And especially self-love and morosity, together with
luxury and effeminacy, breed in us long and frequent fits of
anger, which by little and little are gathered together into
our souls, like a swarm of bees or wasps. Wherefore there
is nothing more conducing to a gentle behavior towards our
wife and servants and friends than contentedness and simplicity, if we can be satisfied with what we have, and not
stand in need of many superfluities. Whereas the man
described in the poet,—
Who never is content with boiled or roast,
Nor likes his meat, what way soever drest,—
who can never drink unless he have snow by him, or eat
bread if it be bought in the market, or taste victuals out of
a mean or earthen vessel, or sleep on a bed unless it be
swelled and puffed up with feathers, like to the sea when it is
heaved up from the bottom; but who with cudgels and
blows, with running, calling, and sweating doth hasten his
servitors that wait at table, as if they were sent for plasters
for some inflamed ulcer, he being slave to a weak, morose,
and fault-finding style of life,—doth, as it were by a continual cough or many buffetings, breed in himself, before he is
aware, an ulcerous and defluxive disposition unto anger.
And therefore the body is to be accustomed to contentment
by frugality, and so be made sufficient for itself. For they
who need but few things are not disappointed of many; and
it is no hard matter, beginning with our food, to accept
quietly whatever is sent to us, and not by being angry and
querulous at every thing, to entertain ourselves and our
friends with the most unpleasant dish of all, which is
anger. And surely
Than that supper nought can more unpleasant be,
1
[p. 53]
where the servants are beaten and the wife railed at, because
something is burnt or smoked or not salt enough, or
because the bread is too cold. Arcesilaus was once entertaining his friends and some strangers at a feast; the
supper was set on the board, but there wanted bread, the
servants having, it seems, neglected to buy any. Now, on
such an occasion, which of us would not have rent the very
walls with outcries? But he smiling said only: What a
fine thing it is for a philosopher to be a jolly feaster!
Once also when Socrates took Euthydemus from the wrestling-house home with him to supper, his wife Xanthippe
fell upon him in a pelting chase, scolding him, and in conclusion overthrew the table. Whereupon Euthydemus rose
up and went his way, being very much troubled at what
had happened. But Socrates said to him: Did not a hen
at your house the other day come flying in, and do the like?
and yet I was not troubled at it. For friends are to be
entertained by good-nature, by smiles, and by a hospitable
welcome; not by knitting brows, or by striking horror and
trembling into those that serve.
We must also accustom ourselves to the use of any cups
indifferently, and not to use one rather than another, as
some are wont to single some one cup out of many (as they
say Marius used to do) or else a drinking-horn, and to
drink out of none but that; and they do the same with
oil-glasses and brushes, affecting one above all the rest, and
when any one of these chances to be broken or lost, then
they take it heinously, and punish severely those that did it.
And therefore he that is prone to be angry should refrain
from such things as are rare and curiously wrought, such
as cups and seals and precious stones; for such things distract a man by their loss more than cheap and ordinary
things are apt to do. Wherefore when Nero had made an
octagonal tent, a wonderful spectacle for cost and beauty,
Seneca said to him: You have proved yourself to be a
[p. 54]
poor man; for if you chance to lose this, you cannot tell
where to get such another. And indeed it so fell out that
the ship was sunk, and this tent was lost with it. But Nero,
remembering the words of Seneca, bore the loss of it with
greater moderation.
But this contentedness in other matters doth make a
man good-tempered and gentle towards his servants; and
if towards servants, then doubtless towards friends and subjects also. We see also that newly bought servants enquire
concerning him that bought them, not whether he be superstitious or envious, but whether he be an angry man or
not; and that universally, neither men can endure their
wives, though chaste, nor women their husbands, though
kind, if they be ill-tempered withal; nor friends the conversation of one another. And so neither wedlock nor
friendship with anger is to be endured; but if anger be
away, even drunkenness itself is counted a light matter.
For the ferule of Bacchus is a sufficient chastiser of a
drunken man, if the addition of anger do not change the
God of wine from Lyaeus and Choraeus (the looser of cares
and the leader of dances) to the savage and furious deity.
And Anticyra (with its hellebore) is of itself able to cure
simple madness; but madness mixed with anger furnishes
matter for tragedies and dismal stories.
