CHAPTER X.. Of Pity or Compassion.

OF PITY OR COMPASSION.

Pity is a perturbation of the mind, arising from the apprehension of hurt or trouble to another that doth not deserve it, and which he thinks may happen to himself or his.

And because it appertains to pity to think that he, or his, may fall into the misery he pities in others; it follows that they be most compassionate: who have passed through misery. And old men. And weak men. And timorous men. And learned men. And such as have parents, wife and children. And such as think there be honest men.

And that they are less compassionate: who are in great despair. Who are in great prosperity. And they that are angry; for they consider not. And they that are very confident; for they also consider not. And they that are in the act of contumely; for neither do these consider. And they that are astonished with fear. And they that think no man honest.

The things to be pitied are: such as grieve, and withal hurt. Such as destroy. And calamities of fortune, if they be great: as none or few friends, deformity, weakness, lameness, &c. And evil that arrives where good is expected. And after extreme evil, a little good. And through a man’s life to have no good offer itself; or being offered, not to have been able to enjoy it.

Men to be pitied are: such as are known to us, unless they be so near to us, as their hurt be our own. And such as be of our own years. Such as are like us in manners. Such as are of the same, or like stock. And our equals in dignity. Those that have lately suffered, or are shortly to suffer injury: and those that have the marks of injury past. And those that have the words or actions of them that be in present misery.

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