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

ON ANGER, 1. XIV. 1-xv. 2ing to this, the better a man is, the more irascible .he'^wiTr^ ; on the contrary, be sure that none is -/-^more peaceable, more free from passion, and lessgiven toT^te. Indeed, -what reason has he forhating ^^Tong-doers, since it is error that drives ythem to such mistakes ? But no man of sense ^^"ill^ ' f^'^hate^jhe erring ; otherwise lie ^\ill hate himselL * *-"^^^Let him rettect how many times he offends againstmorall1yriio%v many of his acts stand in need ofpardonj_theii he will be angry with himself also.For no just judge %\ill pronounce one sort of judgemenFTnThls^wncase dfrd* a different one in the caseof others. No one will be found, I say, who is ableto acquit himself, and any man who calls himselfinnocent is thinking more of ^ntnesses than conscience.How much more human to manifesttoward ^\Tong-doers a kind and fatherly spirit, nothunting them do^\•n but calhng them back ! If a manhas lost his way and is roaming across our fields, itis better to put him upon the right path than todrive him out.And so the man who does wTong ought to be set j^right both by admonition and by force, by measuresboth gentle and harsh, and we should try to make hima better man for his own sake, as well as for the sakeof others, stinting, not our reproof, but our anger.For what physician %sill show anger toward a patient ?" But," you say, " they are incapable of beingreformed, there is nothing pliable in them, nothingthat gives room for fair hope." Then let them beremoved from human society- if they are bound tomake worse all that they touch, and let them, in theonly way this is possible, cease to be e\il—but let thisbe done without hatred. For what reason have I for143