"Envy," Senior Oration of
George W. Graham
for the
Dialectic Society, February 22, 1868.
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Graham, George W.
Cover page
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When we look abroad and see the
bickerings and strifes which are continually marring man's happiness here on
earth, we are forced to conclude there is an impure fount whence flow thes
bitter waters. Nor do we need any further proof of the melancholy fact taught
us in the Oricles of the "Sacred Truthss" that man is a fallen and
corrupt creature. Although we may be left in the dark in regard to the way in
which he became corrupt, revelation alone can teach us this, yet it is not the
less true that such is the case. We know that evry effect is poduced by some
cause or it may be a combination of causes. Hence we conclude
that effects so fraught with evil as thes of
which we speak, must have a coresponding malignant cause deeply seated in the
human heart. Among the many causes which tend to produce unhappiness in the
world we think Envy occupies a prominent position. What is Envy? It is a
sensation of unhappiness and disquiet arising from the advantages which others
are supposed to have above us accompanied with malignity towards thoes who
posess them.
It is, we may say the bone of contention among men. In a majority of
cases it gives rise to thoes withering looks harsh words and unkind acts which
often pierce the generous soul with
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keener agony
than the shaft of glittering steel hurled with Herculean strength and whose
wound would seem a pleasure.
We are not inclined to laud with flattery the imaginary happiness
of thoes who have preceeded us and say that they felt none of thes evils of
which we complain in so doing we would be stifling the honest convictions of
our minds and would be making statements which neither history nor experience
would confirm. Ever since man has felt the influence of Pride, Ambition, Love,
ever since then has been a variaty of talents and mental accomplishments and
different degrees of comliness in personal appearence among men ever since some
have been born in affluence and dandled in the lap of ease and others have been
nursed in the scantiness of poverty with in the mud reared walls of an humble
cottage ever since there has been such a thing as the realization of hopes and
disappointments just so long has man felt the baneful influence of Envy. It did
not disturbe the quiet repose of
Adam and
Eve
rclining beneath the verdant bowers of the yet unforfeited Paridise regailing
them-selves with pleasures which knew no
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alloy;
they felt its painful
sufferi effects
soon after Heavens law had been infringed and man was no longer innocent. What
could have marred the perfect harmony of feeling and sentiment which must have
[surged]
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within the hallowed
circle
precints of the family circle of our first
parents? Could any thing but direful Envy have moved
Cain to shed his brothers blood. Surely not. Nothing
except that accursed and fiendish feeling which when it cannot rise and soar to
the realms of unalloyed bliss would drag down and bury in the depths of
perdition thoes that are enjoying the pleasures which they are unable to
reach.
Envy even entered the courts of high Heaven and stirred up
Satan and his
followers to set at naught the laws of their maker. Yes it was that Envy which
"All human virtue to its latest breath
Finds never conquered but in death"
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It was Envy that moved
Josephs bretheren to sell him to foreign merchants and present to their father
his coat of many colors stained with crimson gore and exultingly exclaim this
we have found know now whether it be your sons coat or no. Not only this but
they remained unconcerned if not delighted when they saw hoary hairs bowed down
with grief and sorrow for a much loved son. It was this direfull passion that
made the
Jews
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crucify
the Prince of
Peace and willingly entail upon themslves and their children the accused
fruits of this inconceivably wicked and heinous act the evil consequences of
which they have felt and are still suffering so they have become a byword among
all people. But let us not confine the existance of this evill to the Ancients
alone.
Where ever we turn our eyes they can easily detect some of its evil
workings. Turn to
Queen Elizabeth. We think Envy manifested itself in the
otherwise amiable character of good
Queen Bess in all her dealings with the gifted though
unfortunate
Mary Queen of Scots.
Elizabeth certainly envied her. The sufferings of this
unfortunate woman her long confinement and melancholy fate would would even
yet, were not her name associated with
Roman
Catholicism against which men and educated in
Protestant countries have such a strong prejudice,
awaken our sympathies and dispose us to judge charitably of the errors of
innocence and lead us to detest from the inmost depths of our hearts that vile
and loathsome passion which was the prime agent in producing her misries.
Our own country has been made to mourn beneath
our its
blighting touch. It makes the name of
Aaron Burr who would have been an ornament to any age or country loathed by the
pious and good. He, Samson like laid his unhallowed hands upon
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the pillars of the sacred temple of freedom and
with one mighty effort would have buried all beneath its ruins.
Burrs happiness and usefullness were marred by this unholy passion even with
that Envy which was cruel as the grave. Nothing except that malignant spirit
which grows pale and sickens if a friend prevails, which merit and sucess
persues with hate and dams the worth it cannot imitate could have made him seek
to stain his hands with the blood of the lamented
Hamilton one of
American's
most gifted sons. Well might
America cloth
herself in the habiliments of woe and in the language of the ancient bard
exclaim
4 How
are the mighty fallen! It is useless to multiply examples. From what we have
already said Envy must appear to be an evil and an evil continually. It is an
unnatural feeling more feroci[ous] than the furious spirit of the wild beast
that roams over the plains of
Africa It ever
fixes a stain upon the character of the Savage much more upon thoes claiming to
be civilized and
under specially upon
thoes who pofess to be under the benign influence of
the
Gospel. Then let evry one abandon this odious disposition, crush it in
its incipient stages and free himself from this merciless passion which will
prey upon his vitals and contaminate the very air he breathes and render him
loathsome and odious to himself and all connected with him.