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

ON ANGER, II. XXXV. &-xxx\'i. 4if it^an find no other May to harm, equally hating andhated. Or7rryou"\rill, let us take the picture fromour poets :Flaunting her bloody scourge the War-dame strides.Or Discord glorying in her tattered robe."Or make you any other picture of this dread passionthat can be devised still more dread.As Sextius remarks, it has been good for somepeople to see themselves in a mirror while they areangry ; the great change in themselves alarmedthem ; brought, as it were, face to face -sWth thereahty they did not recognize themselves. And howlittle of the real ughness did that image reflected inthe mirror disclose ! If the soul could be sho\\Ti, ifit were in some substance through which it mightshine^~Tts black^ and mottled, inflamed, distortedand swollen appearance would confound us as wegazedjjpon it. Even as it is, though it can only cometo the surface through flesh, bones, and so manyobstacles, its hideousness is thus great—what if itcould be sho\vn stark naked ? You_ may perhapsthink that no one has really been frightened out ofanger~by a min-or. Well, what then ? The manwho had gone to the mirror in order to effect a changein himself was already a changed man ; while menremain angrj' no image is more beautiful than one'which is fierce and savage, and such as they are they\\ish also to appear.This, rather, is ^^h^t "w*^ f>"ght to r^flhVf^—howmany men anger in and of itself has injured. Somethrough too much passion h4Ve "blH'St fReir veins, ashout that strains our strength has carried with itblood, and too powerful a rush of tears to the eyes249