Of Human Jealousy

If we were to list the things that make men most miserable, we should surely have to place jealousy well toward the top. Jealousy has a prominent part in many, if not most, human heartaches, and it is so closely associated with some close of kin to envy, which in turn is close kin to covetousness, and all of them keep company with hate and bitterness. Jealousy is often the prime motive around which the plots of fiction revolve. It is also seemingly an inseparable part of the drama of real nature itself, of which fiction is but a reflection. Jealousy is perhaps as old as human nature itself, and even the war in the heavens would seem to offer evidence that Lucifer was jealous of the power and position of someone else—and the pattern has since repeated itself altogether too many times. There are some specific things we should know about jealousy before we permit it to play a part in our own lives. One is that to give way to it is virtually to concede inferiority. It seems probable that a person wouldn’t be jealous of another person if he felt adequate himself, and an admission of jealousy is often therefor an admission of feeling of inferiority. Jealousy is both a cause and a symptom of lack of trust. Too often it enters even into the family circle and is not reserved for strangers alone. Another thing we must remember about jealousy is that its most certain victim is the one who gives way to it. It is true that many innocent lives have been adversely affected by it, but it is also true that no one who harbors it within his own heart has ever himself escaped its ill effects. And the jealousy of others toward us, disturbing as it is, is not nearly so damaging as the jealousy that is generated within us and directed toward others. It is self-inflicted punishment, a destroyer of love, an enemy of inner peace. One of the sincerely satisfying conquests of love is the overcoming of jealousy. He who has cast it out is blessed beyond most men.