the preference he obtained
over the Neapolitan artists, which raised them to a man against him, and
reduced him to the necessity of preparing his food With his own hand. On
his last return to Naples, Passeri says, "_Non fu mai piu veduto da buon
occhio da quelli Napoletani: e li Pittori lo detestavano perche egli
era ritornato--mori con qualche sospetto di veleno, e questo non e
inverisimile perche l'interesso e un perfido tiranno_." So that the
Neapolitans honoured Genius at Naples by poison, which they might have
forgotten had it flourished at Rome. The famous cartoon of the battle
of Pisa, a work of Michael Angelo, which he produced in a glorious
competition with the Homer of painting, Leonardo da Vinci, and in which he
had struck out the idea of a new style, is only known by a print which has
preserved the wonderful composition; for the original, it is said, was cut
into pieces by the mad jealousy of BACCIO BANDINELLI, whose whole life was
made miserable by his consciousness of a superior rival.

In the jealousy of genius, however, there is a peculiar case where the
fever silently consumes the sufferer, without possessing the malignant
character of the disease. Even the gentlest temper declines under its slow
wastings, and this infection may happen among dear friends, whenever a man
of genius loses that self-opinion which animates his solitary labours and
constitutes his happiness. Perhaps when at the height of his class, he
suddenly views himself eclipsed by another genius--and that genius his
friend! This is the jealousy, not of hatred, but of despair. Churchill
observed the feeling, but probably included in it a greater degree of
malignancy than I would now describe.

Envy which turns pale,
And sickens even if a friend prevail.

SWIFT, in that curious poem on his own death, said of POPE that

--He can in one couplet fix
More sense than I can do in six.

The Dean, perhaps, is not quite serious, but probably is in the next
lines--

It gives me such a jealous fit,
I cry "Pox take him and his wit."

If the reader pursue this hint throughout the poem, these compliments to
his friends, always at his own expense, exhibit a singular mixture of the
sensibility and the frankness of true genius, which Swift himself has
honestly confessed.

What poet would not grieve to see
His brother write as well as he?[A]

ADDISON experienced this painful and mixed emotion in his intercourse