Anger is a natural passion, which seems to have been bestowed on us to furnish us an arm against peril; it is an effort the soul makes to resist an evil it stands in danger of. But this inclination is one of those which cause us the quickest to lose our self-possession, and throws us into a sort of momentary insanity. Yet, although it is a passion of which the consequences may be fatal, it is not necessarily accompanied by hatred (as may be seen by the soldier who will fight furiously and who, immediately after the battle or during a truce, will shake hands with his enemy). Anger then is an effort of nature in the act of self-defense; it is a fever, and as such it is a fatal and culpable passion, but it is not a vice. Anger becomes _hatred_ when, thinking of the harm we have done or could do to our enemy, we rejoice over the thought of this harm; it is called _resentment_ or _rancor_ when it is the spiteful recollection of an injury received; finally, it becomes the _passion of vengeance_ (the most criminal of all) when it is the desire and hope to return evil for evil. Pleasure at the misfortune of others, when it reaches a certain refinement, even though free from hatred, becomes _cruelty_. Hatred changes into _contempt_ when there is joined to it the idea of the baseness and inferiority of the person who is hated. Contempt is a legitimate sentiment when it has for its object base and culpable actions; it is a bad and blameworthy passion when it bears upon a pretended inferiority, either of birth, or fortune, or talent, and then belongs to false pride. False pride, however, is not always accompanied by contempt. We see men full of self-satisfaction, who yet know how to be polite and courteous toward those they regard their inferiors; others, on the contrary, who look down upon their inferiors and treat them like brutes. Contempt, with such, is added to false pride. A gentler form of contempt is _disdain_, a sort of delicate and covered contempt. Contempt when it applies itself to set off, not the vices, but the peculiarities of men, trying to make them appear ridiculous, becomes _raillery_ or _irony_. Such are the principal affections of the soul viewed as diseases, that is to say, inasmuch as they have need of remedies. Let us now, to continue Bacon's comparison, pass to their _treatment_. =176. Culture of the soul.=--After having studied characters and passions, we have to ask ourselves by what means passions may be governed and characters modified or corrected. =177. Bossuet's rule.=--As to the first point, namely, the government of the passions, Bossuet gives us in his _Connaissance de Dieu et de soi-même_,[158] excellent practical advice: it is obviously based on his study of consciences.