thanks with which he will receive her favours and the vows wherewith he will confirm his servitude sometimes he puts pen to paper he writes blots out tears and if he have any thoughts which may securely stay on the paper they are those only which witness the excess of his love and fidelity and then what artifices doth he not imploy to procure the delivery of his letters what extravagances doth he not commit when he receives any or even when any thing that hath but touched the person he loves comes to his hands he keeps them always joyned to his eyes or to his lips he makes them his idols and would not change them for Scepters and Diadems to conclude we may say that absence is the true night of lovers not onely because their Sun as they say illuminates them no more but also because that all their pleasures are but as in a dream and at that time all their ills are irritated and augmented But le ts consider the day which followes this night 't is infallibly the presence of the person beloved indeed a lover calls it no other who beleeves that when he comes neer it all the beauty in the world is discovered to his eyes he finds a new heat disperst through his soul and a certain mixture of joy astonishment causeth him so pleasant a trouble that he is ravisht therewith and as it were out of himself then how proud bold or eloquent soever he be he must humble himself be afraid and lose his speech it avails him nothing to have prepared his courage and his discourse they prove but so many dreams and fantasies which vanish at the sight of this light nothing but his eyes can speak for him which witness by their looks what an excess of pleasure and respect this meeting affords him but what ever is said that this is the particular language of Love there is yet another which is much more proper and which is also far stranger then this for although there are passions as violent as this yet is there none which inspires like this such extravagant and such ridiculous words for a lover scarce utters one probable word what care and what interest soever he employs to make himself beleeved all his discourses and writings are perpetual hyperboles he burns he languisheth he dyes he speaks of nothing but of prisons of chains and of torments he calls her he loves his sun his heart his soul and his life he swears that he alone hath more love then all men besides that his passion is infinite and shall be eternal In breif all his words are beyond the truth his designes and his promises beyond his power and all his actions beneath his courage for there is no so base submission which he will not make there is no service so low or vile which he will not render there is no subjection amongst slaves so diligent so careful and so express as his he often adores a person that disdains him courts a confident that betrays him cherisheth servants that mock him he must use his enemies with respect his friends with indifferency and all the rest of the world with scorn he must suffer without complaining he must fear all desire much hope for little in a word he must love his ill and hate himself I omitt the profuse expence he makes the dangers he runs through to gain only a word or a favourable look the transports of joy which a good reception yeelds him the excess of grief and despair which a disdain causeth and the furies which jealousie inspires when a rival traverseth his pursuit When we shall speak of those passions in particular then also will we shew the rest of the extravagancies which love causeth although indeed they cannot be all discovered For besides that there are no disorders in the other passions which are not to be found in this that its capable of all the follies which can possesse a distracted mind it hath so many faces and several countenances that its impossible to take their picture sometimes it s violent and impetuous sometimes sweet and peaceable in some pleasant and toying in others peevish and severe in other bold and insolent in other timerous and modest it appears ingenious and stupid fantastical light furious and in a hundred other fashions which in my opinion was the cause that some fained Love to be the son of the wind and of Iris to shew the wonder and the variety which there was in this passion and to teach us that his original is as much hid as that of those two kinds of Meteors But before we undertake to discover it le ts see what change it causeth in the face I do not beleeve that he who first painted Love with a vail before his eyes intended thereby to shew the blindness which is in that passion but either through the debility or by the priviledge of his art he was obliged to hide what he could not express In effect what colour nay even what words can express all the changes which Love causeth in our eyes how can that resplendent humidity be represented which we see shine in them that modest disquiet that laughing grief and that amorous anger which is to be perceived in them now you shall see them turn this way and now that now sweetly lift themselves up by little and little fall down again and pittifully turn towards the beloved object Sometimes they dwel on it as if they were fix'd sometimes they turn from it as if they dazled sometimes their looks are quick sometimes sweet and languishing now they fly out with liberty and now they steal and escape from between the lids which seem as if they would shut upon them In a word all the motions wherewith the eyes in other passions are agitated are to be observ'd in this you shall always finde laughter or tears which somtimes agree mingle together although they are sunk and hollow they do not therefore drie up or lessen on the contrary they seem bigger and more humid then they were before unless it be after a tedious grief or an extream despair for then they become dry dimm cast down and set The forehead in this passion seldom gathers it self on the contrary it seems as if it were extended and if sorrow sometimes casts it down the wrinkels do scarce so much as break its evenness 't is there where the redness begins to appear which Love often raiseth in the face and even then when the other parts are pale this always retains something of its first colour sometimes the lips are red and moist sometimes pale and dry and they never almost move without forming a pleasing smile sometimes the undermost is seen to tremble and to whiten with a subtil froth sometimes the tongue passeth over them and by a light touch and trembling which it gives it flatters and tickles them when it would form words it lispes and the humidity which the desire raiseth in the
the eyes because they are the channels through which the Passions issue out and the hands because they are the principal organs of its actions But amongst all the means which nature hath taught us to attain to this perfect union there is none more considerable then reciprocal Love because union supposing two things the Lover and the Object to render it accomplished both the one and the other must really unite Now if the beloved object is capable of loving it can no otherways unite it self but by Love forasmuch as the soul unites it self with things which are without it only by that Passion wherefore the first care of a Lover is to make himself beloved and to that end to render himself grateful whence it happens consequently that he accommodates himself to the inclinations of the person beloved that he changeth his humor his manner of living that he growes liberal curteous neat and in a word that he doth all what he thinks may make him be beloved We are now to enquire the cause of that extravagant manner of speaking which is so particular to Lovers In general we may say that the soul in that Passion carrying it self out of its self carries also other things beyond what they are and forms thoughts of them beyond the natural expression they should have whence it is that the good and ill it conceives is alwayes in excess and if the nature of the thing cannot suffer it it burthens it with some strange Idea to encrease the meaning thereof and so builds those bold Metaphors which give to the beloved object the title of the fairest and the noblest things in the world which of a gentle heat cause a burning fire of a mean disquiet a torment and a punishment of a little submission which beauty requires a captivity prisons and chains and so of the rest whereunto the error of the imagination contributes very much which being wholly fill'd with that violent instinct which it hath from beauty beleeves that there is no greater good nor heavier ill then it expects from Love so that it alwayes represents them in extremes and consequently useth more extravagant termes then in any other Passion considering also that Lovers who commonly employ in their entertainments but very few thoughts and who are never weary to repeat them are oblig'd to diversify the termes that they may be the less tedious which they cannot do but by many Metaphors which at last become extravagant being to seek to finde out reasonable ones enough for the variety they endeavor Besides these general reasons there are yet particular ones for some words which are always in the mouths of those that love and when they call the beloved person Their Heart Their Soul and Their Life when they call them Ungrateful Homicides and Cruel and when they so often say They dye for Love for although all these kinds of expressions seem extravagant yet they come from a principle which in some sort renders them true forasumch as Love keeping the Soul always stretched towards the beloved object and transporting it out of it self to unite it thereto separates it also morally from the subject it animates and in effect takes away from it the remembrance and the cause of all that belongs to it So that in that respect we may say that it lives no more in him nor for him being wholly in the beloved person that a Lover hath reason to call her his Heart and his Soul since his desires and thoughts which are the noblest parts of his life are alone in her and that its true that he dyes nay even that he is dead since that he no longer lives in himself Now as there is but reciprocal Love only which can make them live again forasmuch as then the beloved person transforms herself in him and communicates to him both soul and life if he be unhappy to so high a degree that he cannot be loved it seems that he hath cause to call her Ungrateful Cruel and Murtheress since giving himself wholly to her alone she is oblig'd to acknowledge so high a liberality and in separating his soul from him she kills him and it is a cruelty to let him dye whose life she may save It s true that to speak really we may say that there is but a very light shadow of truth in all these words that the soul operates here as in a dream and that Platonick Philosophy which approv'd these visions kept intelligence with this Passion or would consolate Lovers in the miseries they suffered let 's leave her employed on so fair a designe and seek the causes of the corporal Characters which we have described But we will not here examine whence that great diversity comes which appears in this Passion which makes it in some either sportful or pensive in others peaceable or turbulent in a word perhaps two persons have never been found in whom it hath bin altogether alike for its evident that it comes from the divers inclinations which the temperature or custome hath introduced into the soul which draw the Passions to the bend they take and makes them follow the same course which they are accustomed to the mixture of other Passions also contribute thereunto it being impossible that Love should be frolick when it s accompanied with Grief or Anger or that it should be severe when Hope or Joy are of the party But all these diversities are easie to be comprehended let 's now to our principal designe To follow the Method we have established we are here to place two kinds of these Characters some of which are done for some certain end others which happen by a pure necessity the first are made by the souls command who judgeth them fit to execute her passion although they are often unprofitable as we have said the other are purely natural and are made without design being only effects which by a necessary consequence come from the trouble and the agitation which is inwardly made Those of the first rank are the motions of the eyes and forehead the faultring of the tongue the sweetning and several falls of the voice laughter and the behaviour of the body All the rest are purely natural as for the Motion of the eyes there are so many several kinds of it that it s almost impossible to observe them For as all the Passions may spring from Love and suffer also with it and every of them causing the eyes to move diversly It also happens that all their motions meet there So that pleasure makes them sparkle Desire advanceth them forward Grief casts them down Fear renders them unquiet Respect inclines them Despight kindles them and so of the rest whose causes we will deduce in the discourse of every Passion all what we can herein do is to enquire which are the Amorous eyes and looks and what obligeth the Soul to use them by reason of the great difficulty there is both in the one and the other For the
delightful to the sight because that the corporal beauty which they have is a signe that they are naturally fit for the most perfect actions of the Minde and the knowledge which we thus have of their vertues makes us love them as an excellent good which ought to render us the more perfect For there is no vertue without doing good either by giving us example and obliging us to its imitation or by the good things which its effects bring to every one of us in particular and to all that society for which Man is born and to which all vertues as well Intellectual as Moral are as a foundation As for those dispositions which are acquired they also mark the acquired vertues and powers such as those habits are which are known by the Characters we here discourse of that is to say by their actions as well Intellectual as Moral and by the air by the carriage and behaviour of the body which makes one part of the corporal beauty for as there is a certain grace which accompanies vertuous actions when it appears to our eyes it makes us believe the vertues are there and so forms that love which we have naturally for them It is not but that these marks are often deceitful and that they often make us love subjects which we ought to hate But it is from that the Knowledge which causeth this love is as we have said obscure and confused it carries away the Appetite before discourse can examine it and so makes us love an imaginary good Yet whatever the errour be the Imagination and the Understanding always finde their perfection in the knowledge which the Senses afford them because they do not believe they are deceived and they think to discover by that sensible beauty that good which ought to accompany it and whose possession might render us more perfect wherefore they finde it agreeable and propose it to the appetite as an object worthy of love and affording pleasure These are the principles which may give to us the knowledge of the name and effects of Beauty For to examine all what could be said in particular we should need whole Volumes and these Subjects being too elevated would tire the spirit with the length of the Discourse and would cause us to disgust a thing which ought never to be distastful There is but one difficulty in this subject which we dare not leave without examination and the resolution whereof is nothing easie to finde For those who are esteemed fair in one Climate are not so in another and even where ever it be a face which may seem fair to some will appear ugly to divers Whence some have believed that Beauty is neither a true nor real quality and that it is but in opinion onely but no man can disavow but that the proportion of the parts and those other things which make beauty are true and real and are qualities which ennoble the subject where they are and satisfie the minde and the sight Now since Nature proposeth always to it self perfection and that there is but onely one true perfection in the order of all things it must needs be that she designed a particular beauty to every species which ought to be the Model of all those which particulars may have And as the Humane body is the best tempered of all others which are in Nature it is probable that this perfect being ought to be in the most temperate Climate But whence comes it then that it is not acknowledged in other Climates but on the contrary there that is esteemed fair which in this is esteemed ugly For the blackest amongst the Moors are esteemed the fairest the most short-nos'd amongst the Chinois and so of the rest For my part I belive we must say that the Climate gives a certain disposition to the body and makes it change in temperature and that such a temper gives such an inclination and such a power to the Minde Now because the bodies ought to be proportionable to the powers it is a necessary consequence that the bodies in those Climates must have the marks of these inclinations So that Beauty consisting in the proportion which the bodies have with their vertues and powers and Men having such powers in certain Climates they must esteem those fair which have those marks because that these inclinations are as it were natural and common to them so that they judge of Beauty according to their natural inclination in the same manner as in temperate Countries there are those found who judge diversly of Beauty by reason of the particular temper they have which carries their judgements to prize what is conformable to them CHAP. III. The Characters of Joy ALthough Nature seem avaritious of Pleasure and of Delight and that mingling it always with Grief she makes us beleeve that she affords it us but with regret and restraint yet must we confess that there is nothing in the world wherein her liberality and magnificence appear more and we may say that all her other presents are debts which she pays but that this is purely a grace and favour of hers for although she gives a being to every thing that she hath a care of its preservation and brings it to its end she is obliged thereunto and there is nothing in the Universe which may not with justice ask her what is necessary for the perfection of its being but as action is the end and perfection of all things when they are arrived there they can exact nothing from nature who hath acquitted herself of all she owed them and if she contributes any thing it is by favour and not by obligation so that causing always delight to flow on those actions which are conformable to it and in a manner crowning them with it we ought not to doubt that it is a singular effect of her munisicence or the better to express it the sum fo all the graces she could bestow Knowing also how pretious it was she hath onely communicated it to the most noble and the most excellent things she esteemed those without knowledge unworthy of it and that Sence and Reason onely could deserve it even as if it were a good which ought not to be possest but in heaven she would not permit it to be pure and perfect here below she hath mingled it with cares and with pains she hath brewed it with tears and hath caused it to begin or to finish alwayes with grief But as the Sun ceaseth not to be the fairest and most profitable thing in the world although it hath blemishes and suffer eclipses So how imperfect soever pleasure be by what mixture soever it hath been weakened yet ought it not to hinder us from prizing it as the most excellent and most desirable thing which could ever happen to mankinde and we may truely say that it is the light of all other good things and that were it taken away from our lives it would nothing but horrour and
life of men since thereby we become liberal courteous and generous it teacheth us to be discreet obedient and faithful it renders us abundant eloquent and ingenious and for that same cause the wisest man among the ancients formerly said that he was ignorant in all things but in the art of love forasmuch as he esteem'd that love is the school of honor and vertue and that wheresoever it reigns it brings peace abundance and Felicity And indeed had it not been altered by men it had never produced any othereffects but those and we had not been obliged to have added to its Elogies the crimes of which it is accused and the ills which at all times it hath done through the whole world but as the fire how pure soever it be raiseth stinking and dangerous fumes if it take in a corrupted matter you are not to wonder if this divine flame being bred amongst those vices wherewith the nature of man is infected produceth only filthy desires forms only evil designs and if instead of the good things it ought to bring mankinde it cause only troubles anxiety and misfortunes We have not undertaken here to give an account of all its disorders neither will we stain this discourse with the blood and the infamy it hath brought into Families and States nor with the sacriledges wherewith it hath violated the most sacred things it will be sufficient to say that its the most dangerous enemie wisedom can have For as much as of all those passions which may disturb her there is only love against whom she hath no defence those which enter nimbly and impetuously into the minde are but almost of a moments continuance and reason finds its excuse in their precipitation those others which move slowly by little and little she perceives them coming and can either stop their passage or in that weak condition drive them away But love slides in so secretly that its impossible to observe its entry or its progresse like a maskt enemy it advanceth and seazeth on all the principal parts of the soul before it is discovered when there is no means to be found to get him out then he triumphs and wisedom and reason must become his slaves and 't is what in my opinion the ancients would have said when they fained Love sometimes to be the Father of the gods and sometimes that he was a Demon which causeth them to descend from Heaven to Earth Because its certain that this passion hath mastered the wisest men in the world and that it was not without cause that Lais once vaunted to have seen more Philosophers with her then of any other kinde of men But let us leave these subjects for lovers to entertain their complaints withall and without interessing our selves either in the praise or dispraise of love le ts consider from the Port where we are the stormes it raiseth in the soul and in the body The first wound that beauty gives the soul is almost insensible and although the poyson of love be already in her and that it s even disperst through all her parts yet doth she not beleeve herself sick or at least thinks not her mischief so great For as we doe not give to Bees the name they bear but only when they have a sting and wings so neither is love called love but when he hath his arrows and can flye that 's to say when he is pungent and unquiet At first we take it for a simple likeing or a complacency we bear to so lovely a Person with whose presence we are pleased of whom we delight to discourse whose remembrance is sweet and the desires we have to see and entertain her are so calm that wisedom with all its severity cannot condemn them even she approves them and passeth them for civilities and necessary duties but they are not long at a stand they by little and little encrease and at last by the frequent agitatiou of the Soul they kindle that fire which was there hid and cause that flame to encrease which burns and devours it then this pleasing image which never presented it self to the minde but with sweetness and respect becomes insolent and imperious it enters every moment or more fully to express it it never leaves it it mixeth with its most serious thoughts it troubles the most pleasing and profanes the most sacred it even slides into our dreams and by an insufferable perfidiousness it shews it self in them severe and cruel when there is nothing to be fear'd or abuseth us with a vain hope when we ought truly to dispair then love who before was but a child becomes the Father of all the passions but a cruel Father who hath no sooner produced one but he stiffles it to make room for an other which he spares no less then the former at once he causeth a hundred kinds of desires and designes to live and dye and to see Hope and Dispair Boldness and Fear joy and grief which he causeth continually to succeed one another Despight and Anger which he makes to flash out every moment the mixture of all these passions its impossible but you must fancie some great tempest where the fury of the wind raiseth throws down and confounds the waves where lightning and thunder breaks the clouds where light and darkness heaven and earth seem to return to their first confusion But as there are times when storms are more violent and more common there are also encounters wherein this tempest of Love is stronger and more frequent The chief in my opinion are the presence and the absence of the beloved person her love and her hate and the concurrence of a rival and we may say that these are the five acts wherein all the accidents and all the intricacies of this Passion are represented at least if there are others they pass behind the curtain and out of the spectators sight If it happen then that a lover be absent from his beloved object disquiet and fretting pursue him everywhere he hath no friends but are importunate the divertisements which were most pleasing to him are troublesome in short there is nothing in his life which displeaseth him not but silence and solitude as if he were possest with those strange diseases which makes us hate the light and men he loves nothing but darkness and deserts there he entertaines the woods the brooks the winds and the stars they have nothing as he fancies but what is conformable to the humour of her he loves and to the pains he suffers he calls them insensible as she is and finds them like him in perpetual agitation and after having a long time tormented his spirit with such like Chimeras he begins to think of those happy moments when he shall again see that desirable object that he may speak to her and give her an account of his sighs and of the tears he shed in her absence sometimes he meditates the complaints wherewith he must soften her rigor the
mouth stiffles and drowns them Even the ears are of no use to a lover he hears not half what you say to him if he answers 't is with confusion and his discourse is every moment interrupted by deep and long sights which his heart and his lungs incessantly exhale If he speak of his passion 't is with a trembling and softned voice which he lets fall at every stroke by those passionate accents which desire grief admiration usually form he grows pale lean he loseth his appetite he cannot sleep and if somtimes grief and weariness overtake him his slumbers are continually interrupted by dreams which do often more afflict his minde then the true ills which he suffers When the beloved person presents herself to his eyes when she is but named or when any thing awakens his remembrance of her at the same instant his heart riseth and is agitated his pulse becomes unequal and irregular and he grows so unquiet that he cannot stay in one place sometimes chilness seiseth him somtimes heat fires all his blood sometimes he feels himself animated with an extraordinary force and courage sometimes he is cast down and languisheth and even sometimes he faints lastly he feels himself strucken with a sickness which laughs at the Physitians skill and which findes no remedy but in death or in love it self But let 's no farther let us finish this discourse with the artifice of the Painter as it begun let 's hide what we cannot describe be content to enquire the causes of those effects which we have now observed in the essence and Nature of this Passion PART 2. Of the Nature of LOVE ONe of the greatest wonders in Love is that this Passion being so general and so common and wherewith we may say all knowing men have been touched there hitherto hath none been found who hath clearly discovered its nature and origine for after having seen all what hath been written thereof we may affirm that the love of Phiâ—osophers was as well blind as that of Poets and that he who said it was I know not what which came I know not whence and went away I know not how made not one of the worst encounters Now although I will not examine all the definitions which are given it the bounds which I have prescribed being too narrow to permit so long a discourse yet there are some which are esteem'd the most reasonable whose defects I must observe that I may well establish that which I mean to propose and you may wonder that I approve not that of Socrates who was more knowing in Love then all the Philosophers in Antiquity nor that of S. Thomas who understood Morality better then any man after him So that I am oblig'd to tell you the reasons which make me dissent from their opinions And which make me steer another course then they have done For the first who defin'd Love to be a desire of Beauty he confounds two Passions in one nay even he destroys them both since desire moves only towards those things which we have not and is quenched when we possesse them although Love continue in its possession and even sometimes therein renders it self more violent and then if love be a desire it would be no more Love since we cannot desire what we enjoy and by the same reason desire would no longer be desire I know well you will say that there is no possession so entire and full where desire may not finde its place and were it but the continuation of the good we enjoy 't were sufficient to employ it and to render it inseparable from Love but this escape is unprofitable for if the possession be not entire it supposeth a part which yet we have not enjoyed and who wisheth the continuation of a good considers it not as present but as a thing to come and therefore he forms a new Idea of the good he possesseth and hath a different motive from that which its presence gives and this is enough to cause two several passions otherwise we should confound Love with Hope and even with all the other motions of the soul which are often found by one only object according as we consider it several ways For S. Thomas who says that Love is a complacency of the appetite in the thing which is lovely either he takes the word complacency for the sutableness which the appetite finds in the object which the imagination proposeth or else for the pleasure and the joy which the object yeelds it if it be that sutableness it is formed before Love if it be the pleasure it follows it For its certain that when the imagination or the understanding have judged a thing to be good the first thing the appetite doth is to agree consent to the judgment which they made of it and although this more clearly appears in the will then in the sensitive appetite because the will is free to consent or refuse what is proposed to it and that consent seems to be an act particular to it yet there is in the appetite a certain image of that action and its likely it approves what the imagination presents before it carries or moves it self towards it and this approbation and agreement is the complacency of which we speak which is nothing else but the satisfaction and the quiet the appetite takes at sight of the objects which are conformable to it So light rejoyceth the eyes even before it move the appetite and the pleasure they receive in this encounter is not a Passion nor a Motion but a certain calm which coms from the conformity of the object with that power The same happens to the appetite when the imagination proposeth any thing that is lovely it afterwards likes and moves to possess it so that this agreement precedes Love and Joy follows it as you shall perceive by the sequel To form then a definition of Love without these difficulties and defects we are first to suppose the difference betwixt that Love which is a habit and that which is a Passion for being a Motion when that Motion ceaseth the Passion also is at an end and we may say that there is no more Love but the habit forbears not to be there still which is nothing else but the impression of the beloved object which remains in the Mind and which causeth that at all times when the thought proposeth it to the appetite it moves and forms the passion of which we speak the Passion of Love is then a Motion and because Motions draw their differences from the end whereto they tend we are to observe what its end is Now as the appetite stirs not but to possess good and fly from ill we cannot doubt but the possession of good is the end of Love but as we cannot possess a thing without in some manner uniting our selves therunto it necessarily follows that Love is a Motion of the appetite by which the Minde unites it self to that
the spirits and the blood slide in the veins in the same manner as water runs in the Channels of Fountains or in Rivers whose beds are large and even for Love which dilates the spirits proportionably enlargeth the vessels and so giveth them the more liberty it renders their course less turbulent and confused But the chief reason of this equality is because Love hath commonly no other Passions following it which have contrary motions as anger which is always accompanied with grief and which retires the spirits towards the heart at the same time when it drives them forth For although Joy Desire and Hope which are almost always with Love diversly move the blood yet they doe not imprint motions quite opposite as we shall make it appear so that it is not subject to that tumult nor to that unequal agitation which the contrarities cause in fluid bodies but with what violence soever it be driven all its parts flow equally and without confusion and there is no doubt but that secret joy which Lovers feel without thinking even of the beloved object proceeds from some kinde of motion whose impression remains in the humors after the cessation of the minds agitation For as Nature loves order and equality in all her actions when she sees the motion of the blood conformable to her inclination she is sensible of a certain joy whose image or shaddow presents it self to our minds and disposeth us to mirth without knowing the cause and I beleeve for the same reason that if the humors were always agitated with this flux and reflux which the opposite Passions use to cause there would not be a moment in Love exempt from grief and perplexity and that those excesses of joy would never be felt which so often happen because that the soul cannot suffer contrary motions but that she must at the same time suffer some pain and some kinde of grief But what shall we say then when these turbulent Passions as Anger Fear and Despair mingle with Love ought it to give them place when they enter the minde and dye when they spring forth seeing its motion is contrary to theirs truly I beleeve that the habit of Love remains still but the Passion ceaseth when another destroys its motion and principally if it be violent and indeed a man in anger or possessed with fear thinks not on the beloved object and at the least the thoughts he hath of it are stiffled by those of revenge or of the danger he would shun It s true that as these Passions enter instantly into the minde they commonly go out as readily when at the same time the first returns the impression of the beloved object furnishing new Idea's which awaken the appetite and cause therein a new commotion which is nothing difficult to beleeve if we consider that the appetite and the spirits are agitated more easily then the air And that their motion is in some manner like that of lightning which pierceth the clouds in an instant which followes flash after flash and leaves no trace of the way they made And if these Passions are weak they may be well enough compatible with Love but they diminish its ardor because the soul dividing it self to several objects cannot wholly give it self to what is lovely and because the agitation which this causeth in the humors is hindred by the flood of those others which oppose its course Now let 's see what this vehemency is which accompanies this motion of the spirits and whether it be as great in this Passion as it is in anger in fear and in the rest For its certain there are some which naturally are not so violent as Hope and Compassion where there never is those extreme transports which are to be observed in the rest Now you must not think that Love is as the two latter and that it hath the moderation they have the sallies it makes and the tempests it raiseth are sometimes so great that it wracks the minde and the alteration which all the body suffers in those encounters is an evident witness that the humors are moved with a great impetuosity the beginnings truly are sweet and we may say they are like to those peaceable winds which a weak heat raiseth and which afterwards change into whirlwindes when it grows stronger for as at the birth of this Passion the Idea of the beloved object makes no great impression in the minde being if we may so speak but lightly and superficially printed so it also causeth in the appetite but a light emotion but when it hath insinuated it self into the bottom of the minde and hath rendered it self master of the imagination then it puissantly raiseth all the moving faculties and causeth those great storms which often make us lose both our reason and our health Yet will I not say when the soul is come to this excess but that the appetite and the spirits are continually agitated with this violence I confess the tempest is not always alike that it often abates and even dissipates it self whether it be that the divers designes this Passion inspires divert the Soul from its first and principal thoughts or that all things which are in nature cannot always last in one violent estate and that the minde is weary to be long stretched towards one object whence it happens that the strongest Passions at last become languishing and quiet themselves and indeed those great transports of which we speak are never but when the beloved object presents it self to the imagination with some powerful charmes as it happens in the first thoughts it hath of it or when unawares it presents it self to the sence or when the minde figures new perfections in it and forms new designs to compass the possession thereof for then the Soul being surprised with this lovely Novelty is shaken all at once and drives the Spirits like a great billow which ought to transport it to its offer'd good But what if Love moves the spirits thus it must needs produce the same effects as joy doth and that its violence must quench the heat of the entrails and cause fainting and syncopes as this doth it seems that even necessarily these accidents must be in it since these two passions have the same object that they are but little separate and that they have a growth alike for where Love is extreme joy ought also to be so and yet none of those symptomes whereof we have spoken have been observed to be in Love at least if any such like thing hath happened to Lovers the excess of those two Passions never was the cause but it must have been Grief Despair and the like how comes it to pass then that the Love of beauty produceth not the same effects as Joy doth or that Joy causeth not the same accidents in this Passion which it often causeth alone To discover this secret you must first suppose that these disorders seldom happen that they have been observeable only
a desperate man sometimes he walks fast slowe or stands still according as Desire Astonishment or Grief possess him So that all his motions going with the spring of other Passions we are not here obliged to their examen but we must remit it to the discourse we will make of every one in particular Now let us to that of those Characters which are purely natural and necessary and wherein it seems the Soul hath no share The eyes are sparkling in Love by reason of the quantity of spirits which flie thither for it is not to be doubted but that from them it is that that resplendent vivacity comes which is so visible in them since they lose it when they retire or disperse themselves as it happens to those who are possest with fear or who die But what addes to augment this lustre w eh appears in the eyes 't is that the Membrane which in virons them being swelled and extended by the confluence of those vapours and spirits becomes more smoothe and consequently more shining and that there is still over it a certain humidity where light resplends and sparkles But whence proceeds this Humidity Is it not that the heat and agitation which the spirits cause in the brain liquifies and makes the humours flow over the eyes for even Tears are so caused in Joy Or rather that those subtil vapours of blood which the Soul drives with impetuosity flie out and presently thicken by reason of the coldness of the air and of the Membranes And indeed here the eyes are hollow and sunk though they still seem great and humid which would not be if this humidity came from the humours which fall from the brain for they would fill the parts which are all about the eye and would keep it lifted up And therefore this humidity must come from within and the muscles and fleshie parts which inviron it must shrink for as their substance is soft and is made of a very subtil blood it falls and dissolves presently whence it happens that the eye sinks but its body remains still full moist and sparkling by reason of the vapours and spirits which incessantly gather there Unless it be at last when the long continuance of the Malady Grief and Despair have quenched the natural heat which makes the eyes lose their splendor and vivacity and become obscure dry and set as we will shew in the Chapter of Grief where we will also give a reason for Tears which are so common to Lovers The redness which love so often makes appear on the forehead hath a cause to be discovered of no small difficulty For although it be easie to say that the blood riseth into the face in all those Passions wherein the soul drives out the spirits yet there are those which carry it rather to one place then to another The redness which Choler excites begins by the eyes that of Shame by the extremities of the cheeks and ears and that of Love by the forehead And 't is from this diversity that the cause of this effect is most difficult to be found out Yet I think that we may say for what concerns Anger that the eyes being the first wherein the Passions appear are also the first sensible of the motions of the Spirits Now as the blood boils in Anger and as the Tempest which agitates it drives it with disorder and confusion to the exteriour parts thence it comes that the spirits which run to the eyes draw along with it the waves of this agitated blood which swells their veins and makes them appear red in stead that in other Passions they carry with them the purest and most subtil parts of the blood which cannot cause this effect And it is therefore true that Anger causeth redness to arise in the face sooner then any other Passion and that it begins to discover it in the eyes because the blood follows the spirits which gather in that place rather then in any other As for Shame you must know that the Soul which is moved therewith at the same time forms a designe both to resist and flee the ill and we may say that fleeing she assaults it for which cause it forceth the blood to the face to drive it away but Fear at the same time makes it retire back whence it happens that the extremities of the cheeks and ears grow red as in its place shall be more amply discoursed Let us now examine the redness which Love brings into the Forehead Should it not proceed from Joy wherein the spirits after having united themselves to the good which the soul conceives overflow the neighbouring parts For if it be so the forehead must first resent it Or else the Imagination being placed in the fore-part of the brain that part is heated by the continual agitation of the spirits and after its alteration communicates it to the forehead wherewith as Physick teacheth it hath a great sympathy And indeed since paleness which appears in the rest of the face happens often from the transport of spirits into the brain it s very likely either that there is a reflux made on the neerest parts or that they are sensible of the heat which they there cause whence it happens that they are less pale and wan then the rest Now although this redness be particular to Love that of other Passions forbears not to encounter therewith and it may happen that a Lover may blush for Shame for Anger for Joy or Desire according as those Passions mixe themselves with this but this is no place to speake of them The lips are often red and moyst by the arrival of the vaporous blood which sheds it self in the face and which so easily colours those parts by reason of their softness and the delicacy of their skin and this chiefly happens at the beginning of those motions which are so frequent in this passion for at last those parts grow dry and pale whether the heat consume the sweetest and most subtil parts of the blood or that the spirits in their retreat carry them back again inwardly and so leave paleness and driness on the lips But whence chanceth it that the under lip sometimes trembles you must not beleeve it an effect of Fear or of Anger since it happens in the highest heat of Love it s then very likely that the spirits which the Desire drives in a crowd sparkle in those places and cause that part which is very moveable and without that support which the rest have to shake and 't is in that encounter that it sometimes grows white with a subtil foam the humidity which riseth in the mouth and which sheds it self on the lips being agitated by these spirits The tongue faulters because that the soul which is distracted with Passion thinks not upon the words it is to form and retires the spirits which should serve for that action to those places where she is employed whence it happens that the tongue stops or loosly
then the essence of that Passion How many of those motions will there be found such as he hath observed wherein Pleasure will never be All natural actions do they not put the soul in a state agreeable to its nature and may they not be suddenly and sensibly performed without being for all that delightful The Passion of Love is it not so formed and is it not an estate agreeable to Nature to unite it self to good and to possess it and yet Pleasure need not always accompany it And may we not then say that it is not Joy which makes this condition agreeable to Nature but rather that it is that which breeds Joy Besides what need we say it is a sudden motion seeing the Appetite hath none that are other For if it happens that the soul moves not so readily in some Passions that Iaziness comes not from the Appetite but from the faculty which proposeth that good with too much difficulty and too loosely commands the pursuit thereof Being a blinde power it goes but as 't is led and as soon as the command is given it obeys and moves in an instant It is true there may be obstacles on that side which may hinder it from so readily obeying as when there are contrary Passions to those which the object ought to inspire for an extreme grief will never suffer Joy to form it self in the Appetite But also when the hinderance is away it quickly moves and always in a moment produceth the Passion as perfect as the knowledge and motive was which it proposed For if Love hath weak-beginnings 't is because the good is weakly represented and the progresses it makes are new motions of the Appetite caused by the representation of new Ideas and new perfections In effect we may say of all the consequences and of all the increase of Passions that they are as the flame and the light which entertain and augment one the other every moment by an infinite many reiterated productions that which appears being not that which was before and which even presently will be followed by a new for all of them succeeding thus one the other without interruption seem to be but the self-same thing which hath preserved and entertained it self So it is in Joy and in all other Passions they form themselves all at once and pass in an instant they are also renewed every moment causing thus a continual flux of divers perfect motions which last as long as the knowledge sollicites the Appetite to move It is then true that the Appetite hath no motions which are not sudden That nevertheless it begins to move it self rather at one time then another by how much the faculty which commands is diligent or lazie or because there is some contrary motion which retains it And that is easie to be conceived by the example of the Eyes which see things in an instant although to see them they sometimes open quicker or slower and even after being open they may have some indisposition which may hinder them to act I know that the Physitians seem to use the same definition with Aristotle when they say that Pleasure is a quick and sensible motion which puts Nature in an estate which is agreeable to it and that if the objects make not a quick and sensible impression on the Senses or if they do not make it proportionable to Nature they can never cause Pleasure But it is easie to perceive that the Motion whereof they speak is not that of the Appetite where Pleasure consists and that it is but the cause thereof for before that the Appetite moves the objects must make such an impression as we have said and then the Soul which feels it and which sees what is its good sheds it self on it to possess it the more perfectly and so forms that pleasure which is augmented by the effusion of spirits as we will anon declare I stay not to examine how grief sometimes happens in this quick motion which moves Nature to an estate convenient for it as when we put our hands to the fire when they are extremely cold that concerns the Passion of Grief It will suffice here to observe that those objects which make not this ready impression do not cause Pleasure because that insinuating themselves by little and little Nature accustoms her self unto them and feels not the change which happens to her wherefore not knowing the good which she receives the Imagination proposeth it not to the Appetite which consequently is not moved thereby We are even thus tir'd with the most agreeable things after having too long tasted them But of this more amply at the end of this Discourse Let us continue again the thred of that Discourse which we have left and say that although all the motions of the Appetite are made suddenly yet it is true that of all the objects which move Passion there are none whose arrival so quickly and so easily moves the Appetite as Joy And this comes in my conceit from that the object of Pleasure is the good so far as it is already loved for we have already shewed that Love always precedes Joy so that being already united to the Appetite by the means of Love there is nothing in that respect which hinders the motion which that power ought to employ to relish it But it is not so in the rest of the Passions whose objects are to be examined by the Knowledge before they are proposed to the Appetite And as there are but few Goods or Evils which are pure so there are always found many things which diminish their goodness or their ill and suspend the judgement we ought to make of them But to move Joy this examen is useless the Appetite already possessing the Good all its counsels are taken all its doubts are razed and of necessity it ought to move at the same instant when it united it self to its enjoyment wherein Joy and Pleasure consist But 't is to penetrate too far into the secrets of the Soul and to stay too long on things which have no stay Let us leave these imperceptible motions and see whether those which are made in the humours and in the spirits are more easie to be discerned Yet before we begin this enquiry we shall do well to say somewhat of the Object which moves this Passion For although we have already said it was Good we must examine out of what consideration it merits that quality being assured that out of divers respects it causeth divers motions in the soul As then good forasmuch as it is amiable is the object of Love so forasmuch as it is delightful it is that of Joy neither is it powerfully delightful but when it is loved for that Pleasure presupposeth Love so that good forasmuch as it is loved ought to be the true object of Joy perhaps you will say that desire also presupposeth Love and that good must be loved to be desired it is true but desire demands
which is extended and made smoothe by their contraction All Caresses are not properly effects of Joy Take but away the serenity of the countenance the smile and the sweetness of the eyes the rest proceed from the Passion of Love which subjects the soul to the good which it conceives and fills it with a desire to possess it For the offers of service respectful complements and civilities are so many marks of submission which it renders to the perfection and excellency of the person it loves and the embraces kisses and amorous looks are witnesses of its desire and of the care it takes to unite it self thereunto For Laughter although it seem to be a particular effect of Joy yet it is not always to be found with it And when it accompanies it it ows not its birth to it alone there are other causes which contribute thereunto and which excite an emotion in the Soul quite different from that of Pleasure So that we were not afraid to call it a Passion not considering the outward motion onely which appears on the face but that which the soul inwardly suffers the nature and effects whereof we will examine in the following Chapter There remains now the Disquiet and Impatience onely whose causes we are to enquire But we must first observe that they are not in all kinde of Joy there are calm Pleasures wherein the soul feels nothing of Impatience wherein we may say she rests in her motion Such are those which accompany the exercise of Vertue the knowledge of the Sciences and the possession of Supernatural good In a word pure and true Delights do never disquiet the soul they always leave a calm and a pleasing serenity And although they often moves desires which agitate it we may say they are little windes which purifie it without causing any storms or that they are like those sweet smoaks which the flame raiseth which nourish it in stead of dissipating it and which rather entertain the equality of its motion then disturb it But it is not so with false delights As by little and little they make themselves felt and seen as a remedy for grief there must until they are wholly possest always remain somewhat which is displeasing in the Minde And then you cannot wonder if Impatience accompany the desires it hath to be delivered from it and to see it self enjoying that perfect pleasure wherein the end of its grief consists But it foresees not that its contentment is to finish there also and that assoon as it hath an entire possession of the Good it seeks it will be disgusted So that being not to be satisfied it cannot but suffer perpetual disquiets seeking what it cannot finde and meeting what it never sought Besides all these vain hopes which Joy inspires breed divers designes and as it runs from one to another without stopping at any it is impossible in this agitation but that all its actions must appear uuquiet its discourse without order its looks inconstant all the body in a continual motion whereunto also the sparkling of the spirits contributes which tickles the nerves and sollicities the parts to move themselves considering also that those Pleasures cannot be had but by the action of the corporal powers which at last tire themselves disquiet must accompany them since its an effect of wearisomeness These are the Characters which Joy imprints in the body by the souls command Now let us see those which are caused without her ardors and which by a necessary consequence proceed from the agitation which is made in the humors and in the spirits The vivacity of the eyes comes from their splendor and motion which are the undoubted signes of life and vigour since death renders them obscure and fixt as the Spirits then disperse themselves in Joy and as they are luminous and active the eyes which abundantly receive them and which are transparent and easie to move become agile and resplendent besides that the humidity which is spred over them being agitated by the motion they make the light becomes more trembling and causeth a certain moving luster which strikes the sight with several rays and presents to the imagination the motion and noise which the sparkes of fire cause at their birth whence they are said to crackle Now this humidity may come from two causes either because the lids in shutting themselves crush the humors they contain and render the eyes moist as we will more particularly shew in the discourse of Laughter Or because that heat and the spirits open their passages and dissolve those humors which afterward runs on the parts and make them moist nay even if the brain be very moist thence they draw rivulets of tears which are as they say quite different from those which Grief useth to move not only in their cause but even in their quality for they are cold in Joy and hot in grief although it seems as if the contrary should happen since Joy heats and Grief cooles and that hath even obliged some to say that the teares of Joy were warm but it is easie to agree and give a reason for the difference by saying that the tears which Joy sheds are truely cold in comparison of others but that they seem colder because they run down a face which that Passion hath heated by the effusion of spirits On the contrary those of Grief are colder in effect but as they fall on the cheekes which the flight of spirits hath deprived of heat they seem to be hotter in the same manner as hot water affoords divers sentiments of hot and cold according as the hand is hotter or colder But of this more exactly hereafter in the discourse you have of Tears For that redness that good case and that vaporous heat which appears through the outward parts they also proceed from that effusion of spirits which draw along with them the blood and the sweetest vapours which raise themselves in the veins and swell the parts they arrive at colouring them vermillion and inspiring them with a sweet and moist heat The trembling of the lips comes also from the Spirits which abundantly flowing into those parts which are soft and suspended agitate them with the motion they have and make them appear trembling as it happens to leaves which are shaken with the winde or with rain The voice grows fuller because the muscles which serve to form it are loosned by heat and give it a greater and larger passage it is true that it sometimes becomes sharp and shrill but that is the effect of a vehement laughter which contracts the muscles streightens the conduit of the voice or else of impatience or some other impetuous Passions which mingle themselves with it and oblige the soul to drive it out with violence it often stops it self all at once by the souls ravishment which causeth it to forget the most part of its ordinary functions and leaves the organs of the voice without motion and without action
tempests commonly are nothing else but a noise they vanish in useless and impotent designes and all the ill they cause is that they drive away the tranquillity of the Minde they move in And truely whoever desires is exposed to four Passions which as impetuous windes incessantly agitate him Audacity and Fear Hope and Despair do alternatively shake him and often so hastily succeed one the other that they mix and confound themselves together He fears he hopes he despairs at the same time he wills and he will not and often through the violence of desiring he knows not what he desires His irresolution and his disquiet appears even outwardly for he cannot remain in one place or in one posture he turns from the one side to the other he sits he riseth he goes with long strides and stops of a sudden Sometimes he so profoundly doats that you would think him ravished in an Extasie and at that instant he awakes sending forth with great sighs now a sharp and now a languishing voice His words are interrupted with sobs and tears and his discourse is full of long exclamations and passionate accents which commonly accompany impatience regret and languor He most commonly speaks to himself interrogates and answers himself And if others entertain him his minde is always distracted his answers confused and entangled and sometimes even his speech is cut quite off what endeavour soever he makes to utter it His mouth is filled with a clear and subtil water his tongue trembles by intervals and licking his lips he moistens and whitens them with froth His face is swelled and grows red his head advanceth it self on the desired object his arms extend themselves towards it Even his heart as straitned and contracted as it is darts it self out in great throbs and raiseth the brest with so much violence that the ribs sometimes are disjoynted Appetite and Sleep fosake him Sometimes he grows Gray in a moment all his radical moisture is consumed his body grows lean and dry and nothing but Enjoyment or Death can terminate his languor and his desires PART 2. Of the Nature of Desire AT first it seems as if there were no difficulty to say what desire is as it never forms it self but for those things which we have not and which we would have we may easily beleeve that the object which excites it is an absent good that the Soul endeavours to draw neer unto it and that the motion it makes towards it causeth also all the essence of this Passion But who ever examines it carefully will finde more doubts then resolutions and in pursuit will confess that there are many things to be desired in the common knowledge of the desires for besides that we desire the good we possess and that ill oftentimes is wished it is evident that this definition confounds desire and Love and makes no essential difference which may distinguish them one from another for if the good by being absent moves the desire we must cease to love that good when it is absent from us or Love and Desire must be but one Passion although it be an unheard of thing amongst the Philosophers that two species should be confounded in one and that we should cease to love good when it is no longer present Besides that absence seems not to be the true Object of Desire nor to be any part of it as some have thought since there is nothing in it which is able to draw the appetite to it being rather an il then a good therefore the desire having no other object but goodness and seeing the motion it makes towards it ought to be like that of Love it must needs be against the maximes of the most wholesome Philosophy that they are not two different Passions and that Love Desire and Joy it self are but the same thing Now this conclusion took its original from that these Passions were defined in too general termes and that the difference of the motion was not specified which was proper to every of them for since all their essence consists in motion if they are different amongst themselves it must be by the diversity of their motions and their definitions must express the particular agitation which is found in every of them To finde that then of Desire we must suppose that this Passion alwayes follows Love because we onely Desire the things we beleeve good and when ill excites our desires it is always under the show and appearance of good For the death which an unhappy man seeks seems to him the haven and end of his miseries danger to men of courage is the fountain of glory and honour In fine all the world desires the estrangement of ill for that it is a good to be delivered from it Desire therefore hath good for its object and consequently it alwayes follows Love since Love is the first motion the Soul makes after good in effect assoon as the appetite hath received the image and Idea of good it moves towards it and at that instant unites it self to it because it is presented to it and this union causeth the Passion of Love as we have said before but because this union gives us not always the perfect possession whether it be that the good presents it self not alwayes wholly or whether the things besides that Ideal being which they have in their thoughts have another true and real one which also requires a real union when the Soul hath acknowledged that it hath not wholly enjoyed the good which was presented to it it is unsatisfied with the first motion it made towards it not to have been united to its Idea it seeks it out of it self and forms this Passion which we call Desire This being granted it is easie to conceive what the motion of the appetite is when it is agitated in this encounter for in Love it moves straight forwards to the Idea of good but in Desire it seems to quit it and as if it would run out of it self it darts it self towards the absent object So that it is very likely these two motions are made one after the other principally if they are violent for every of them wholly moving the Soul and driving it several wayes it seems as if they could not meet together and that of necessity the appetite must first unite it self to the imagined good since it pursues it when it is absent and that afterwards it takes its first course going from one to the other after the same manner from time to time in effect we experiment that the desires appear not in the Soul but as lightnings that they are onely throws and flashes which it gives it self and that their continuance depends onely from the doubles and frequent reprizes they make So that they may be exactly defined in saying That they are Motions of the Appetite by which the Soul darts it self towards the absent good purposely to draw near and unite it self thereunto Yet must you not imagine
that the Appetite in darting it self so goes beyond its natural bounds and that as animate bodies it goes from one to another to advance towards the absent good all this agitation is made in it self as we said in the discourse of Love and although it seems as if it would cast it self out it onely beats against its bounds and drives those parts as waves which beat on the shore without being able to go farther But since in effect the Soul goes not out of it self and that consequently it approacheth not the destined good we may enquire to what purpose the motion serves which it makes in this encounter we must doubtless confess that it is often useless to it if it penetrates not into the Faculties which may move the creature towards the good and give it the possession thereof For Nature hath given the Appetite the power to move it self thus onely to inspire the same Motion into those Faculties which are under its direction The agitation it gives it self is the Idea of that which the moving qualities ought to have outwardly it is like the chalk and the designe of a work which is to be finished in the Organs but if it rest there they prove vain and useless throws and sallies they are imperfect Motions and unformed desires which in some manner offend Nature for that she having destined them for action they destroy the order and commerce which she hath established amongst the Faculties of the Soul when they drive them not to the end she proposeth In effect there is so great a relation and so essential an order between the Desire and the enjoyment that we never form desires for those things which we beleeve impossible because the Soul at that time hath no end nor aim to work and can produce no action unless it have a motive to excite it and which staggers it since that the end is the first of all causes and that which gives them efficacy and Motion I know that there are several things we unprofitably seek which can never be acquired what care or pains soever we take but for that we do not consider the impediments and obstacles which we ought therein to encounter And if reason sometimes proposeth them and that contrary to its advice we continue to wish for them this disorder comes from the imagination which most commonly fancies things feasible which easily perswade the Appetite thereunto which afterwards causeth those vain and chimerical desires of which we have now spoken It is far a greater difficulty to know how this darting forth may be effected when Desire mixeth it self with Fear Grief and other Passions where the Soul inwardly retires it self and venters it self sooner then it seems to have gone out We may well beleeve that these Motions follow one another as we said it happens in Love that after the presence of ill hath made the Appetite retreat Desire sends it forth again to seek the good which is to accrew unto it by the absence of the ill and that there is thus every moment a continual ebbing and flowing of all these Passions but I beleeve this happens not always so and that even in flying the Soul may make the Motion which the Desire asketh without being obliged to return the same way As he who flees his enemy at the same time gets farther from him and neerer the place of his security so it is likely the Appetite retiring it self may at once shun evil and pursue good and that the same endeavours and the same strivings it makes to hasten its flight may also serve to form those desires which it hath to possess the good it fancies and that it seeks to go out of it self in the same manner as when there is nothing but what is purely good which attracts it for the Soul is so much disturbed at the presence of ill that it seems as if it were not enough to flee and estrange herself from it but that she must even hide and steal her self away from her self that she may by precipitating her flight go beyond her bounds and go out of herself as she doth in the pursuit of good But it is an errour which the Passions easily inspire in a blind power which is not guided by Reason whatsoever endeavour she makes she remaines still within her own limits and leaves not those places which she beleeves she hath abandoned it is true that the Spirits which follow the Motions in effect retire to the Centre of the Body and that the Organs cause a real flight in the creature which is surprised with this Passion but all this is without the Soul and we are to speak onely of what is within For the full clearing of this definition we have given there remains onely to be examined whether the Absent Good is the true Object of Desire for we proposed at the beginning of this discourse two very considerable Objections which seem to prove the contrary since it is evident we often desire the things we enjoy and that Absence being an evil is rather capable to take off the Appetite then to provoke it thereunto so that in this case the Object of Desire cannot be different from that of Love and so both must be but one Passion For the first we have already shewed in the former Discourses that when we desire the good we possess we alwayes fancy somewhat which we doe not yet enjoy whether it be that the most part of goods not presenting themselves to it in the whole there must still be a part wanting or whether this possession being to be but of a short continuance we desire its continuation as a good which is still to come To the second we must say although it be true that absence draws not the Appetite and that it is goodness onely it doth not therefore follow that Love and Desire have the same Motives nor that both make but one Passion for besides that it seems that Motion draws not always its species from the end it tends unto but ever from the middle through which it passeth to reach thither as we may judge by the circular Motion which is onely different from the direct but for that it makes a bent line and for that cause should these Passions have but one Object yet they must be of different species by reason of the different way they take to attain it it is true that in moral things the conditions and circumstances which have no relation with the Object diversifie the Motives of Actions and that the absence of Good gives another Motion to the Soul then goodness of it self alone gives for although it always seeks to unite it self to the good it knows if it be not present it must add another design to this first inclination and take care to draw near what is far from it before it can unite it self and gain a perfect enjoyment so that the true Motion of Desire is the Souls drawing neer and not the