David Hume, A Treatise on Human Nature (Edinburgh, 1739):
"It is not a great disproportion between ourselves and others whichproduces envy, but on the contrary, a proximity. A common soldierbears no envy for his general compared to what he will feel for hissergeant or corporal; nor does an eminent writer meet with as muchjealousy in common hackney scribblers, as in authors that morenearly approach him. A great disproportion cuts off the relation, andeither keeps us from comparing ourselves with what is remote fromus or diminishes the effects of the comparison." - P27