26. Whether one member suffers “Such a measure of fellow-feeling.” ( συμπάθεια ,) (761) says he, “is to be seen in the human body, that, if any inconvenience is felt by any member, all the others grieve along with it, and, on the other hand, rejoice along with it, in its prosperity. Hence there is no room there for envy or contempt.” To be honored, here, is taken in a large sense, as meaning, to be in prosperity and happiness. Nothing, however, is better fitted to promote harmony than this community of interest, when every one feels that, by the prosperity of others, he is proportionally enriched, and, by their penury, impoverished.
(761) The term is made use of in this sense by classical authors. Polyb. 22, 11, 12. See Calvin’s Harmony, vol. 2, p. 232. — Ed.