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

.ON ANGER, II. xviii. 1-xix. 4to re£el_anger,_another to restrain it. In order that; njayavoid anger, certain rules will be laid dowTiwhich appTyTo" the whole period of life ; these ^\illfall under two heads—the period of education andthe l^erjpengds of lifeThe period of education calls for the greatest, andwhat >\'ill also prove to be the most profitable,attentionT"^r it is easy to train the mind while itis stiir~"tender7nBiut it is a difiicult matter to curbthe \'ices that have gro^^Ti up with us.Th^fiery mind i^ by it- nature most hable to wrath.For as there are t!ie four elements of fire, water, air,and earth;~s() there are the corresponding properties,the hot, the cold, the dry, and the moist." Accordingly,the various diiferences of regions, of animals, of substances,and of characters are caused by the minghngof the elements ; consequently, also, dispositionsshow a greater bent in some one direction, accordingas they abound in a larger supply of some one element.Hence it is that we call some regions moist, some dry,some hot, some cold. The same distinctions applyto animals and to men ; it makes a great differencehow much of the moist and the hot each man hasin him; his character vnW be determined by thatelement in him of which he will have a dominantproportion. A fiery constitution of mind ^\i\\ produceA^Tathful men, for fire is active and stubborn ;a mixture of cold makes cowards, for cold is sluggishand shrunken. Consequently, some of our schoolhold that anger is aroused in the breast by the boilingof the blood about the heart ; the reason why thisparticular spot is assigned to anger is none other thanthe fact that the warmest part of the whole body isthe breast. In the case of those who have more of205