occurrence had thrown him, he lifted up his voice and exclaimed, "Thou great God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now I know by experience that poor mortal men are short-sighted and blind, often consi-dering as evils what was intended for their preservation! But Thou alone art just and kind and merciful. Had not the hard-hearted people driven me, by their inhospitality, from the village, I should assuredly have shared their fate. Had not the wind extinguished my lamp, the robbers would have been drawn to the spot, and have murdered me. I perceive also that it was thy mercy, which, deprived me of my companions, that they might not, by their noise, give notice to the banditti where I was. Praised then be thy name, for ever and ever."

From The Anna Library (Madras).

4. ANGER.

Anger is like

A full hot horse, who being allowed his way,
Self-mettle tires him.

-SHAKESPEARE.

Anger is like a ruin, which breaks itself upon what it falls.

-MORAL MAXIM.

Anger is indeed a short madness. Many a man in the fury of the moment has uttered words and done actions which afterwards he would have given worlds to recall. Be careful then to control your temper, if you wish to do well, for nothing gives a man so much power in dealing with others as a perfect command of himself.

An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.

A wrathful man stirreth up strife; but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.

"BIBLE-PROVERBS."

A passionate man rides a horse, that runs away with him.

Anger is a professed enemy to counsel; it is a direct storm in which no man can be heard to speak, or call from without for if you counsel gently, you are despised; if you urge it and be vehement, you provoke

:

Of all passions it endeavours most to make reason useless.

It is troubled at every thing and every man and every accident; and therefore unless it be suppressed, it will make a man's condition restless.

If it proceeds from a great cause, it turns to fury; if from a small cause, it is peevishness and so is always either terrible or ridiculous.

It makes a man's body monstrous, deformed and contemptible; the voice horrid; the eyes cruel; the face pale or fiery; the gait fierce; the speech clamorous and loud.

It is neither manly nor ingenuous.

It proceeds from softness of spirit and pusillanimity; which makes that women are more angry than men, sick persons more than the healthful, old men more than young, unprosperous and calamitous people than the blessed and fortunate. It is troublesome not only to those that suffer it, but to them that behold it.

*

*

It is a confluence of all the irregular passions : there is in it envy and sorrow, fear and scorn, pride and prejudice, rashness and inconsideration, rejoicing in evil and a desire to inflict it, self-love, impatience and curiosity. And though it be very troublesome to others, yet it is most troublesome to him that hath it.*

-JEREMY TAYLOR.

Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation and foresight can build up in a hundred years.

-BURKE.

From Readings in English Prose Literature.

A man's blindness to his own defects will ever increase in proportion as he is angry with others, or pleased with himself.

-COLTON.

Anger often has revealed the concealed thoughts of men much more effectually than madness.

In the moment of anger is a man's truthfulness displayed.

"JAVIDAN-KHIRAD."*

Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance.

At the back of Anger standeth Remorse.

--MRS. CHAPONE.

Wrath is a flame from Satan that proceeds,

And in the end it to repentance leads.

-"ANVAR-I-SUHAILI." †

Angry men seldom want woe.

Three are the ways to Hell, which to the soul
Are ruinous-desire, wrath, avarice,

Therefore should one this triad still renounce.

-"BHAGAVAD GITÂ."

Cease from anger and forsake wrath fret not thy

self in any wise to do evil.

"BIBLE-PSALM 37."

From Ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian Morals by D. J. Medhora.

†Translated by Eastwick.

Translated by K. T. Telang.

When anger gets a mastery over the heart, it changes the aspect of things and makes nectar look like poison;

The man under the influence of anger becomes deaf to all advice;

When anger predominates over reason even joy is converted into grief;

Anger is a passion that makes a man take his

relatives for enemies;

Do not give yourself up to anger or the evil thereof will be a kind of self-inflicted woe;

Listen to this, O ye wise! says Sâmal, anger is the root of all sinfulness.

-SAMAL. *

A man said to the Prophet (Muhammed), "Give me advice." The Prophet replied, "Be not angry." "MISHCAT-UL-MASÂBIH."†

He who can suppress a moment's anger may prevent days of sorrow.

Never act in a passion. If you do, all is lost. You cannot act for yourself, if you are not yourself, and passion always drives out reason.‡

The highest government is governing anger.

-ARABIC PROVERB.

A Gujarati poet.

Translated from Arabic by Captain Matthews.

From Gracian's Art of Worldly Wisdom, translated from the

Spanish by Jacob.