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

.ON ANGER, II. V. ^vi. 1nft-rpppatfH inrlnlgpnr'i^ f^p^j surfeJt has arrived at adisregard^or mercy and has expelled from tHe mindevery conception oTfheTiuman bonclT it passes at lastinto_cnj£ity. And so these men Taugh and rejoiceand experience great pleasure, and wear a countenanceutterly unlike that of anger, making a pastimeof ferocity.WTien Hannibal saw a trench flowing with humanblood, he is said to have exclaimed, " O beauteoussight "! How much more beautiful would it haveseemed to him if the blood had filled some river orlake ! WTiat wonder, O Hannibal, if you, born tobloodshed and from childhood famihar with slaughter,find especial dehght in this spectacle ? A fortune willattend you that for twenty years ^vill gratifv vourcruelty, and will everywhere supply to your eyes thewelcome sight ;you will see it at Trasumennus andat Cannae, and last of all at your own Carthage !Only recently Volesus, governor of Asia under thedeified Augustus, beheaded three hundred personsin one day, and as he strutted among the corpses\vith the proud air of one who had done some gloriousdeed worth beholding, he cried out in Greek, " Whata kingly act !" But what would he have done if hehad been a king ? No, this was not angery, but ane\TLstill greatenand -iacurAble" If/'_sorae_one arguesj.'' Airtue is well disposed a/>gf^^toward what is honourable, it is her duty to feel angertowarrd what i^ Ixi^^e." "^liat if he should say thatvirtue must be both low and great ? And yet thisis \\-Hat he does say—he would have her be bothexalted and debased, since joy on account of a rightaction is splendid and glorious, wlaile anger onaccount of another's sin is mean and narrow-minded.-——--VOL. INj^^