Cooling Tempers…

“The height of human wisdom,” said Daniel Defoe, “is to bring our tempers down to our circumstances and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm without.”¹ “When a man is wrong and won’t admit it, he always gets angry.”² Controlling tempers and maintaining calm isn’t always easy. So much is done these days in anger and it is interesting to note that concerning the first mortal man in serious trouble it was said: “Cain was very wroth.”³ “Anger is the most. . .dangerous. . .of all passions;” said Seneca, “the most. . .unmannerly; Reason deliberates before it judges; but anger passes sentence without deliberation . . . it leaves no place . . . for counsel, or friendship, honesty, or good manners;. . . it falls many times upon the wrong person; . . .upon the innocent, [and] tears all to pieces, . . . it is most certain that we might govern our anger, if we would;” he continued, “for the same thing that [angers] us at home, gives us no offense at all abroad; and what is the reason . . .? We are patient in one place, and [not] in another. . . .”⁴ “Men should not suffer reverses and unpleasant circumstances to sour their natures,” said Brigham Young, “and render them fretful and unsocial at home,” speaking words full of bitterness . . . to their wives and children, creating gloom and sorrow in their habitations, making themselves feared rather than beloved by their families.”⁵ These brief and moving lines from George Herbert most earnestly suggest themselves in summary, to husbands, wives; parents, children; friends, neighbors, and associated in all relationships of life:

“Throw away thy rod,

Throw away thy wrath;. . .

Take the gentle path.”⁷