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

ON ANGER, II. XVI. 3-xyiii. 1prebends in order that he alone naay imitate him ? •" Tho^e who are prone to anger," you say, " are ofall men considered the most ingenuous." Yes, incontrast with the tricky and the crafts' they do seemingenuous because they are undisguised. I, however,should call them, not ingenuous, but reckless; thatis the-^^wrr^ire appbr to fools, to voluptuaries andspendthrifts, and to all who ill disguise their %-ices." Tbg^orator," you say. " at times does better whenhe is angr\'. Not so, but when he pretends to be -V"angrv. For the actor likev.i^e stir^ an audience byhis declamation not when he is angry, but when he i-plavs well the role of the angiy man;consequentlybefore a jury, in the popular assembly, and whereverwe have to force our will upon the minds of otherpeople, we must pretend now anger, now fear, nowpity, in order that we may inspire others with thesame, and often the feigning of an emotion producesan effect which would not be produced by genuineemotiorn " The mind that is devoid of anger,"yoiTsay, " is inert." Very true, unless it is actuatedby something more powerful than anger. A manshould be neither a highwayman nor his victim,neither soft-hearted nor cruel ; the one is too mildin spirit, the other too harsh. Let, the—wise manshow moderation, and to situations that require strongmeasufesTeTTiim apply, not anger, but force.Ha%'ing dealt with the questions that arise con- r,cerni^^nger, let us now pass to the Considerationof its remedies'. In my opinion, however, there arebut two rules—not to fall into anger, and in anger todo no wTong. Just as in caring for the body certainruTes'~are to be obser^^ed for guarding the health,others for restoring it, so vjue_JSLyst_-Use-xuie_naeans203