Manhood

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Men whose words are thoughtful yet actions improper are distasteful. We are so hurried in asking the usual questions: whether one can speak this language or that, or write poems, or recite a piece of history, or interpret something profound, or clarify a quirky idea. Yet the most significant question is the last to be attended to; namely, whether man has been made better and wiser. We shall discover, then, who has the foremost understanding, not who has lots of it. So, the more abundant our souls, the more they enlarge. 

It is no surprise that neither the expert nor the student grow more apt despite knowing more. It is the attitude with which we get to grips with the sciences that is inapt and brings rise to baseness. In point of fact, the supervision of our parents is directed towards equipping our brain with knowledge, letting pass the weight of merit and discernment. In Montaigne’s words, “judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.” Knowledge is menacing in a feeble hand which can’t command it. Not only retarding the master, but hurting him. Even worse, the students and their tasks are not nurtured and strengthened by their learning. It is handed around with one aim in sight. The aim being affectation and show, as if it were a handy token for amassing and creating assertions, yet having no higher utility. 

What we do is tend to others’ judgements and learning, failing to reform it to our good. We bear similarity to a man who, longing for a fire, moves to his neighbour to get a spark, then stays there having noticed a large glare to warm him, neglecting his home and its gloom. What value is there in having a full stomach if we don’t assimilate the food? If we are not inwardly transformed, if we are not fortified and enlarged, we have put in more than we have absorbed. Hence, it confirms that we have been taught how to talk with everyone except ourselves. We acquired knowledge of copious theory, but how many are able enough to use it? Cicero said, ‘We do not need talk but helmsmanship.’ As erudite as we may be with another’s bent, it is our own wisdom that makes us wise. We assent to rest and depend so decisively and to excess on another’s weaponry that we tear down our might. He was meant to arrive home with a richer soul but he returns with a bloated one. He filled it with air rather than enrich it with power. 

“I hate a sage who is not wise for himself.”

Euripides

Dionysius found it comical that professors who read up on the unpleasant features of Ulysses knew nothing of their flaws. Their flutes were congruous but their ethics discordant; speakers talking of justice yet not being themselves just. Wisdom must be benefited from, not merely acquired. As Cicero remarks, ‘We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.’ There is nothing to be lost if they don’t instruct you how to properly think and act. Knowledge is not solely to be glued to your spirit – this is pseudo practice. It ought to be embodied and absorbed; the soul infused and marinated with knowledge, not heedlessly drizzled.

“Now that so many are learned, it is good men that we lack.”

Seneca

Learning casts no understanding on a lacking soul. It will not confer sight to the imperceptive. Its function is to instruct his judgement rather than grant him the ability to see. To see clearly is not to see straight. Man discerns the good but doesn’t conform to it, he perceives knowledge but fails to wield it. Agesilaus was once asked what children ought to be taught, he replied, ‘What they should do when they are grown up.’ Further, when he encouraged Xenophon to have his boys raised in Sparta, it was neither for rhetoric nor argumentation, but to learn the most worthy discipline there is: ‘how to obey and how to command.’ 

In the Republic, the principal law is to assign the citizens responsibilities based on their temperament. According to Plato, their firstborn son in the regal descent was hardened to a stern and high-principled training. Following his emergence, he was handed over to eunuchs rather than women: owing to their righteousness, they held the foremost power in the king’s court. They too were at the helm of cultivating his physical state. When the boy turned seven, they trained him in riding and hunting. When he turned fourteen, they entrusted him to four noble men; the most sagacious, the most fair-minded, the most restrained and the most courageous. The first man instilled faith, the second truthfulness, the third discipline and the fourth fearlessness. 

“Whose minds are made by Titan with gracious art and from a better clay.”

Juvenal

The Persians desired to abbreviate the expedition. Proper study can only educate us on what wisdom, heroic deeds and strength of will comprise, but they ventured to place their youngsters in direct contact with truth, with reality, instructing them not merely by idle talk but by diligent evaluation, forcefully shaping their nature by acts and precedents over word and tenet. The soul shall not merely know wisdom, it shall be its essential character: an ingrained mark rather than a thing obtained. Those firm youth loathed subjection of any kind except that of merit and goodness, thus furnished not with masters of art, but masters of wisdom, bravery and fairness, as stated in Plato’s Laws. Their system of instruction embraced raising questions about men’s verdicts and acts. Whether by censure or commendation, the students had to give grounds for their assertions, in doing so they honed their intellect and acquired a knowledge of what is just and correct. 

They were accustomed to move to Grecian towns searching for orators, musicians and painters, while others to Sparta for generals, political leaders, and law-givers. In Athens, you learn to speak rightly; in Sparta, to act rightly. The former to untangle and solve specious reasoning and disregard the sanctimony of deviously entwined words, the latter to extricate themselves from the pitfalls of indulgence and honourably despise the threats of fate and death. While the Athenians were engaged with the constant teaching of language, the Spartans were engaged with the constant teaching of spirit. In military rule, instances demonstrate that learning the arts and sciences softens and effeminizes men’s core rather than instruct them to be dense and prepared for battle and bloodshed.

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With that said, on with today’s piece…

“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”

Marcus Aurelius

To value the judgement of a person you despise and know to be faulty is idiotic. Cicero was correct: despicable people should not ever be held in high regard. Further, Livy says that ‘Nothing is less worth esteeming than the mind of the many.’ Many a time, we commit a great deal of energy to the undeserving and unbecoming – people who aren’t really worth our notice. And even knowing how little it’s worth, you decide to push aside that reality and disturb yourself with gratuitous pettiness. Trivialities are a futile means to unsettle yourself – and indeed, the mind of the many is reasonably distorted and fallacious. 

By a little sense, you will discover the indifference of the collective psychology; its counterblast and antagonism should not be your concern. If you invest too much in the unworthy, you mislead yourself and misplace your precious time. It is useful to know who merits your time and who doesn’t; who will be constructive and who will be destructive. Often, it is tougher to form an accurate judgement yet unchallenging to form a mistaken one and straying away from effectiveness. Time and again, men are immoderately attentive to futile things that inhibit their own fruitfulness, unknowing of what is rewarding and gainful – if you don’t know what to dispose of and what to retain, you will naturally confound yourself. When you know something ought to be thrown away yet disdain doing so, you shall carry along its disagreeable reactions. On the other hand, when you know something is worth holding on to, you shall likewise carry along its agreeable benefits. 

Accordingly, not all weights are worth carrying and not all pleasures worth savouring. The obstructive and wounding burdens inflame and multiply by time: these are the very misfortunes you had the liberty to stay away from yet ignorantly acceded to. Oddly, you tend to dismiss worthwhile burdens in pursuit of bearing the detrimental ones. Enriching duties are a threat to the weak and detrimental ones a temptation and a trap. The former owing to cowardice, the latter to wretched blindness and indisposition. 

Aurelius was unerring when he observed the bizarre nature of man: so self-absorbed yet so concerned of others’ judgements of his nature; even more than his own. Vanity is not a detour that releases you from a lack of confidence. If you manage to curb and refine your egotism, amending any uncertainty and reforming your flaws, you will come to understand the clear edges of the external world; what is controllable and what isn’t. It appears to me that man’s vanity tends to come more from a posture of self-doubt than conviction. For if man was assured, he wouldn’t trouble himself by slights or feel injured by opinion. Such is the mark of man’s wretchedness; there is no other creature who matches up to his misery. 

Misery makes you fragile, often self-pitying. And by wretchedness, you misjudge things. If you were firmer and less wretched, you would bear well founded judgement to tell things apart – you would not bother yourself with anything indifferent; your chief concern would be with things within reach. The poor and pitiful retard their might by clinging to outward things for safety and ease – they neither mature nor learn the art of self-government. Dependency is insecurity: if you were self-governing, your chief concern would be your opinion of yourself, not others’ of your own. You wouldn’t lie to or misdirect yourself to escape a troublesome reality. Other people are not the problem, how you deal with them and what you think are the seed of misfortune. You conquer yourself by breaking off the chains of attachment and journeying away from home. Look inside, not outside, to discover what you’re made of. 

You can’t cling indefinitely, this apparent protection you discern in others is also tarnished by insecurity, as everything – you’ll never have total security. Being forever reliant and helpless, you never sense responsibility; you don’t grow ripe. True sovereignty is found outside the limitations of dependence through realizing the extremities of resilience. Dependence doesn’t exercise resilience and bravery scarcely manifests in the needy. Neediness is deprived of bravery: would they be so needy if they were more manly? Courageous deeds bring out the worth of man: the battleground being the expanding landscape, where safety is off duty and menace ever nearby. It is toil, hardship and patience – necessities that brush up character as you find out how to reconcile yourself to challenging duties. So, it is not dependence that directs virility, but your separation from it that will be the message-bearer.  

Don’t allow reality to pass you by unnoticed. An existence curbed by ease and comfort is improper of man. Man has a moral obligation to cut the cord and burst the borders of subjugation to uncover and regain his merit. It is not so much about being optimistic as it is about your readiness to shoulder a threatening endeavour – in the grand scheme, confronting danger provokes the desirable transformation. Your treasured strengths lay barren amidst repose, but are honed amidst the hardship of heroic deeds. Man ought to habituate himself to difficulty to master his over-reliance. By learning how to deal with difficulty, you grow the thunderous monster within.

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There is one hardy quality that is substantially underemphasised; it’s called persistence – a powerful trait sold short. Truthfully, you know you can do away with some extra tenacity, right? If you don’t grasp precisely what I purport by persistence, it is your capacity to press on with a course of action in spite of strain and opposition. If truth be told, is there a more betraying mark of singular character than your ability to show determination with things that clamour for courage and tenacity when the longing to relent is exceptionally irresistible? That sensible proverb is ever pertinent, “Constancy is the mark of virtue.” By a lack of endurance, you sell yourself short, by desisting forbearance, you take the leisurely course and come to naught. Sure, the easy course is approachable and well off, but what merit does it requite? Nothing neighboring valour and noble-mindedness.

The Mark of Virtue

In contrast, if in the face of austerity, you conjure up bravery and face the impending burden with unmoved poise and dig out something intuitive. Specifically, the knowledge that what you call ‘hardship’ and ‘pain’ is unavoidably crucial to your unfolding might, and there is no necessity for a means to elude it. It begs the question: is suffering really contemptible as it is auspicious? If by your disposition to bear it, it has proved advantageous, isn’t your appetite to escape it sterile and vain? It seems to me so. This is an insupportable veracity to timid cowards. They recoil from privation, they banish the reward of moral strength and spirit and have a latent aversion to all things unpleasant. Cowards are dead still, paralysed by idiocy. Great men forge ahead, but remain unshaken by virtue of unity. There is, nevertheless, a corollary to the principle; the good accorded is not invariably the good you thirst for, but the good you conceivably stand in need of. 

Desire and Demand

Repeatedly, what you require and what you desire are contrastive. In fact, if you are stripped of truth, the odds are stacked against you. For a melodious stability between desire and demand, an integral temperament is of the essence. If such a nature has not been fostered, acclimatize yourself to things you resist and require. If something fruitful kindles your resistance, dig beneath the surface and you will unravel the truth. Naturally, you will infer a sense of hostility towards this undertaking. Your opening judgement already persuaded you; maybe the time is inappropriate or the mood disagreeable. All this bigotry is an exposition of your shrinking reluctance to assault reality. Look after your reason when empty yet cogent impressions attempt to pollute your judgement; unjustified, jaundiced and erroneously reassuring – irrational biases are uncooperative, they win over the idiotic but come to grief with the wise. When clarity is lost, you cling to faulty logic, as you mistakenly lead yourself down a road of self-deception. 

Resist and Persist

The Stoics were champions of persistence, they considered it a determining quality in man. In Epictetus’ Discourses, there are two words of honour; resist and persist. Resistance is the ability to withhold capitulation, persistence the ability to continue the course. The spirit of man is coalesced by this exemplary fusion of self-control. If you reach freedom by a firm hand, you will discern that abstaining from indulgence and pressing on with a sturdy incentive will extricate you from enslavement. If you’ve met the effects of intemperance, you know the revulsion of surplus – it leaves you desensitized and befuddled by mayhem. When lack of self-control proves vain, discipline is the only sensible antidote to affliction. 

The Pursuit of Meaning

Mastery over restraint is mastery over tenacity – to govern your desires and command, you not only desist superfluity but also follow through with it. It is not your needs that unnerve you, but your impetuous desires. Extreme abundance is needless for sufficient maintenance – in reality, you desire ample in pursuit of pleasure and decadence, not meaningful repletion. The more pampered and disfigured, the less satisfied by sufficiency, as you continually demand more than what’s needed to pacify your urges. You are clasped by intemperance, disconcerted by an alluring snare, and coerced into devouring an inexhaustible amount of unpalatable delights. In the hands of the bastard, fulfilling pleasures rapidly grow into deplorable vices. The depraved sabotage beauty by weakness, their abandon renders them incapable of wallowing in true bliss – their lack of bearing chips away the soul of things. When decadence is perpetuated to its edge, it dismantles your psyche – you are swimming in a pool of affliction, sorrow, sin and depletion. 

Hold the sensible way: saturate your life with meaning by forming a vision; a noble aim that cuts across your present self. Your holy grail should pose a threat, but your ambition should provoke audacity. If your aims don’t bully you, enlarge them. Let their ominousness be the power source by which you set alight your breath of life, upholding it in your actions. The way of truth is skywards; a triumph over aversion and opposition. Trust that you, with all your infirmities and vulnerabilities, could be greater than who you are today. If you forget who you could be, you will go on breathing a counterfeit existence – a dire squandering of possibility. A surfeit of uncertainty yields to passivity, not resilience; to timidity, not bravery. The weak are afflicted; both by the preservation of unhappiness and by their reluctance to undergo the inevitable burdens to rectify their poor circumstance. Who you are and who you could be are far apart; but if you go through the necessary trials in pursuit of your higher ideal, you will indisputably flourish – time is your rival, and aspiration your ally. Even when you are reduced to ashes, your bravery in the face of hardship is worth your while.

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‘What gives value to a diamond is its cost, to virtue, its difficulty, to penance, its suffering; to medicines their bitter taste.’

Michel De Montaigne

Recently, I wrote this on twitter: ‘Don’t let your insufficient self undermine who you could be.’ I had that thought as I was closing a heavy set at the gym. Immediately, I thought ‘There’s no way I can let this (thought) slip’ as I briskly went ahead and wrote it down. Luckily, it didn’t, and I’m glad as it encouraged this piece.

Oddly, it appeared especially significant at that point in time. When you’re struggling with weight, rigidly putting your vital force in it, you get a rather meditative flow of thought that drifts candidly and involuntarily. In fact, any time I do any tough training, my mind tends to naturally engender creative thoughts; some are more interesting than others, of course.

Nonetheless, it is always somewhat beguiling to me how remedial this rivalry comes to be – it injects every struggle with impassioned fire, agony, and a fierce sense of commitment. 

Direction and Intent

Where passion is concerned, weightlifting has always served me as a way to discharge and release. It realigns you with your immanent strength and purifies your masculine spirit. And, I find it rather incongruous how of all good things lead by proper lifting, most men find the upgrade in appearance the most likeable reward. But I shall digress with this judgement; if you look below the surface, you would find that the most worthwhile reward is the continuous refinement of your manly nature. Rigorous training not only expands your strengths, it uncovers your defects, giving you the right occasion to mend them to your benefit. Traits such as discipline, diligence, persistence, and constancy are highlighted in the weightroom; they are tested and fortified by struggle. 

Most men I see at the gym are strayed, they lack direction and understanding; both of what they are doing and why they are doing it. It appears like they made it there fortuitously and not deliberately. It is not so useful for me to pressure you to hit the gym when your frame of mind is radically messy and you are merely adhering by obligation, not purpose. If you don’t have an objective, your plan is ill-defined and undecided. You must specifically define your incentive, with an evident purpose, direction and plan of action. If you don’t know the necessary what’s and why’s, what merit do you pick out from it? Hardly anything effective.

Man ought to know why something is good for him and how to apply himself appropriately for a certain practice; you should not feel compelled to get a membership simply to abide by convention, this is fruitless and silly. If your necessity is ignorant obedience, you are not training for yourself but for others who are just as blind. You may think compliance is fruitful for a little while, but it quickly fades away by fickleness and instability – when there’s no heartfelt intent and a firm purpose, constancy is transient and idleness an irresistible impulse. In truth, it is genuine intent that holds you liable, fueling your needfulness and driving you to carry out your duties.

Competence and Persistent Practice

In the absence of intent, man starts to wander aimlessly with no explicit point of focus. Part of having an unmistakable course is good knowledge and a sound method that is useful and practical. But the larger part of men who undertake strength training lack will and purpose, hardly moving forward. I would go so far to say it is better to have intent yet lack understanding, if you can’t have both, rather than vice versa. Intent without understanding will make progress, acquiring knowledge from failure, but understanding without intent will faintly make strides; it will be held back by inertia, unsureness, doubt, and lack of discipline. On the other hand, intent is persistent, devoted, firm and reliable.

‘A man’s worth and reputation lie in the mind and in the will: his true honour is found there.’

Michel De Montaigne

Consequently, it will discover what is useful and good by way of experience through sheer resolve, interest, ability and competence. Intent is an essential fragment of competence. In truth, the man who ardently desires something beneficial with great determination will meet it. What separates the doers is their competence, they practice more than they preach; this is their gift. There are natures who confront battle with real vigour, their insistence pushing them to endure a course of action with laudable stability until they meet their desired aims. So on the one hand, there are natures who have been endowed with a far-reaching potential for tenacity, and on the other, there are natures who have cultivated these traits by industrious application and strict practice.

Whether by fortune or fight, there is no conceivable way to cheat hard-earned goodness. Remember, man is made by hardship, the road is onerous for good reason; no weak man merits the prosperity earned by diligence and strength. The consequence of pursuing meaning is that its indispensable privation incites self-discovery, naturally leading to a process of honing details that were laid asleep or have been mistreated by debility. You come to deeply grasp your inner workings, you come to know distress demands and what self-discipline entails. When this resourceful state is sustained, it engenders a profound and enduring transformation in your psyche that can’t be stolen from you. What you gained from battle leaves a lasting mark on your soul; it fosters prosperity and endeavours to defy boundaries. 

Transforming Pain Into Purpose

Men solve problems, they are disposed to order and discipline. Thus, when you stray from your strong inclinations, you are subverting your nature and pushing away merit. Pain, failure, rejection: these you don’t find so agreeable, but their intrinsic value springs from their bitterness. If you can learn to repeatedly put up with and accept them, they will teach you something valuable. In fact, you will notice they are not as sharp as you imagined and they are certainly not bad by nature. But you have grown accustomed to labelling things – labels that seldom fit the frame of reality. It is not unnatural, then, to suffer and endure, for you are inescapably invited to deal with these things when they come, so with failure and tragedy.

Whether you resolve to turn down tragedy is not pertinent, you will still cope with its sharp consequences, as existence engenders its own misfortune when it so desires and you ought to learn to courageously bear it when it comes – be a valiant warrior, unphased by life’s calamities. Remember: there are incidents in life that you can’t in any way determine.  Remain unmoved by things outside your control, not carelessly but perceptively. Caution yourself against allowing externals to rule over you and engulf your sense of reality. Emotional mastery is one of the most exacting practices. When passion builds intensity, it grows heavier to bear and requires an increasingly firm nature. Still, one of the most compelling means to fortify your temper is to be confronted with a tragedy.

‘Each man’s morals shape his destiny.’

Erasmus

We engage in the most rigorous self-analysis in the face of terrible misfortune. It aids you in scrutinizing your life more earnestly and with greater zeal. It is at this point that you reach a pivotal breaking point that incites rapid improvement, as you are altogether bullied into rectifying things: not tomorrow, not in an hour, but right this very moment with the utmost gravity and tenacity. Take, for instance, an awful heartbreak, one that leaves you crushed in pain. You can’t imagine yourself engaging in commitment ever again, as you see the world crumbling under your feet with nothing left to lose and one shocking heartbreak.

But similarly, it is through severe trauma that you interrupt your debility and inspire transformation as you discover, if you’re not so ignorant, what you did poorly and where your deficiencies lie. Man learns to tighten his screws when his weakness proves to be futile in the face of misfortune. Discernibly, I can’t speak for every man, but if you carry a reasonable capacity for introspection, you will almost always find yourself at least a little stronger after a tragedy big or small.

Closing Note

Undoubtedly, there have been innumerable incidents where man was faced with grave tragedy and by its effect managed to radically transform his situation both inwardly and outwardly. In my experience, this is the sweetest glory of all and the most commendable. Lastly, you never know what will be the result of neither tragedy nor good fortune. It is obstructive to dare say fortune is antagonistic. Consider instead why that estimation is likely erroneous and how, above all, it is distinctly agreeable, not detrimental to your purpose.

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Plutarch says, ‘Anyone who doesn’t fuel a fire puts it out, and anyone who doesn’t feed anger in the early stages and doesn’t get into a huff is being prudent and is eliminating anger.’ Anger is born out of weakness and whenever you encourage its premature birth, you are giving in to enfeeblement. But, there is a fine way to knock down a despotic fit of rage: do not take heed or comply when it is instructing you to lose your sense of control. What you do instead is remain placid and unobtrusive, so you do not exacerbate an infection by emotional eruption. When you aggravate an affliction, you only make it worse. 

The Shape of Irritability

It has been said that when anger grows persistent and indignation recurrent, the mind takes the dissenting shape of irritability. This rouses resentment, prickliness and a sharp temper. At this point, your emotions are delicate, vulnerable and carping. For man, this state is utterly degenerate and twisted. And, since ill temper is hubristic and headstrong for an outside vehicle to remove, it is a kind of immovable absolutism that can only be settled by internal mastery. A man who does not have reason as his curative instrument is a stooge to his own passions. 

It is especially useful to enlighten yourself on how to contend with anger, and have a supply of it at your disposal. 

Really, anger is deplorable to all who notice that the pleasures of impulse entail suffering, and there is no way out of that tie. In spite of that, Euripides too is specific when he remarks that God interposes only when things become uncontrollable, leaving trivialities to chance. For, a man with an ill-temper is fairly out of control and disorderly, with inappreciable governance over his passions. It is taxing for a passionate man to attenuate his blind rage when its zeal overpowers his lack of authority. 

Anger is Neither Glorious nor Masculine

Emotion causes vast mental chaos and the most repugnant repentance; for the purpose of a kind of indulgence that is shallow and horrid. It is for this reason, then, that self-control and goodwill are kinder and more heedful to those who enjoy them rather than those who meet them. If you carefully attend and reflect on people who are pinned down by anger, you will also come to apprehend anger’s nature in different facets. You will see that, really, it is neither glorious nor masculine, and it is neither stately nor awe-inspiring. Even so, most confound its facets for their antithesis; turbulence for efficacy, danger for bravery, obstinacy for power. Additionally, some also misinterpret its coldness for capability and its harshness for ‘righteous indignation’. This is rather inaccurate; the deeds and manner it elicits reveal its trifling and deficiency. 

‘They pay the heaviest penalties for the lightest of things’

Plato

Reason is more reliable and assured than emotion; one is stable, the other wobbly, one is dependable, the other fickle, one is accurate, the other distorted. A poet once said, ‘Where there is fear, respect follows too.’ But really, the obverse is more precise. Esteem rouses a terror that demands moderation. Conversely, constant striving does not inspire remorse for wrongdoing, it inspires the desire to escape punishment at a later time. While acclaim demands self-control, fear incites veneration. 

Restraint and Rationality

Man should not pursue pleasure by a desire for gratification and satiate himself with vengeance. For, to rejoice in punishment is animalistic, and to later be remorseful about it is womanish. By preference, man should hold back till both pleasure and anguish abate and his rationality recovers. Once your reason is restored, you can sensibly retaliate without being ruled by passionate annoyance. When Socrates used to notice that anger was lording over him, growing disagreeable and unfriendly towards his friends, he would soften his voice, put on a grin and refrain from frowning; to preserve self-control by compensating for the passion. 

‘When anger takes over your heart, guard your babbling tongue.’

Plutarch

Anger is as Great as Weakness

A greedy man is liable to grow annoyed with his boss, as a jealous man with his wife, or as a narcissist when he finds out someone spread a rumour about him. The most appalling, however, are those ‘political men who court ambition too much: they stir up open grief’, as Pindar says. Consequently, anger emerges from psychological torture and affliction –  a mind that is twisted and overtaxed is intemperately disturbed by its series of protective and oversensensitive urges. 

The weakest of minds are most inclined to suffering; their anger is as great as their weakness. Man should, as much as possible, try to stamp out anger in vivid moments since it foists hostility over friendliness, turns discussion into argument, imbues power with conceit, engenders insecurity and disdain for reason, encourages jealousy, and discourages rapport. In general, when anger is near, a husband can’t put up with his wife’s dispassion, and a wife can’t put up with her husband’s rage. 

The Seed of Emotion

Zeno says that a seed is an amalgam; a blend of essences that make up man’s basic characteristics. Comparably, anger appears to be a union of a passionate seed that embraces fragments of suffering, egotism and gratification. The seed contains the relish of antagonism, and derives its very means of battle from it. The evasion of its own pain is not the intention of its attempts, for it welcomes self-torment while tearing down a target. Really, one of its key properties is also one of the most unpleasant; the ardent desire to inflict harm on another person. 

‘Solid objects seem bigger when it is misty, and the same happens to things when one is angry.’

Plutarch

Don’t Aggravate Disorder

Even still, most people are disposed to get furious and take a swing every now and then. What is especially contemptible, though, is when you chastise someone for being irate while you madly penalize others for faults done by anger. You are not a doctor, what you are doing is worsening an already inflamed disorder. Remember Plato’s dictum, ‘Am I not like that too?’ before you apply plenty of righteous indignation on others. When you realize that even your nature requires a good deal of tolerance, you will feel compelled to invert your thinking and break off your moaning and groaning, instead attending to careful awareness. No sensible man should bestow anything to possibility, or brush aside things with neglect. You, as a man, should have certainty to utilise things appropriately and congruously by the goodness of your reason, which is responsible for the most profound and significant situations. 

A man, therefore, whose grievances compel condemning and disparaging behaviour, is enslaved by a weakly, pedantic, fault-finding condition and takes no notice that he is engendering a persistent and shaky fragility in his own rage. For that reason, you shall cautiously exercise your body to be independent and pleased without difficulty, since people who desire much are often let down, while those who desire little are rarely upset.

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“Socrates says that youth must get educated; grown men employ themselves in good actions; old men withdraw from affairs, both civil and military, living as they please without being bound to any definite duties.”

Michel De Montaigne

Life is Seasonal

There is a time and place for everything and what comes up must inevitably come down. There are fine distinctions between the places you find yourself and the deeds you carry out in the transient phases of life and while one may be useful at one particular point, it may be futile in another.

So, the man who is evolving and moving from one stage to another naturally reshapes his deeds to suit his needs. Knowledge is all-important to the youngster in the same way compelling practice is vital to the adult. As we move ahead, the system we follow changes, as do our actions and perspectives.

The bustle of adulthood balances the withdrawal of old age. For agedness gives man the chance for true reflection away from busyness – tranquility serves man a chance to humanise his soul, save he is ready to openly admit it.

The Haste of Modern Life

Withdrawal is normally cast in a bad light, for we live in a hasty society where rapidity and irritability take center stage. Everyone is in a careless hurry to reach the ‘good life’ yet in doing so they turn aimless and mad, losing touch with the basic virtue that ties Man to God.

And when I say God, I don’t mean the material God but the inexpressibly obscure God that marks everything there was, is, and ever will be.

The more man deadens his inner recognition, the more subject to ignorance and disorder. So, a man unable to periodically walk away from madness is damned to its servitude – at variance with his intrinsic self.

To be readily given to withdrawal is to gladly open yourself. Detachment is release from the ties with the exterior world – the more you undo yourself, the less hooked.

“Miraculous wonders depend on our ignorance of Nature not on the essence of Nature. Our judgement’s power to see things is lulled to sleep once we grow accustomed to anything.”

Michel De Montaigne

Attachment’s effect glues you to things you do not own. The backlash is blindness – the inability to rationalise and discern things. Ergo, when you unknowingly split nature, your senses stifle.

From Youth to Manhood

I trust that a young man should expose himself to a necessary project. That is, to instruct his judgement and puzzle out knowledge. Though, I stress the former before the latter. Before wrestling productively with learning, he must sharpen his prime faculty and set right his moral code.

The youngster shall not cleave himself but instead line up with nature – and if possible, shun the oblivion of her rightness so that his acumen is not twisted by senseless ways.

A shift transpires between youth and maturity. While the former is mostly adapted to learning, the latter to industrious practice. So, a youngster diligently prepares himself for a bigger duty and ensures that his passage is reliable and orderly.

To the learned youngster, adulthood is a chance to carry out everything he understood and studied. He will set out to hit grand strides and manifest all he desires for the leading benefit of goodness.

But many youngsters going into maturity have a tightly impoverished attitude towards life’s call to adventure. Lacking bearing, their perception is perplexed by indolence and dumbness – what they are really seeking is freedom from hardship not defiance against lowliness.

Idiocy is Doom

The common man with potential is not impelled by his shortcomings, he is comforted by the reassurance of freedom from danger, despite the harm torpor inflicts on his nature and impetus. Sadly, many are doomed by the truth. As grave a failing as it is, countless are so defeated by their oblivion, so penniless of perception, that no good turn will be bad enough to enlighten their vile poverty.

Unless man savors competent duty, he will not discern the meaning of excellence. He will not perceive the importance of separation.

First you snatch your duties, then you conclude them.

Withdrawal is more valuable when you have been of service to a purpose more enduring than your existence. When you at last untie from the duties of manhood, there is a divine joy for a merited repose – when the time is ripe, retreat too is wanted after having tackled an honourable role; a role that furnished you with real significance and fortune.

“Anyone who holds his own life cheap is always master of the life of another man.”

Michel De Montaigne

The withdrawal of oldness is not convenient to the man who already committed himself to a life of futile wrongdoing and bondage. Sense and slavery don’t mix, real merit is found only when the chains of vice are pulled apart and a more cultured judgement transpired.

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A Closing Comment

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