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Homer:

Sect. 8. ing it; and it is well that we take any good in exchange for the evil is done or fuffered.

9. Upon the rifing of Anger inftantly enter into a deep confideration of the joys of Heaven, or the pains of Hell for fear and joy are naturally apt to appease this violence.

10. In Contentions be always paffive, never active, upon the defenfive, not the affaulting part; and then alfo give a gentle answer, receiving the furies and indifcretions of the other like a stone into a bed of Mofs and foft compliance; and you fhall find it fit down quietly: whereas Anger and Violence make the contention loud and long, and injurious to both the parties.

11. In the actions of Religion be careful to temper all thy inftances with meeknefs, and the proper inftruments of it: and if thou beeft apt to be angry, neither faft violently, nor entertain the too forward heats of Zeal; but fecure thy duty with conftant and regular actions, and a good temper of body with convenient refrefhments and recreations.

12. If anger arifes fuddenly and violently, first refrain it with confideration, and then let it end in a hearty prayer for him that did the real or feeming injury. The former of the two ftops its growth, and the latter quite kills it, and makes amends for its monitrous and involuntary birth.

Remedies against Anger, by way of
Confideration.

1. Confider that Anger is a profeffed enemy to Counfel; it is a direct ftorm, in which no man can be heard to speak or call from without: for if you counfel gently, you are despised; if you urge it and be vehement, you provoke it more. Be careful therefore Καὶ μανθάνων μεν οἷα δράν μέλ- to lay up before-hand a great και κανα, θυμὸς δὲ κρείαστων τῶν ftock of realon and prudent ἐμῶν βολευμάτων. Medea. confideration, that like a befieged Town you may be pro

vided for, and be defenfible from within, fince you are not likely to be relieved from without. Anger is not to be fuppreffed but by fomething that is as inward as it felt, and more habitual. To which purpose add, that 2. Of all paffions it endeavours moft to make reafon ufelefs. 3. That it is an univerfal poison, of an infinite object: for no man was ever fo amorous as to love a Toad, none fo envious as to repine at the -condition of the miferable, no man fo timorous as to fear a dead Bee; but Anger is troubled at every thing, and every man, and every accident, and therefore unless it be fuppreffed, it will make a man's condition reftlefs. 4. If it proceeds from a great caufe, it turns to Ὁ θυμὸς φόνων αἴτιον, συμφορᾶς fury ; it from a fimall caufe, it σύμμαχον, βλάβης σύνεργον καὶ is peerifhnefs: And fo is al- ατιμίας, χρημάτων ἀπώλεια, ἔπι ways either terrible or ridicu-xai megis aswzór. ἀρχηγόν. lous. 5. It makes a man's bo

Ariftot.

dy monstrous, deformed and contemptible, the voice horrid, the eyes cruel, the face pale or fiery, the gate fierce, the fpeech clamorous and loud. 6. It is neither manly nor ingenuous. 7. It proceeds from foftness of fpirit and pufillanimity; which makes that Women are more angry than Men, fick perfons more than healthful, old men more than young, unprofperous and calamitous people than the bleffed and fortunate.8. It is a paffion fitter for Flies and Infects than for perfons profeffing noblenefs and bounty. 9. It is troublefome not only to thofe who fuffer it, but to them that behold it; there being no greater incivility* of entertain. Difcere ment than for the Cook's fault,or the negligence of the quid cana fervants,to be cruel,or outragious, or unpleafant in the tius ifta prefence of the guefts. 10. It makes marriage to be a neceffary and unavoidable trouble; friendfhips, and fo. cieties, and familiarities to be intolerable. 11. It mul'tiplies the evils of drunkenness,and makes the levities of Wine to run into madnefs. 12. It makes innocent jefting to be the beginning of Tragedies. 13. It turns friendship friend fhip into hatred; it makes a man lofe himself and his Reason and his argument in difputation. * It turns the defires of knowledge into an itch of wran

*

S3

gling

Amaram a

maro bilem pharmaco qui eluunt,

gling. It adds infolency to power. *It turns juftice into cruelty, and judgment into oppreffion. * It changes difcipline into tedioufnefs and hatred of liberal inftitution.* It makes a profperous man to be envied, and the unfortunate to be unpitied. * It is a confluence of all the irregular paffions: there is in it envy and forrow, fear and fcorn, pride and prejudice, rafhnefs and inconfideration, rejoycing in evil and a defire to inflict it, felf love, impatience and curiofity. *And lastly, though it be very troublesome to others, yet it is molt troublesome to him that hath it.

In the use of these arguments and the former exercifes be diligent to obferve, left in your defires to fupprefs Anger you be paffionate and angry at your felf for being angry; like Phyficians, who give a bitter potion when they intend to eject the bitterness of choler; for this will provoke the perfon, and increafe the paffion. But placidly and quietly fet upon the mortification of it; and attempt it firft for a day, refolving that day not at all to be angry; and to be watchful and obfervant for a day is no great trouble: but then, after one day's watchfulness it will be as eafie to watch two days as at firft it was to watch one day; and fo you may increase till it becomes eafie and habitual.

Only obferve that fuch an Anger alone is criminal which is against Charity to my felfor my neighbour; but anger against fin is a holy Zeal, and an effect of love to God and my brother, for whofe intereft I am paffionate, like a concerned perfon: and if I take care that my anger makes no reflection of fcorn or cruelty upon the offender, or of pride and violence, or tranfportation to my felf, anger becomes charity and duty. And when one commended Charilaus, the King Plutar de o of Sparta, for a gentle, a good and a meek Prince, dio & invi- his Collegue faid well, How can he be good, who is not an enemy even to vitious perfons?

dia.

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3. Reme

3. Remedies against Covetousness, the third

Enemy of Mercy.

Covetousness is also an enemy to Alms, though not to all the effects of mercifulnels: but this is to be cu red by the proper motives to charity before-mentioned, and by the proper rules of juftice, which being fecured, the arts of getting money are not eafily made criminal. To which also we may add,

Quid refert igitur quantis fumenta fatiget

Porticibus, quanta nemorum ve &etur in umbra,

Jugera quot vicina foro, quos emerit ædes?

1. Covetousness makes a man miterable; because riches are not means to make a man happy: and unless felicity were to be bought with money, he is a vain person who admires heaps of gold and rich poffeffions. For what Hippomachus faid to fome perfons who commended a tall man as fit to be a Champion in the Olympick games. It is true (faid he) if the Crown hang fo high that the longest arm could reach it. The fame we may fay concerning riches, They were excellent things, if the richest man were certainly the wifeft and the beft: but as they are, they are nothing to be wondred at, because they contribute nothing toward telicity: which appears, because fome men chufe to be miferable that they may be rich, rather than be happy with the expence of money and doing noble things.

Nemo malus felix. Juv. Sat. 4.

2. Riches are useless and unprofitable; for beyond our needs and conveniencies Nature knows no use of riches and they fay that the Princes of Italy, when they fup alone, eat out of a fingle difh, and drink in a plain glass, and the wife eats without purple: for nothing is more frugal than the back and belly, if they be used as they fhould: but when they would entertain the eyes of ftrangers, when they are vain and would make a noife, then riches come forth to fet forth the fpectacle, and furnish out the Comedy of wealth, of vanity. No man can with all the wealth in the world buy fo much skill as to be a good Lutenift; he must go the fame way that poor people $ 4

do,

es.

Sect. 8. do, he must learn and take pains: much lefs can he buy conftancy, or chastity, or courage; nay, not fo much as the contempt or riches: and by poffeffing more than we need, we cannot obtain fo much power over our Souls as not to require more. And certainly riches must deliver me from no evil, if the poffeffion of them cannot take away the longing for them. If any man be thirfty, drink cools him; if he be hungry, eating meat fatisfies him: and when a man is cold, and calls for a warm cloak, he is pleafed if you give it him; but you trouble him if you load him with fix or eight cloaks. Nature refts and fits ftill when he hath her portion; but that which exceeds it is a trouble and a burthen; and therefore in true Philofophy, no man is rich but he that is poor, according to the common account: for when God hath fatisfied thofe needs which he made, that is, all that is natural, whatsoever is beyond it is thirst and a disease, and unless it be fent back again in charity or religion, can ferve no end but vice or vanity: It can increase the appetite, to reprefent the man poorer, and full of a new and artificial, unnatural need; but it never fatisfies the need it makes, or makes the man richer. No wealth can fatisfie the covetous defire of wealth.

3. Riches are troublesome; but the fatisfaction of thofe appetites which God and Nature have made are cheap and eafie: for who ever paid usemoney for bread and onions and water to keep him alive? but when we covet after houses of the frame and defign of Italy, or long for jewels, or for our next neighbour's field, or horfes from Barbary, or the richest perfumes of Arabia, or Galatian mules, or fat eunuchs for our flaves from Tunis, or rich coaches from Naples, then we can never be fatisfied till we have the best thing that is fanfied, and all that can be had, and all that can be defired, and that we can juft no more: but before we come to the one half of our firft wild defires, we are the bondmen of ulurers, and of our worse tyrant appetites,

Ergò follicita tu caufa, pecunia vitæ Per te immaturum mortis adimus iter, Propert

and

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