Whatever doubt there may be concerning anger in other respects, there is surely no other passion whose countenance is worse — that countenance which we have pictured in the earlier books3 — now harsh and fierce, now pale by reason of the backward flow and dispersing of the blood, now flushed and seemingly steeped in blood when all the heat and fire of the body has been turned toward the face, with swollen veins, with eyes now restless and darting, now fastened and motionless in one fixed gaze; mark, too, the sound of clashing teeth, as if their owners were bent on devouring somebody, like the noise the wild boar makes when he sharpens his tusks by rubbing; mark the crunching of the joints as the hands are violently crushed together, the constant beating of the breast, the quick breathing and deep-drawn sighs, the unsteady body, the broken speech and sudden outcries, the lips now trembling, now tight and hissing out a curse. Wild beasts, I swear, whether tormented by hunger or by the steel that has pierced their vitals — even when, half dead, they rush upon their hunter for one last bite — are less hideous in appearance than a man inflamed by anger. If you are free to listen to his cries and threats, hear what language issues from his tortured soul! Will not everyone be glad to check any impulse to anger when he realizes that it begins by working harm, first of all, to himself? If there are those who grant full sway to anger and deem it a proof of power, who count the opportunity of revenge among the great blessings of great estate, would you not, then, have me remind them that a man cannot be called powerful — no, not even free — if he is the captive of his anger? To the end that each one may be more careful and may set a guard upon himself, would you not have me remind him that while other base passions affect only the worst type of men, wrath steals upon those also who are enlightened and otherwise sane? So true is this, that there are some who call wrath a sign of ingenuousness,4 and that it is commonly believed that the best-natured people are most liable to it!