Of Anger

To seeke to extinguish Anger utterly, is but a Bravery of the Stoickes. We have better Oracles: Be Angry, but Sinne not. Let not the Sunne goe downe upon your Anger. Anger must be limited, and confined, both in Race, and in Time. We will first speake, How the Naturall Inclination, and Habit, To be Angry, may be attempred, and calmed. Secondly, How the Particular Motions of Anger, may be repressed, or at least refrained from doing Mischiefe. Thirdly, How to raise Anger, or appease Anger, in Another.

For the first; There is no other Way, but to Meditate and Ruminate well, upon the Effects of Anger, how it troubles Mans Life. And the best Time, to doe this, is, to looke backe upon Anger, when the Fitt is throughly over. Seneca saith well; That Anger is like Ruine, which breakes it Selfe, upon that it fall's. The Scripture exhorteth us; To possesse our Soules in Patience. Whosoever is out of Patience, is out of Possession of his Soule. Men must not turne Bees; —Animasque in vulnere ponunt.

Anger is certainly a kinde of Basenesse: As it appeares well, in the Weaknesse of those Subjects, in whom it reignes: Children, Women, Old Folkes, Sicke Folkes. Onely Men must beware, that they carry their Anger, rather with Scorne, then with Feare: So that they may seeme rather, to be above the Injury, then below it: which is a Thing easily done, if a Man will give Law to himselfe in it.

For the Second Point; The Causes and Motives of Anger, are chiefly three. First, to be too Sensible of Hurt: For no Man is Angry, that Feeles not himselfe Hurt: And therefore Tender and Delicate Persons, must needs be oft Angry: They have so many Things to trouble them; Which more Robust Natures have little Sense of. The next is, the Apprehension and Construction, of the Injury offred, to be, in the Circumstances thereof, full of Contempt. For Contempt is that which putteth an Edge upon Anger, as much, or more, then the Hurt it selfe. And therefore, when Men are Ingenious, in picking out Circumstances of Contempt, they doe kindle their Anger much. Lastly, Opinion of the Touch of a Mans Reputation, doth multiply and sharpen Anger. Wherein the Remedy is, that a Man should have, as Consalvo was wont to say, Telam Honoris crassiorem. But in all Refrainings of Anger, it is the best Remedy to win Time; And to make a Mans Selfe beleeve, that the Opportunity of his Revenge is not yet come: But that he foresees a Time for it; And so to still Himselfe in the meane Time, and reserve it.

To containe Anger from Mischiefe, though it take hold of a Man, there be two Things, whereof you must have speciall Caution. The one, of extreme Bitternesse of Words; Especially, if they be Aculeate, and Proper: For Communia Maledicta are nothing so much: And againe, that in Anger, a Man reveale no Secrets: For that makes him not fit for Society. The other, that you doe not peremptorily breake off, in any Businesse, in a Fit of Anger: But howsoever you shew Bitternes, do not Act any thing, that is not Revocable.

For Raising and Appeasing Anger in Another; It is done chiefly, by Choosing of Times. When Men are frowardest and worst disposed, to incense them. Againe, by gathering (as was touched before) all that you can finde out, to aggravate the Contempt. And the two Remedies are by the Contraries. The Former, to take good Times, when first to relate to a Man, an Angry Businesse: For the first Impression is much; And the other is, to sever, as much as may be, the Construction of the Injury, from the Point of Contempt: Imputing it, to Misunderstanding, Feare, Passion, or what you will.