OF
ANGER
Sir
Francis Bacon
Anger
must be limited and confined, both in speed and in time. We will first speak
how the natural inclination and habit to be angry may be attempted and calmed.
Secondly, how the particular motions of anger may be repressed, or at least
refrained from doing mischief. Thirdly, how to raise anger or appease anger in
another.
For
the first, there is no other way but to meditate, and reflect well upon the
effects of anger, how it troubles man's life. And the best time to do this is
to look back upon anger when the fit is thoroughly over. Seneca said well,
"Anger is like ruin, which breaks itself upon that it falls." The
Bible exhorts us to possess our souls in patience. "Whosoever is out of
patience, is out of possession of his soul."
Anger
is certainly a kind of baseness, as it appears often in the weakness of those
subjects in whom it reigns. Men must beware to they carry their anger rather
with scorn than with fear, so that they may seem rather to be above the injury
than below it.
For
the second point; the causes and motives of anger are chiefly three. First, to
be too sensitive to hurt; for no man is angry who is not himself hurt, and
therefore tender and delicate persons are often angry for they have so many
things to trouble them, of which more robust natures have little. The next is
the belief that the injury offered is full of hatred and contempt, for hatred
and contempt put an edge upon anger as much or more than the hurt itself. And
therefore, when men see motives of hatred and contempt, it increases their
anger. Lastly, attacks upon a man's reputation multiplies and sharpens anger.
But in all refrainings of anger, it is the best remedy to buy time and to make
one believe that the opportunity of his revenge has not yet come, but that he
shall foresees a time for it; and so to calm himself in the meantime and
reserve it. He will then often avoid it altogether.
To
contain anger from mischief, though it takes hold of a man, there are two
things about which you must have special caution. The one is of extreme
bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate and proper, and also, that
in anger a man should not reveal secrets, for that, makes him not fit for
society. The other caution is that you should not peremptorily break off in any
business in a fit of anger, but however you show your bitterness, do not do
anything that is not revocable.
The raising and appeasing
anger in another is done chiefly by choosing times to incense them when men are
the most stubborn and the worst disposed, again, by gathering (as was touched
upon before) all that you can do to aggravate their contempt. The two remedies
are by the opposites, the former to take good times when first to relate to a
man an angry business; for the first impression is much; and the other is to
sever, as much as you can, the construction of the injury from the point of
their contempt, blaming it on misunderstanding, fear, or passion.