A sound heart [is] the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.
Ver. 30. A sound heart is the life of the flesh.] A heart well freed from passions and perturbations holds out long, and enjoys good health; neither causeth it molestation of mind or want of welfare to others. It is the life of fleshes (in the plural); a not only its own, but other men's bodies are the better, at least not the worse, for it; whereas the envious and angry man rangeth and rageth; and like a mad dog biting all he meets, sets them, as much as in him lies, all a-madding, and undoes them.
But envy is the rottenness of the bones.] A corroding and corrupting disease it is, like that which the physicians call Corruptio totius substantiae, it dries up the marrow; and because it cannot come at another man's heart, this hell-hag feeds upon its own, tormenting the poor carcase without and within. It is the moth of the soul, and the worm, as the Hebrew word signifies, of the bones, those stronger parts of the body. It is the same to the whole man that rust is to iron, as Antisthenes affirmeth; it devoureth itself first, as the worm doth the nut it grows in. Socrates called it serram animae, the soul's saw; and wished that envious men had more ears and eyes than others, that they might have the more torment by beholding and hearing of other men's happinesses; for invidia simul peccat et plectitur, expedita iustitia. Like the viper, it is born by eating through the dam's belly; like the bee, it loseth its sting and life together; like the little fly, to put out the candle, it burns itself; like the serpent Porphyrius, it drinks the most part of its own venom; like the viper that leaped upon St Paul's hand to hurt him, but perished in the fire; or as the snake in the fable, that licked off her own tongue; as envying teeth to the file in the forge. In fine, "Envy slayeth the silly soul"; Job 5:2 as it did that fellow in Pausanias, who, envying the glory of Theagenes, a famous wrestler, whipped his statue - set up in honour of him after his death - every night so long, till at length it fell upon him, and killed him. b
a Rabbi Levi.
b Pausan. Eliac., p. 188.