The Greek dread is well known of the envy, or evil eye, of Heaven lighting upon any exuberance of human prosperity. See the story of Polycrates and his ring in Herodotus, III, 41. Julius Caesar and Augustus felt this dread, nor is it yet extinct. Aeschylus philosophises upon it (Agam. 750-762). Cf. Daniel iv, 29-34; St Luke xii, 16-21.

Of God and His Creatures: 1.89