Imatges de pàgina
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for when he has been enraged beyond reafon, he must also, in his turn, be submissive beyond measure; he is always committing a crime, and always afking pardon for it; compelled often to stoop to those who are beneath him, and even to ask forgiveness of those who have offended him: fo that, like a rafh and illadvised general, if he rushes forward with boldness and precipitancy, he meets with death and deftruction, as a madman; and if he retreats, he is branded with shame and ignominy, as a coward.

But thirdly, Anger always deftroys our own peace and tranquillity. As the angry man cannot poffibly impart pleasure to the breafts of others, fo is he utterly incapable of feeling it in his own: a certain degree of tranquillity is indispensably neceffary towards the enjoyment of every human happiness. He who is toffed to and fro by the violence of the tempeft, will fcarce be delighted by the beauty of the profpect; and the man who is confumed by a fever, will give but little attention to the fumptuouf nefs of the apartment where he lies, or the elegance of the furnitune which surrounds him; and in the fame manner, it is impoffible that the angry man fhould partake of the pleasures of fociety, because his mind is never fufficiently at leifure to enjoy it; his foul, even when the violence of paffion is appeased, resembles the ocean after a ftorm; it is a long time be fore the waves fubfide; it is ftill, as the Prophet fays, like the troubled fea, whofe waters

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caft up mire and dirt; there is no peace to the angry and wicked.

As a quiet and eafy difpofition therefore is its own reward, so an angry and unquiet one is its own punishment.

But moreover the angry man can never be confided in as a friend; but, as the fon of Sirach fays, anger separateth friends, because paffion will betray every fecret; forget every benefit; remember every injury; spy out every fault; and be blind to every virtue.

The angry man will never be fought after or admitted as a companion, because his wit, if he has any, will often be foured by ill-nature, his judgment warped by paffion, his goodbreeding totally loft and swallowed up by refentment. He who is of a difpofition to be angry, will never be at a lofs for an occafion to be fo; because the leaft trifle will enflame, and the leaft oppofition will enrage him. His converfation therefore, inftead of recommending will only prejudice him, and the qualities which would make another amiable, will only render him odious and deteftable; the faults of men generally leave a ftronger impreffion than their virtues; and what the angry man has spoke in the warmth of paffion, will be remembered when every thing elfe that he has faid fhall be forgotten.

But what is moft peculiarly obfervable of this paffion is, that it hath a kind of supernatural and magic power, which converts us as it were into creatures of another nature. Ob. serve the courteous and polite man when inflamed

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flamed with anger; where is the affability which endeared, where is the good-breeding which recommended him? His civility is changed in a moment into rudenefs, and all the fweetness of his manners degenerated into favagenefs and brutality; every word is an oath, and every fentence a reproof; fo that the amiable companion is no longer feen, and the kind and affectionate friend is no longer known to you. Obferve the mild and goodnatured man, when paffion overrules and overtakes him; his benevolence is changed into rancour; his love and tenderness into fpleen and malignity; his eyes, which once foftened into tears at the diftreffes of his fellow creatures, fhall fparkle with unufual joy at their calamity; that fhall fill his heart with pleafure, which used to create pain; and he is even miferable himself, becaufe he cannot make others unhappy:

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Obferve the learned, the fenfible, the wife man when angry; obferve him who pretends to be matter of all his paffions, how totally and abfolutely he is fubdued by one. ideas, which he had taken fo much pains to range in order, are on a fudden all confufed and difplaced; paffion clouds over the intellectual beams of his understanding, impairs his faculties, and, like the veil of night, buries all his perfections in one infeparable mafs of darkness and oblivion. His learning will at that time only furnish him perhaps with additional matter of abufe; and his knowledge, if

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any remains, but adds fuel to his malice, or adminifters food to his revenge.

If we are any of us then fubject to this pas fion, we are not to flatter ourfelves that wif dom or knowledge will fecure us from the ill effects of it, because we fee it has the extraordinary power to alter the very natures and difpofitions of those whom it attacks: and thus, though it came into the breaft of a wife man, may even, without changing its habitation, reft in the bofom of a fool.

But to make this paffion ftill more detefta. ble, let us obferve that it not only, as in the examples I have just now mentioned, affects our public character, but that it deftroys every. enjoyment, and undermines every felicity in private life; it breaks through all the ties of kindred, and loofens all the bonds of natural affection.

The angry parent throws afide all love and regard; the angry child forgets all duty and obedience; the fifter lofes her tenderness, and the brother his care and affection; the most chearful and the most amiable companion becomes morofe and churlish, and the bofom friend is turned into an implacable enemy.

An angry husband therefore muft make his wife unhappy; an angry father must make his children miferable; an angry master must make his fervants wretched.

Let us therefore draw all our diffuafive arguments into these few short but indifputable conclufions,

We cannot be angry with our fuperiors, without hazarding either the breach of our duty, or the lofs of our intereft.

We cannot be angry with our equals, without lofing all their love and affection.

We cannot be angry with our inferiors, with. out parting from all our power and authority over them.

But laftly, my brethren, if anger doth little become a man, ftill lefs doth it become a Chriftian; it very ill becometh us who are bound in the moft folemn manner, by the precepts of our holy religion, to mutual peace, love, and forgiveness.

We are not to put on the bloody robes of anger and revenge, but to cloath ourselves in the modeft garb of meeknefs and humility. If we are angry, we fhould be angry at ourselves; we should turn afide our indignation against the fins of others, and confine all our refentment to our own: here felf-love will prevent excefs, and we shall reap all the benefits and advantages of the paffion, without any of the dangers or ill confequences of it. Add to this alfo, that the more thoroughly we are convinced of our own unworthinefs, the readier shall we be to pardon that of our neighbour, and learn from thence to be reconciled to others, that God may be reconciled to us; to please, that we may be pleased; to forgive, that we may be forgiven.

To conclude, then: I have dwelt the longer, and with the greater warmth inveighed againft this paffion, because the avoidance of it is of

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