meth and really is a great thing
to be able to moderate a man's anger, but a greater by far to guard
a man's self beforehand by prudence, that he fall not into it nor be
surprised by it, therefore also such passages as tend that way are not
slightly to be represented to the readers; for example, that Achilles
himself--who was a man of no great forbearance, nor inclined to such
meekness--yet admonishes Priam to be calm and not to provoke him, thus,

Move me no more (Achilles thus replies,
While kindling anger sparkled in his eyes),
Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend:
To yield thy Hector I myself intend:
Cease; lest, neglectful of high Jove's command,
I show thee, king, thou tread'st on hostile land;

and that he himself first washeth and decently covereth the body of
Hector and then puts it into a chariot, to prevent his father's seeing
it so unworthily mangled as it was,--

Lest the unhappy sire,
Provoked to passion, once more rouse to ire
The stern Pelides; and nor sacred age,
Nor Jove's command, should check the rising rage.

For it is a piece of admirable prudence for a man so prone to anger, as
being by nature hasty and furious, to understand himself so well as to
set a guard upon his own inclinations, and by avoiding provocations to
keep his passion at due distance by the use of reason, lest he should be
unawares surprised by it. And after the same manner must the man that
is apt to be drunken forearm himself against that vice; and he that is
given to wantonness, against lust, as Agesilaus refused to receive a
kiss from a beautiful person addressing to him, and Cyrus would not so
much as endure to see Panthea. Whereas, on the contrary, those that are
not virtuously bred are wont to gather fuel to inflame their passions,
and voluntarily to abandon themselves to those temptations to which of
themselves they are endangered. But Ulysses does not only restrain his
own anger, but (perceiving by the discourse of his son Telemachus,
that through indignation conceived against such evil men he was greatly
provoked) he blunts his passion too beforehand, and composeth him to
calmness and patience, thus:--

There, if base scorn insult my reverend age,
Bear it, my son! repress thy rising rage.
If outraged, cease that outrage to repel;
Bear it, my son! howe'er thy heart rebel.

For as men are not wont to put bridles on their horses