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

!ON ANGER, I. x\iii. 6-xix. 4because you were the cause of your comrade's condemnation;you, because you did not obey yourcommander when you were ordered to kill." Itthought out three charges because it had groundsfor none.Angeivl say, has this great fault—it refuses to be »ruled. It is enraged against truth itself if this isshown to be contrary to its desire. With outcr\' anduproar and gestures that shake the whole body itpursues those whom it has marked out, heaping uponthem abuse and curses. Not thus does reason act.But if need should so require, it silently and quietlywipeFbut whole families root and branch, and householdsthat are baneful to the state it destroys together^nth wives and children ; it tears down their veryhouses, levelling them to the ground, and exterminatesthe very names of the foes of liberty. All this it willdo, but \^ith no gnashing of the teeth, no ^vild tossingof the head, doing nothing that would be unseemlyfor a judge, whose countenance should at no timebe more calm and unmoved than when he is dehveringa weighty sentence. " What is the need," asksHieronymus,* '• of biting your own lips before youstart to give a man a thrashing " ? What if he hadseen a proconsul leap dowTi from the tribunal, snatchthe fasces from the lictor, and tear his own clothesbecause some \'ictim's clothes were still untorn^\'hat is to be gained by overturning the table, byhurhng cups upon the floor, by dashing oneselfagainst pillars, tearing the hair, and smiting thethigh and the breast ? How mighty is the anger,think you, which turns back upon itself because it