, is an efficient defence against
insult, indignity, and encroachment on the rights of individuals. But,
indulged or prolonged beyond the necessity of self-defence, it is prone to
reverse the parties, and to make the injured person himself the
wrong-doer.

Both anger and resentment are *painful emotions*, and on this account are
self-limited in a well-ordered mind. He who makes happiness his aim will,
if wise, give these disturbing forces the least possible hold upon him,
whether in intensity or in duration.

*Envy* has been defined as the excess of emulation. It seems rather to be
a deficiency in the genuine principle of emulation. The instinctive desire
of superiority leads us, as we have seen, to aim at _absolutely_ high
attainments, and to measure ourselves less by what others are, than by our
own ideal. It is only those of lower aims, who seek to supplant others on
their career. Envy is the attempt, not to rise or excel, but to stand
comparatively high by subverting those who hold or seek a higher position.
No just man voted for the banishment of Aristides because he was always
called the Just; but his ostracism was the decree of those who knew that
they could obtain no reputation for justice till he were put out of their
way.

*Revenge* is the desire to inflict evil for evil. In principle it is
always wrong; for the evil-doer, though he may merit transient anger and
resentment, is not therefore placed beyond our benevolence, but is rather
commended to our charity as one who may be reformed and may become worthy
of our esteem. In practice, revenge can scarce ever be just. Our self-love
so exaggerates our estimate of the wrong we receive, that we could hardly
fail to retaliate by greater wrong, and thus to provoke a renewal of the
injury. There are, no doubt, cases in which self-defence may authorize the
immediate chastisement or disabling of the wrong-doer, and in an unsettled
state of society, where there is no legal protection, it may be the right
of individuals to punish depredation or personal outrage; but acts of this
kind are to be justified on the plea of necessity, not of revenge.

*Hatred* is the result of either of the malevolent affections above named,
when carried to excess, or suffered to become permanent. It precludes the
exercise of all the benevolent affections. No man can rightfully be the
object of hatred; for there is no man who has not within him some element
or possibility of good, none who