of all its effects is the powerful impression which beauty makes in the minde so that in making it appear how the objects of other Passions cannot make it so strong and deep it will also be manifest why it s of a longer continuance and why it keeps the minde more intent then any of the rest It s a certain truth that there is a secret knowledge in us of those things which serve for our preservation and its likely that this knowledge is gotten by means of some Idea's which nature hath imprinted in the bottom of the Soul which being as it were hid and buried in its abysses excite and stir up themselves at the coming of those which the sences present and so beget in the appetite Love or Hate Desire or Aversion Now as there are but two things which serve to preserve us the seeking of good and the flying from evil its evident nature inclines rather to seek good then to shun ill and as there are also goods which are more excellent profitable then others she hath a greater care of those of higher then of these of a lower value she forms a more exact Idea and makes a stronger and more profoud impression of them which being granted you cannot doubt the preservation of the species being a more general and more excellent good then all others which respect only a particular good but that it hath oblig'd nature to give the soul a more efficacious knowledge a more ardent desire of that then of any other thing whatsoever and but that consequently she hath powerfully imprinted the Idea of beauty since its the mark which makes that good known and that charme which excites the soul to its possession so that exterior beauty entring the imagination and meeting that general Idea which nature hath graven therein unites it self therewith awakens and excites that secret and powerful desire which accompanies it and applyes it to the object it represents unto it thence is that strong attention which fixeth a Lovers minde on the person of the beloved and which causeth in him after the Love of silence and solitude the disgust of all other divertisements which were most delightful to him and all those visions which a solitary life inspires in a soul agitated with Hope and Fear in a word wounded by the cruellest of all the Passions We are now to enquire the source of that high esteem which we make of the beloved object for from thence issue all the respects the submissions the services and the greatest part of the dialect which Lovers use and truly its a strange thing and almost incredible were it not dayly observed to see Kings submit their crowns and their power to the beauty of a slave the wisest men to adore a vitious person and the most couragious to subject themselves to base and feeble mindes worthy of nothing but contempt whence can that powerful spell proceed which makes us lose the knowledge of what we are and of what we love and makes us have so ill an opinion of our selves and so advantagious a thought of what we love we need not doubt but the imagination is the chief cause of this error As it hath the power to enlarge the images it receives and to cloath them in the new fantasmes which disguise the things and make them appear quite otherwise then they are it sets on the image of that beauty which is represented unto it what it useth to do in dreams or on a light Idea which it hath from the humor which is agitated it forms a hundred several Chimaera's which have a conformity with that humor for the imagination receiving the image of the beloved object forms it self on the model of that general Idea of beauty which nature hath imprinted in it adorning it with the same graces she confounds it therewith and so makes the beloved person appear more perfect then in effect it is and we may further say that herein it happens as in the sickness of the minde where the particular error which disorders it changeth and corrupts all the thoughts which have any relation to it those who are at distance from it remaining still enough reasonable forasmuch as a Lover may preserve his judgement free in those things which do not concern the person beloved but as soon as that is interested he becomes a slave to his passion and judgeth of things according to that pleasing error which it hath inspired into him in effect it s a wonder that a deformed face and which we should have judged such should presently appear full of attractives as if the imagination had painted it or at least had blotted out all its defects But the paint or the perfection it gives comes from that Idea wherewith it s filled and which nature hath affoorded to oblige it to enquire the greatest good which can happen to it However it be the soul being abused in the judgement it made of beauty and taking it for a most excellent good whose possession ought to render it more perfect wholly submits to it and considers it no otherwise then as a Queen who is to command it For good hath that property that it communicates it self with Empire and renders it self master of those that receive it forasmuch as it is a perfection which is in stead of act and form as the thing which receives it is in stead of power and matter Now it s a certain maxime that the form renders it self master of the matter otherwise it could not receive perfection And consequently beauty must have that predominant quality that the soul which is touched with it must subject herself to its Empire thence followes all those submissions and respects all those termes of servitude and of captivity which are so common with Lovers whence its easie to draw the reasons of the principle we have established let 's now examine the means Love hath invented to possess the good it tends to Although Love may subsist in the only union which the appetite makes with the Idea of the beloved object we may further say that this union and this Love are not perfect Love stayes not there but always seeks really to unite it self but by the communication of thoughts and by the actual presence which the sences require the soul in a manner going out of her self by speech and the sences serving for channels by which the objects flow into the imagination so that the soul beleeves that by means of discourse she strongly unites her self to the beloved person and that it unites it self to the soul by means of the sences Whence it comes that Lovers wish they may continually see hear and entertain those they love even the kiss wherein they place their highest felicities hath no other end but to unite their soul to the beloved object So that only those parts by which it seems most to communicate it self give and receive it as the mouth because its the door of the thoughts
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
but also as we have already shewed in our discourse of Love that this complacency is no true pleasure and that the Daemons which are capable of that acceptableness cannot be touched with Joy which yet they ought most perfectly to have if it come from knowledge alone we must then stick to the common opinion and with it say that Pleasure is a motion of the appetite since its good which moves that part of the minde and that pleasure hath no other object but the same good Yet this raiseth another difficulty for if it be true that the soul ceaseth to move when it arives at the end whereto it tended moving to possess a good the possession ought to be the end and term of its motion So that the pleasure which comes alwayes after the possession is rather a rest then a motion of the appetite and yet if we were agreed that possession is the aim and end of the motions of the minde we would say that that onely ought to be understood of those which it employs to arrive thereunto for although it bear it self not towards the good it possesseth it hinders it not from agitating to taste it again and from being ravished in the enjoyment it hath had but to speak more exactly possession is not the last end which the soul proposeth it is the enjoyment which is the perfection and accomplishment of the possession For it is certain we possess things which we enjoy not and we may say that the good renders it self master of the Soul when it presents and unites it self unto it but that she becomes mistris of it when she enjoys it After all this we can never say that rest is the end which the soul proposeth to it self since the end is the perfection of things and that there are some which must be always in action to be perfect Now the soul is of this kinde she never tends to rest unless out of weakness and it is therefore necessary that Joy and Enjoyment be in motion let us then see what an one it is To discover it we must observe that Pleasure and Joy are never formed in the soul till after the good hath inspired Love therein for as the first motion of the appetite towards good is to unite it self thereunto and Love consists in this union it is impossible that any man should fancy any other motion which could be posterior to that and therefore if Pleasure be a motion of the soul towards good it ought to presuppose love always come after it Now as this Love always precedes it follows not that it must always accompany it there may be obstacles which may hinder the appetite from moving to form this Passion and grief perhaps may be so great that it may employ the whole soul that it will not admit the least ray of Joy but it s also certain that if there be nothing which retains the appetite it always goes from Love to Pleasure because the soul unites it self to good but to enjoy it and it is impossible it should enjoy it but by Pleasure and to speak truth enjoyment is nothing but pleasure which we finde in the possession of good and according as enjoyment is more perfect it is also the greater and the more excellent What motion can the appetite then suffer in pleasure and enjoyment beyond that of Love whereby it unites it self to what is good certainly it is a thing very difficult to conceive how these actions should pass into a power which is quite blinde and hid in the bottome of the soul they must be extreamly obscure and what light soever the minde can bring they suffer themselves to be seen not without a great deal of trouble yet since we have engaged our selves to shew the difference of the Passions by the difference of corporal motions we must necessarily to know what Joy is finde in sensible things a kinde of motion which may resemble the agitation which the Minde suffers in this encounter As it happens then in the Passion of Love that the Appetite carries it self towards the beloved object that it runs thither and unites it self thereunto we may say that this motion is like to that of fluid bodies which run toward their centre and think to finde their rest there but because when they are there they for all that stop not they return and scatter themselves on themselves they swell and consequently over-flow So after that the Appetite is united to its good its motion ends not there it returns the same way scatters it self on it self and over-flows those powers which are neerest to it By this effusion the soul doubles on the image of the good it hath received mixeth and confoundeth it self with it and so thinks to possess it the more by doubly uniting it self thereunto Nay even as the Appetite swells and thicks by this reflux it cannot contain it self within its bounds and is constrained to distil it self into that faculty which acquainted it with the knowledge of the object sharing with it the good it hath received and by that means making all the parts of the soul concur to the possession thereof wherein perfect enjoyment consists For since the soul hath no other end but perfectly to possess the good and that perfectly to possess it it must have the knowledge of that possession the Appetite having no knowledge cannot alone make it enjoy what it loves the Imagination and the Understanding must contribute and then after they have proposed the good to the Appetite and that the Appetite is united thereunto it returns to the one and to the other and gives them an account of what it hath done to the end that by uniting their functions the soul may unite it self to its good in all its parts and that it may make for it that circular motion which is natural to it and wherein the accomplishment and perfection of its operations consists as the Platonick Philosophy teacheth After all if it be true that the Soul and the Spirits work in the same manner in the Passions we may not doubt but that the motion which the soul suffers in Joy is such as we have said since that of the spirits is altogether like it For after Love hath carried them to good they scatter and over-flow themselves on the organs of the Senses as we are about to make known So that we cannot miss in saying That Joy is an effusion of the Appetite whereby the Soul spreads it self on what is good to possess it the more perfectly I know that the definition of Aristotle is quite different from this for he says that it is a motion of the Soul which suddenly and sensibly puts it in a state agreeable to Nature But the place where he proposeth it shews sufficiently that he had no intention to render it very exact treating in that place but with Orators and not with Philosophers And truely whoever will neerly examine it will finde nothing less
another condition to wit absence which never happens in Joy where the good must be alwayes present for when past things or those which are to come delight us it is an effect of the imagination which renders them present and makes them pass for such as they are in the thoughts For the rest by the word Good we must not onely conceive what is truely and apparently good but even also the ills which we have eschewed It is thus that the memory of the paines we have suffered and of the dangers we have escaped is pleasing forasmuch as it is good to have been delivered from them it is thus that vengeance is so sweet because that by overcoming the ill we no more fear the assaults thereof it is thus that tears are sometimes delightful because they discharge nature of an unprofitable burthen and that it even seems as if the grief which excited them runs and slides away with them You must besides observe that good being a thing agreeable to nature this is aswel to be understood of depraved nature as of that which is perfect for a sick man takes pleasure in things which are contrary to him and a vitious man finds contentment in his debauches because they are conformable to his corrupted and irregular nature Now after this to examine by retail all what may cause pleasure besides that it would wrong both our design and the Reader both which ask for brevity we may easily know it were but to lose time and words It will then suffice to say that since good is the source of all the sweets which this Passion causeth to flow into the soul and that it is nothing but what is fit for our nature and what perfects it it must be that the good which makes us the more perfect raises also the greater the more solid pleasures Now as we are composed of two parts of soul and body and as that is incomparably more excellent and therefore it follows that the perfection which it acquireth is also more excellent and that the goods which cause it are the most noble and the most delightful But because the goods of the body are for the preservation of the species or of the individuals and that that is more considerable to nature as being the most common or the most general good from thence it is that the pleasure which accompanies it is the sweetest and most sensible of all others and by the same reason the objects of Tasting and feeling delight most because they are the Senses most necessary for life and without which the creature cannot subsist It is true that the objects of Seeing and Hearing may contest the preheminency being more noble then those base and material qualities which respect the inferior Senses But if we consider that there are almost no creatures which delight themselves with the beauty of sounds and colours we may confess speaking generally that the objects of Tasting and Touching are the most delightful and yet that in Man those of Seeing and Hearing have the advantage because that those two Senses having a great affinity with the Understanding and being chiefly destined to its service their end is also more noble necessary then it is in beasts where they are for no other use but to preserve the animal life which they have From all these considerations it is easie to deduce the principal differences of Pleasure For it is either Intellectual or Sensible Pure or Impure True or False True Pleasures are those which are pure to wit which are not linked or mixed with Grief and they are those which are fit for Man in the most perfect condition that Nature could place him Such are the pleasures which are found in Contemplation and in the exercise of Vertue such are those which follow the actions of a secure Health and the functions of Senses perfectly disposed Now these Pleasures have this property that they are long lasting that they never tire that they may be relished at all times and that Grief never precedes nor follows them For a man who is in a state of Natural perfection is never weary of Meditation nor of performing good actions Life is always sweet and pleasing to him and the Senses are always disposed to receive their Objects with Delight Some may now say that Eating and Drinking and other natural actions are convenient for the perfect nature of Man which yet cause also disgust For Musick and the sight of the fairest things at last tires the ears and eyes and the sweetest flowers wherewith Venus was ever crowned as Pindarus says at last become importunate and displeasing It is true But we must also remember that all these things being sutable to Nature ought to have the conditions which perfection requires they must be moderate in quantity and quality the circumstance of time place and persons must meet Besides that the greatest part are not of themselves convenient for Nature but onely by accident that is to say they are onely convenient by reason of the irregularities which preceded them whose remedy they are So eating and drinking cure hunger and thirst so rest and sleep cause labour and weariness to cease In a word the greatest part of our actions afford pleasure onely because Nature empties or fills it self and corrects the one with the other wherefore the pleasure which follows them is not absolutely pure nor real but onely by accident whence it is that it tires that it lasts but little and that we are not at all times capable to taste it as those which are absolutely pure But let us leave these Moral Speculations and without staying any longer on things which are notorious to all the world let us seek new ones and see whether the Tempest which this Passion excites in us will not throw us into some unknown Land and make us know the motions of the Spirits which act as the wandering Stars whose courses and periods have not yet been observed PART 3. What the Motion of JOY is in the Spirits IN all kinde of Motion we must always fancie two terms The one where it is to begin the other where it ought to finish If the Spirits then move in Joy it seems they ought to come from the heart since it is their source and thence they move themselves towards what is Good wheresoever it presents it self to the soul Truely could Joy form it self all alone the motion of the Spirits must be so made and must by it be issued out of the heart to the meeting of what is good but because it never comes but with Love which ought always to precede it it is he who ought to cause that motion whereto Joy contributes nothing So that we must seek another for it conformable with that of the Appetite In a word we must discover how the Spirits in some manner disperse themselves even as that doth in this Passion This will not uneasily be conceived after having observed how Love carries
the victory over him In fine he becomes vain importunate and ridiculous he continually speaks of the services he hath rendered of the recompences he hath merited of the means he hath to oblige all the world If you will believe him there is none but he can procure graces and favours they belong to him onely and he alone also who can revenge himself if he should be refused Hereupon imagining that in effect he may meet with a check he becomes peevish and grows angry To some he reproacheth their negligence or their ingratitude to others their baseness or perfidiousness and often not knowing upon what to fall he accuseth Heaven and Fortune for the mischief which perhaps will never befal him Thus far Hope carries us when it is unbridled Yet must we not believe that it makes this progress successively without interruption suspition and mistrust traverse it every moment Fear at every step retains it Despair sometimes stops it all at once Desire and Boldness succeeding presently after it findes it self continually carried away and restrained by contrary motions and of the calmest of all the Passions which it is it appears the most unquiet and the most turbulent But to speak truth we ought not to accuse it for these storms it is the Passions which follow its train And if there be any thing which it can do alone it is that it establisheth the Minde against those difficulties which appear in the search of Good So that it was not without reason figured with an Anchor which truly stays ships but yet hinders them not from being still agitated by waves and tempests However Hope hath no outward Character particular to it and that which accompanies it is but a confused mixture of touches which the other motions of the Soul imprint on the body It may be compared to those ingenious Pictures wherein several figures are seen to represent another which is not there painted For although you may therein observe the marks of Desire of Joy and Boldness and often those of Fear of Despair and of Grief yet all that represents nothing else but Hope Indeed when it begins to be felt it ravisheth the body lifts up the head raiseth the brow the voice grows firm the looks assured And in that air which hath somewhat of severe in it you may perceive a moderate Joy which sweetens the eyes a certain serenity which sheds it self upon the face and a blithe vivacity which animates all its actions But this Calm lasts not long from time to time impatience and disquiet disturb it They cast their looks here and there sometimes send them up towards heaven they sigh at every moment they cannot stay in a place sometimes they grow peevish and doating they grow pale they lose courage Then by little and little retaking their first assurance they feel their forces augment they finde themselves heated with a new ardor they come they go they leap they are in perpetual agitation But to speak home these later sallies come not from Hope As it is a Passion which naturally is the most moderate of all it never riseth to these excesses All the motions it causeth are without violence and without precipitation It renders the Pulse firm without being vehement the Respiration strong without force It fortifies the actions of all the parts It awakens languishing Passions it retains those which are impetuous Finally it is the most useful of them all for Vertue and for Health Let us therefore enquire what its nature is and how it produceth all these effects PART 2. Of the nature of Hope HOpe is so fine and delicate a thing which forms and ruines it self by such weak means which so subtilly mixeth it self with other Passions and which shews it self so little as we have said that those who have enquired the nature thereof are to be excused if they have not encountred it Indeed the alliance it hath with Desire and Boldness is so great that it is very hard to separate them and to discern the motion which is proper to every of them For Boldness is never without Hope nor Hope without Desire Besides the action of the Imaginative faculty glitters so much in this Passion that that of the Appetite scarce appears and that is the reason some have defined it by the expectation of good which is a pure effect of the Imagination as being nothing but a belief and an opinion which we have of a good to come But besides that we may expect Good without hoping for it as we will shew anon Hope would not then be a Passion being no motion of the Appetite As for those who have placed it in the rank of Passions some have said that it was the consummation and the perfection of Desire Others that it was a certain confidence we had that the desired good would come But the first confound it with Desire the others with Boldness or at least if Confidence be a kinde of Hope as it is most likely it were to define the gender by the species and an obscure thing by one which is less known In a word all the definitions are faulty being either too much stretched or too much contracted and none of them observe the particular motion wherewith the Appetite is agitated in this Passion which nevertheless alone makes all its essence and without which it is impossible to know its nature We must then make it our Ground that Hope respects but good to come and that Desire always precedes it forasmuch as Desire is the first motion which the soul makes towards that kinde of good and that we never hope for any thing without having desired it before But because there are also those which we desire which we cannot hope for for well may we wish for Beauty Knowledge Glory Scepters and Diadems which are most commonly beyond our hopes that makes us judge them two different Passions and that their objects motives and motions ought also to be different Now it is not enough for the object of Hope that the things be thought possible for they have that of common with Desire as we have said but besides that we must believe that they will effectually happen Yet this belief is not most certain and infallible for we never hope for those things which necessarily are to happen but they must be doubtful and we must imagine that there are difficulties to obtain them But where can the difficulty be For it is not always to be found in the things we hope for since there are some which move that Passion which yet are very easie not in the means we employ to acquire them being often without difficulty to be performed We may then say that in the things we hope we always imagine we can never enjoy them but by the means of some other man whether in effect he labour to make us obtain them or that he no ways hinder us For it is certain that if they were wholly in our own power and
did we believe that nothing could hinder us from the possession of them they could never beget Hope in us and the Soul would be content to adde to the Desire which she would then form faith and assurance that it would happen which is an effect of the Judgement and not of the Appetite The difficulty then in Hope comes always from a third which is as the medium betwixt him who hopes and the thing hoped for in whose liberty we suppose it is to do or not to do what we hope For although we should often hope good from those things which do not freely operate even from those things which are inanimate as when we hope that Lands will be fertile and that Seasons will be pleasant that a beast will delight us or be serviceable to us we fancie them to our selves as if they had that liberty whether it be that there is in beasts an image of true liberty or for that we have a natural instinct which secretly instructs us that there is a Superiour power in the world which disposeth thereof at will and according as it thinks fit So that what we hope depending from the will of others whose masters we cannot absolutely be it is impossible but we must esteem it difficult and but that the success must seem doubtful It is not but that sometimes the difficulty may be in the thing it self we desire and the means we use to obtain it but it is not considerable in this Passion being not essential to it However from what part soever it comes we must take it for granted that it is necessary to form Hope Let us now see what its designe is and what the motion is which it causeth in the Appetite All the difficulties presented to the Soul either in the search of Good or assault and flight of Ill appear greater or less then its forces that is to say she believes she can overcome them or that she cannot resist them If they are the weaker they beget Hope Boldness and Anger if they are the greater they cause Despair and Fear Now it is likely that in difficulties the Soul doth in it self what we outwardly do when they present themselves to us For as we bend our selves against them if we suppose we can overcome them and as we lose strength and courage if they appear invincible it must needs be since the motions of the body follow those of the soul and that there is some relation and resemblance between them that the soul bends or slackens her self as the body doth in the encounter of the difficulties she fancies And indeed it is the onely difference which can distinguish the motions of the Irascible appetite from those of the Concupiscible For in these the Soul hath no occasion to employ her force or courage seeing no enemy she ought to assault or against whom she is obliged to defend her self Or if she pursue Good or flee from Ill it is without bending or slackning her self Since it is then a thing common to Hope Boldness and Anger to bend the Soul against difficulties let us see wherein they are different and chiefly what Hope hath particularly therein it being the subject of this Discourse We must then suppose that in Hope the Soul distinctly observes the Good but confusedly sees the difficulties on the contrary in Boldness and Anger it considers the difficulties more then the good For although in these the soul assaults ill to enjoy the good she expects by victory she chiefly sixeth her thoughts on the enemy she fights against and thinks onely on the good which shall thereby accrue but as a thing at a distance which provokes not as the presence of ill doth But in Hope she neerly faceth the good which presents it self she attentively considers it and sees but by the way the difficulties which besiege her so that they do not appear so great and consequently do not oblige her to use such endeavours to resist them as in other Passions Indeed in Boldness and Anger she riseth up and assaults the ill because she thinks it so powerful that she believe she cannot overcome it without assault or combat But in Hope it appears not so strong as that it ought to be assaulted nor so weak as to be slighted She keeps her self in a certain mean betwixt heat and neglect and without animating her self gainst it she puts herself in safety stands upon her guard which she doth in stiffening and fortifying her self in her self as it happens to the body which its parts being all equally stretched without changing place and almost without moving makes a vigorous motion which keeps it firm and extended which for that cause is called in the Schools The Tonick motion The Soul then doth the same in this Passion without assaulting or fleeing the ill which might traverse it she fortifies her self stands on her guard and with assurance expects the good she seeks So that we may define it to be A motion of the Appetite in which the Soul in expectation of the good it desires strengthens and stiffens her self in her self to resist the difficulties she may encounter therein Indeed the whole nature the properties and conditions required in Hope are contained in this definition Desire and Expectation which consist in the opinion that the good will come are marked as the necessary conditions which always precede it the desired good as the object which moves it the appetite as the subject where it is received and that firm assurance as the difference of the emotion which is proper to it and which distinguisheth it from all other Passions For although Boldness and Anger stiffen the soul also as we have said yet are they not content to keep it fixed in it self they make it rise up and drive it against the ill and force it to fight with it But this breeds a very reasonable doubt for did the soul keep it self stiff steady in Boldness Anger as she doth in Hope it would follow that Hope must always accompany them And yet it is true a man may cast himself into danger without hope of ever getting out and that sometimes we desire to be revenged of an injury whereof we know we shall never have satisfaction yet it hinders not but that this proposition is most certain and but that it is true that Boldness and Anger are ever accompanied with Hope For it is not always the onely good which Boldness proposeth to get out of the danger which it casts it self into honour and glory which spring from generous actions are often the Goods it aspires to and the enjoyment of which it always hopes what mischance soever happens to it although it fall under the difficulties it assaults it still thinks 't will be to overcome them if they do but serve to obtain what it pretends to as in the Discourse of Boldness we shall more fully shew For Anger we will in its place make it appear that
all motion of the Appetite making a Passion this natural Appetite which hath its particular motions must also have its particular Passions It 's true they are not so perfect nor in so great a number as the others being led by a knowledge less exact and which discerns not the objects so well as the imagination for which cause there are few unless it be Pleasure Grief Boldness and Fear which are observed to be in this lower part of the Soul they are likewise so imperfect that we may see they are but gross unfinished images or the roughcasts of the rest for the pain which Nature suffers and I know not what kind of peevishness which follows the indispositions of the Body are to speak truly but feeble beginnings of true Grief like as those secret glimmerings and those pleasant resentments which accompany natural actions are but the shadows of Joy and of Pleasure And although Nature provokes and insensibly raiseth herself up against ill and that we also often see that she is astonished and loseth Courage in the conflict they are motions which indeed have relation to the Boldness and fear of this sensitive part but are very far from their perfection as it is very easie to judge All what can be said hereupon is that these motions deserve not the name of Passions being not conducted by any knowledge which is absolutely necessary to form the Passions but besides that there is a hidden knowledge in all the things of Nature it 's most certain that it 's more distinct and more apparent in some then in others and that this natural Appetite is more enlightned in Animals then in Plants for besides this obscure and secret knowledge which it hath for vegetative actions it 's also conducted by the vital faculty which acts with so much light and discerning that divers did believe it was the springe of the sensitive Soul Now although Philosophy hath restrained the name of Passions to such motions as are made by the direction of sence yet we may perceive that its a far fetched circumstance which comes not near the essence of the thing and that the motion of the Soul forbears not to be a true motion although it follows not the orders of the sensitive Soul so that if it hath not all the conditions of Passion exactly so taken yet at least it hath if we may so speak the body and substance thereof In a word it 's so like it that as the name of Passions hath been given to the esmotions of the Will by reason of the resemblance which they nave with those of the sensitive Appetite for want of terms more fit we may call the motions of the natural Appetite Passions although they are not so perfect and that even perhaps they are of another order and of another gender However it be these two Appetites which may sometimes move separately as we may experiment it in our selves when Nature combates sickness and we are nothing sensible of any of the sensitive Passions they commonly relieve one the other and communicate their motions when they are powerfully agitated whence it happens that violent Passions cause such great disorders in the body that the peevishness and secrer contentment which we have now spoken of ends at last in sadness or in real joyes and that Grief cannot be very strong in the sensitive part but that it must be sensible to the natural Faculties and particularly to the vital Now Nature hath this property when the ill is come to her knowledge to raise up herself against it and endeavor to overcome it stiring up the natural heat and with the spirits conveighing it into those parts where she thinks it is Thus inflammations happen to wounds thus pain encreaseth when the impostumes ripen and that a Feavor breeds in a corrupt body for all these accidents are effects of this Heat which Nature stirs up and renders stronger to combate the ills she resents This being true we need not doubt that when weak and timorous persons suffer a very sensible injury the grief it causeth in the sensitive Appetite can never descend to the natural Appetite And then this power following its inclination must needs rise up against the ill and according to its custom stir up natural heat to overcome it for its undoubtedly from thence the redness proceeds which appears in the countenance upon the arrival of a great grief and which commonly accompanies those first tears which grief makes us shed as in its place shall be more fitly exprest If it be therefore true that Heat awakens and augments it self in Grief she may form Hope for the Reasons already related so that we can no ways doubt but that Anger is ever devanced by this Passion even in the weakest and most timorous Natures Yet we must here remember what we said before That that disposition which was necessary to produce this effect is that we are very sensible of injuries and that heat is very agile as without doubt it is in the Temperature of Women and Children who are composed of an agile and subtile humidity wherein heat and the spirits are easily agitated without encountring any obstacle Because that in that weakness wherein the Soul perceives her self she hath no time to consider it so that she must needs be surprised and as it were drawn away by the precipitate motion of heat She would otherwise never engage herself in fight nor ever believe she could overcome her Enemy Thence it is that Natures in whom Melancholy and Phlegm are thick and gross are hardly made angry what ill soever you do them because the Spirits move themselves with pain under the weight of such heavy Humors and that the Soul hath time enough to consider its weakness before they can make their way or free themselves So that what endeavor soever the Natural Appetite can make afterwards it is not capable to make her change the resolution which she had taken to suffer the ill and without being touched with the least hope of being able to surmount it resolving herself to Patience or abandoning herself to Grief and to those Passions which follow it But it 's to stop too long on those Subjects which must be handled again in other places Let us onely clear two Doubts which may arise from the precedent proposition for if we often grow angry without Hope of ever getting satisfaction for the injury received And if even then when we are agitated with this Passion we grow furious when we despair of our revenge it must necessarily follow That Hope ought not alwayes to go before or accompany Anger as we have said To answer to the first of these Reasons Every man that is angry hopes to revenge himself we must remember that in the order of Nature Vengeance is a chastisement whereby we would take away from him who hath done us an injury the means to continue it Now as no body makes himself angry but he believes he hath
A DISCOURSE UPON THE PASSIONS In Two Parts Written Originally in FRENCH English'd by R.W. Esq LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Hen. Herringman at the Anchor on the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange 1661. THE CHARACTERS Of the PASSIONS Written in French BY THE Sieur de la CHAMBRE Physitian to the Lord Chancellor of FRANCE Translated into English LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for JOHN HOLDEN at the Anchor in the New-Exchange 1650. TO The Lord SEGVIER Chancellor of FRANCE MY LORD IT is nothing strange to you to see the effects and disorders which the Passions cause since the Justice you dispence is most commonly employed in hearing and condemning of them But it is a most unheard-of thing to crave your protection for them that they might even be authorized by you and that your name should be used to make them pass in Publick and give them a general approbation Yet my Lord it is what I this day do in dedicating this Work unto you I make you the protector of the excesses I therein present even in some sort I speak you to be the Author of them since your commands were the cause of their production and by a boldness without example I use the illustrious name of The Seguiers to be the prop of Vices and I bring them to light with such advantages wherewith Vertue would esteem her self highly honoured It is true they are not of the nature of those which corrupt Manners or which fear the severity of the Laws these are but their Images and Figures which may be received as those of Monsters and of Tyrants and which ought to be no less pleasing to sight then the pictures of conquered persons use to be to their Conquerours But although hereby my Temerity becomes less odious yet I perceive it is nothing less excusable and that you will ever blame me for having profaned your Name mixing it with so many defaults for having exposed to your eyes things the Art of which is not much less vitious then their Matter and for having thought that I could have told you some new thing on a Subject in which you are ignorant of nothing but the ill usage yet if your Greatness please to remember that you are the object of all my thoughts that I can make nothing but it must bear the marks of your benefits and that even the Tempests which I here shew are the effects of the Calm and Tranquillity you have procured me you will then perceive that it is as well out of Necessity as Election that I consecrate this little Work unto you and that finding my self obliged to publish the resentment I have of the extreme favours which you have heaped on me J ought to leave in the violent Passions a way to express that which J love to be all my life My Lord Of your Greatness The most humble most obedient and most faithful servant La Chambre Advertisement TO THE READER HAving already spoken of those Passions which respect Good Wee were oblig'd to examine those who have Ill for their Object But because the Soul may two waies consider Ill and that it is sometimes an Enemy which she combates and sometimes flyes according to those two several designs she also forms two Ranks of different Passions The one of which may be call'd the Courageous and the other the Timerous For since Courage is nothing but a Power of the Soul which employs the forces of the Animal to stop or overcome Evills Wee need not doubt but those Passions which serve those purposes are conducted by the same Power and that consequently they ought not to be otherwise call'd then Couragious Even as Such as dare not expect the Enemy may certainly be concluded Timerous When the Soul indeed thinks her self weaker then the Ill She endeavors to shun the encounter and according to the motions she makes to enstrange her self from it she forms Hatred Aversion Grief Fear and Despaire But when she thinks her self sufficiently strong to overcome it or at least to bear its assaults then she raiseth up Boldness Anger and Constancy which are the Couragious Passions whose Nature and Characters Wee shall now examine But perhaps Reader the Preposition wee have made and established as the Principle of all the differences of these Passions will beget a very reasonable doubt which thou would'st willingly have clear'd before thou enterest on the Subject For if the Soul thinks it self stronger or weaker then the Ills she must compare her forces with theirs and consequently she must Reason forasmuch as without reasoning wee cannot compare one thing with another So that the Soul of Beasts which is susceptible of these Passions must be oblig'd to reason when she would make use of them And so she would become Reasonable And so Reason would no longer be that difference which distinguisheth Man from other Animals Would'st thou but content thy self with Resolutions which are commonly given in the Schools upon such like differences I could easily resolve this saying that in these encounters she forms no true Reasonings that they are only gross and imperfect images of it and that they are the effects of that instinct which God hath given to all Animals to enlighten them and guide them in their actions But because this answer is not capable to satisfy such Minds who would clearly discerne things and that the word Instinct seems to be in the rank of those termes wherewith our Ignorance flatters it self and under which she thinks to find shelter I thought fit to satisfie thy curiosity and even to give some light to those things of which I am hereafter to speak and therefore oblig'd my self more exactly to inquire what the Nature of this Instinct which makes such a noise and which so few understand was and to observe how far the knowledge of the sensible Soul can reach and last of all to shew thee that there accrews no great Inconvenience in believing that Beasts reason And doubtless this was the place where we ought to examine these Noble famous questions which contain the Principles of all the Souls motions and which may serve for a Preface and ground-work for all what we have to say of those Passions who have Ill for their object Yet this Discourse being somewhat overlong and the difficulty of the subjects treated therein requiring a great assiduity of Mind I thought it not fit to place these thornes at the entrance into the work which perhaps might have disgusted thee to have proceeded or might have tir'd thee before thou wert arriv'd in the way wherein I would have engag'd thee I therefore leave it at this time yet if thy curiosity desires satisfaction in things of that Nature The Discourse of the Reason of Beasts is already printed which yet for our mutuall satisfaction I shall entreat thee not to undertake the reading of unless thou wilt perform it at once and without interruption It s a Discourse whose parts are so linked together that they
drawn from these great Springs shall teach their use and finally shall shew The art to know Men. Now Reader you may perceive why I have undertaken the Characters of the Passions and why I make it my first entry and the Frontispice of my Work But because I therein observe a very particular Order I thought it fit to acquaint thee with the Reasons which obliged me to follow it I suppose then the Passions are motions of the Appetite by which the Soul seeks to draw neer Good and to shun Ill and that there are two Appetites in Man The Sensitive and the Intellectual which is the Will All the actions of the Sensitive Appetite are called Passions forasmuch as the Minde is agitated by them and that the body suffers and sensibly changeth in its motions But all the actions of the Will although they are Motions bear not the name of Passions For there are two kindes of them some which are not for him who acts but for another as all actions are whether just or unjust Others which are onely for him who acts them as Love Hate Pride and other Motions of the Will The first are simply called Actions or Operations the other are called Passions by reason of the likeness they have with the motions of the Appetite In effect the motions the Will makes for the good or ill which concerns it are altogether like those of the Appetite if we did not consider the alteration of the body which accompanies the later and which is no part of the essence of the Passion being but the effect For the Will loves and hates rejoyceth and grieveth fears and hopes in the same manner as the Appetite and hath with it its Concupiscible and Irascible part However Humane Passions whether they be raised in the Will or whether they are formed in the Sensitive Appetite are of two kindes for some are Simple which are not to be found but either in the Concupiscible part or in the Irascible others are Mixt and proceed from both together The Simple ones which come from the Concupiscible part respect the Good or the Ill without considering whether there be either a difficulty in their pursuit or flight from them and are Love Hate Desire Aversion Pleasure Grief Those which belong to the Irascible consider the difficulties there are whether it be in the pursuit of good or flight of Ill and are Hope Despair Boldness Fear Anger The most considerable of the Mixt Passions are Shame Impudence Pity Indignation Envie Emulation Jealousie Repentance Astonishment For Shame is a mixture of Grief and Fear caused by Infamy Impudence proceeds from the Pleasure and Boldness we take in doing of dishonest things Indignation comes from Anger and Grief that we see Good or Ill happen to those who are unworthy of it Pity proceeds from the sorrow we feel for other mens mischiefs and the apprehension we have of falling into the same affliction Envie comes from Grief and from Despair of possessing the Good which happens to another Emulation springs from the regret we have not to enjoy those perfections which we finde in others and from the hope to attain them Jealousie is a confusion of Love of Hate of Fear and of Despair Repentance is bred from the sorrow we feel for having done ill and out of a hope of pardon Lastly Astonishment is mixt with Surprise Fear Grief and Despair as I shall make it appear in the Characters of every of those Passions According to this Method I shall first treat of the Simple Passions and afterwards of the Mixt. And because that amongst the Simple Passions there are some which tend towards Good others which assault Ill and others which flee from it I thought it more fit in stead of ranking them as is commonly done with their contraries to examine them after this Order because that they naturally keep it in their production and that those of one gender commonly are of a company and because their motions having a great agreement together make one the other the better known and so form Idea's more perfectly of every Passion then if we mixt them with their contraries You shall therefore here have those Passions which have Good for their object to wit Love Ioy Laughter Desire Hope For I do not consider Laughter as a pure corporal effect but I comprehend therein the emotion of the Minde which causeth it and out of that respect it may pass for a particular Passion and for a species of Ioy. But stick not at this It is indifferent for my designe whether it be one or but the effect of one There are many things which I examine not with the severity of the Schools Sometimes I distinguish those they have not separated and I often confound those which they believe to be different Yet it never happens but when I am obliged thereto by the necessity of the Subject which suffers me not always to enlarge my self or for the want in our Language which in Dogmatical Discourses is often poor and barren In many places you may observe where I betray the purity and elegancy thereof in Physickterms not yet approved which yet I have been constrained to use Besides every Passion shall be divided into four principal parts The first shall give you the Description thereof The second shall shew its Nature The third the motion it causeth in the Spirits and in the Humours The fourth shall discover the Causes of all these effects There shall also be a fifth in Love wherein I shall enquire the nature of Beauty in general and why it causeth Love Perhaps in that and divers other places you will not finde the satisfaction you promised your self and I may be blamed for having obscured those things which seem most apparent by difficulties which were before unknown But before you condemn me remember that those things which we think were best understood are often those we least know that the best part of our selves is unknown to us that we are ignorant of their nature and of their motions and that it is very difficult to penetrate those depths wherein there is to be found nothing but a very great obscurity Yet have I thither brought all the light I could possible and if I am not deceived it is great enough to shew thee all those new Observations I believe I have taken If they are right I assure my self that thou wilt no less esteem them then those new lately discovered Stars since our interest is greater to know our selves then the things which are without us If I have not succeeded herein yet it is very much that I have shewed the way and marked the places which are to be followed It is not that I beleeve I am the first who have observed the want we had of a full knowledge of the Passions There have been so many great Spirits who have wrought on this Subject that it is impossible but they must have made better discoveries then I of what
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
confusion our life it would indeed rather be a continual flood of ills then of yeers the Senses would rather serve for gates of grief then of knowledge knowledge it self would pass for an affliction of spirit and vertue for a grievous servitude It s pleasure onely which sets a price on all things and which renders them delightful at least they appear not good but by so much as it is found mingled with them and did not the soul hope to encounter it in all it acts it would remain languishing and immoveable it would be without action and without vigor and we must speak no more of life of happiness or of felicity Certainly to see the effect it causeth as mistris and despencer of all good things calling back those which are past making us sensible of those which are not yet rendring even melancholy tears and dangers pleasing we must confess that with reason Nature is called the great Magician and that pleasure is the most powerful charme she useth to produce her miracles In effect it s a charm which makes all the ills which assault us vanish which lifts us up beyond our selves which changeth us into other men and from men transforms us into Demy-Gods but we often use it as a poyson which quencheth all that is Divine in our Souls which renders our mindes brutish and makes us like even inferiour to beasts For although the pleasures of the body are of themselves innocent and that they were given us for inticements to the most necessary and most noble actions of life yet when we pervert their use and when we do not render them obedient to reason they rebel against it pull it out of its throne precipitate it in dirt and mire and stifle all the seeds of vertue and understanding which are born with it Neither is there any thing wherein wisedom hath more been imployed then to seek the means whereby to shun so dangerous an enemy who flatters at its admittance and afterwards causeth every where trouble and confusion which fills the Soul with blood and flames the Body with grief and infirmity and leaves nothing behind it but repentance We will not propose the counsels and advice she hath given on this subject we should bring hither all those lawes which Physick Morality and Religion have prescribed at least there are but few which were not made either to prevent or correct the disorders which sensuality may cause yet we think to second its design by shewing the deformity which the excess of this Passion produceth in the Soul and in the Body The Picture of voluptuousness cannot be made without representing many figures besides that there are joys which have no commerce with the body and which are to be found in the highest part of the soul those of the Sense are so different amongst themselves that as many pleasing objects as there are which may move them we may say that there are also as many several sorts of Pleasures And truely whoever would designe the portraicture we undertake according to the order of the Senses and describe the pleasure which every of them may be sensible of the invention and the composure could not be ill but we may not use it without prejudice to other designes wherein we are to imploy the same touches and the same colours which this requires for if we stayed to express the Characters of Pleasure which is in tasting and touching we must necessarily also describe those of Gluttony Drunkenness Impudency and so of the rest whereof we should make particular Tables wherefore without parcelling these things we will chuse what is common to all Pleasures dividing this discourse into two parts the one of which shall treat of a serious Joy where laughter is not to be found and the other of a laughing puft up Joy which is nothing but the Passion of Laughter Joy is not amongst those Passions whose beginning is weak and whose progress is vehement it hath all its force and greatness from its birth and time serves for nothing but to weaken or diminish it as soon as it enters the Soul it transports it and carries it out of it self and the ravishment it causeth is sometimes so violent that it takes away the use of the Senses makes it forsake the cares of life and often lose it but although it come not to this excess yet it is alwayes known by that puft up impatience which appears in all its actions that it hardly can contain it self within its bounds that it makes escapes and endeavours to goe out For the thoughts and words of a contented man are not to be stopt he dreams onely of his good fortune he speaks continually of it and if he be not interrupted he hath nothing in his heart which he carries not on his tongue he discovers his most secret designes and so makes his joy an enemy to his rest and to his contentment If he is silent you must entertain him with discourses onely which favour his Passion how divertising soever others are to him they are importunate he breaks them at every moment and it brings in alwayes somewhat of his transport 〈◊〉 or at least his little minding of them seems a signe of his scorning them or a reproaching that they interrupt his Pleasure But if you speak of the subject which begot them if you admire his happiness if you witness a fellow-feeling with him then how angry or severe soever he be he becometh complacent he caresseth embraceth and often by ridiculous civilities and favours he forgeteth the respect he owes or loseth that which is due to him The first that comes to him is made his friend and his confident he takes counsel of him he follows his advice and it often happens to be a childe a servant or an enemy whom he trusts with his secret and with its conduct In this blindness he approves all what is proposed to him to the advantage of his Passion Whatever vanities he nourisheth whatever successes he flatters himself withal there is nothing in his opinion which he ought not to believe and may not hope as if all things were to respect his pleasures He believes that there are none which dare traverse them he sees the dangers which every way inviron them without startling at it and with a blinde confidence he believes himself secure when his loss is often most assured So that we may say that there is no man so credulous with so little appearance so bold with so much weakness nor so unhappie with so much good hap He would make us believe he were content he perswades it himself and in the mean time his desires betray his designe and his contentment for they are irritated by the enjoyment and carrying themselves onely towards those goods which he hath not they render those useless which he possesseth and even of his joy cause the subject of his disquiet Pleasure hath that property that although we enjoy it it forbears not to make
it self desirable so that it is never content and that it is rather weary of the good which entertains it then fully satisfied therewith But we have spoken enough of the trouble it moves in the Minde let us see what it causeth in the Face There are some pleasures of which we may say the Soul is jealous which it seems she would possess in secret and which she dares not communicate to the Senses But what care soever she takes to hide them she cannot do it so well but she must discover something her retreat renders her suspected and when she would hide 't is then she the more discovers her self For the looks become fixt and staid all the body is immoveable the Senses forget their functions in fine there is a general suspension made of all the animal vertues And although at first we might doubt whether it proceeds from astonishment or grief which often produce the same effects 't is afterwards discovered by a certain gloss which remains on the face and by I know not what sweetness which it leaves in the eyes and by a light image of smiling which appears on the lips that these troublesome Passions have no share in this transport and that it comes from that inward joy which ravisheth and as it were inebriates the soul But when Pleasure hath the liberty to disperse it self abroad and that the Senses bear a part and that the Minde and the Body seem to enter again into commerce and intelligence then it is easie to know the agitation which is made in the soul by what appears in the exteriour parts You see on the face a certain vivacity a pleasing disquiet and a laughing boldness Pleasure sparkles in the eyes sweetness accompanies all their motions and when they happen to weep or to cast forth some dying looks you would say Laughter confounded it self with Tears and that Jollity mixed it self with Languishings The Forehead is in this calm and serene the eye-brows are not lifted up with wrinkles nor with clouds and it seems as if it opened and every way extended it self The Lips are red and moist and are never forsaken by smiles and that light trembling which sometimes happens to them would make one think they danced for joy The Voice becomes greater then ordinary sometimes it is resounding and it never goes out but with earnestness for there is no Passion so talkative as Joy how barren soever the Minde be what heaviness soever there be on the tongue it makes one speak continually and nothing but its own violence sometimes stops the mouth and at once cuts short the speech To conclude all the face takes an extraordinary good plight and from pale melancholy and severe which it was before it becomes ruddy affable and pleased The rest of the body is also sensible of this alteration A sweet heat vapor sheds it self thorow all its parts which swells and gives them a lively colour even they become stronger and do their actions more perfectly then they did before In effect of all the motions of the Minde there is none more a friend to Health then this so as it be not extreme It drives away sickness it purifies the blood and the spirits and renders as the Wise man says our yeers flourishing As soon as it enters the heart it swells it with great beatings it lifts up the heart by long respirations In the Arteries it causeth a large and extended pulse And yet although all these motions are made slowly and without vehemency those of the other parts are made with precipitation and vigour The head and the eyes are in a continual agitation the hands move without ceasing we go we come we leap we cannot stay in one place But it sometimes also happens that the violence of this Passion takes quite away the use of Sense and Motion it quencheth natural heat it causeth syncopes and in a moment bereaves one of life Let us then examine how it can produce so many effects so contrary and so wonderful PART 2. Of the Nature of JOY SOme perhapes may think it strange that Joy which speaks so much of it self hath not as yet told what it was but you may much more wonder that Philosophy which promiseth us the knowledge of all things falls short in this although there be nothing which endeavours more to make it self known then Pleasure It penetrates to the bottome of our soul it environs it on all sides it sollicites it by all the wayes of its knowledge it is the end of all its desires the crown of all its actions and yet for all that its nature is unknown to it and the greatest understandings which have enquired it are not agreed under what kinde it ought to be placed For some have said that Pleasure was nothing but the rest and tranquillity of the minde others that it was a Passion in which the Soul operated not and amongst those who have ranked it amongst actions some did beleeve it proceeded not from appetite but from knowledge In fine there having been some who not daring to put it in the rank of other Passions have said it was the principle of them others that it was their gender or their first species Had we not banished from our designe the wrangling and the Criticisms of the Schools we should be obliged to examine all these opinions and to seek in their ruines foundations whereon we should build the definition and Idea of Pleasure But since we have not that liberty and that we should render delight importunate and unpleasing by the length of the discourses we should use without advising with any we will consult the thing it self and see whether it will discover it self to us after having hid it self to so many excellent spirits We say then that we need not doubt but that Pleasure is a motion of the mind and that its impossible to conceive a calm and rest in the tempest which it raiseth in our thoughts in our spirits and in our humors as those things doe not move of themselves it must be the minde which agitates them and she gives her self the same shake which she imprints in them For it is evident that effects being like their causes the motions of the body which are the effects of the minde ought also to be the images of the agitation she gives her self I know well that the Schooles will not call these agitations true motions but that stops us not it will suffice that they are such as the soul can have that pleasure is one of that order But yet as she hath two parts which may be moved we might doubt to which of the two Pleasure belongs for although all the world confess it is a Passion and consequently a motion of the appetite yet it seems that there are some which are proper to knowledge since the Senses and the understanding finde a complacency in the objects which are conformable to them even before that the appetite is moved
them towards Good for when they can go no further they must either stop or return to their source or disperse themselves They cannot stop themselves since they follow the then-disturbed agitation of the soul they cannot return to the heart since nothing but the presence of Ill can constrain them thereunto They must then overflow and disperse themselves And the Soul which employs the same motives for the motion of the Spirits as for her own takes care to make them move so that they may be the more united to Good as we have before said For by this effusion they dilate themselves in their organs and occupying more room they think to touch the Good in more of its parts But where can they disperse themselves To understand this you must remember that Good toucheth not the soul but by its presence and that it is Knowledge onely which renders it present Now this Knowledge is made by the Understanding and by the Imagination or by the Senses And as the Imagination is seated in the brain and the Senses in their particular organs so Good must be in the one or the other of them and consequently Love must carry the Spirits to those places and Joy disperse them in the same precincts For if Good be onely in the Fancie and that it toucheth not the exteriour Senses all the Spirits arrive at the seat of the Imagination and disperse themselves in the brain But if any of the Senses possess this Good then the Spirits which ran thither disperse themselves also on their organs and carry thither heat redness and vivacity This effusion augments the Pleasure of the Minde by reason of that sweet and temperate heat which runs thorow the parts which flatters and tickles them So that those Pleasures which are accompanied with this corporal agitation are greater and more sensible then when they are without it Nay even after the emotion of the Appetite hath ceased the agitation of the Spirits continuing leaves the soul in a certain confused Joy which comes not from the object which at first touched it but from that tickling which the Senses made known unto it as a thing conformable and convenient for their nature And this makes me believe that all those secret Joys which we feel without knowing a reason of them come from the same cause and that there must necessarily be something which disperseth the Spirits and which inspires Pleasure in the soul whether it be the knowledge it hath of the tickling of those parts or whether that all the differences of the motions which it employs in every Passion being known unto her she sees this to be fit for Joy and at the same time forms a delightful object as we said it happened in that love which is out of inclination You will perhaps say that this effusion of Spirits may often be without Pleasure That Anger which casts them into the face that Grief which draws them to the diseased parts and that the Fever which drives them everywhere with impetuosity afterwards disperseth them and causeth the same alteration which Joy imprints on the body and yet that the Soul is then sensible of no pleasure But we may two ways answer this First it is true that the most delightful objects are often diverted by little griefs from making an impression in the soul This motion of the Spirits which is so secret and which the Senses can scarce discover ought to be far less powerful against great obstacles which cause these troublesome encounters But supposing they did cause pleasure it is so weak and so light that it is stifled by the least sensible inconvenience For it is an observable thing that although it seems that the Sensitive Appetite at the same time cannot suffer contrary Passions it is not absolutely true since we evidently know that the tongue is pleased with agreeable savours whilst the heart is full of bitterness and grief And the reason of this is that the Sensitive Appetite is not shut up in one part onely as the most part of the other faculties are it is dispersed thorow all the organs of the Senses and we may say that its stock and root are indeed in the heart but that its boughs and branches are extended thorow all the body For it s a general and necessary power to all the parts of the Creature and it must have been communicated to all that Motion might not be far off from knowledge and that the Soul might not languish in expectation to possess a good or flee from an ill when they were once come to her knowledge Nature having made for the appetite what she made for the pulse whose principal organ is the heart and yet which forms it self in all the arteries where even it is sometimes found different from that which agitates the heart Which being so Pleasure may be in one place and Grief in another although they are in one part incompatible But it is also true that when Passion is raised in the Centre and source of the appetite that which is in the little rivulets is very weak and seems to vanish although the Spirits cease not to agitate in those places where it was formed whence these secret feelings of Pleasure follow which often steal themselves from the knowledge of the understanding nay even of the imagination This is the first answer which may be made to the proposed objection now for another which pleaseth us more as being better fitted to our designe for we will show how every Passion hath a particular motion of the spirits and that then if the effusion be in others as well as Joy there must be some difference which renders it fit and particular and which is not to be found in the rest We must then confess that Anger Grief and Terrour and divers other exterior things may disperse the spirits but by violence and as a tempest which scatters the rain and transports it here and there with impetuosity in stead whereof Joy sweetly disperseth them and makes them distil on the parts as a sweet dew now this causeth many different impressions on the Senses For the spirits which are driven with force which precipitate themselves one on the other cause a troublesome sentiment to nature and rather provoke it then flatter it but those which disperse themselves as themselves and sweetly insinuate themselves into the parts tickle and content it Considering that in those Passions which have ill for their object the spirits keep themselves united contracted to assault or flee from it whence it is that they are piercing and offend the parts they light on but in Joy wherin they dilate themselves to embrace the good it must needs blunt their point and make them lose the impetuosity they had before So that what effusion soever there is in Anger and in Grief its never accompanied with pleasure because it is not like that which is with Joy to avow this we must onely consult the countenance of
In fine it is from thence that all natural vertues draw their force and vigour for as they do not work but by the assistance of the spirits when they come and shed themselves on the organs they must necessarily grow stronger and their functions must be done more perfectly so there are no ill humours which may corrupt the purity of the blood seeing the vertue which concocts them is always mistris of them and that which expels them findes them obedient for the spirits melt them and send them to the surface and open the passages to let them out So that it is true there is no Passion which is so great friend to health as Joy so as it be moderate for if it be excessive it changeth all natural oeconomy it quencheth the heat of the intrails and at last by Mortal Syncopes or by incurable languors it causes even the loss of our lives We have already touched the Reasons in the former Discourse where we shewed that Love and Joy carried the spirits abroad with precipitation it often happens that in the violence of that transport they lose the union which they should have with their principle whence follow Faintings and Syncopes For I doe not esteem that the dissipation of the Spirits as is commonly said is the principal cause of those actions since so many watchings so many toyles so many sicknesses which dissipate them more then any Passion whatsoever cause not these sad Symptomes but according to my opinion it comes from that they disunite and separate themselves from the heart and that the Soul being unable to animate the separated parts or communicate any vertue to them the actions which they ought to do must cease by this separation which the vehemency of their motion caused This is the cause why water cast on the face oft-times puts away those faintings and sends back the straggling spirits to the heart which would not be were they quite lost It is not but that here they make a great dissipation as they abundantly disperse themselves on all the parts and principally on the outward and the soul which is wholly occupied in the enjoyment of good takes no care to continue the course and to produce new ones it must necessarily make a great loss of them and consequently natural heat must diminish whence comes weakness and the languishing of the parts the corruption of the humours corroding diseases and at last death It might be demanded why Joy causeth death rather then Love or Anger but we have shewed this in the particular discourse of the Passions There remains nothing now but the Motions of the Heart of the Arteries and of Respiration to be examined which are all alike in this that they are great rare slow and without vehemency unless this Passion be excessive for then they become little weak and frequent and even often they quite cease to be The hearts motion then is rare and flow because the heat is not vehement having sent it with the spirits towards the outward parts So that having no need of any great refreshing it hasts not so much to move considering that also the soul which is ravished in the enjoyment of good minds not the motion of the heart but as it is urged by necessity whence it comes that it moves slowly and with great intervalls But to supply its negligence it every time very much opens and extends it recompencing its neglect by the greatness of its motion Now because there must be always some vigour thus to open and extend that part when the violence of the Passion hath dissipated its forces the motion of the heart must become weak and little and the necessity it hath to move for the generation of spirits renders it quick and frequent because it cannot supply its slowness by the greatness of the motion So that if the weakness be extreme it loseth also its swiftness and so becomes slow and rare and at last quite ceaseth The same is done in the Pulse and in Respiration for they have the same customs and the same causes with the hearts motion as Physick teacheth us CHAP. IV. The Characters of Laughter I Know not why Socrates heretofore said that Man was a ridiculous creature But I know if any reason can make it credible we need go no further to seek it then in Laughter it self since there is nothing so ridiculous as to see him who undertakes to control all Nature and who believes himself to be her Confident to be ignorant of what is most proper and familiar to him To laugh at every moment without knowing wherefore and to know neither the subjects nor the motions which form this Passion For all the great men of the past ages which have enquired the causes thereof have freely confess'd that their mindes were incapable of that knowledge remitting us to that Philosopher who laughed continually and that it was hid in the same depth wherein he had enclosed the Truth Now although we do not think our selves clearer sighted then they yet our designe having obliged us to handle this Subject we are constrained to go beyond them and to undertake a thing wherein they lost their courage But what success soever we have the Discourse cannot but divert and please us for if it do not discover the nature of Laughter yet it will at least augment the number of ridiculous things To begin therefore according to the Order we have hitherto observed we must first draw the picture thereof and then enquire the causes which produce it Now as it may be weak mean or vehement it is certain that we are chiefly to observe the Characters of the later because that in all kinde of things the Greater is always to be the measure of the Lesser because its effects are more sensible then the others nay we may even say that there are no Passions how violent soever which cause such great alterations in the body as this doth For if you consider the Face The Forehead extends it self the Eye brows decline themselves the Lids contract themselves at the corners of the eyes and all the skin about them becomes uneven and wrinkles it self all over the Eyes extenuate and half shut themselves they grow sparkling and humid and even those from which Grief could never draw a tear are then obliged to weep the Nose crumples up and grows sharp the Lips retire and lengthen themselves the Teeth discover themselves the Cheeks lift themselves up grow more firm and sometimes the middle of them sweetly hollows it self and forms those delightful pits wherein the Poets lodg'd Laughter with the Graces the Mouth which is forced to open it self discovers the trembling and suspended Tongue and the Voice which issues is nothing but a piercing and interrupted sound which cannot be stopped which ends onely with the loss of our breath the Neck swells and shortens it self all the Veins are great and extended a certain sweet splendor disperseth it self over all the
which contracts the muscles towards their principle the soul using that exterior motion to shew that which it suffers interiourly because as we have said she retires into her self when she is surprised so that this contraction of the muscles is as the spring of all the other effects of laughter And perhaps there is no other made by the souls command all the rest being of necessity and without design For it is very unlikely that the soul should intend to form all those plights and wrinkles which are to be at the corners of the eyes to hold the eyes half shut and the mouth open to render the voice piercing and interrupted and so of the rest But these are effects which by a necessary pursuit accompany the motion of the muscles The better to understand this you must remember from what we have already said that when the surprise is light the muscles of the lips forehead and lids onely move because the Soul intending to make the emotion it feels appear useth this as the most manifest and most sensible motion But when the Surprise is great it moves all the muscles of the face and brest and in fine if it be very vehement there are none in the whole body which are not moved Now as there are but few muscles which have not their contraries and that there are some which lift up a part or carry it on one side there are also those which bring it down and draw it on the other side And yet in this contrariety of motion there are some stronger then others the actions they are to perform requiring more or less strength From thence it comes that in Laughter you see the parts take that figure which this contrariety of motions gives them So the Mouth keeps half open because the muscles which serve to open and shut it each moving his way it must necessarily retain that figure and even it must appear more shut then open because the muscles which serve to shut are the strongest So the Forehead remains smoothe and stretched being equally drawn upwards and downwards The Eyes also are half shut because the muscles which incline the lids are stronger then those which lift them up and so consequently the wrinkles are formed about the temples the skin which is delicate and fleshless being drawn by the motion of those muscles and constrained to grow uneven The Nose shrinks up and grows sharp because the muscles which lift it up having no contraries have always the liberty to lift it up which cannot be done but that the skin which covers them must wrinkle and the extremity of the Nose appear sharp The Lips lengthen out themselves because the muscles which draw them on the side are stronger then those which contract them and even the upper lip stretcheth it self more then the under because its muscles are more powerful The Tongue shortens it self a little and suspends it self being equally drawn on either side The Neck contracts and thickens it self because the muscles shorten when they retire themselves The Cheeks for the same reason lift themselves up and grow firmer and in some a little dent is formed in the middle of them the skin being tied in those parts by some small veins which restrain it whilst the surrounding parts lift themselves up Before we seek the causes of the brests and flanks motions and of that interrupted voice which appears here we must observe that the muscles do not retire themselves in a vehement laughter by an uniform and continued contraction but by several girds and shakes whether it be that in the designe the Minde hath to witness its surprise it moves it self and redoubles its struglings or that the novelty of the object sollicites it and by fits represents it self unto it as it chanceth to be in other Passions wherein every moment the soul animates and transports it self by those new Idea's which the object forms in the Fancie This then is the reason why those redoubled motions appear in Laughter and chiefly in the flanks by reason of the Diaphragma which is there situated and which is extremely moveable And because the agitation is violent it causeth also a pain in this part whither the hands cast themselves as if they ought to ease it For although they unwittingly do it Nature who takes care for the preservation of its parts directs the hands to those places where the ill may offend them without being led thither by Reason or Discourse So when a man falls or is ready to receive a blowe the hands by a natural instinct cast themselves presently before the face As for the rest as the Diaphragma is the chief organ of respiration that must necessarily be made with the same shakes which that part suffers and afterwards the voice must be interrupted because the air issues not equally and the muscles which should form it start up as the Diaphragma doth For we said that all the muscles retired themselves by surprises in a vehement laughter Whence it happens that the head the shoulders and the arms shake themselves in the same fashion as the flanks do In fine this general contraction which is made in all the organs of voluntary motion is the cause that all the body folds up and contracts it self that it is impossible to swallow any thing because the muscles which serve for that action contract and shut up their passages and that Laughter sometimes causeth the same effects as Medicines do by the compression of those parts which contain the humours Now forasmuch as these frequent girds of the Diaphragma hinder the liberty of respiration and are the cause it cannot contract and enlarge it self as it ought thence it comes that at last breath and speech is lost that the pulse grows irregular weakness follows and sometimes death For respiration is so necessary for life that when it is hindered the forces are lost and the whole oeconomy of Nature changed For which cause in this necessity the soul struggles very much to oppose this disorder sometimes she makes haste to draw a great quantity of air as if she stole that refreshment from the violence of her passion sometimes she makes a long breathing to drive away those fumes which the heat of the heart at every moment produceth and so forms those precipitated sobs and sighs which mingle themselves with Laughter I do not stay particularly to examine why the Pulse beats irregularly nor why weakness and syncopes happen in this encounter It is well known that the Pulse and Respiration follow one the other being both destined to one end and that weakness and faintings come from the disorder which is made in the heart which cannot suffer a greater then the hinderance of respiration Before we end this enquiry it will not be amiss to rehearse the opinions which have been hitherto held touching the motion of the muscles in Laughter because the absurdities in them will the more confirm the causes we have deduced All who
have spoken thereof have agreed in this point that this motion is made out of necessity and that the Soul is not mistress thereof But some have believed the Spirits were the cause others that it was the agitation of the heart The first say that Joy driving the Spirits to the outward parts it therewithal fills the muscles which are thereby constrained to shrink up and contract themselves as it happens in convulsionfits But if this were true all the Passions which carry the Spirits outwardly must move Laughter Shame Anger and Desire would never appear without it and a Fever and pain would cause a man to laugh continually seeing they fill the face with blood and spirits Others who believe the agitation of the heart is the source of all these motions say that Joy causing it to move the Diaphragma which is tied to it must necessarily do so following its motion and that after it moves the muscles of the brest and lips wherewith it hath communication and sympathy as it is easie to judge by the convulsion of the lips which always accompanies the hurts of the Diaphragma To confirm this they assure us that beasts laugh not because their Diaphragma is tyed to the heart with looser and weaker ligatures then it is to mans whence it is that the heart cannot shake it whatever commotion Joy make But this opinion is no less absurd then the former for then in all the Passions wherein the heart is extraordinarily agitated the Diaphragma must be shaken in the same manner and must move Laughter and even Laughter could never be without the agitation of the Diaphragma if it were true that its contraction causeth that of the lips which are all contrary to experience And therefore the observation they bring of the ligaments of the Diaphragma is inconsiderable and serves not at all to prove what they pretend For if that of men is more strongly tyed to the membrane that covers the heart then to that of beasts that comes from that it being inclined downwards and altogether hanging in the humane body by reason of its upright figure it is necessary it should be more strongly born up then that of beasts which hath not that situation As for the sympathy it hath with the lips I finde it somewhat doubtful because besides that it communicates not to them all the dispositions it hath we have often observed great hurts in that part which have not excited Laughter and if that have sometimes happened I beleeve not that it was an effect of the convulsion since Hippocrates says that who so receives a wound in that part laughs from the first of his hurt and feels no convulsion till the third day after so that it is likely it was not the convulsion but rather the raving whereinto he fell which caused that Laughter after the manner beforesaid It is then a most certain thing that the motion of the muscles which forms Laughter is a voluntary action made by the souls command and not by necessity as tears sweat the lustre and the redness of the face are so that they may be hindered and restrained at first when the humours and the spirits are not yet much shaken and thence it comes that oftentimes holding your mouth shut your breath and voice being constrained to pass through the nostrils cause an interrupted bellowing which is observed in laughing As for the luster of the eyes the colour and blthness which appears in the face for the voice which becomes grosser for sweat and tears we have already said they come from Joy which every way disperseth the spirits dissolves the humours and opens the passages But I would add for what concernes Tears that the motion of the muscles which causes the eyes and the lids to move is the principal cause thereof For when they come to close themselves they press and squeeze the humors and the spirits and constrain them to issue and indeed all those parts are soft and moist and the under-lid is situated so that it easily receives the humors which run from the neighbouring parts It seems even that Nature destined them to that end were it to entertain the freshness and natural humidity of the eye or to discharge it from that which might incommodate it And there is a great appearance that the little holes which appear on the side of that lid when it begins to quit the corner of the eye was onely made to void those humors when they are in too great a quantity which being so we need not doubt but when that part contracts it self the humour which is contained therein must be forced to issue at that little passage and must render the eyes moist And what confirms me in this opinion is that tears run not in Laughter as in Joy and in Grief it seems that they are forced and that they issue but by compulsion and it is easie to judge that their source comes not from so high a place as the others and that you need go no farther then the neighbourhood to seek it neither are they ever so abundant as in those Passions the eyes from whence they come being not capable to contain so much humor as the brain and even those whom sorrow hath never caused to weep by reason of their natural driness finde tears when they laugh because they come but from the neighbouring parts no more then those which sore eyes sometimes cause Let us then conclude that Joy carries the humors and the spirits to the outward parts and that the agitation of the muscles stirs them and sends them out whence comes teares in the eyes and sweat in the face and flanks Because that it is in that place where the Motion is most violent and the skin most delicate CHAP. V. The Characters of Desire IF the Soul according to Socrates hath wings they can onely be in the Desires it is they which move her wherever she will go they raise her up to heaven and make her descend into the abyss and by a strange and wonderful kinde of motion they cause her to go out of her self without dividing her and transport her everywhere without ever quitting the place wherein she is And we may say that Nature was never so wise or ingenious in any of her works as in this For having made the Soul void and unprovided of all things and having placed all necessary goods without her she was obliged to furnish her with a vertue which might carry her towards them and which might unite them together She must have afforded her in the prison wherein she hath enclosed her the use of that liberty which was born with her and without breaking her chains she must suffer her to go thorow the Universe which she hath submitted to her laws and judgements In fine after having been drawn from heaven and been banished from the place of her birth she must needs give way at least to her thoughts to return sometimes thither And that during
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
his eyes for that having need of the help of others to acquire what he seeks it casts his eyes towards heaven as to the fountain of all good things and the common helper of all Nature and hath recourse to superiour causes being not always assured of the assistance it promised it self from others But when the looks are urgent and unquiet they are effects of Desire and Fear which mix with it in the same manner as Joy often causeth its transports sparklings and agitations To conclude the voice and the speech are firm that is to say strong without vehemency or inequality neither heightning nor talling neither trembling nor precipitated For the Soul which bends it self to resist difficulties is in no condition to fear but because also she will not assault them she makes no great endeavour Wherefore the voice falls not because there is no weakness in the Minde it riseth not also there being no violence therein neither is it trembling being without fear nor precipitate being without impetuosity but strong and equal the air being beaten strongly and equally by the Soul which hath assured and confirmed her self against difficulties There remains now onely the Necessary Characters which follow the agitation of the Humours and of the Spirits The first and that which seems the most proper for Hope is that the colour of the face changeth not the reason whereof we touched at the beginning of this Discourse For the Spirits which become stable stop also the blood and hinder it from retiring inwardly or dispersing it self outwardly So that if sometimes we grow pale it is an effect of Fear as blushing is of Love Desire Joy and the rest of the Passions which drive the blood into the outward parts Sighs follow Love and Desire also It is Fear that cools and makes us lose Courage it is Boldness heats and re-animates it Finally Disquiet chiefly comes from Desire and from Fear which are augmented by tediousness and delays which retard the possession of the desired Good But these Characters are strangers to Hope whose examen is not here to be made Let us onely consider those which seem fit and natural to it It renders the Pulse stedfast without being vehement for the heart and the arteries which confirm themselves as well as the spirits make the Pulse appear somewhat harder then it was and by the touch you may perceive a steadiness which it had not before But this is without vehemency forasmuch as the soul makes no great endeavour to assault as we said and the heat is temperate which require a moderate and equal motion It is true if Hope fall into some cold and weak nature it causeth a higher and greater Pulse then it had usually forasmuch as the Soul which knows her weakness and whose designe is to fortifie her self somewhat augments the heat which hath afterwards need of the greater refreshment But at that time the Pulse is nothing quicker the heat being not so increased that the Soul had need to trouble her self to temper the ardor it might cause she contents her self to enlarge the heart and the arteries to receive the greater quantity of air For it is the order which Nature holds when heat increaseth that first she makes the Pulse greater and higher after she makes it quick and at last renders it thick imitating herein what she makes beasts do who to go to a place begin to march with great paces which if urged they double and at last betake themselves to run Howsoever what we said of the Pulse happens in respiration excepting the hardness which the Sense therein cannot be sensible of although it be likely that the substance of the Lungs may therein harden as Hippocrates saith it happens in Anger because it is almost impossible that the Spirits which run thorow all the parts should not imprint the quality they have in those which are soft and obedient as the Lungs are In a word Hope fortifies all the parts because the spirits therein are more vigorous and as it stops and in a manner retains them that they cannot dissipate nor make any violent motion it is not to be disputed that of all the Passions it is the most advantageous for Health for Length of life for Vertue it self which with so great a care seeks Moderation which naturally is to be found with Hope I say again It is advantageous for the Length of life for what serves for a great Health is not always good to render Life long Active and vehement heat produceth strong actions but shortens our days because the Spirits easily dissipate and suddenly consume the natural moisture So that to live long heat should be moderate the spirits ought not to be violently agitated nor also should they be languishing Now if Nature give them not this justness then it seems there is onely Hope which can acquire it us being the onely one which retains it and secures it without suffering excessive heat or irregular motion And therefore we must not wonder if those who feed themselves with good hopes live longer then other Men And if death often follows high successes it is because it makes us lose Hope which is the true Anchor which holds fast our Soul our Lives and our Yeers FINIS THE Second Part OF THE PASSIONS Wherein is Treated of the Nature and of the effects of the COURAGEOUS PASSIONS English'd by R.W. Esq LONDON Printed by T. Newcomb for H. Herringman at the Anchor in the New-Exchange 1661. The Stationer to the READER A Gentleman of quality during these late unhappy times having betaken himself to a retired life made it his business to study this our Incomparable Author and that he might the better imprint him in his Mind aswell as render him beneficial to others who understand not his language made it his pastime to transscribe into the English the First and Second Part of the Characters of the Passions which having been formerly severally brought to light he easily perswaded us to reconcile them and obliged us upon a Review to present them this second time in one volume being confident that they cannot but begratefull to all learned Men no Man as yet having ever treated of the Passions in his inimitable way which hath truly gain'd him the reputation of one of the Chief Philosophers of our Age. Amongst the most eminent wits of his Nation who are his fittest Judges the One calls him The most splendent light of the time and one of the greatest Genius of learning But none flies higher then Mounsieur de Balsac who tells Mr. Chapelin in two of his Letters to him in the one What great matters he expects from the learning and judgment of Our Author and in another he breaks forth into these expressions Wishing his Book had been far greater that his pleasure might have been the more lasting that he never read any thing with more delight and that he was sensibly charm'd with the beauty of his Passions Others saies he have
and Crowns But like the same heat also she commonly corrupts all the best of things she brings forth monsters and prodigies she forms thunders and tempests and there are whole Climates which she hath turned into Deserts and Solitudes Even she so much the more resembles it that as that quality makes use of the light to produce its dangerous effects this Passion also makes use of glory to execute its evil designs At least she fancies to her self that honor is still to be acquired in all those undertakeings and although they are criminal or unhappy yet she imagins that the shame to have committed a crime or to have had an ill success is far short of the glory to have dared much But neither is this a place to defend or condemn her we must onely therefore describe her and according to our proposed order make those Characters appear which she imprints in the Soul and Body of those who are sensible of her To design the picture of Boldness a man had need of the Art and Pensil of those great Painters The Description of a Bold Man who represented onely Gods and Hero's for it 's a Passion altogether heroick and which at all times hath been placed in the rank of Enthusiasms and of divine Furies In effect when it enters the Soul it fills it with so much splendor and majesty it inspires such noble sentiments and gives it such wonderful motions and transports that it seems as if it were for us to wrong it to seek its birth here below and that with reason we may beleeve that Nature is â—oo weak to produce a thing that is so excellent But whether it be a present from Heaven or no it is certain it is the greatest and most advantagious that the Soul could ever hope for It compleats all its glory and all its riches and if it be true that the Sun hath Houses where he is sensible that his power and forces increase we may say that Boldness is the Throne where the Soul findes its greatness and its elevation where she placeth her self above all those Powers which assault her and where she despiseth all those dangers wherewith she may be threatned And to speak truth it 's matter of astonishment to see that a man should have none at the sight of precipices shipwracks and of all the most frightful things in the world Danger environs him on all sides his Enemies press him on all parts Death presents it self to him in a thousand places and in a thousand manners all these things astonish him not nay he often takes them for illusions and laughs at them as vain fantasms which in his opinion are fit onely to terrifie timerous minds But if he expects to find resistance and that he judgeth it to be an honor to combate or to overcome them then his Courage swels his Vigor awakes his whole Soul seems to increase with his Forces and as if in effect she were grown greater he entertains himself only with great thoughts he forms none but great designs and suffers himself to be moved with none but by the most noble and most generous of the Passions For his spirit is silled with nothing but the glory and the immortality which he intends to acquire He imagins that all the World makes ready Crowns for him alone to deserve and as if the approach of the Enemy did hasten him the Victory he sees him with pleasure he accosts him with assurance and beleeves that the beginning of the Combate is but the commencement of his riumph You must not at that time think of withholding him the advice you give will be cowardly counsel the ill omens which you observe will be superstitions or weaknesses In fine all the cares we take to withdraw him from the danger wherein he is going to cast himself are injurious to him and those that take them are esteemed timerous Souls or Enemies of Glory The forbiddings of a Father the tears of a Family nor the reverence of the Laws are not able to stop him he tramples all manner of respects under his feet and like a torrent which is irritated by obstacles which throws down Dams and becomes more rapid by resistance it adds fury to his passion he makes way with force and what is opposed against him serves but to make him with the more impetuosity run to the place of combate He will not there spend his time in unprofitable discourse he speaks but at the same time he strikes and his words rather serve to express his Courage then his thought for he imploys them not in injuries nor in reproaches nor in clearing himself nor in vain threats they are but interfering words and short exclamations which his transport wherein he is draws from the mouth they are as if they were the boylings of that ardor which agitates him within or to say better they are like the claps of thunder which come pouring down on his Enemy And truly it can be better compared to nothing then Thunder like that at the same time it causeth the lightning the noise and the blow like that at the same time it strikes it pierceth it casts down all that resists it and if it be true that it disdains to touch dead Bodies and spares those which sleep it 's still the more like unto it never assaulting those who have lost heart or are not in a condition able to defend themselves For although in the heat of the Battel he seems onely to breath cruelty and that his fury ought not to be glutted with ought but blood and slaughter yet it 's very certain that none make use of Victory more moderately He never proceeds to insolency and we may say he at the same time disarms his Passion when he disarms his Enemy As soon as he sees him on the ground he raiseth him up he embraceth him and not remembring the blows he received he complains onely of those which he hath given he speaks modestly of the advantage he had over him and how great soever a lover of glory he is he yeelds to the chance of Arms the greatest part of what he hath acquired It is not that in his Soul he beleeves not but that his Valor made his Fortune good but that he ardently seeks the praises and the honors which Victory hath made him merit and but that he esteems all those stupid or envious who admire not the wonders which he thinks he hath done But it 's the nature of the Passion which moves him to flye unto glory by such noble and civil ways and to cover his ambition by free and generous proceedings and by a modest either discourse or silence In a word his freeness is ambitious his generosity is interest and his modesty is proud And in effect there are a thousand encounters wherein he loseth his discretion and cannot hide that high and imperious humor which accompanies him For if he hath any design in hand he will always be cheif
first Powers move Or to speak out they are the same Powers which the disposition of Organs renders capable to perform their actions And as those dispositions are unequal in their particulars and that the one hath them more or less perfect then the other so are they more or less fit to perform those actions so that we use to say of him who hath them perfect and who is most proper to act that he hath the power and natural Faculty to do such a thing and of him who hath them imperfect that he naturally hath an impotency and incapacity of working Now Courage is undoubtedly of the number of those derived Powers because it requires certain dispositions in the Organs proper to elevate and stir up the Soul against difficulties and the principal of these dispositions is nothing but the natural heat of the heart capable to kindle and inflame this noble ardor which is necessary in these encounters But we must here consider two things What that Power is which makes Courage First What this radical vertue is which enters into the Courage since the natural and derived Powers are nothing else but the radical in that they are joyned with their dispositions certainly we must say that Nature which hath distributed to all Animals as much strength as was necessary for their preservation hath also given them the vertue to raise up and employ them when they have need of them And this vertue is nothing but the irascible Faculty which is the principle and as it were the form and substance of Courage Forasmuch as inflaming the Heart and lifting up the Soul it doth nothing else but move the natural forces of the Animal to oppose them against those difficulties which present themselves And indeed these differences and the effects of Courage are drawn from the quality of the forces for as there are some which are proper for the Soul and others which belong to the Body every one hath its particular Courage which stirs it up and sets it on work such a man will be couragious in the greatest dangers of War who dares not speak in publick or will suffer himself to be overcome by the least Passion On the contrary there are others who in such like occasions have courage who lose it at the sight of a weak Enemy or of the least little danger they encounter and this proceeds from that the Courage being a vertue which stirs up the forces when they fail it ought also to fail and therefore those who are deprived of corporal strength ought to be cowards in War and couragious in the actions of the Mind and Judgment if they have the forces which belong to those two Faculties Finally as the forces are destined to assault or to resist as we shall make it hereafter appear the Courage also employs them in both the one and the other of those actions and in pursuit brings forth two different Passions Boldness which assaults evils and Constancy or Strength of Courage which opposeth it self and resisteth their violence The second thing which we ought to know is Why beat is the principal dispositiâ—n of Courage why Heat is the principal disposition that creates Courage and what conditions are requisite for to produce it The first is easie to be decided because Heat is the most active of all the qualities that it stirs up all the other natural Vertues and makes the best part of the Bodies vigor neither need we to be astonished if the Soul being joyned to so powerful a quality and conscious of the help she can draw from thence have a good opinion of its forces and if she trust in them and if she readily oppose them to those difficulties which present themselves As for the conditions which this Heat requires to form Courage What that heat ought to be which forms Courage there must be three principal ones The first that it must be natural the Second that it must be great and strong the third that it must be proportionable to the greatness of the Heart In effect a strange Heat as that of a Feavor although it inflame the Heart and the Spirits yet it augments not the Courage on the contrary it abates it as not being conformable to Nature Now for it to be thus conformable it must have two things One that it must be born with the life and that it must be as it were a continuation of that first flame which was kindled at its first birth for if it be once extinguished there is no means left to reinflame it and how temperate soever that might be which may be substituted in its place yet would it be strange and useless The other is that it must remain within those limits which Nature hath prescribed forasmuch as every thing hath a certain measure beyond which it ought not pass without breaking that proportion which ought to be betwixt the organs and their principles to perform their Functions so that that heat which is more violent then the nature of every Animal can bear is not natural unto it But how conformable soever to Nature it may be unless it be great it never will be accompanied with Courage Wherefore those who are of a cold temperature as Flegmatick and Melancholy persons are those who are attenuated with long sickness with long griefs and who by other Passions quench natural heat are not couragious Yet it is to be observed that natural heat being not a simple quality as that of Fire is but a hot and moist substance which is commonly called Spirits composed of the Humidum Radicale and of this heat which Nature inspired with life it may be great two ways to wit in quantity and in quality that 's to say that there may be much of the Radical Humidity in it or many degrees of that heat So Children have more of that natural heat as to the quantity as those which are older have much more as to the quality So in the Winter and in cold Climates the substance of heat is augmented because not dissipated and exterior cold hinders it from issuing out although it be less burning then in Summer the coldness of the Air somewhat diminishing its vivacity On the contrary the ardor of the Climate or of the season draws forth a great part of the substance of Heat and imprints in what remains a certain acrimony which renders it more violent Now although all actions are performed by means of natural heat yet there are some which more depend on its substance as concoctions and digestions are being to be made by means of humidity so that those who have most radical moisture as Children perform these operations most perfectly although they have a very temperate heat such as it ought to be for such actions But there are also those which more depend on the quality of heat as are the actions of the Imagination and those which we call Vital for those who have the most ardent heat have
considerable parts of corporal strengths produceth this disposition in the sensitive Appetite the force of the Minde and of Reason works the same effect in the Will It inspires a secret sence of its power and of the succour she may draw from thence it fills it with confidence and leaves it a certain facility and readiness to oppose it self to those difficulties which present themselves wherein Courage consists as hath been already shewed Such is that which accompanies the excellent qualities of the Mind whether they be natural or acquired For a knowing man hath the courage and boldness to speak he that is vertuous boldly opposeth himself against his Passions and an expert Artist undertakes things in his Art in which others durst not engage themselves because that every of them have forces necessary to execute what they undertake and that the will which knows what they can do is ready to stir them up and employ them when it pleaseth Now although these two kinds of Courage may one subsist without another yet they are far stronger when they are joyned together and assist one the other For a man whom Vertue or Knowledge hath inspired with Courage is more bold in undertaking any thing if he have that fair fire which at his birth is kindled in his Heart then if he had a coldness which renders that part languishing and causeth a natural Timidity even as he whose temperature hath rendred him couragious is far more resolute when the qualities of his Mind may second his natural disposition On the contrary were there but one sort of Courage a man would be very sensible of the ardor it would inspire we should know the endeavors it makes in it self and the many things which it proposeth every moment the performance of But the cowardliness which would be in the other part of the Soul at the same time dissipates those fair resolutions It checks all those noble motions and corrupts all the good designs it had formed Thus it is with those who having all the advantages of the Mind dare never produce themselves and others who have much Heart dare undertake nothing But although this be the true sence a man ought to have of this power of the Soul yet we must confess that when we speak of Courage we commonly mean that which our births shed into our hearts and which is proper to the sensitive Appetite because it 's common to all Creatures and that its effects are most sensible and most remarkable As for the other Doubt which respects Courage To wit whether the dispositions we have observed be always necessary to its production is no less diffiult to resolve For if it be true that Boldness is an effect of Courage contrary to the experience which we have those Animals which are naturally timerous can never be susceptible of this Passion Or that contrary to the Maxims which we have established Courage should not depend on those dispositions Certainly we must here again say that the common manner of speaking sits not so well the truth of the thing for there is no Animal which hath not Courage because there is none without some heat for that its necessary to life and how little soever it hath it 's capable to give that disposition to the irascible Vertue which is capable to make it undertake something In effect there is no Animal which at every moment finds not some difficulty which it 's obliged to oppose And we every day see that the weakest and most timorous make endeavors to surmount the obstacles they encounter they must therefore have Courage Since Courage is nothing but the irascible Vertue which the Natural heat of the Heart hath rendred capable of working But because this capacity is greater in some and lesser in others the greater hath deserved by its prerogative the name of Courage as the lesser is called Cowardise or want of Courage So that even as we say a man hath no wit because he hath but little we also say an Animal hath no Courage because he hath but little And certainly if we should well consider this gender of Qualities which the Schools call Natural Impotencies under which the default of Courage ought to be placed we should find that it is different from Power only in respect of less or more And that the word of Impotency means onely a weak Power and not the absolute privation of Power because it 's a quality and quality is a real thing So the default of Courage is rightly Courage but it 's little weak and hid which operates but seldom and undertakes but light Skirmishes or at least if it engage in greater matters it must be very much sollicited thereto and the difficulties must have powerfully provoked it as it happens in the Anger of timorous persons Last of all the common way of speaking affords not the name of Courage but only to him who is most active who boldly opposeth himself to the greatest dangers and who is always ready either ro assault or to defend himself But to have this Courage and to be called couragious a man must have all the dispositions we have spoken of So that when we said that Boldness was an effect of Courage we considered Courage in its Nature and not according as it 's used in our Language For it 's true that this passion cannot proceed but from the irascible Vertue in that it can operate and when it operateth it 's called Courage but it is not always that active and boiling Courage which marks a great facility of operating for that it is necessary there must be much natural heat in the Heart to give it this facility All which will be better understood when we shall have examined wherein Force or Strength consists Of Force To speak generally Force is a quality which first and properly belongs to Power Faculty or Vertue and by its means to those actions which it produceth and to the subject it 's found in So we say that the natural Faculty is strong that it's operation is strong and that the parts it resides in are strong Now the Vertue is strong when it can perfectly and with efficacy produce its effect and it 's capable of it when it hath those dispositions which are necessary for its operation So that Force or Strength consists in these dispositions which proportionably as they are more or less perfect make that also more or less great and its Vertue to be less or more strong Yet it 's very true To what the name of Force is most properly to be applied that although in that sence Force be a quality common to all Powers as well Spiritual as Material all of them having need of certain conditions and dispositions to operate yet so it is that to speak absolutely of Strength all kinde of Strength is not to be understood nor all sorts of Vertues For when for example we say That Force is necessary to assault That an Animal or a Body
is strong it is not to be understood of all the Forces it may have as of the force of the Stomack of the sences and of the like but of a certain particular Strength which being more noble and more excellent then the rest by its prerogative hath deserved simply absolutely to be called Force and it 's that which the Passions of the irascible Appetite use the nature whereof must therefore consequently be here inquired To this purpose we must suppose that all the Universe being composed and filled with things which are contrary and opposite one to another there is nothing which can be therein without Enemies which assault and seek to destroy it So that it was the providence of Nature which gave unto all things not onely those Vertues which were necessary to perform their ordinary and as it were domestick functions but even those which ought to defend them from foreign assaults and hindering them from receiving those violences which it might receive from abroad 'T is for this reason that every thing hath its proper qualities to preserve its being as also others to destroy its contrary and that those Animals where those Vertues are more distinct and less confused have two different Appetites The Concupiscible to seek for themselves what is fit and flie what is hurtful and the irascible to resist ill and if it be needful to assault and destroy it But because there is more trouble and action to resist and assault then simply to pursue good or flye from ill and that Vertues are the more noble the more active they are as we have shewed elsewhere it is certain that in this respect the irascible Appetite is more active and more noble then the Concupiscible and therefore those Forces which are the Instruments and the dispositions which it hath to work are also more excellent and more considerable then the rest It 's also the reason for which the name of Force is due unto them out of excellency and then when we speak simply of Force or Forces we ever understand those which are destined to resist and to assault Now because all Philosophers and all Physitians are agreed The force of corporal things consists in the temperature that the Force of all the corporal Powers consists in the temperature which is proper and natural unto them because the temperature is the first and the most efficacious of all the Dispositions which the Faculties finde in the matter and that the proportion and fitness which ought to be betwixt the instrument and the cause require this temperature should be proper and natural to the Faculty as is before said speaking of that natural heat which forms the Courage This Maxim I say being certain we must see what this Temperature is which ought to serve the Irascible Appetite since it 's a material Power Certainly since it is to assault it hath need of heat being the principle of action in Animals and since it ought also to resist it hath also need of driness which is the principle of this resistance Now there is no temperature which hath these two qualities but either the cholerick Melancholy or the sanguine Melancholy forasmuch as Choler and Blood are Humors which furnish heat and that Melancholy which is Terrestrial affords driness solidity and stability In effect all Animals which are naturally strong and couragious are either Cholerick Melancholy as Lions and Dogs or Sanguine Melancholy as Bulls Bears and wilde Boars And if we observe what hath been spoken of the Hero's in former times we may easily judge they were all of the same complexion and that choler and melancholy Diseases to which they are subject are certain marks of this temperature In fine he that will consider the body of a strong and robustious man will see that all parts answer these two qualities That a streight figure a large Brest quick Eyes a strong Voice and all vigorous motions proceed from that heat which extends and animates the organs as the bigness of the Bones and Joynts the bigness of the extremities the firmness of the Muscles the hardness of the skin comes from a Melancholy and terrestrial driness which renders the humors thick and the members solid Now if it happen that heat alone predominates it will indeed produce Courage and Strength but it will be an impetuous and a boiling strength proper to assault and not to sustain On the contrary if driness be there without being seconded by heat it renders the force stupid and passive which serves to resist and not to assault as hath been said But we must here observe two very considerable things Wherein the temper consists First from the example of Physitians we must not here take the temper for the onely mixture of the first qualities but also for all the other dispositions of the matter as are second qualities the conformation of parts and the concourse of spirits As when we say that Force consists in a hot and dry temperature we understand not that the parts are simply hot and dry but also that they are of a thick succulent and firm consistence that nothing is wanting to their conformation and that the spirits slide therein easily and abundantly For if this temperature meets with a subtile and loose matter as is to be seen in those purely cholerick it will indeed produce Courage but the Forces thereof will not be perfect and cannot long neither maintain a Combate or a strong assault because the spirits presently dissipate themselves and that the parts have not that massive and firm consistence which is necessary for resistance and should they even have these conditions if they receive not those spirits which are necessary for their functions or if there be any notable defect in their conformation they will be weak and cannot execute the orders which the Appetite imposeth on them The second thing which is to be considered is That â—her â—re two priâ—cipal parts in which the â—â—t and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ—ght to bâ— That the Appetite which is the principle of all those motions which Animals make useth two principal faculties which have the direction of those actions to wit the Vital Faculty which resides in the heart and in the Spirits and the Motive Vertue which is seated in the Brain and in those organs which depend on it so that it 's chiesly in those parts which we are to consider and wherein this temperature whereof we have spoken ought to be But because the Irascible Appetite is it self placed in the Heart and that the strength of that part is consequently nearer unto it then that of the other organs of Motion and that we may in some sort say that they are Arms which it hath in hand or its domestick Forces and that it leads them it self and this is the reason it hath more confidence in them then in others and that they alone are capable to give him both Courage and Boldness For the heat of the Heart is
bearing with it the same destination it conceives that by a just claim it ought to have the same advantage in all its enterprises For although Reason make it appear that Temerity Cruelty and Insolency and other Vices which sometimes are mixt with it render it unworthy so noble a recompence yet so it is that it doth not always hearken to their devices and that it more willingly follows the inclinations of nature so that looking at nothing but what is honest and having no other guide but the instinct it hath for glory it imagines it ought everywhere to encounter it and that it 's a prize due to all its actions how evill soever they be Moderation in victory Modesty in speech The vertues which accompanies Boldness Generosity Sweetness and Courtesie towards the vanquished accompanies not all kind of Boldness but onely that which is conducted by Reason For Passion alone is not able to produce such perfect actions without being guided by vertue But as regulated Passion forbears not to be Passion we may speak these to be the Characters of Boldness since they are proper to one kind of Boldness Add also that there are some seeds and dispositions in the principles of this Passion which naturally render it inclined to produce these actions for there are generous Beasts which content themselves with the Victory and which hurt not those they have thrown down we see even that all Bold men although they have not Vertue to regulate their Boldness and that they propose not honesty to serve them as the motive forbear not to act the generous and the modest even like those who have true Valor And what inclination soever they have to take all the advantages they can over their Enemies yet they restrain themselves and render not their Victory insolent Now this partly happens from that natural Justice we spoke of which defends Beasts from pursuing a Combate which is too unequal and partly from the violent desire of honor which this Passion inspires in men For finding himself continually prest with this secret spur and by experience knowing that insolency and vanity dishonor a victory how brave soever it were That on the contrary Moderation Modesty and Generosity render it the more glorious they easily are moved to those actions which ought to content their desire and which promise them the richer harvest of honor and of praise for which cause we had reason to say that their Modesty was proud and ambitious because they consider not the Honesty which vertue proposeth therein but the glory onely which redounds from thence and that they respect Honor but even for Honors sake Besides Whence those Vices come which mix themselves with Boldness although in these occasions they follow this shadow and appearance of vertue in all other ways they commonly are Arrogant and Proud because esteeming themselves more then others they think all is their due and will have the preheminence as we have already said They boast and speak advantageously of themselves forasmuch as the heat of the Passion kindles the desire they have of glory and makes them seek praise even from their own mouths and certainly we need not doubt but that Boldness is the source of all those defects but when it appears base artificial cholerick or cruel we must not lay the accusation of these vices upon it but the ill inclinations onely whereto it 's received For it is like that of torrents which enter into great Rivers and seem presently to break the course of the water and to make a passage from one shore to the other yet their impetuosity must yeeld to the current of the River which swallows them up and carries them away with it What Passion also soever it be which is mixed with the ill inclinations must follow the course they take and suffer it self to be carried away with those defects and vices which are proper unto it Now these inclinations come from the temper or from custom for this corrups the best Natures and there are men whose births have given them all the dispositions which are necessary to true Boldness yet which have those defects which we even now mentioned having for a long time been nourished in them and the habit they have gotten hath changed all those seeds of vertue which Nature had given them But besides custom the general source of their ill inclinations is in the temperature The effect of weakness and chiefly in that whence weakness proceeds for it 's that which makes men undertake base actions unworthy of a true courage perswading them they must fear all things that no enemies are little and that we ought even to assault those enemies which are weak or those which are without defence It 's that which makes them become Artificial and Perfidious forasmuch as it would supply the defects of those forces by cunning and deceit as hath been already said It 's that which renders them Cholerick and Vindicative because it is exposed to all manner of injuries that it 's easily hurt and that the vengeance it takes is a necessary means to keep the rest in their duties Finally it 's that which makes them Cruel and Bloody because in that mistrust which it hath of it self what advantage soever it hath over its enemies it still doubts that it wants strength sufficient to effect its own revenge so that to put it self in safety it moves even to extreme violence and so renders its victory brutal and cruel But we shall more particularly examine these things in their due place Let 's finish this picture by those shadows which Fear gives unto Boldness For we have said Whence that fear comes which somtimes accompanies Boldness that Fear often went before that which was the most noble and the most generous that on the contrary there were men who went boldly into dangers and presently after lost their courage that the most part of the most valiant durst not speak in publick and that some without cause apprehended the encounter of some things which were but little considerable To give a reason for these extravagant events we must first remember that there are two sorts of Boldness the one which is led by Nature the other which is regulated by Prudence The first considers not always the greatness of the danger it 's engaged in or else it wants strength to entertain a long-winded combate Wherefore when it finds the danger greater then it imagined it to be it 's surprized with astonishment which makes it take slight which commonly happens to new Souldiers and to those who undertake things without having fore-seen the difficulties which therein were to have been encountred And if it be upheld by this active and glittering force which accompanies delicate tempers as those of Children of Women and the like its first fury and first impetuosity is onely to be feared for its forces being unable to furnish it for a longer fight it quickly gives ground and makes
pretend not to conquer him she at least assures herself that she shall not be overcome as knowing that the strongest waves break themselves against the rocks and that the banks hinder the overflowings of the most impetuous Rivers she promiseth herself the same success from her resistance and believes that the strength of her Courage will break off the violence of the ills and stop the course of all those mischiefs which come pouring upon her In her opinion there is no effort strong enough to make her yield all the Elements would change place without making her change her station and were it possible the mass of the Heavens should break she imagines that she could sustain its ruines without being over-turned But what is more wonderful is that she often mistrusts her forces and sees well enough that her resistance will be useless and her loss inevitable Neither is this capable to make her change her resolution although even she might escape the danger by flight she remains firm and expects the shock of the enemy with the same tranquillity and with the same confidence as if she were sure of the Victory She also believes that a man is never overcome if he loseth not his heart if he delivers not up his arms that yielding to force we yield not to honor of the Battel and that in that of Constancy we have always this advantage To triumph over the Conqueror She in pursuit hereof represents to herself the glory which so many great Courages have acquired in torments and in punishments the Crowns which they have deserved in the most difficult proofs of patience and the immortal renown of such fair examples make her hope if she can but constantly suffer the ills which threaten her with this thought she encourageth her self and without hearing those reasons which might make her yield she puts herself in a condition to receive the enemy and vigorously to maintain his assaults Behold her now grappling with him behold her either assaulted with the violence of grief or by the outrages of Fortune or by the darts of Calumny as if she were insensible of all their blows she neither troubles herself to flie from them or to repel them and although she be cruelly wounded by them she suffers not so much as a complaint nor a threat to come from her which might make the least resentment of hers appear She sees her body torn with tortures or with sickness as if it did not truly belong unto her or in effect were but her Garment She considers the loss of her Goods as a debt she repays Fortune and thinks that an injury is ill onely in the opinion of him that suffers it and can truly offend onely him that doth it Whilst by these reasons she seeks to sweeten her ills they forbear not incessantly to perplex her with fresh pangs which sometimes are so violent that she cannot save the Body from succumbing under their violence and from betraying its sensibleness by its weakness and by that languor which appals it But for her own part instead of growing weaker she becomes more strong and vigorous and as the earth strengthens it self when it s beaten we may say that the blows of grief harden her and render her impenetrable against all its attaints Grief it self which seems to be the inseparable companion of adversity and misfortune cannot reach her at least it never riseth to that high Region where she forms her designs and where she entertains a calm and a continual serenity It 's from thence she securely beholds the storms and the tempests which agitate the inferior parts the troubles and sufferings whereof she with pleasure often considers and sheds abroad a chearfulness in the complaints and tears which the rigor of her ill often extorts from her Mouth and Eyes And truly there is cause of astonishment to see her so calm in the midst of chains and fire in the midst of publick desolations in the midst of so many things the thought of which alone produceth horror and terror but that in these encounters she should witness joy that she should bless her persecutors and that she should speak her pains to be pleasing and glorious it 's a thing which seems to combate Reason and Nature and which is almost unconceivable We must also confess that this is the last effort of Constancy and that she then ought to be upheld by some great and noble Passion to produce some great and wonderful effect For commonly griefs and misfortunes use to convey into the strongest and most resolute Soul I know not what kinde of bitterness which renders it pecuish and wary which at every instant forceth from it some secret complaints and at length bereaves it of its strength at least of that ardor and vivacity which it had at first It 's then there that the Soul employs Constancy against Adversaries It 's thus she defends herself from those ills which assault her with open force Let 's now see what she doth against those which under the appearance of good seek to seduce her which to betray her flatter her and to overcome her use no other violence but onely those of enticements and charms I mean Voluptuousness and Ambition and all those unjust desires which continually present themselves unto her which at every moment provoke and sollicite her and which are the more to be feared the Sences keeping intelligence with them and forasmuch as they promise felicity to those who suffer themselves to be overcome by their allurements We must certainly confess that she useth no other arms to defend herself against such dangerous enemies but onely those which Constancy in these encounters affords her she knows that to render their plots and their forces useless she needs onely to keep herself stiff and firm and that in that condition she cannot be mollified with Pleasures nor lifted up with the winde of Honor nor carried away by the hope of those goods which she hath not she knows that Pleasure is ever accompanied with Repentance that Ambition never walks but on precipices and that Desire is not so much a sign as it is the cause of Poverty Moreover she knows that all the contentment and all the good fortune which those deceivers promise are but impoisoned sweets which corrupt Health and Reason and destroy the quiet of the Mind and the tranquillity of Life On such like Reasons being resolved to hold out against them she puts herself upon her guard and shuts up all the avenues by which they might surprise her affections she turns her eyes from the most pleasing objects she shuts her ears to the most charming words and perswasions she flies the approach of all those things which might tickle or seduce the sence For it 's certain that she expects not such kinde of enemies in a stedfast posture and that she receives them not chearfully as she doth the rest She commonly defends herself from these by a wise retreat and when
to assault it That in fine she flies or assaults ills according as she believes herself weaker or stronger then they and that Fear Timerousness and Despair are signs of Weakness as Hope Boldness and Anger are effects of Power But because this division is grounded on more and less and that amongst these two there is ever a middle which is equality It 's not sufficient to have shewn that the Soul is stronger and weaker then the Evil. We must yet add that their forces may be equal so that if she ought to flie when she is the weaker and assault when she is the stronger of necessity when their strengths are equal and consequently being neither to flie nor assault she must remain simply on the defensive and that without yeilding to the end eavors of the enemy and without also undertaking any thing against him she must content her self only to resist It must needs I say be that as flying she retires with precipitation and that she darts herself forth with impetuosity when she assaults she must also stop and keep herself stiff when she intends onely to resist and this stiffening having resistance onely for its motive and proceeding from the equality we have now spoken of it must make all the Nature and Essence of this Passion there being no other which this motion in all circumstances befits But before we examine more particularly the manner wherewith the Soul is then agitated Objections to shew that Constancy is formed with this equality of strength we must clear a difficulty which ariseth from those propositions which we have established for there is great reason for us to doubt That equality of forces should be the principle of this Passion since it 's certain she often forms it when the Soul is stronger or weaker then those ills which assault her How many have we seen of those noble Courages who have opposed enemies far more powerful then themselves who have been firm and resolute in those dangers wherein their loss was certain and who have constantly suffered the greatest imaginable ills without hope even without having a minde to shun them On the contrary is it not an ordinary effect of Magnanimity not to employ all ones forces against a weak enemy and to oppose against him a mans own endeavors onely without fighting with him or pretending to a Victory whereby he might gain honor The Soul then may be moved with Constancy at the encounter of these ills which she esteems weaker or stronger then herself and therefore the foundation on which we thought to have so well established this Passion cannot sustain it self and threatens the ruine of all the superstructure Answer to the first Objection To answer to such strong Objections we must first observe that the opinion which the Soul hath of her forces is not essential to the Passions but an action of Judgment and not of the Appetite And that it onely is instead of a natural condition towards their production in that general order which Nature hath prescribed those Powers but forasmuch as this order is often changed in particulars it also happens that when the Passions form themselves this condition is often wanting as all other things which are strangers to them and enter not into their essence Now this general order will have the sensitive Appetite immediately conducted by the imagination as by a light which is proper and necessary unto it and destinated to shew it all what it ought to do And as she would in vain propose unto it to do any thing unless she thought it were in its power these forces must necessarily be known unto it and she must know whether they are great enough to oppose those difficulties which present themselves So that if the Faculties be not put out of that road which naturally they ought to keep the Appetite could never form any motion but the imagination must first have compared her strength with the difficulties but that she must have thought her self stronger then them when she ordains them to combate them but that she must have believed she was weaker when she counsels us to flie them and finally but that she must have judged that at least her forces are equal with theirs when she obligeth it to expect or to resist them For it sometimes happens that she thinks herself stronger and yet she will not assault whether it be because she slights the enemies weakness or because natural Justice forbids her to undertake too unequal a Combate as hath been shewed in the Discourse of Boldness However it be that order which we have now remarked is ever observed in Beasts in whom these two Faculties absolutely command and are not hindered in their Functions by any superior Power which they are subject to But it is not so with Man in whom Reason and Will ought to govern the sensitive Appetite and cause it to move as it pleaseth them for it often happens that these Faculties without having respect to those motives which the imagination proposeth to the Appetite oblige him to flie when he might assault or defend himself and to fight and resist when he ought to betake himself to flight It is not but that Reason sees that the Combate and the resistance which she causeth the inferior part to make are uselsst to overcome those difficulties or to stop their course But as unprofitable as they are for these particular motives they serve for others which it judgeth more noble and more useful then those And the vain endeavors which it then moves in the Appetite are the means which it employs to attain the proposed end Thus she often assaults an enemy when she knows not very well who shall be overcome But it 's onely to acquire honor and glory wherewith generous actions are rewarded she suffers couragiously grief torments and death it self not to avoid the effect which she believes inevitable but to merit those Crowns which Heaven and Earth give unto Constancy In a word there are divers motives which may engage her in those designs and which are good or ill according as she is enlightned with false or true light But it is still certain that in all these encounters she goes against the general order which ought to regulate the motions of the inferor part and which she herself useth to follow in her ordinary actions there being nothing more reasonable then to flye when we are weakest to assault when strongest and to resist upon equal terms But it is not enough to know that the Soul resists Why Constancy resists ill we must see what the end is of this resistance and what profit she gets thereby for it seems as if it would be more advantagious for her to flie those ills which seem invincible then to expose herself to its violence and suffer those efforts which may give her if not much discommodity yet at least much trouble considering also her natural aversion towards it its principal effect being to put
is a great difference in this knowledge and it 's more or less perfect according as Creatures have more or less perfection A Bee casts out its sting against a stone as well as against an Animal but a Dog unless he be furious will never assault any but him who purposely hath hurt him Beasts are therefore capable of knowing injuries and therefore we may say that there is no other ill but that which ought to move Anger Now there may be as many kindes of injuries as there are things which may unjustly offend Scorn is a great injury but amongst us there is none which so commonly and generally doth it as Despight And Nature hath given so great an Aversion to the Mind of man against it it endures no ill whatsoever more impatiently then that nor is it more easily or more violently born away by any to revenge And this in my opinion happens from that that Scorn is nothing else but the opinion which we have that a thing merits not consideration having no considerable quality and that we judge it can do neither good nor hurt for we ought to honor excellent things love those which are profitable and fear those which are hurtful so that those are to be despised which deserve not honor and are capable of neither love nor fear But besids that man is naturally a lover of himself that desire of vengeance is born with him and out of that consideration he believes himself amiable and that if he be offended he can be hurtful he hath a secret sence of the dignity of his being and thinks that he commits an injustice who renders him not the honor which is due unto him That to despise him is in a manner to contest the advantages which Nature hath given him Finally as there is no good which is more his own then that there is also nothing which can transport him more then for any to seek take it away If this original excellency is accompanied with those which birth study or fortune may advance such as are the natural and acquired qualities of the Mind the strength and beauty of the Body Honors Riches and Friends it 's then that the sence of Scorn is more common and most insufferable because that those who think to excel in any thing believe also that there is honor due unto them and that in several occasions many are wanting to give it them Whence it happens that Great Rich and Young men those who have many Friends Honor or Beauty are easily moved to wrath yet I also know that such as are deprived of these excellent qualities as are Poor Old and Sick persons in a word all those who have any defect are Cholerick beleeving at every moment that they are despised by reason of their imperfections and although they think not that they ought to be esteemed for them yet they do beleeve it 's to commit an injustice whether it be because their defects seem to deserve compassion rather then scorn or whether every one thinks they have sufficient store of other good qualities to counter-ballance those wants Whence the greatness of an injury Now although the kind and the nature of the injury ought to render it more or less sensible yet neither is it that which measures its greatness it 's the opinion alone of him that suffers it for how great soever the offence may be it would never kindle Anger unless we acknowledge and resent it And often an indifferent thing will grow to a gross injury if we but imagine it to be so Now there are two causes which may form this opinion Truth and Error this comes from the precipitation and weakness of the Mind which commonly follows the temperature and custom wherefore Children Women and sick people are easily moved whereas a judicious and magnanimous man seldom grows angry As for the Truth it proceeds from the just value we have of the offence examining the greatness of the ill the persons the places the times and the causes for if the ill be great indeed if he who receives it is a person of quality and he that offends is his inferior or is obliged unto him in any kinde of duty if it were in publick if for a slight cause or that malice was the onely motive we cannot doubt but the resentment must be the greater In a word the further he that offends errs from justice and from his duty so much greater effectually the injury is and the esmotion which it raiseth up in the Mind must also be the more violent He therefore who doth an injury is the object of Anger Why it riseth up against the cause of ill and the onely enemy against whom it imploys all its efforts Let 's now enquire the reason why the Soul riseth up against him and the design she hath when she assaults him All the world is agreed That it is to revenge herself for there is no body agitated by this Passion who respires not vengeance who speaks not of it and with pleasure executes it not unless he be diverted In effect To revenge ones self on any man is to make him suffer a punishment proportionable to the ill he hath done so God revengeth himself on the wicked by punishing them the Laws revenge crimes by those chastisements which they ordain and Men revenge particular injuries by the ill which they inflict on those which have offended them Anger therefore hath no other design but that it intends onely to seek satisfaction for the offence received to chastise him who hath committed it and to cause him to suffer an equal or pronortionable punishment to the ill which he hath done But what profit or benefit can accrew unto it by this chastisement For the injury is done is received is resented and were there any remedy to be applied it were to be employed for the taking away or sweetning of the ill and not against the cause which can nothing ease it and can no ways undo what it hath done Were it true that this Passion had no other object but Scorn we might say that revenge were a necessary means to take away the stain and the shame because that doing ill to him who despiseth us we should make him know that we were nothing despicable since scorn is nothing but the opinion which we have that a thing can do neither good nor hurt But besides that Scorn is not the universal object of Anger the revenge it seeks hath a more general end then that for we are not content to do ill to him who scorns us to make him lose that conceit since there are other means to perswade him to it without losing the desire of our revenge but necessarily Revenge must be a punishment wherewith this Passion seeks to chastise those who offend it Now all pains and all chastisements are the remedies which Justice employs against Malice but throughly to examine them What the motive and the end of chastisements
caused by that violent transport of Humors we have spoken of It 's thus that in malignant Feavers we see so many sad and unlook'd for accidents happen which astonish the Physitian and overthrow the Patient But this Discourse concerns Physick let us pursue our design and seek the causes of those Characters which are proper to this Passion CHAP. IV. The Causes of the Characters of Anger ALthough Anger be composed of Grief and Boldness and for the same cause its probable it should have no other Characters but those which those two Passions separately produce yet as in all other things mixture affords new vertues or so confounds those which are principal that it makes them appear altogether different from what they were it also happens that Anger besides those Characters which are common to her with Boldness and Grief it hath others particulars added unto it which are not at all to be found in the other if at least they encounter it is with very great difference Indeed if we do but consider these which it forms in the Soul it hath even as Boldness Hope Confidence and Freeness it hath just as Grief Peevishness Impatience and Heaviness But Pride Fury and Despair are far different herein from those which accompany those two Passions for if Boldness is proud it hath strength to maintain its Pride if it be carried away with Fury it 's after great strivings and it never happens at its beginning If finally Grief easily fall into Despair it 's a timorous base heedless despair but Anger hath a Boldness which is commonly vain and without any ground a precipitate fury kindled at the instant of its birth and when it is in despair of revenge it 's a temerous violent and enraged Despair Besides which it in particular makes great threatnings speaks much discovers its secrets it 's credulous impudent and opinionate it 's base cruel and insolent But this diversity appears also in the corporal Characters as we shall make it known after we have examined the causes of these Let 's therefore begin with Hope Why Hope devanceeth Anger which ever gives a beginning to Anger for it 's certain that this Passion is never kindled in the heart what injury soever a man hath received or what desire soever to retort it but first he hopes to have his revenge So that we are seldom angry with those that are extreamly above us Demons or dead bodies although they may offend us will never provoke us and it hath seldom been seen that a man of a low condition hath been carried away with wrath against his King or against his Lord forasmuch as such persons are so high that they seem to be out of reach and that it is as it were impossible to do them any harm and that so having no hope of being revenged they find it 's to no end to be angry with them But since this Hope cannot be founded but on those forces which we believe we have How weak persons hope to be revenged and that Natures which are most weak such as are Women and Children and sick persons are extreamly susceptible of Anger how is it possible they should hope to be revenged having not the power and carrying always about them a secret sence of their own weakness as hereafter we shall make it appear Certainly it 's easie to judge by those vain endeavors which they make in these encounters that it 's from the error of their thoughts and that the Soul suffers it self often to be deceived in the Judgment she makes of her forces Now this error commonly proceeds from the motion of heat which awakens and augments it self in this Passion for as we have said in the Discourse of Boldness this quality taking part with the corporal forces being seated in the Heart and being if we may so speak nearest the Irascible Appetite it cannot be irritated nor increased without the Souls being abused with a vain opinion which it perswades that she is strong enough to undertake great matters It 's as with a Prince who hearkens onely to generous counsels to whom his power and greatness are onely represented and who sees no man that provokes him not to take up arms For how weak soever he is incessantly finding himself sollicited by those violent Ministers having his ears always filled with their flatteries he at last suffers himself to be perswaded and without considering his impotency engageth himself in temerous undertakings the Soul often doth the like in the weakest bodies when natural heat kindles it self it the Heart seeing nothing about it if we may so speak but this floating and unquiet quality being every moment provoked by its ardor and by its vivacity and suffering it self to be surprised by the ostentation she makes of her power and vertue she at last imagines her forces are greater then indeed they are and without remembring her weakness she resolves to combate the ill and flatters herself with the hope of obtaining the Victory But it may be enquired what it is which then thus irritates and augments this heat What it is that irritates heat in weak persons forasmuch as if it be the Soul as we have said which employs it to destroy the ill she must needs hope to overcome it before she will offer to make use of it since the design always goes before those means which are proper to execute it and that in effect the Passions are immanent actions which form themselves in the Soul before the Body resents them for there is no question but Hope accompanies strong and robustious constitutions where it is not necessary that heat should be irritated to raise up this Passion it 's enough for them that they know their forces and are assured of them but here where weakness is whereof the Soul hath the knowledge and which consequently ought to make her mistrust herself there must needs be something to animate her courage In a word it 's necessary Heat should be augmented before Hope can be therein formed And yet we see nothing which can raise it since we suppose that there is nothing in the Soul but Grief which proceeds from the injury received and that this Passion far from encreasing heat is that which diminisheth and at last extinguisheth it To resolve this difficulty we must discover a secret which hath not hitherto been discovered in the Passions That there are Passions in the lowermost part of the Soul and say that in all Animals there are two Appetites the one which is sensitive and the other which is natural that both pursue what is profitable and flie what is ill And that both of them again raise themselves up against what is contrary unto them to overcome it For it 's certain that in sickness Nature irritates herself against ill and stirs up her forces to drive it away and that this motion is answerable to Anger and to Boldness which form themselves in the sensitive Soul So that
the impetuosity and the boilings wherwith the blood and spirits are agited but we must presently judge that that is the cause which makes the Veins and Arteries swelled and extended and that all the rest of the parts are full and puffed up and whosoever shall represent to himself the impatience and the transport wherein the Soul is will nothing wonder at these motions which in this Passion the Body suffers The Head is lifted up and the Stature grows erect for as much as the Soul raiseth up herself to assault the Enemy And although he be absent she forbears not to put herself into this posture as if she were ready to throw herself on him for that the violence of those Passions which trouble her represent him to her thought as if he were truly present and as if he ought in effect to feel the blows she intends to inflict The frequent flinging out of the Arms The motion of the parts in Anger a light and quick pace a continual change of posture and place are effects which note the endeavors and sallies of the Soul the precipitation and impatience she hath to revenge herself But whence comes it that we set up our Hands by our sides when with anger and threatnings we quarrel with any man it is without doubt to confirm the parts that the Muscles of respiration which they uphold may the more powerfully operate and by that means the voice may have the more force and be the longer lasting For which cause we are never content to place our hands thus on our sides but that we also advance the Arms and the Elbows whereby enlarging and extending the Shoulders we render them for the same purpose more stiff As for those blows wherewith a man in Anger beats the ground and all what comes under his hands or under his feet it 's very likely that they are such means as the soul useth to give a repulse to those difficulties which traverse her designs and that the trouble and blindness she is in causing her to take all things for true obstacles which stop her she strikes against she drives and she beats them as it were to break them and to put them by or else they are the effects of a precipitated Vengeance which Anger doth discharge on the first Objects it meets having not either the patience or the power to make them be rescued by its real Enemy It 's thus that Dogs bite the stones which are thrown at them it is thus we break the Sword which wounded us in a word it is thus we revenge our selves on our selves and above all its what concerns those from whom we have received an injury But what reason can we give for all those shakings of the Head which are remarkable in this Passion Whence the shakings of the Head What can oblige the Soul to move it one while to the right and then to the left sometimes up and sometimes down and sometimes on one side onely And to what end doth she cause these so extravagant motions and so different the one from another For to conclude that they are signs and natural effects which Anger produceth in all men of what Nation or of what constitution soever they are So that if Nature doth nothing in vain she must herein have her causes and reasons as well as in her greatest and most considerable actions It is true in my judgement they are very hard to be known and it is with them as with most part of things which hide them selves so much the more unto the Mind the more they discover themselves unto the Sences and which are as difficult to be comprehended as they are easily remarkable And certainly as all natural things are made for some end or out of necessity we cannot say but that the alteration of the Body or the agitation of the Humors must cause these motions by a necessary consequence as it happens in the redness of the Face in the wrinckles of the Forehead in the splendor of the Eyes and the like which are formed by necessity without being destined for any use and if we would place them in the rank of actions which are performed for some end it is nothing easie to observe what motive the Soul therein proposeth it self no what service she pretends to draw from thence To give further light to these obscurities you must first know whether these motions are not in other Passions and afterwards seek those motives for the which they were therein formed and lastly to see whether they may be applied to Anger It is certain that we use to shake the Head and to give it readily two or three turns about when any thing displeaseth Why we toss the Head as especially when we refuse or disapprove of any thing when we are sensible of an ungrateful smel or when we tast ought that is disgustful For which cause the vulgar commonly call Wine when it is not good Wine with two ears because it makes those two parts move when we turn the Head from one side to the other and that by that motion we would signifie that we found it to be naught But what relation can this action have with these sentiments Is it not that the Soul would turn away the face where the organs of the sences are from those objects which are displeasing to it as she useth to fix them on those which please Or that she seeks by that endeavor to estrange from her what is troublesome At least it is thus that when any thing incommodates those parts we shake them about to drive them away for although this in these encounters we speak of be useless unto it yet are they nothing extraordinary since she often deceives herself in the same manner upon other occasions wherein she abuseth those means which Nature hath prescribed her to attain her ends employing them in others where they are of no use as hath been shewed speaking of that water which Desire causeth in the Mouth and of the motion of the Brows at the sight of distasteful things Or we may rather say that this shaking of the Head is a mark the Soul would make of the impression which some kind of objects make on her and that it is an outward image of that action which she performs in herself For it is her custom that when she would have that appear outwardly which is done within she causeth those motions of the organs which have some relation and resemblance with her own as we may judge by the laughter of the looks and by all those other effects whereof we have spoken in this Work And certainly since that at the encounter of pleasant things she makes particular signs which make known the sence she hath of them she must needs also have some for those which are displeasing So that if she sweetly casts down the Head when good presents it self unto her as it happens when we meet a friend when we approve a