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

ON ANGER, II. xx\. 2-xxxi. 4when you are guilt}', submit to justice, if when you —are-innncent^- submit to fortune. A dumb animalperhaps, or something just as dumb ? You becomehke it if you get angr}-. Is it a sickness or a misfortune? It will pass by more Ughtly if you bearup under it. Is it God ? You waste your painswhen you become angry ^\-ith him as much as when _-yoiTpray himrto be angry with another. Is it a goodiman~who hasdone you injury ? Do not beheve it.A bad man ? Do not be surprised ; he aWII sufferfrom another the punisliment which is due from vou, _, ^and he who has sinned has already punished himself. ''Thfere are, as I have said, two conditions underwhich anger is aroused : first, if we think that wehave received an injury—about this enough has beensaid ; second, if we think that we have received it )>ivt»ce tunjusth'=^about this something must now be said, ^•'m tMen judge some happenings to be unjust becausethey did not deserve them, some merely becausethey did not expect them. \Miat is unexpected wecount undesened. And so we are mightily stirredby all that happens contrary to hope and expectation,and fHIs^is the only reason why in domestic affairs weare vexed i>T trifles, why in the case of friends we callneglect a wTong. " Why, then," you query, " dothe ^\Tongs done by our enemies stir us " ? Becausewe did not expect them, or at any rate not MTongsso serious. This, in turn, is due to excessive selflove.We decide that we ought not to be harmedeven by our enemies ; each one in his heart hasthe king's point of view, and is -wilhng to use Ucence,but umnlling to suffer from it. And so it^is eitherarrogance or ignorance that makes us prone toanger ; for what is there surprising in A^icked men's233