“As it is the characteristic of a madman to be in a rage with lifeless objects, so also is it to be angry with dumb animals,[35] inasmuch as there can be no injury unless _intentional_. Hurt us they can--as a stone or iron--_injure_ us they cannot. Nevertheless, there are persons who consider themselves insulted when horses that will readily obey one rider are obstinate in the case of another; just as if they are more tractable to some individuals than to others of _set purpose_, not from custom or _owing to treatment_.”--(_De Irâ_ ii., xxvi.) Again, of anger, as between human beings:-- “The faults of others we keep constantly before us; our own we hide behind us.... A large proportion of mankind are angry, not with the _sins_, but with the _sinners_. In regard to reported offences; _many speak falsely to deceive, many because they are themselves deceived_.” Of the use of self-examination, he quotes the example of his excellent preceptor, Sextius, who strictly followed the Pythagorean precept to examine oneself each night before sleep:-- “Of what bad practice have you cured yourself to-day? What vice have you resisted? In what respect are you the better? Rash anger will be moderated and finally cease when it finds itself daily confronted with its judge. What, then, is more useful than this custom of thoroughly weighing the actions of the entire day?” He adduces the feebleness and shortness of human life as one of the most forcible arguments against the indulgence of malevolence:-- “Nothing will be of more avail than reflections on the nature of mortality. Let each one say to himself, as to another, ‘What good is it to declare enmity against such and such persons, as though we were born to live for ever, and to thus waste our very brief existence? What profit is it to employ time which might be spent in honourable pleasures in inflicting pain and torture upon any of our fellow-beings?’ ... Why rush we to battle? Why do we provoke quarrels? Why, forgetful of our mortal weakness, do we engage in huge hatreds? Fragile beings as we are, why will we rise up to crush others?... Why do we tumultuously and seditiously set life in an uproar? Death stands staring us in the face, and approaches ever nearer and nearer. That moment which you destine for another’s destruction perchance may be for your own.... Behold! death comes, which makes us all equal. Whilst we are in this mortal life, let us cultivate humanity; let us not be a cause of fear or of danger to any of our fellow-mortals. Let us contemn losses, injuries, insults. Let us bear with magnanimity the brief inconveniences of life.” Again, in dealing with the weak and defenceless:--