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

ON ANGER, III. IX. 3-x. 3ever gentleness and mildness we have and engenderssharpness. Those, therefore, who distrust theirdigestion, before they proceed to the performanceof tasks of unusual difficulty, allay their bile withfood ; for fatigue especially arouses the bile, possiblybecause it drives the body's heat toward the centre,\-itiates the blood, and stops its circulation by cloggingthe veins, or because the body when it is wornand feeble weighs down the mind. For the samereason, undoubtedly, those who are broken bv illhealth.and age are more irascible than others.Hunger and thirst also, for the same reasons, mustbe avoided ; they exasperate and irritate the mind.There is an old proverb that " the tired man seeks aquarrel," but it apphes just as well to the hungry andthirsty man, and to any man who chafes under something.For just as a bodily sore hurts under theslightest touch, afterwards even at the suggestionof a touch, so the disordered mind takes offence at themerest trifles, so that even, in the case of some people,a greeting, a letter, a speech, or a question provokesa dispute. There will always be a protest if youtouch a sore spot.It is best, therefore, to treat the malady as soonas it is discovered ; then, too, to allow oneself theleast possible hberty of speech, and to check impulsiveness.It is easy, moreover, to detect one'spassion as soon as it is born ; sickness is precededby symptoms. Just as the signs of storm and rainappear before the storms themselves, so there arecertain forerunners of anger, of love, and of all thosetempests that shake the soul. Those who are subjectto fits of epilepsy know that the attack is coming onif heat leaves their extremities, if their sight wavers,279