Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

A MORTGAGE WITH THE WORLD BANK OF FORTUNE? 199
incurreth likewise more into the note of others. ,9 Bacon also gave some
thought to those who are not as a rule so readily envied.
Among these are persons whose advancement takes place when they
have already achieved eminence. They appear to have earned their
luck, and no one, Bacon believes, envies a man the settlement of his
debt. What is of significance for the sociology of envy is that '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. ,10
Bacon is also aware of the subjective time-element in envy, which is a
function of the awareness of time in one who observes another's good
fortune: ' ... unworthy persons are most envied at their first coming in
[to an exalted position], 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. ,11
In this, as in the ensuing instances, Bacon chiefly has in mind the life
at court where people may gain or lose the monarch's favour for a variety
of reasons. Thus he thinks that those of low degree, partly because their
reputation is already such that little can be added to it: '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 and per saltum [at a
bound]. ,12
The only antidote to envy named by Bacon is pity. Hence those who
have earned their honours by great travail, perils and cares are less
exposed to envy. They are sometimes pitied. 'Pity ever healeth envy. ' It
is therefore wise and prudent in politicians, having attained greatness, to
lament continually their toilsome existence. Not because they themselves
find it so, but in order to take the sting out of envy. Yet caution
should be observed; the toil must stem only from those duties that
9 Op. cit., p. 58.
10 Op. cit., pp. 58 ff.
II Op. cit. , p. 59.
12 Op. cit., p. 59.