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Open Philosophy LibraryOf Anger – L’estrange’s Senecan CompilationLucius Annaeus Seneca

Of Anger – L’estrange’s Senecan Compilation

By Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Of Anger is Sir Roger L'Estrange's 1678 English compilation of Senecan teaching on anger, revenge and cruelty. Across twelve thematic chapters, it examines anger's origin in judgement, distinguishes involuntary first reactions from chosen retaliation, rejects anger as necessary for courage or justice, and recommends delay, evidence, self-knowledge and proportion as remedies.

Translator or editor
Sir Roger L'Estrange
Publication
1678 English compilation (Senecan sources: 1st century CE)
Genre
Stoic ethical compilation; moral philosophy
Era
Ancient Philosophy

About this work

Of Anger is Sir Roger L'Estrange's seventeenth-century abstract of Senecan moral teaching on anger and cruelty. First published in 1678 as part of Seneca's Morals by Way of Abstract, its twelve chapters condense and rearrange material principally associated with Seneca's ancient dialogue De Ira. The work defines anger as a desire for punishment arising from a judgement of injury. An involuntary first reaction is distinguished from the later assent that declares revenge appropriate. This distinction creates a practical space in which attention and delay can prevent an impression from becoming a settled purpose. Seneca rejects the belief that anger is needed for courage, justice or authority. Reason can recognise wrongdoing and impose proportionate consequences without losing self-command. Anger instead exaggerates offence, acts before evidence is secure and frequently punishes beyond what correction requires. Practical remedies include delaying action, examining motives, remembering one's own fallibility and reducing expectations of perfect behaviour from others. The later chapters show how unchecked anger becomes especially destructive when joined with political power and habitual cruelty. Because L'Estrange paraphrases and reorganises freely, this text should be read as a historical English reception of Senecan Stoicism. Its enduring lesson is that strength consists in governing the response to injury rather than allowing injury to govern the mind.

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