Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
And seeing, moreover, that it both seemeth and really is a great thing
to be able to moderate a man’s anger, but a greater by far to guard
a man’s self beforehand by prudence, that he fall not into it nor be
surprised by it, therefore also such passages as tend that way are not
slightly to be represented to the readers; for example, that Achilles
himself—who was a man of no great forbearance, nor inclined to such
meekness—yet warns Priam to be calm and not to provoke him, thus,
Move me no more (Achilles thus replies,
While kindling anger sparkled in his eyes),
Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend:
To yield thy Hector I myself intend:
Cease; lest, neglectful of high Jove’s command,
I show thee, king, thou tread’st on hostile land;
and that he himself first washeth and decently covereth the body of
Hector and then puts it into a chariot, to prevent his father’s seeing
it so unworthily mangled as it was,—
Lest the unhappy sire,
Provoked to passion, once more rouse to ire
The stern Pelides; and nor sacred age,
Nor Jove’s command, should check the rising rage.
For it is a piece of admirable prudence for a man so prone to anger,
as being by nature hasty and furious, to understand himself so well as
to set a guard upon his own inclinations, and by avoiding provocations
to keep his passion at due distance by the use of reason, lest he
should be unawares surprised by it. And after the same manner must the
man that is apt to be drunken forearm himself against that vice; and
he that is given to wantonness, against lust, as Agesilaus refused to
receive a kiss from a beautiful person addressing to him, and Cyrus
would not so much as endure to see Panthea. Whereas, on the contrary,
those that are not virtuously bred are wont to gather fuel to inflame
their passions, and voluntarily to abandon themselves to those
temptations to which of themselves they are endangered. But Ulysses
does not only restrain his own anger, but (perceiving by the discourse
of his son Telemachus, that through indignation conceived against such
evil men he was greatly provoked) he blunts his passion too beforehand,
and composeth him to calmness and patience, thus:—
There, if base scorn insult my reverend age,
Bear it, my son! repress thy rising rage.
If outraged, cease that outrage to repel;
Bear it, my son! howe’er thy heart rebel.
For as men are not wont to put bridles on their horses when they are
running in full speed, but bring them bridled beforehand to the race;
so do they use to preoccupy and predispose the minds of those persons
with rational considerations to enable them to encounter passion, whom
they perceive to be too mettlesome and unmanageable upon the sight of
provoking objects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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