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

ON AXGER, II. Mil. 3-LX. 3glut themselves_with_ren(iing one anothfii^ Theydi ffer from the dumb animals in this alone—thatanimals grow gentle toward those who feed them,whil£;_jnen in their madness prey upon the verypersons by whom they are nurtured.Never will the wi-e man cea^e to be ajigry- if onceihe Begins. "Every place is full of crime and \lce ;|too many crimes are committed to be cured by any'possible restraint. Men struggle in a mighty rivalryof AV ifkedii e?^. Every day the desire for wTong-doingis greater, the dread of it less ; all regard for whatis better and more just is banished, lust hurls itselfwherever it likes, and crimes are now no longer covert.They stalk before our very eyes, and wickedness hascome to such a pubUc state, has gained such powerover the hearts of all, that innocence is not rare—itis_non-existent. For is it only the casual man or thefew wlio break the law ? On ever}' hand, as if at agiven >ignal, men rise to level all the barriers ofright and WTong :No guest from host is safe, nor daughter's sireFrom daughter's spouse ; e'en brothers' love is rare.The husband doth his wife, she him, ensnare ;Ferocious stepdames brew their ghastly banes ;The son too soon his father's years arraigns."And yet how few of all the crimes are these ! Thepoet makes no mention of the battling camps thatclaim a common blood, of the parents and the childrensundered by a soldier's oath, of the flames a Romanhand applied to Rome, of the hostile bands of horsementhat scour the land to find the hiding-places ofcitizens proscribed, of springs defiled by poison, ofplague the hand of man has made, of the trench flungaround beleaguered parents, of crowded prisons, of183