Note 727 — LIFE OF CATO.

The reason according to Plutarch why people envy the man who has a high reputation for integrity, is because of the power and credit which it gives. Whatever then gives power and credit should be also an object of envy, as wealth; and so it is. The notion of envy implies a desire to see the person who is the object of it humbled and cast down. The Greeks attributed this feeling to their gods, who looked with an evil eye on great prosperity, and loved to humble it. But the feeling of envy, if that is the right term, towards him who has power and credit by reason of his high character for integrity, is not the same feeling as envy of the wealthy man. The envious of wealth desire to have the wealth both for itself and for its uses. The envious of character desire to have the opinion of the character, because of the profit that is from it, but they may not desire to have that which is the foundation of the character. If they did, their desire would be for virtue, and the envious feeling would not exist. Courage and wisdom are less objects of envy than good character or wealth, and perhaps, because most men feel that they are not capable of having the one or the other. The notion of envy implies that the person has, or thinks he has, the same capability as another who has something which he has not. A man who is not a painter does not envy a great painter; a man who is a painter may envy a great painter. The mass may admire the honest man who is of higher rank than themselves, even if they have no regard for honesty; but they do not envy; they wonder as at something which is above them. But if the honest man is of their own station in life, and has a character of integrity, they may envy him for his superiority. It appears that if there is a number of people who are generally on a footing of equality, any superiority which one may acquire over the rest, makes him an object of envy. If high character for integrity brings power and credit with it, there must be some persons with whom the power and the credit prevail, but these are the persons who are farthest removed from rivalry with him who has the credit. Those who are nearer to him are the persons who envy, who feel that the superiority of one man makes their inferiority. Plutarch assumes the existence of a class who love the just and give them credit, and of a class who envy them; but the two classes of persons are not the same.