88 ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 



For many times the things deduced to judgment may be mcum and 

 tuum, when the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point 

 of estate : I call matter of estate, not only the parts of sovereignty, but 

 whatsoever introduced! any great alteration, or dangerous precedent; 

 or concerneth manifestly any great portion of people. And let no 

 man weakly conceive, that just laws and true policy have any anti 

 pathy ; for they are like the spirits and sinews, that one moves with 

 the other. Let judges also remember, that Solomon s throne was 

 supported by lions on both sides; let them be lions, but yet lions 

 under the throne : being circumspect that they do not check or oppose 

 any points of sovereignty. Let not judges also be so ignorant of their 

 own right, as to think there is not left to them, as a principal part of 

 their office, a wise use and application of laws. For they may 

 remember what the apostle saith of a greater law than theirs ; &quot; Nos 

 scimus quia lex bona est, modo quis ea utatur legitime.&quot; 



LVII. OF ANGER. 



To seek to extinguish anger utterly, is but a bravery of Stoics. We 

 have better oracles : &quot; He angry, but sin not. Let not the sun go down 

 upon your anger.&quot; Anger must be limited and confined, both in ra~e and 

 in time. We will first speak, how the natural inclination and habit, to 

 be angry, may be attempered and calmed. Secondly, how the par 

 ticular 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 ruminate 

 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 saith well ; That anger is like ruin, which breaks itself 

 upon that it falls. The Scripture exhortcth us, &quot;to possess our souls 

 in patience.&quot; Whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his 

 souL Men must not turn bees : 



Animasque in vulnere ponun*.. 



Anger is certainly a kind of baseness ; as it appears well in the 

 weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns ; children, women, old 

 folks, sick folks. Only men must beware, that they carry their anger 

 rather with scorn, than with fear ; so they may seem rather to be above 

 the injury than below it. Which is a thing easily done, if a man will give 

 law to himself in it. 



For the second point, the causes and motives of anger are chiefly 

 three. First, to be too sensible of hurt : for no man is angry that feels 

 not himself hurt : and therefore tender and delicate persons must 

 needs be oft angry ; they have so many things to trouble them, which 

 Hore robust natures have little sense of. The next is, the apprehension 

 and construction of the injury offered to be, in the circumstances 

 thereof, full of contempt. For contempt is that which putteth an edge 

 upon anger, s much or more than the hurt itself. And therefore 



