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СНАР. XXXI.

Of ANGER.

LUTARCH is admirable throughout, but efpecially where he judges of human Actions: What fine Things does he fay in the Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa, upon the Subject of our great Folly in abandoning Children to the Government of Care and Government of their Fathers ! The most of our Civil Governments, as Ariftotle fays, leave, to every one, after the manner of the Cyclops, the ordering of their Wives and Children, according to their own foolish and indifcreet Fancy; • and the Lacedæmonian and Cretenfian are almoft the on• ly Governments that have committed the Discipline of • Children to the Laws.' Who does not fee, that, in a State, all depends upon their Nurture and Education? And yet they are indifcreetly left to the Mercy of the Parents, let them be as foolish and ill-natured as they will. Amongst other Things, how oft have I, as I have paffed along the Streets, had a good mind to write a Farce, to revenge the poor Boys, whom I have feen flead, knocked down, and almoft murdered, by fome Father or Mother, when in their Fury, and mad with Rage? You fee them come out with Fire and Fury fparkling in their Eyes.

Of the Indif cretion of Parents, who punifh their Chil

dren in the Madness of Paffion.

rabie jecur incendente feruntur

Præcipites, ut faxa jugis abrupta, quibus mons
Subtrabitur, clivoque latus pendente recedit ».

i. e.

With burning Fury they are headlong borne,
As when great Stones are from the Mountains torn,
By which the Clifts depriv'd and leffen'd are,
And their steep Sides are naked left, and bare.

Juvenal. Sat. vi. v. 548. &c.

(and,

(and, acording to Hippocrates, the most dangerous Maladies are they that disfigure the Countenance') with a fharp and roaring Voice, very often against those that are but newly come from Nurfe, and there they are lamed and ftunned with Blows, whilft our Juftice takes no Cognizance of it; as if these were not the Maims and Dislocations of the Members of qur Commonwealth.

Gratum eft quòd patriæ civem, populoque dedifti,
Si facies ut Patriæ fit idoneus, utilis agris,
Utilis et bellorum et pacis rebus agendis.
i. e.

It is a Gift most acceptable, when
Thou to thy Country giv'ft a Citizen,
Provided thou haft had the Knack of it,
To make him for his Country's Service fit;
Ufeful t'affift the Earth in her Increase,
And useful in Affairs of War and Peace.

There is no Paffion that fo much perverts Men's true Judgment, as Anger. No one would demur upon punifhing a Judge with Death, who fhould condemn a Ĉriminal from a Motive of Anger; why then should Fathers and School-mafters be any more allowed to whip and chaftife Children in their Anger? This is not Correction, but Revenge. Chaftisement is instead of Physic to Children; and fhould we bear with a Phyfician, that was animated against, and enraged at his Patient?

If we would do well, we fhould never lay a Hand upon our Servants whilft our Anger lafts; The Faults of whilft the Pulfe beats high, and that we feel the Perfon an Emotion in ourselves, let us defer the Bu- whom we pu finefs; for 'tis Paffion that commands, and nih in Anger, Jeem to us dif Paffion that speaks then, not we: But Faults ferent from feen through Paffion, appear much greater to what they are us than they really are, as Bodies do, being in Reality. feen through a Mift. He that is hungry, ufes Meat, but he that will make Use of Correction, fhould have no Appetite, neither of Hunger or Thirst, to it. And, moreL13

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Book II. over, Chaftifements that are inflicted with Weight and Discretion, are much better received, and with greater Benefit by him who fuffers them. Otherwife he will not think himself juftly condemned by a Man tranfported with Anger and Fury, and will alledge his Master's exceffive Paffion, his inflamed Countenance, his unufual Oaths, his Turbulence, and precipitous Rashness, for his own Juftification..

Ora tument ira, nigrefcunt fanguine vena,
Lumina Gorgonio Javius igne micant.

i. e.

Rage fwells the Lips, with black Blood fills the Veins; And in their Eyes Fire worfe than Gorgons reigns. Suetonius reports, that, Caius Rabirius having been con• demn'd by Cafar, the Thing that moft prevailed upon the People (to whom he had appealed) to determine the Caufe in his Favour, was, the Animofity and Vehemency that Cæfar had manifefted in that Sentence. Saying is one Thing and Doing is another; we are to

A Digreffion on Plutarch's Good-nature and Equity.

confider the Sermon and the Preacher apart. Thofe Men thought themselves much in the Right, who in our Times have attempted to fhake the Truth of our Church by the Vices of her Minifters; but fhe extracts her Evidence from another Source, for that is a foolish Way of arguing, and would throw all Things into Confufion. A Man whofe Morals are good may hold falfe Opinions, and a wicked Man may preach Truth, nay, though he believe it not himself. 'Tis doubtless a fine Harmony when Doing and Saying go together; and I will not deny but that Saying, when Actions follow it, is of greater Authority and Efficacy, as Eudamidas faid, hearing a Philofopher talk of military Affairs, Thefe Things are finely faid, but he that speaks them is not to be believed, for his Ears have not been used to the Sound of the Trumpet.' And Cleomenes, hearing an Orator declaiming upon Valour, burst

Ovid. de Art. lib. iii. v. 503, 504.

* Sueton. in Jul. Cf. fect. 12.

Plutarch, in the Notable Sayings of the Lacedæmonians.

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out into Laughter, at which the other being angry, · I fhould, faid he to him, do the fame if it were a Swallow that spoke of this Subject; but if it were an Eagle I fhould willingly hear him.' I perceive, methinks, in the Writings of the Ancients, that he who fpeaks what he thinks, ftrikes much more Home than he that only diffembles. Hear Cicero fpeak of the Love of Liberty: Hear Brutus fpeak of it; you may judge by his Stile that he was a Man who would purchase it at the Price of his Life. Let Cicero, the Father of Eloquence, treat of the Contempt of Death, and let Seneca do the fame; the first does languishingly drawl it out, so that you perceive he would make you refolve upon a Thing on which he is not refolved himself. He infpires you not with Courage, for he himself has none; the other animates and inflames you.

Cenfure of

Cicero and

Seneca.

I never read an Author, even of those who treat of Virtue and of Actions, that I do not curiously examine what a Kind of Man he was himself. For the Ephori at Sparta feeing a diffolute Fellow propose wholesome Advice to the People, commanded him to hold his • Peace, and intreated a virtuous Man to attribute the Invention to himself, and to propofe it.' Plutarch's Writings, if well understood, fufficiently speak their Author; and I think I know his very Soul; and yet I could wish that we had fome better Account of his Life: And am thus far wandered from my Subject, upon the Account of the Obligation I have to Aulus Gellius, for having left us in writing this Story of his Manners, that brings me back to my Subject of Anger: A Slave of his, a vicious ill-conditioned Fellow, but who had Plutarch rethe Precepts of Philofophy fometimes rung proached for in his Ears, having, for fome Offence Anger by a of his, been stripped, by Plutarch's Com- Slave of bis. mand, whilst he was whipping, muttered at first that it was without Caùfe, and that he had done nothing to deferve it; but, at laft, falling in good Earneft to exclaim againft, and to rail at his Mafter, he reproached him, L14 that

Aul. Gell. lib. xviii, c. 3.

A Noct. Attic. lib. i. c. 26.

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Book II. that he did not act as became a Philofopher; that he had • often heard him fay it was indecent to be angry, nay, had writ a Book to that Purpofe; and, that caufing him to be fo cruelly beaten, in the Height of his Rage, totally gave the Lye to his Writings. To which Plutarch calmly and coldly answered, How, Ruffian, faid he, By what doft thou judge that I am now angry? Does either my Face, my Colour, my Voice, or my Speech give any Manifestation of my being moved? I do not think my Eyes look fierce, that my Countenance is disturbed, or • that my Voice is dreadful: Do I redden? Do I foam? • Does any Word escape my Lips of which I ought to repent? Do I ftart? Do I tremble with Wrath? For thefe, I tell thee, are the true Signs of Anger.' And fo, turning to the Fellow that was whipping him, Lay on, faid he, whilst this Gentleman and I difpute.' This is the Story. Archytas Tarentinus, returning from a War wherein he had been Captain-General, found all Things in his House in very great Disorder, and his Lands uncultivated, through the bad Husbandry of his Receiver, whom having fent for,Go, faid he, If I were not in Wrath I would found

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ly drub you.' Plato, likewife, being highly offended with one of his Slaves, Gave ought to be gi • Speufippus Order to chastise him, excufing ven in Anger, himself from doing it, because he was in Anger.' And Carillus, a Lacedemonian, to a Helot who carried himself infolently and audaciously towards him By the Gods, faid he, if I was not angry, I would immediately cause thee to be put to Death.

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'Tis a Paffion that is pleas'd with, and flatters itself. How oft, when we have been wrongfully mifAnger fubject led, have we, on the making a good Defence to Self-flattery. or Excufe, been in a Paffion at Truth and Innocence itfelf? In Proof of which I remember a marvellous Example of Antiquity: Pifo, otherwise a Man of

i See Tufc. Quæft lib. iv. c. 36.

m

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k Senec. de Irâ, lib. iii. c. 12.

1 Plutarch, in his Notable Sayings of the ancient Kings, &c.

m

Montaigne, for what Reason I know not, gives him a better Character than Seneca, who, de Irâ lib. i. c. 15, fays, though he was free from many Vices, that he was ill-tempered and extremely rigorous.

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