150 THE TUSCULAN DISPUTATIONS.not always in a passion ; but provoke him, and you will

see him run mad. Now, that very warlike anger, which is of such service in war, what is the use of it to him when he is at home with his wife, children, and family? Is there, then, anything that a disturbed mind can do bet ter than one which is calm and steady ? Or can any one be angry without a perturbation of mind ? Our people, then, were in the right, who, as all vices depend on our manners, and nothing is worse than a passionate dispo sition, called angry men the only morose men. 1 XXV. Anger is in no wise becoming in an orator, though it is not amiss to affect it. Do you imagine that I am angry when in pleading I use any extraordinary ve hemence and sharpness? What! when I write out my speeches after all is over and past, am I then angry while writing? Or do you think ^Esopus was ever angry when he acted, or Accius was so when he wrote? Those men, indeed, act very well, but the orator acts better than the player, provided he be really an orator; but, then, they carry it on without passion, and with a composed mind. But what wantonness is it to commend lust ! You pro duce Themistocles and Demosthenes ; to these you add Pythagoras, Democritus, and Plato. What ! do you then call studies lust? But these studies of the most excellent and admirable things, such as those were which you bring forward on all occasions, ought to be composed and tran quil; and what kind of philosophers are they who com mend grief, than which nothing is more detestable ? Afra- nius has said much to this purpose: Let him but grieve, no matter what the cause. But he spoke this of a debauched and dissolute youth. But we are inquiring into the conduct of a constant and wise man. We may even allow a centurion or standard- bearer to be angry, or any others, whom, not to explain too far the mysteries of the rhetoricians, I shall not men tion here ; for to touch the passions, where reason cannot be conic at, may have its use ; but my inquiry, as I often repeat, is about a wise man.

Morosus is evidently derived from mores " Morosus, mos, stubborn 

ness, self-will, etc." Riddle and Arnold, Lat. Diet.