an elder man not at all.[1] It is often seen that bad husbands have very good wives; whether it be that it raiseth the price of their husband's kindness when it comes; or that the wives take a pride in their patience. But this never fails, if the bad husbands were of their own choosing, against their friends' consent; for then they will be sure to make good their own folly.
IX. Of Envy.
There be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch, but love and envy. They both have vehement wishes; they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily into the eye, especially upon the presence of the objects; which are the points that conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. We see likewise the scripture calleth envy an evil eye; and the astrologers call the evil influences of the stars evil aspects; so that still there seemeth to be acknowledged, in the act of envy, an ejaculation[2] or irradiation of the eye. Nay some have been so curious as to note, that the times when the
- ↑ This epigrammatic reply is quoted of Thales of Miletus, 640–546 B.C., one of the 'seven wise men' of Greece. The anecdote is told by Plutarch, Opera Moralia. Symposiaca. III. vi. 3. (Plutarch's Miscellanies and Essays. Edited by W. W. Goodwin, with an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Vol. III. p. 276.) "Thales being asked when a man should marry, said: "Young men not yet, old men not at all." Bacon. Apophthegmes New and Old. 220.
- ↑ Ejaculation. The art of throwing or darting out.
