Similar tricks worked for another unwelcome emotion, anger: Montaigne once successfully cured a ‘young prince’, probably Henri de Navarre (the future Henri IV), of a dangerous passion for revenge. He did not talk the prince out of it, or advise him to turn the other cheek, or remind him of the tragic consequences that could result. He did not mention the subjects of anger or revenge at all: I let the passion alone17 and applied myself to making him relish the beauty of a contrary picture, the honour, favour, and good will he would acquire by clemency and kindness. I diverted him to ambition.
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