Reason will find ways to delay anger and postpone immediate punishment while it searches for a better solution. It will use every trick to give a person a break from their rage. If someone's anger is very strong, reason will inspire shame or fear to stop them. If the anger is weak, reason will distract them with interesting conversation or something new to think about. By sparking their curiosity, it leads them to forget their anger. We're told about a doctor who had to treat the king's daughter. He couldn't operate without using a knife. So he hid a small blade under the sponge he was using to clean her infected breast. The girl would have pulled away if she had seen the knife coming. But she endured the pain because she didn't expect it. Some diseases can only be cured through deception.
It will invent delays, and postpone immediate punishment while a greater one is being sought for: it will use every artifice to give the man a respite from his frenzy. If his anger be unusually strong, it will inspire him with some irresistible feeling of shame or of fear: if weak, it will make use of conversation on amusing or novel subjects, and by playing upon his curiosity lead him to forget his passion. We are told that a physician, who was forced to cure the king’s daughter, and could not without using the knife, conveyed a lancet to her swollen breast concealed under the sponge with which he was fomenting it. The same girl, who would have shrunk from the remedy if he had applied it openly, bore the pain because she did not expect it. Some diseases can only be cured by deceit.