, "and if the thought had struck you, you might have discovered America." Tjo! ill rejoicing Envy, wing'd with lies, Scattering calumnious rumours aa she flies, The steps of miserable men pursue, With haggard aspect, blasting to the view?