Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency
XVIII. Now that we have discussed the questions propounded concerning
anger, let us pass on to the consideration {93} of its remedies.
These, I imagine, are two-fold: the one class preventing our becoming
angry, the other preventing our doing wrong when we are angry. As
with the body we adopt a certain regimen to keep ourselves in health,
and use different rules to bring back health when lost, so likewise
we must repel anger in one fashion and quench it in another. That
we may avoid it, certain general rules of conduct which apply to
all men’s lives must be impressed upon us. We may divide these into
such as are of use during the education of the young and in after-life.
Education ought to be carried on with the greatest and most salutary
assiduity: for it is easy to mould minds while they are still tender,
but it is difficult to uproot vices which have grown up with
ourselves.
XIX. A hot mind is naturally the most prone to anger: for as there
are four elements,[8] consisting of fire, air, earth, and water,
so there are powers corresponding and equivalent to each of these,
namely, hot, cold, dry, and moist. Now the mixture of the elements
is the cause of the diversities of lands and of animals, of bodies
and of character, and our dispositions incline to one or the other
of these according as the strength of each element prevails in us.
Hence it is that we call some regions wet or dry, warm or cold. The
same distinctions apply likewise to animals and mankind; it makes
a great difference how much moisture or heat a man contains; his
character will partake of whichever element has the largest share
in him. A warm temper of mind will make men prone to anger; for
fire is full of movement and vigour; a mixture of {94} coldness
makes men cowards, for cold is sluggish and contracted. Because of
this, some of our Stoics think that anger is excited in our breasts
by the boiling of the blood round the heart: indeed, that place is
assigned to anger for no other reason than because the breast is
the warmest part of the whole body. Those who have more moisture
in them become angry by slow degrees, because they have no heat
ready at hand, but it has to be obtained by movement; wherefore the
anger of women and children is sharp rather than strong, and arises
on lighter provocation. At dry times of life anger is violent and
powerful, yet without increase, and adding little to itself, because
as heat dies away cold takes its place. Old men are testy and full
of complaints, as also are sick people and convalescents, and all
whose store of heat has been consumed by weariness or loss of blood.
Those who are wasted by thirst or hunger are in the same condition,
as also are those whose frame is naturally bloodless and faints
from want of generous diet. Wine kindles anger, because it increases
heat; according to each man’s disposition, some fly into a passion
when they are heavily drunk, some when they are slightly drunk: nor
is there any other reason than this why yellow-haired, ruddy-complexioned
people should be excessively passionate, seeing that they are
naturally of the colour which others put on during anger; for their
blood is hot and easily set in motion.
XX. But just as nature makes some men prone to anger, so there are
many other causes which have the same power as nature. Some are
brought into this condition by disease or bodily injury, others by
hard work, long watching, nights of anxiety, ardent longings, and
love: and everything else which is hurtful to the body or the spirit
inclines the distempered mind to find fault. All these, however,
are but the beginning and causes of anger. Habit of mind has very
great power, and, if it be harsh, increases the {95} disorder. As
for nature, it is difficult to alter it, nor may we change the
mixture of the elements which was formed once for all at our birth:
yet knowledge will be so far of service, that we should keep wine
out of the reach of hot-tempered men, which Plato thinks ought also
to be forbidden to boys, so that fire be not made fiercer. Neither
should such men be over-fed: for if so, their bodies will swell,
and their minds will swell with them. Such men ought to take exercise,
stopping short, however, of fatigue, in order that their natural
heat may be abated, but not exhausted, and their excess of fiery
spirit may be worked off. Games also will be useful: for moderate
pleasure relieves the mind and brings it to a proper balance. With
those temperaments which incline to moisture, or dryness and
stiffness, there is no danger of anger, but there is fear of greater
vices, such as cowardice, moroseness, despair, and suspiciousness:
such dispositions therefore ought to be softened, comforted, and
restored to cheerfulness: and since we must make use of different
remedies for anger and for sullenness, and these two vices require
not only unlike, but absolutely opposite modes of treatment, let
us always attack that one of them which is gaining the mastery.
XXI. It is, I assure you, of the greatest service to boys that they
should be soundly brought up, yet to regulate their education is
difficult, because it is our duty to be careful neither to cherish
a habit of anger in them, nor to blunt the edge of their spirit.
This needs careful watching, for both qualities, both those which
are to be encouraged, and those which are to be checked, are fed
by the same things; and even a careful watcher may be deceived by
their likeness. A boy’s spirit is increased by freedom and depressed
by slavery: it rises when praised, and is led to conceive great
expectations of itself: yet this same treatment produces arrogance
and quickness of temper: we must {96} therefore guide him between
these two extremes, using the curb at one time and the spur at
another. He must undergo no servile or degrading treatment; he never
must beg abjectly for anything, nor must he gain anything by begging;
let him rather receive it for his own sake, for his past good
behaviour, or for his promises of future good conduct. In contests
with his comrades we ought not to allow him to become sulky or fly
into a passion: let us see that he be on friendly terms with those
whom he contends with, so that in the struggle itself he may learn
to wish not to hurt his antagonist but to conquer him: whenever he
has gained the day or done something praiseworthy, we should allow
him to enjoy his victory, but not to rush into transports of delight:
for joy leads to exultation, and exultation leads to swaggering and
excessive self-esteem, We ought to allow him some relaxation, yet
not yield him up to laziness and sloth, and we ought to keep him
far beyond the reach of luxury, for nothing makes children more
prone to anger than a soft and fond bringing-up, so that the more
only children are indulged, and the more liberty is given to orphans,
the more they are corrupted. He to whom nothing is ever denied,
will not be able to endure a rebuff, whose anxious mother always
wipes away his tears, whose _paedagogus_[9] is made to pay for his
shortcomings. Do you not observe how a man’s anger becomes more
violent as he rises in station? This shows itself especially in
those who are rich and noble, or in great place, when the favouring
gale has roused all the most empty and trivial passions of their
minds. Prosperity fosters anger, when a man’s proud ears are
surrounded by a mob of flatterers, saying, “That man answer you!
you do not act according to your dignity, you lower yourself.” And
so forth, with all the language which can hardly be resisted even
by healthy and originally well-principled {97} minds. Flattery,
then, must be kept well out of the way of children. Let a child
hear the truth, and sometimes fear it: let him always reverence it.
Let him rise in the presence of his elders. Let him obtain nothing
by flying into a passion: let him be given when he is quiet what
was refused him when he cried for it: let him behold, but not make
use of his father’s wealth: let him be reproved for what he does
wrong. It will be advantageous to furnish boys with even-tempered
teachers and _paedagogi_: what is soft and unformed clings to what
is near, and takes its shape: the habits of young men reproduce
those of their nurses and _paedagogi_. Once, a boy who was brought
up in Plato’s house went home to his parents, and, on seeing his
father shouting with passion, said, “I never saw any one at Plato’s
house act like that.” I doubt not that he learned to imitate his
father sooner than he learned to imitate Plato. Above all, let his
food be scanty, his dress not costly, and of the same fashion as
that of his comrades: if you begin by putting him on a level with
many others, he will not be angry when some one is compared with
him.
XXII. These precepts, however, apply to our children: in ourselves
the accident of birth and our education no longer admits of either
mistakes or advice; we must deal with what follows. Now we ought
to fight against the first causes of evil: the cause of anger is
the belief that we are injured; this belief, therefore, should not
be lightly entertained. We ought not to fly into a rage even when
the injury appears to be open and distinct: for some false things
bear the semblance of truth. We should always allow some time to
elapse, for time discloses the truth. Let not our ears be easily
lent to calumnious talk: let us know and be on our guard against
this fault of human nature, that we are willing to believe what we
are unwilling to listen to, and that we become angry before we have
formed our opinion. What shall I say? we are influenced {98} not
merely by calumnies but by suspicions, and at the very look and
smile of others we may fly into a rage with innocent persons because
we put the worst construction upon it. We ought, therefore, to plead
the cause of the absent against ourselves, and to keep our anger
in abeyance: for a punishment which has been postponed may yet be
inflicted, but when once inflicted cannot be recalled.
XXIII. Every one knows the story of the tyrannicide who, being
caught before he had accomplished his task, and being tortured by
Hippias to make him betray his accomplices, named the friends of
the tyrant who stood around, and every one to whom he knew the
tyrant’s safety was especially dear. As the tyrant ordered each man
to be slain as he was named, at last the man, being asked if any
one else remained, said, “You remain alone, for I have left no one
else alive to whom you are dear.” Anger had made the tyrant lend
his assistance to the tyrant-slayer, and cut down his guards with
his own sword. How far more spirited was Alexander, who after reading
his mother’s letter warning him to beware of poison from his physician
Philip, nevertheless drank undismayed the medicine which Philip
gave him! He felt more confidence in his friend: he deserved that
his friend should be innocent, and deserved that his conduct should
make him innocent. I praise Alexander’s doing this all the more
because he was above all men prone to anger; but the rarer moderation
is among kings, the more it deserves to be praised. The great Gaius
Caesar, who proved such a merciful conqueror in the civil war, did
the same thing; he burned a packet of letters addressed to Gnaeus
Pompeius by persons who had been thought to be either neutrals or
on the other side. Though he was never violent in his anger, yet
he preferred to put it out of his power to be angry: he thought
that the kindest way to pardon each of them was not to know what
his offence had been.
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XXIV. Readiness to believe what we hear causes very great mischief;
we ought often not even to listen, because in some cases it is
better to be deceived than to suspect deceit. We ought to free our