Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON ANGER, I. VI. 1-3, retion, not "with anger . For it will not hurt,L-ut wTU heal under the guise of hurting. As weapply the flame to certain spearshafts " when theyare crooked in order to straighten them, and compressthem by dri\-ing in wedges, not to crush them,but to take out their kinks, so through pain appliedto body and mind we reform the natures oT menthat are distorted by vice. ^lanifestly, a p¥ysician,in the case ot shghfSisorders, tries at first not tomake much change in his patient's daily habits ; helays down a regimen for food, drink, and exercise,and tries to improve his health only through a changein the ordering of his life. His next concern is tosee that the amount is conducive to health. If thefirst amount and regimen fail to bring rehef, heorders a reduction and lops off some things. If stillthere is no response, he prohibits food and disburdensthe body by fasting. If these milder measures areunavailing he opens a vein, and then, if the limbsby continuing to be attached to the body are doingit harm and spreading the disease, he lays violenthands on them. No treatment seems harsh if itsresult is salutar)-. Similarly, it becomes A guardian ^»-ce>of the la^v, the ruler of the state, to heal human ^ '^"^nature by the use of words, and these of the mildersort, as long as he can, to the end that he may persuadea man to do what he ought to do, and win overhis heart to a desire for the honourable and the just,and imptant in his mind hatred of vice and esteem ofvirtue. Let him pass next to harsher language, inT^which he will still aim at admonition and reproof.*^Lastly, let him resort to punishment, yet still makingit hght and not irrevocable. Extreme punishmentlet him appoint only to extreme crime, so that no121