The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer | Page 9

if envy is aroused only by wealth, rank, or power, it is
often kept down by egoism, which perceives that, on occasion,
assistance, enjoyment, support, protection, advancement, and so on,
may be hoped for from the object of envy or that at least by intercourse
with him a man may himself win honour from the reflected light of his
superiority; and here, too, there is the hope of one day attaining all
those advantages himself. On the other hand, in the envy that is
directed to natural gifts and personal advantages, like beauty in women,
or intelligence in men, there is no consolation or hope of one kind or
the other; so that nothing remains but to indulge a bitter and
irreconcilable hatred of the person who possesses these privileges; and
hence the only remaining desire is to take vengeance on him.
But here the envious man finds himself in an unfortunate position; for
all his blows fall powerless as soon as it is known that they come from

him. Accordingly he hides his feelings as carefully as if they were
secret sins, and so becomes an inexhaustible inventor of tricks and
artifices and devices for concealing and masking his procedure, in order
that, unperceived, he may wound the object of his envy. For instance,
with an air of the utmost unconcern he will ignore the advantages
which are eating his heart out; he will neither see them, nor know them,
nor have observed or even heard of them, and thus make himself a
master in the art of dissimulation. With great cunning he will
completely overlook the man whose brilliant qualities are gnawing at
his heart, and act as though he were quite an unimportant person; he
will take no notice of him, and, on occasion, will have even quite
forgotten his existence. But at the same time he will before all things
endeavour by secret machination carefully to deprive those advantages
of any opportunity of showing themselves and becoming known. Then
out of his dark corner he will attack these qualities with censure,
mockery, ridicule and calumny, like the toad which spurts its poison
from a hole. No less will he enthusiastically praise unimportant people,
or even indifferent or bad performances in the same sphere. In short, he
will becomes a Proteas in stratagem, in order to wound others without
showing himself. But what is the use of it? The trained eye recognises
him in spite of it all. He betrays himself, if by nothing else, by the way
in which he timidly avoids and flies from the object of his envy, who
stands the more completely alone, the more brilliant he is; and this is
the reason why pretty girls have no friends of their own sex. He betrays
himself, too, by the causeless hatred which he shows--a hatred which
finds vent in a violent explosion at any circumstance however trivial,
though it is often only the product of his imagination. How many such
men there are in the world may be recognised by the universal praise of
modesty, that is, of a virtue invented on behalf of dull and
commonplace people. Nevertheless, it is a virtue which, by exhibiting
the necessity for dealing considerately with the wretched plight of these
people, is just what calls attention to it.
For our self-consciousness and our pride there can be nothing more
flattering than the sight of envy lurking in its retreat and plotting its
schemes; but never let a man forget that where there is envy there is
hatred, and let him be careful not to make a false friend out of any

envious person. Therefore it is important to our safety to lay envy bare;
and a man should study to discover its tricks, as it is everywhere to be
found and always goes about _incognito_; or as I have said, like a
venomous toad it lurks in dark corners. It deserves neither quarter nor
sympathy; but as we can never reconcile it let our rule of conduct be to
scorn it with a good heart, and as our happiness and glory is torture to it
we may rejoice in its sufferings:
_Den Neid wirst nimmer du versöhnen; So magst du ihn getrost
verhöhnen. Dein Glück, dein Ruhm ist ihm ein Leiden: Magst drum an
seiner Quaal dich weiden_.
We have been taking a look at the depravity of man, and it is a sight
which may well fill us with horror. But now we must cast our eyes on
the misery of his existence; and when we have done so, and are
horrified by that too, we must look back again at his depravity. We
shall then find that they hold the balance to each other. We shall
perceive the eternal justice of things; for we shall recognise