The Curses of Envy

An uncontrollable covetousness or discontentment with regard to the abilities, blessings, or success of another; the evil of envy like all other evils enthralls the envier and steeps them in depravity by conferring other gross vices and spiritual handicaps on them. The two major viruses responsible for this deadly disease are discontentment: want of contentment or satisfaction with respect to the talents or possessions at one’s disposal, however modest or monumental, and covetousness: an unbridled longing for the conferments or success of another, even if they have to lose possession of them. Envy may bring about some material advantage as so many other evils do; but it detracts greatly from the soul as all other evils do, albeit to variant degrees.

Usually, the first sad lot of the one who practices envy is a turbulent mind. When a person covets something passionately and he’s unable to acquire it, yet he sees it ever and anon being paraded in his presence — in his reach but beyond his reach, he starts to experience tumult in his soul. Much like a hungry and salivating dog before which food is dangled, yet restrained by its leash from reaching it, it will be observed to go increasingly and uncontrollably restless. What’s more, this unrest in the soul amplifies the covetousness, and if he still can’t acquire what he desires, the turbulence is in turn amplified some degrees more. This ripple-effect continues inexorably until the envier can find some way to curb his envy, and that gets increasingly difficult. This is the first curse of the one who practices envy.

The second curse of the one who practises envy is impairment of reason. The tumult in the envier’s soul increases to a point where he becomes a martyr to constant aches in the bosom and sometimes even to his whole body. Like one who suffers physical aches in the body, he starts to seek the cause of his ills, or more often, something to attribute it to. At this stage, he will attribute a negative motive to anything the envied one does to him, as he/she will be judging things by his/her own code of conduct, which is usually bad. If the envied one sees him and smiles at him by way of greeting or offers him some act of kindness, he/she will either think the envied one is showing mockery with a false show of good or the envier will be incensed that the envied one has good to offer, when he/she but has envy to show, for the vile are often repulsed by good even when it’s shown to them. In Shakespeare’s words “wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; filths savour but themselves.” If the envied one ignores the envier on account of not knowing him, or because he has observed the envy the envier harbours, the envier will then think that the envied one hates him, since the envied one has chosen to ignore his advances — even if the envied one doesn’t know him/her, such is the damage envy can do to one’s reason. Consequently, the envier will find some means to attribute his miseries to the envied one, however irrational it may be.