Fundanus
FUNDANUS.But this perhaps may seem to be not a cure of anger, but only a thrusting by and avoiding of such miscarriages as some men fall into when they are angry. And yet, as Hieronymus tells us, although the swelling of the spleen is but a symptom of the fever, the assuaging thereof abates the disease. But, considering well the origin of anger itself, I have observed that divers men fall into anger for different causes; and yet in the minds of all of them was probably an opinion of being despised and neglected. We must therefore assist those who would avoid anger, by removing the act which roused their anger as far as possible from all suspicion of contempt or insult, and by imputing it rather to folly or necessity or disorder of mind, or to the misadventure of those that did it. Thus Sophocles in Antigone:— The best resolved mind in misery Can’t keep its ground, but suffers ecstasy. Soph. Antig. 563.
And so Agamemnon, ascribing to Ate the taking away of Briseis, adds:— Since I so foolish was as thee to wrong, I’ll please thee now, and give thee splendid gifts. Il. XIX. 138.
