Temple, Sir William (1628-1699)

Essays by Sir William Temple in his Youth

w. 1652, 1836

"Amongst all those passions which ride men's souls none so jade and tire them out as envy and jealousy; theire journey is longer than any of the rest, they bate seldomer, and commonly ride double, for sure a man cannot bee jealous of his Mistrisse without at the same time envious of his rivall."

Amongst all those passions which ride men's souls none so jade and tire them out as envy and jealousy; theire journey is longer than any of the rest, they bate seldomer, and commonly ride double, for sure a man cannot bee jealous of his Mistrisse without at the same time envious of his rivall; they seeme to bee twins of one birth, branches of one root, love being the cause of both and hatred the effect; they differ in that the object of envy is some quality wee love in a person wee hate, and of jealousy some quality wee hate in a person wee love. I wonder they should bee so common being allwayes founded upon an opinion of meannesse or some defect in ones selfe. Envy is the more vicious and unreasonable of the two for that proposes good to fasten upon, whilst jealousy proposes at least the appearances of evill, but withall tis not so incurable a disease, being remedyed if not by a mans one virtue yet by his enemyes fall and misfortune, whereas jealousy is desperate of any cure, all thinges nourish, nothing destroyes it, as indeed what can poyson an asp which is it self the most deadly of all poy[s]ons. [...]
(pp. 166-7)

Animals::Horse::Jade

Reading Irvin Ehrenpreis, Swift: The Man, his Works, and the Age, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1962), I, 176.

Text adapted from Early Essays and Romances of Sir William Temple Bt., ed. G.C. Moore Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930).

09/22/2013