ANGER, INJURY, AND REVENGE.
If you are angry with him who reproves your sin, you secretly confess your anger to be unjust; he that is angry with the just reprover, kindles the fire of the just Avenger. When I have an injury done me I never set the beacon on fire; nor am I troubled! I consider who did it; if my kinsman, he did it ignorantly; if my friend, he did it against his will; if my enemy it is no more than I expected; I ever put a fair construction upon anything that happens to me. He that is naturally revengeful, keeps his wounds open, which otherwise would close of themselves. Pardon is a glorious kind of revenge; I think myself sufficiently revenged of my enemy if I pardon him. Catch not too soon at an offence, nor give too easy way to anger; the one shows weak judgment, the other a perverse nature. Have any wounded you with injuries? meet them with patience; Hasty words rankle the wound, soft language dresses it, forgiveness cures it and oblivion takes away the scar.—Of all passions, there is none so outrageous and extravagant as that of anger; other passions solicit and mislead us, but this runs away by force, and hurries us as well to our own as to another's ruin; it falls many times upon the wrong person, and discharges itself upon the innocent instead of the guilty, and makes the most trivial offences to be capital, and punishes an inconsiderate word perhaps with fetters or death; it allows a man neither time nor means for defence, but judges a cause without hearing it, and admits of no mediation; it spares neither friend nor foe, but tears all to pieces and casts human nature into a perpetual state of war. Have naught to do with any man in his passion; for men are not like iron to be wrought upon when they are hot. Argue not with a man whom you know to be of an obstinate temper; for when he is once contradicted, his mind is barred up against all light and information; arguments though never so well grounded, do but provoke him, and make him even afraid to be convinced of the truth. Let all men avoid rash speaking, they that speak without care, often remember their own words with sorrow; those that expect peace and safety are to restrain their own tongues with a bridle. It is good in a fever much better in anger to have the tongue kept clean and smooth. By taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior. To be able to bear provocation, is an argument of great wisdom, and to forgive it is of a great mind. One unquiet perverse disposition, distempers the peace and unity of a whole family, or society as one jarring instrument spoils a whole concert.—Sel.