befallen himself, or what good has happened to
another? This last is the scale by which he principally measures his
felicity, and the very smiles of his friends are so many deductions from
his own happiness. The wants of others are the standard by which he
rates his own wealth, and he estimates his riches, not so much by his
own possessions, as by the necessities of his neighbours.

WHEN the malevolent intend to strike a very deep and dangerous stroke of
malice, they generally begin the most remotely in the world from the
subject nearest their hearts. They set out with commending the object of
their envy for some trifling quality or advantage, which it is scarcely
worth while to possess: they next proceed to make a general
profession of their own good-will and regard for him: thus artfully
removing any suspicion of their design, and clearing all obstructions
for the insidious stab they are about to give; for who will suspect them
of an intention to injure the object of their peculiar and professed
esteem? The hearer's belief of the fact grows in proportion to the
seeming reluctance with which it is told, and to the conviction he has,
that the relater is not influenced by any private pique, or personal
resentment; but that the confession is extorted from him sorely
against his inclination, and purely on account of his zeal for truth.

ANGER is less reasonable and more sincere than envy.--Anger breaks out
abruptly; envy is a great prefacer--anger wishes to be understood at
once: envy is fond of remote hints and ambiguities; but, obscure as its
oracles are, it never ceases to deliver them till they are perfectly
comprehended:--anger repeats the same circumstances over again; envy
invents new ones at every fresh recital--anger gives a broken, vehement,
and interrupted narrative; envy tells a more consistent and more
probable, though a falser tale--anger is excessively imprudent, for it
is impatient to disclose every thing it knows; envy is discreet, for it
has a great deal to hide--anger never consults times or seasons; envy
waits for the lucky moment, when the wound it meditates may be made the
most exquisitely painful, and the most incurably deep--anger uses more
invective; envy does more mischief--simple anger soon runs itself out of
breath, and is exhausted at the end of its tale; but it is for that
chosen period that envy has treasured up the most barbed arrow in its
whole quiver--anger puts a man out of himself: but t