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

ON ANGER, II. xxn. 2-xxin. 2consequences^ that we must regulate. We ought,therefore, to make our fight agamst the primarycauses. Now the cause of anger is an impressionof injury, and to this we should not easily givecredence. We ought not to be led to it quicklyeven by open and e\-ident acts ; for some thingsare false, that, have the appearance of truth. Weshould always allow some time ; a day discloses thetrutK^ EeTus not give ready ear to traducers ; thisweakness of human natm-e let us recognize and mistrust—weare glad to believe what we are loth tohear, and we become angry before we can form ajudgement about it. And what is to be said whenwe are actuated, not merely by charges, but by baresuspicions, and ha\-ing put the worse interpretationon another's look or smile, become angry at innocentmen ? Therefore we should plead the cause of theabsent person against ourselves, and anger should beheld in abeyance ; for punishment postponed can stillbe exacted, but once exacted it cannot be recalled.Every one knows the story of the tjTannicide whohaving been arrested before he had finished his taskwas put to torture by Hippias * in order that hemight be forced to reveal his accomplices ; whereuponhe named the friends of the tyrant who weregathered around him, the very ones to whom, as heknew, the safety of the tyrant was especially dear.After Hippias had ordered them to be slain one byone, as they were named, he asked whether therewas still any other. " No," said the man, " youalone remain ; for I have left no one else who caresanything about you." The result of his anger wasthat the tyrant lent his might to the tyrant-slayerand slew his owti protectors with his own sword.215