Chapter XII.
How this is the end of temper and anger when a man
carries it into act as far as he can.
it looks as if even this
was not the end of vengeance to every one, but some can only completely
satisfy their wrath or sulkiness if they carry out the impulse of anger
as far as they are able; and this we know to be the case with those who
restrain their feelings, not from desire of calming them, but simply
from want of opportunity of revenge. For they can do nothing more to
those with whom they are angry, except speak to them without ordinary
civility: or it looks as if anger was to be moderated only in action, and not to be altogether rooted out from its hiding place in our bosom: so that, overwhelmed by its shadows, we are unable not only to admit the light of wholesome counsel and of knowledge, but also to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, so long as the spirit of anger dwells in us. For wrath that is nursed in the heart, although it may not injure men who stand by, yet excludes the splendour of the radiance of the Holy Ghost, equally with wrath that is openly manifested.