Page:Anecdotescatechi00spiruoft.djvu/104

 mischief done  could  not  be  repaired. Repentance comes too  late  for  actions  done  in  a moment  of anger.

Plato the  philosopher  had  occasion  to  chastise  a bad  boy. But as  he  was  very  much  enraged  on  account of  the  culprit’s  misdeeds,  he  begged  his  friend Xenocrates to  undertake  the  chastisement  for  him. “ Be so  good,”  he  said  to  him,  “as  to  give  the  boy  a sound  flogging; I dare  not  do  it  myself,  I am  too angry with  him.”

Father de  Smet,  the  Jesuit  missionary  of  the  North American Indians,  praises  the  tribe  called  Ravens for their  opposition  to  the  introduction  among  them of intoxicating  liquors. “ What good  is  this  firewater? ” said their  chief. “ It burns  the  throat  and stomach; it  makes  a man  a bear;  when  he  has  drunk he bites,  grunts,  howls,  and  ends  by  falling  down  like a corpse. Your fire-water  is  evil; give  it  to  our enemies; they will  kill  one  another,  and  their  wives and children  will  be  objects  of  pity. As for  us,  we need  it  not; we  are  mad  enough  without  it.”  Excessive indulgence  in  intoxicants,  if  not  the  greatest, is one  of  the  very  greatest  evils  of  this  age.

Envy is  overcome  by  benefits. The shops  of  two tradesmen who  were  in  the  same  branch  of  business