the service of Laban the Syrian. There was nothing remarkable in his
career until he was sold as a slave by his unnatural and jealous
brothers. He was the favorite son of the patriarch Jacob, by his
beloved Rachel, being the youngest, except Benjamin, of a large family
of twelve sons,--a beautiful and promising youth, with qualities which
peculiarly called out the paternal affections. In the inordinate love
and partiality of Jacob for this youth he gave to him, by way of
distinction, a decorated tunic, such as was worn only by the sons of
princes. The half-brothers of Joseph were filled with envy in view of
this unwise step on the part of their common father,--a proceeding
difficult to be reconciled with his politic and crafty nature; and their
envy ripened into hostility when Joseph, with the frankness of youth,
narrated his dreams, which signified his future pre-eminence and the
humiliation of his brothers. Nor were his dreams altogether pleasing to
his father, who rebuked him with this indignant outburst of feeling:
"Shall I and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee on
the earth?" But while the father pondered, the brothers were consumed
with hatred, for envy is one of the most powerful passions that move the
human soul, and is malignant in its developments. Strange to say, it is
most common in large families and among those who pass for friends. We
do not envy prosperous enemies with the virulence we feel for prosperous
relatives, who theoretically are our equals. Nor does envy cease until
inequality has become so great as to make rivalry preposterous: a
subject does not envy his king, or his generally acknowledged superior.
Envy may even give place to respect and deference when the object of it
has achieved fame and conceded power. Relatives who begin with jealousy
sometimes end as worshippers, but not until extraordinary merit, vast
wealth, or overtopping influence are universally conceded. Conceive of
Napoleon's brothers envying the great Emperor, or Webster's the great
statesman, or Grant's the great general, although the passion may have