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Envy is not likely to be found among brutes, whose
fancies are not moved by the apprehensions of each other's
good or evil; neither can they be spirited with the notions
of glorious or dishonorable, by which envy is chiefly stirred
up. Yet they have mutual hatred; they kill each other,
and wage most incredible wars. The eagles and the
dragons fight, the crows and the owls, yea, the little titmouse and linnet; insomuch that it is said, the very blood
of these creatures, when slain, will by no means be mixed;
but though you would temper them together, they will
immediately separate again. The lion also vehemently
hates the cock, and the elephant the hog; but this probably proceeds from fear; for what they fear, the same are
they inclined to hate.
We see then herein a great difference betwixt envy and
hate, that the one is natural to brutes, but they are not at
all capable of the other.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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