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And as Zeno has said that the seed was a mixture
drawn from all the powers of the soul, in like manner anger seems to be a kind of universal seed extracted from all
the passions. For it is taken from grief and pleasure and
insolence; and then from envy it hath the evil property of
rejoicing at another's adversity; and it is even worse than
murder itself, for it doth not strive to free itself from suffering, but to bring mischief to itself, if it may thereby but
do another man an evil turn. And it hath the most odious
kind of desire inbred in it, if the appetite for grieving and
hurting another may be called a desire.
Wherefore, when we go to the houses of drunkards, we
may hear a wench playing the flute betimes in the morning, and behold there, as one said, the muddy dregs of
wine, and scattered fragments of garlands, and servants
drunk at the door; and the marks of angry and surly men
may be read in the faces, brands, and fetters of the servants.
‘But lamentation is the only bard that is always to be heard
beneath the roof’ of the angry man, while his stewards are
beaten and his maid-servants tormented; so that the spectators, in the midst of their mirth and delight, cannot but
pity those sad effects of anger.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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