conceive the half or third part of a Soul nor what space it takes up and that it becomes not any whit less by cutting off any part of the body but absolutely withdraws when the Contexture of its organs is dissolved The 31th Article That there is a little kernell in the brain wherein the soul exercises her functions more peculiarly than in the other parts IT is also necessary to know that although the foul be joyned to all the body yet there is some part in that body wherein shee exercises her functions more peculiarly than all the rest and it s commonly believed that this part is the brain or it may bee the heart the brain because thither tend the organs of the senses and the heart because therein the Passions are felt but having searched this businesse carefully me thinks I have plainly found out that that part of the body wherein the soul immediatly exercises her functions is not a jot of the heart nor yet all the brain but only the most interiour part of it which is a certain very small kernell situated in the middle of the substance of it and so hung on the top of the conduit by which the spirits of its anteriour cavities have communication with those of the posteriour whose least motions in it cause the course of the spirits very much to change and reciprocally the least alterations befalling the course of the spirits cause the motions of the kernell very much to alter The 32th Article How this kernell is known to be the principall seat of the soul THe reason which perswades me that the soul can have no other place in the whole body but this kernell where shee immediatly exercises for functions is for that I see all the other parts of our brain are paired as also we have two eyes two hands two ears lastly all the organs of our exteriour senses are double and forasmuch as we have but one onely and single thought of one very thing at one and the same time it must necessarily be that there is some place where the two images that come from the two eyes or the two other impressions that come from any single object through the double organs of the other senses have some where to meet in one before they come to the soul that they may not represent two objects in stead of one and it may bee easily conceived that these images or other impressions joyn together in this kernell by intercourse of the spirits that fill the cavities of the brain but there is no other place in the body where they can be so united unlesse it be granted that they are in this kernell The 33th Article That the seat of the Passions is not in the heart FOr the opinion of those who think the soul receives her Passions in the heart it is not worth consideration for it is grounded upon this that the Passions make us feel some alteration there and it is easie to take notice that this alteration is only felt in the heart by the intercourse of a small nerve descending to it from the brain just as pain is felt in the feet by intercourse of the nerves of the foot and the starres are perceived as to be in the firmament by the intercourse of their light and the optick nerves so that it is no more necessary that our soul exercise her functions immediatly in the heart to make her Passions be felt there than it is necessary shee should be in the sky to see the stars there The 34th Article How the Soul and the Body act one against another LEt us then conceive that the Soul holds her principall seat in that little kernell in the midst of the brain from whence she diffuseth her becames into all the rest of the body by intercourse of the spirits nerves yea and the very blood which participating the Impressions of the spirits may convey them through the arteries into all the members and remembring what was formerly said concerning this machine our body to wit that the little strings of our nerves are so distributed into all parts of it that upon occasion of severall motions excited therein by sensible objects they variously open the pores of the braine which causeth the animall spirits contained in the cavities thereof to enter divers wayes into the muscles by whose means they can move the members all the severall wayes they are apt tomove and also that all the other causes which can differently move the spirits are enough to convey them into severall muscles let us here adde that the little kernell which is the chief feat of the soul hangs so between the cavities which contain these spirits that it may be moved by them as many severall fashions as there are sensible diversities in objects but withall that it may be moved severall wayes by the soul too which is of such a nature that she receives as many various impressions that is hath as many severall apprehensions as there come severall motions into this kernell As also on the other side the machine of the body is so composed that this kernel being only divers wayes moved by the soul or by any other cause whatsoever it drives the Spirits that environ it towards the pores of the brain which convey them by the nerves into the muscles by which means it causeth them to move the members The 35th Article An example of the manner how the impressions of objects unite in the kernell in the middle of the brain AS for example if we see any creature come toward us the light reflected from his body paints two images one in each eye and these two images beget two others by intercourse with the optick nerves in the interiour superficies of the brain that looks towards its concavities from thence by intercourse of the spirits wherewith these cavities are filled these images glance in such a manner on the little kennell that these spirits encompasse it and the motion which composes any point of one of these images tends to the same point of the kernell to which that motion tends that frames the point of the other image which represents too part of this creature by which meanes the two images in the brain make up but one single one upon the kernell which acting immediately against the Soul shews her the figure of that creature The 36 Article An example how the Passions are excited in the Soul FUrthermore if this figure be very strange and hideous that is if it have much similitude with such things as have formerly been offensive to the body it excites in the Soul the Passion of fear afterwards that of boldness or else an affright or scaring according to the various temper of the body or the force of the soul and according as a man hath formerly protected himself by defence or flight against noxious things whereunto the present impression hath some resemblance for this renders the braine so disposed in some men that the
I also adde it is of that good which the impressions of the brain represent to her as her own that I may not confound this Joy which is a Passion with that Joy purely intellectuall which comes into the Soul by the sole action of the Soul and which may be called a pleasing emotion in her excited by her selfe wherein consists her enjoyment of good which her understanding represents to her as her own it is true while the Soul is joyned to the body this intellectuall Joy can hardly be rid of the company of that which is a Passion for as soon as ever our understanding perceives that we possesse any good although this good may be so farre different from all that belongs to the body that it be not imaginable yet will not the Imagination forbear to make immediatly some impression in the brain whereupon ensue the motion of the spirits which excite the Passion of Joy The 92 Article The Definition of Sadnesse SAdnesse is a displeasant languishing wherein consists the discommodity the Soul receives from evill or defect which the impressions of the brain represent unto her as belonging to her and there is also an intellectuall Sadnesse which is not the Passion but which wants but little of being accompanied by it The 93 Article What are the causes of these two Passions NOW when the intellectuall Joy or Sadnesse so excites that which is a Passion their cause is evident enough and one may see by their defintions that Joy comes from the opinion a man hath that he possesses some good and Sadnesse from the opinion of some evill or defect but it oft falls out that a man is Sad or joyfull and yet he cannot distinctly observe the good or evill which are the causes of it to wit when this good or this evill make their impressions in the brain without the intercourse of the Soul sometimes because they belong only to the body and sometimes too although they belong to the Soul because shee considers them not as good or evill but under some other notion the impression whereof is joyned in the brain with that of good and evill The 94th Article How the Passions are excited by Goods and evills which only respect the budy and wherein consists tick ling and pain SO when a man is in sound health and the weather is fairer then ordinary hee feels a lightsomnesse in himselfe which proceeds not from any function of the understanding but only from the impressions which the motion of the spirits makes in the brains and he feels himselfe sad likewise when his body is indisposed although he know not that it is Thus the tickling of the senses is so closely followed by Joy and pain by sadness that most men cannot distinguish them yet they differ so farre that a man may somtimes suffer pains with Joy and receive ticklings that displease but the cause why Joy commonly follows tickling is because all that is called tickling or a pleasing touch consists in this that the objects of the senses excite some morions in the nerves which would be apt to hurt them if they had not strength enough to resist it or the body were not well disposed which makes an impression in the brain which being instituted by nature to signifie this good disposition and this strength represents it to the Soul as a good belonging to her seeing she is united to the Body and so excites Joy in her the cause is almost the same why a man naturally takes delight to feel himself moved to all sorts of Passions yea even Sadness \ and Hatred when these Passions are caused only by strange adventures which he sees personated on a stage or by such like occasions which not being capable to trouble us any way seem to tickle the Soul by touching it And the reason why pain usually produces Sadness is because that feeling which is called pain proceeds alwayes from some action so violent that it offends the nerves so that being instituted by nature to signifie to the Soul the dammage the body receives by this action and its weaknesse-in not being able to resist it it represents each of them to him as evils alwayes displeasing unlesse then when they cause some good things which she esteems of more than them The 95th Article How they may also be excited by goods andevils which the Soul observes not though they belong to her as the delight a man takes to run into a danger or remember an evil past SO the delight which oft-times young men take to undertake difficult things and expose themselves to great perills though they do not so much as look for any profit or honour thereby comes from hence the conceit they have that they undertake a difficult thing makes an impression in the brain which being joyned to that which they may make if they thought it a good thing to be couragious fortunate active or strong enough to dare to hazzard so farre is the reason that they take delight in it and the content which old men take when they remember the miseries they suffered proceeds from hence they imagine to themselves it is a good thing that they could subsist in spight of them The 96th Article What are the motions of the blood and spirits that cause the five preceding Passions THe five Passions which I have here begun to explain are so joyned or opposed to one another that it is easier to consider them all together then to treat distinctly of each as I handled Admiration and their cause is not like that in the braine onely but also in the Heart Spleen Liver and all other parts of the body in as much as they serve to the production of the blood and afterwards of the Spirits For although all the veins convey the blood they contain into the heart yet it sometimes falls out that the blood of some of them is driven with a stronger force than the rest and it happens also that the overtures through which it enters into he heart or those through which it goes out are more dilated or contracted one time than another The 97th Article The principall experiments conducing to the knowledge of these motions in Love NOW considering the sundry alterations that experience lets us see in our bodies while our Soul is agitated with divers Passions I observe in Love when it is alone that is when it is not accompanied with any extream Ioy desire or Sadnes that the beating of the pulse is even much greater and stronger than ordinary that a man feels a gentle heart in his breast and quick digestion ofmeat so that this Passion is profitable for the health The 98 Article In Hatred ON the contrary I observe in Hatred that the pulse is uneven weaker and oftentimes faster that a man feels colds intermingled with I know not what sharp and pricking heat in the breast that the stomack ceases to do its office is enclined to vomit and reject the meats he hath
spirits reflected from the image so formed on the kernell go from thence to fall part into the nerves which serve to turn the back and stirre the legs to run away and part into those which as is spoken of before let out or draw upon together the orifices of the heart or which else so agitate the rest of the parts from whence the blood is sent that this blood not being rarified there in the usuall manner sends spirits to the braine that are fitting to maintain and confirm the passion of fear that is such as are proper to hold open or open again the pores of the brain that convey them into the very same nerves for the meere entry of these spirits into these pores excites in this kernell a particular motion instituted by nature to make the soul feel that passion and because these pores relate principally to the little nerves that serve to lock up or open wide the orifices of the heart this makes the soul feel it as if it were chiefly in the heart The 37th Article How it appears they are all caused by some motion of the spirits ANd because the like happens in all the other Passions to wit that they are principally caused by the spirits contained in the cavities of the brain seeing they direct their course towards the nerves which serve to enlarge or straiten the orifices of the heart either to thrust the blood in the other parts differently to it or whatsoever other way it be to feed the self same Passion it may be clearly understood by this wherefore I formerly inserted in my definition that they are caused by some peculiar motion of the Spirits The 38th Article An example of the motions of the Body that accompany the Passions and depend not of the Soul MOreover as the course which these spirits take towards the nerves of the heart is sufficient to give a motion to the kernell whereby fear is put into the soul even so by the meere going of the spirits at that time into those nerves which serve to stirre the legges to run away they cause another motion in the same kernell by meanes whereof the soul feels and perceives this flight which may in this manner be excited in the body by the meere disposition of the organs the soul not at all contributing to it The 39th Article How the same cause may excite divers Passions in divers men THe same impression that the presence of one formidable object workes upon the kernel and which causeth fear in some men may in others rouze up courage and boldnesse the reason whereof is that all braines are not alike disposed for the same motion of the Kernell which in some excites feare in others causeth the spirits to enter into the pores of the brain which convey them part into the nerves which serve to use the hands for defence and partly into those which agitate and drive the blood towards the heart in that manner as is requisite to produce spirits proper to continue this defence and retaine a will to it The 40th Article What the principall effect of the Passions is FOr it must be observed that the principall effect of all the Passions in men is they incite and dispose their Souls to will the things for which they prepare their Bodies so that the resentment of fear incites him to be willing to fly that of boldnesse to be willing to fight and so of the rest The 41th Article What is the power of the Soul in respect of the Body BUt the will is so free by nature that it can never be constrained and of two sorts of thoughts which I have distinguished in the Soul whereof some are her Actions to wit her Wils others her Passions taking that word in its generall signification which comprehends all sorts of apprehensions the first are absolutely in her owne power and cannot but indirectly be changed by the body as on the contrary the last depend absolutely upon the Actions which produce them and they cannot unlesse indirectly be changed by the Soul except then when her selfe is the cause of them And all the Action of the Soul consists in this that she meerely by willing any thing can make the little kernell whereunto she is strictly joyned move in the manner requisite to produce the effect relating to this Will The 42th Article How the things one would remember are found in the memory SO when the Soul would remember any thing this Will is the cause that the kernell nodding successively every way drives the spirits towards severall places of the braine untill they excounter that where the traces which were left there of the object one would remember are For these traces are nothing else but the pores of the braine through which the spirits formerly took their course by reason of the presence of that object have thereby accquired a greater facility to be open in the same manner again than the rest can have by the spirits that come to them so that these spirits meeting these pores enter into them easier than the others whereby they excite a peculiar motion in the kernell which represents the same object to the Soul and makes it know that is it she would remember The 43th Article How the Soul can imagine be attentive and move the Body SO when one would imagin any thing one hath never seen this Will hath the power to make the kernell move in the manner requisite to drive the spirits towards the pores of the braine by the opening of which this thing may be represented So when one would fix his attention some pretty while to consider or ruminate on one object this Will holds the kernell still at that time leaning ever to one side So in fine when one would walk or move his body any way this Will causes the kernell to drive the spirits towards the muscles which serve to that purpose The 44th Article That every Will is naturally joyned to some motion of the kernell but that by industry or habit itmay be annexed to another NOtwithstanding it is not alwayes the Will to excite in us any motion or other effect that can cause us to excite it but that changes according as nature or habit have differently joyned each motion of the kernell to each thought as for example if one would dispose his eyes to look on an object farr distant this Will causes the ball of them to dilate themselves and if one would prompt them to behold an object very neer this Will contracts them but if one thinks onely to dilate the ball he had as good doe nothing that dilates it not at all because nature hath not joyned the motion of the kernell which serves to drive the spirits to the optick nerve in that manner as is requisite to dilate or contract the ball of the eye with the will of dilating or contracting it but with the will of looking on objects remote or at hand and then when we
which being often contrary one to the other draw it backwards and forwards to either side and keeping her busie in contesting against her self put the soul into the most miserable estate she can be as then when fearfulnesse represents death as an extream evill which cannot be shunned but by flight if on the other side ambition represent the infamy of this flight as a mischief worse than death these two Passions variously agitate the Will which obeying now the one and then the other continually opposeth its own self and yields up the soul to slaverie and misfortune The 49th Article That the strength of the soul is not enough without the knowledge of truth IT is true there are very few men so wake and irresolute that they will nothing but what their present Passion dictates to them The most part have determinate judgements according to which they regulate part of their actions And though oft times these judgements be false and indeed grounded on some Passions by which the Wil hath formerly suffered her self to be vanquished or seduced yet because she persevers in following them then when the Passion that caused them is absent they may be considered as her own weapons and souls may be thought stronger or weaker according as they do smore or lesse follow these judgements and resist the present Passions contrary to them But there is a great deal of difference between the resolutions proceeding from some false opinion and those which are onely held up by the knowledge of the truth since following these last man is sure never to acquire sorrow or repentance whereas following the first they are inseparably companions after the errour is discovered The 50th Article That there is no soul so weak but well mannaged may acquire an absolute Mastery over her Passions IT will be commodious here to know that as before hath been said although every motion of the kernell seem to have been joyned by nature to each of our thoughts even from the beginning of our life they may yet he annexed to others by habit as experience shews in words that excite motions in the kernell which according to the institution of nature represent only to the soul their sound when they are pronounced by the Will or by the figure of their letters when they are written and which yet neverthelesse by a habit acquired by thinking what they signifie assoon as ever their sound is heard or their letters seen use to make us conceive the signification rather then the form of our letters or the sound of their sillables It is also convenient to know that although the motions as well of the kernell as the spirits and braine which represent certain objects to the Soul be naturally joyned with those that excite certain Passions in her yet they may by habit be separated and annexed to others very different and moreover that this habit may be acquired by one action onely and requires not a long usuage as as when a man at unawares meets with any nasty thing in a dish of meat which he hath a very good stomack to this accident may so alter the disposition of the brain thataman shall never afterwards see any such kind of meat without loathing whereas before he took delight in eating it The very same thing may be seen in beasts for although they have no reason nor it may be any thought all the motions of the spirits and the kernell which excite Passions in us yet are in them and serve to foment and fortifie not as in us the Passions but the motions of the nerves andmuscles their concomitants So when a dog sees a Partridge he is naturally enclined to run to it and when he heares a piece go off this noise incites him naturally to run away yet neverthelesse we ordinarily breed up spanniels so that the sight of a Partridge makes them couch and the noise of a discharged piece makes them run to it Now these things are profitable to know to encourage every one to study the regulation of his Passions For since with a little art the motions of the brain in beasts who are void of reason may be altered it is evident they may more easily in men and that even those who have the weakest Souls may acquire a most absolute Empire over all their Passions if art and industry be used to mannage and govern them The Passions of the Soul The second part Of the number and order of the Passions and explication of the six chief or Primitive The 51th Article What are the first causes of the Passions IT is knowne by what hath formerly been said that the utmost and neerest cause of the Passions of the Soul is nothing but the agitation by which the spirits move the little kernel in the middle of the braine But this is not sufficient to distinguish them from one another it is necessary therefore to seek after their originalls and examine their first causes NOw although they may sometimes be caused by the Action of the Soul which determines to conceive such or such objects as also by the meere temper of the body or by the impressions accidentally found in the brain as it oft befalls that a man feels himselfe sad or merry not knowing upon what occasion it appears neverthelesse by what hath been said that the same may bee excited also by the objects which move the senses and that these objects are their most oridinary and principall causes whence it followes that to find them all out it is sufficient to consider all the effects of these objects The 52 Article What is the use of them and that they may be numbered FUrthermore I observe that the objects which move the senses excite not divers Passions in us by reason of so many diversities in them but meerly because they may severall wayes hurt sor profit us or else in generall be important to us and that the use of all the Passions consists onely in this that they dispose the Soul to will the things which Nature dictates are profitable to us and to persist in this will as also the very agitation of the spirits accustomed to cause them dispose the body to the motions that further the execution of those things Wherefore to calculate them we are only to examine in order after how many considerable manners our senses may be moved by their objects And I will here make a generall muster of all the principall Passions according to order that so they may be found The order and Numeration of the Passions The 53 Article Admiration WHen the first encounter of any object surprizeth us and we judge it to be new or far different from what we knew before or from what we supposed it should have been we admire it and are astonished at it And because this may fall out before we know at all whether this object be convenient or no me thinkes admiration is the first of all the Passions And it hath no contrary because
equally distant the one from the other and so were separated They come to meet because the order of these pores is molested by which meanes they joyn together and so convertinto teares The 131. Article How one weepes for Sadnesse THe other cause is Sadnesse followed by Love or Joy or generally by any cause which makes the heart thrust much blood into the arteries Sadnesse is requisite thereunto because making the blood cold it contracts the pores of the eyes But because according as it contracts them it also decreases the quantity of vapours whereunto they should allow passage that is not yet sufficient to produce tears unlesse the quantity of vapours be at the same time augmented by some other cause And there is nothing that encreaseth it more then the blood sent from the heart in the Passion of Love We see also that they who are sad do not continually shed tears but onely by intervalls when they make any new reflexion on the objects they affect The 132. Article Of the groanes which accompany tears ANd then sometimes the lungs two are blown up all at once by the abundance of blood which gets into them and drives away the aire they contained which breaking forth through the gullet begets groanes and cryes which usually accompany tears And these cries are commonly more sharp than those which accompany Laughter though they be produced almost in the same manner the reason whereof is that the nerves which serve to enlarge or contract the organs of the voice to make it stronger or sharper being joyned to those which open the Orifices of the heart in Joy and contract them in Sadnesse cause these organs to be dilated or contracted at the same time The 133. Article Wherefore children and old men are aptest to Weep CHildren and old men are apter to Weep than they of a middle age but for severall reasons Old men Weep oft-times out of affection and for Joy for these two Passions joyned together send much blood to the heart and from thence many vapours to the eyes and the agitation of these vapours is so retarded by their natural coldnesse that they are apt to convert into tears although no sadnesse preceded But if some old men are apt to Weep for vexation too it is not so much the temper of their Body as that of their mind which disposeth them thereunto And this befals only those who are so weak that they suffer themselves to be absolutely overcome by small occasions of griefe fear or pitty the same happens to children who doe not Weep commonly for Joy but rather for sadnesse that unaccompanied with Love For they ever have blood enough to produce many vapours the motion of which being retarded by Sadnesse they convert into Tears The 134. Article Wherefore some children wax pale instead of Weeping YEt there are some who wax pale instead of Weepig when they are vexed which may denote an extraordinary judgement and courage in them that is when it proceeds from the consideration of the greatnesse of the evil they prepare themselves for a strong resistance as they doe who are elder But it is ordinarily a mark of an ill nature that is when it proceeds from their inclination to Hatred or Fear follow for they are Passions that diminish the matter of tears And on the contrary it is seen that those who are prone to Weep are inclined to Love and Pity The 135. Article Of Sighes THe cause of Sighes is very different from that of tears though it like them presupposes Sadnesse For whereas a man is excited to Weep when the lungs are ful of blood he is incited to sigh when they are almost empty and when some imagination of Hope or joy opens the Orifice of the venous artery which Sadnesse had contracted because then the smal remainder of blood in the lungs falling all together into the left side of the heart through this venous artery and driven on by a Desire to attain this Joy which at the same time agitates all the muscles of the Diaphragma and breast the air is suddenly blown through the mouth into the lungs to fill up the vacant place of the blood And this is called sighing The 136. Article From whence proceed the Passions which are peculiar to certain men FUrthermore that I may here in few words supply all that may be added hereunto concerning the several effectts or causes of the Passions I am content to repeatthe principle whereon all that I have written of them is grounded to wit that there is such a tye betwixt our Soul and Body that when we once have joyned any corporall Action with any thought one of them never presents it self to us without the other and that they are not alwayes the same Actions which are joyned to the same thoughts For this is sufficient to give a reason of all that any man can observe peculiar either in himself or others concerening this matter which hath not been here explained And for example it is easie to conceive that the strange Aversions of Some who cannot endure the smell of roses the sight of a Cat or the like come only from hence that when they were but newly alive they were displeased with some such like objects or else had a fellow-feeling of their mothers resentment who was so distasted when she was with child for it is ceertain there is an affinity between the motions of the mother and the child in her womb so that whatsoever is displeasing to one offends the other and the smell of Roses may have caused some great head-ach in the child when it was in the cradle or a Cat may have affrighted it and none took notice of it nor the Child so much as remembred it though the Idea of that Aversion he then had to Roses or a Cat remain imprinted in his brain to his lives end The 137th Article Of the use of the five precedent Passions as they relate to the body NOw the definitions of Love Hatred Desire Joy and Sadness are laid down and the corporall motions that cause them or accompany them treated of we have no further to doe but consider the use of them Concerning which it is to be observed that according to the institution of Nature they all relate to the body and are not given to the Soul but as joyned to it so that their naturall use is to incite the Soul to consent and contribute to the actions which may be useful to conserve the body or make it in some kind more perfect and in this sense Sadnesse and Joy are the two first that are set on work for the Soul is immediatly warned of those things that are hurtfull to the body by the feeling of pain whch first of all produces the Passion of Sadness in her then Hatred of that which causes this pain and in the third place the Desire to be rid of it as also the Soul is not immediatly advertised of things beneficiall to the body but
known to wit the nature of the loadstone fire aire water earth and all that appeares in the heavens seem not to be lesse difficult then those which may be desire Yet I must adde here that let an Architect be never so expert in his art it is impossible hee should finish the edifice hee hath begun if materials requisite are deficient in like manner let your method be never so exact yet you cannot make any further progresse in the explication of naturall causes unless you be able to make requisite experiments to determine their effects which is the last of the three things I believe ought chiefly to be explained because most men conceive not how necessary experiments are nor what expence they require those who not stirring out of their study nor casting their eyes on any thing but their books undertake to discourse of nature may well tell how they would have created the world had God given them authority and power to do it that is they might describe Chimera's that have as much Analogy with the imbecilitie of their wit as the admirable beauty of this Universe with the infinite puissance of its Maker but without a spirit truly divine they cannot of themselves frame an Idea of things like that which God had to create them And though your Method promise all that may be hoped for from humane wit concerning the enquiry after truth in the Sciences yet it doth not promise to teach Prophecie but to deduce from certain things laid down all truths that may from thence be deducted and the things laid down in Physicks can be nothing but experiments Moreover because experiments are of two sorts some easie that depend only on the reflexion a man makes on things represented to the senses of themselves others more rare and difficult which are not attained without some study and expence it may bee observed that you have already inserted in your writings all that seems may be gahtered out of easie experiments and also the rarest too that you could learn out of books For besides your explaining the nature of all qualities that move the senses and the most ordinary bodies on the earth as fire air water and some others in them you have also therein given an account of all that hath been observed hitherto in the heavens of all the properties of the Loadstone and many Chymicall observations So that there is no reason to expect any more from you concerning Physicks till you have made more experiments whereof you might enquire the causes And I wonder not that you undertake not to try these experiments at your own charges For I know the enquirie after the smallest things cost a great deal and not to quote Chymists nor the rest of the hunters after secrets who use to undoe themselves at that trade I heard say that the Loadstone only cost Gilbert above 50000 crowns though he were a man of very great parts as he hath shewed by being the first who discovered the chief properties of that stone I have also seen the Advancement to Learning and the New Atlantis of my Lord Chancellour Bacon who of all them that have written before you seems to me the man who had the best notions concerning the method to be held to bring the Physicks to their perfection but the whole Revenue of two or three of the richest Kings on the earth would not be enough to set all things he requires for this purpose on work And although I think you doe not need so many sorts of experiments as hee imagines because you may supply many as well by your dexterity as the knowledge of truths you have already found yet considering that the number of particular bodies unexamined is almost infinite that there is not any one but hath a great many severall properties and whereof severall tryals may be made to take up the time and labour of many men that according to the rules of your method it is necessary at once to examine all things who have any affinitie between them the better to marke their differences and to make such quantities as you may be assured that so you may profitably make use at the same time of more severall experiments than the labour of a great many able men could furnish you withall and lastly that you cannot get these able men but at a great rate because if some would employ themselves gratis they would not be obedient enough to your orders and would only give you occasion to lose time considering I say all these things I easily comprehend you cannot handsomly finish the designe you have begun in your principles that is particularly to lay open the nature of all Minerals Plants animals and man as you have already done all the elements of the earth and all observable in the heavens unlesse the publique defray the expences necessary for that purpose and the more liberall they shall be to you the better you shall be able to goe through with your designe Now because all these things may be easily comprehended by every one and are all so true they cannot be doubted I am confident that if you represented them in such a manner as they might come to the knowledge of those to whom God hath given power to command the people of the earth and charge also to doe their utmost to advance the common good there is none of them but would contribute to a designe so manifestly profitable to the whole world and though out France which is your Country be so mighty a State that you might easily obtain from her alone whatsoever is requisite to this purpose yet because other Nations are no less interessed therein than shee I am confident many would be generous enough not to give her place in that duty and that there would not any bee so barbarous as not to put in a hand But if all that I have written be not enough to make you of another humour pray at least oblige me so farre as to send me your Treatise of the Passions and give me leave to adde a Preface to it wherewith it may be printed I will see it shall be so done that there shall be nothing you can dislike in it but it shall be so conformable to the resentment of all those who have either wit or vertue that no man after hee hath read it but shall participate in the zeale I have to the advancement of Sciences and to be c. Paris Nov. 6. 1648. In answer to the precedent letter Sir Among the many injuries and taunts I find in the long letter you tooke the paines to write to me I observe so many things to my advantage that should you put it to be printed as you declare you will I am afraid it would be imagined there were a greater combination betwixt us than there is and I had entreated you to insert many things that modesty would not suffer me my self to publish to the world Wherfore I will not here
drunk much wine The vapours of this wine entering suddenly into the blood mount up from the hear to the brain where they convert into spirits which being stronger and more abundant than ordinary are apt to move the body after many strange fashions This inequality of the spirits may also proceed from the divers dispositions of the heart liver Stomacke spleene and all other parts contributing to their production For it is principally necessary here to observe certaine little nerves inserted in the basis of the heart which serve to lengthen and contract the entries of its concavities by meanes whereof the blood there dilating more or lesse strongly produces spirits diversly disposed It is also to be noted that although the blood which enters into the heart comes thither from all the other parts of the body yet it falls out often times that more is driven thither from some parts than others by reason the nerves or muscles which answer to those parts oppresse or agitate it more and for that according to the diversity of the parts from whence it comes most it dilates it selfe diverfly in the heart and at last produces spirits of different natures as for example that which comes from the lower part of the liver where the gall is dilates it selfe otherwise in the heart than that which comes from the spleene and this after another manner than that which comes from the veines of the leggs or armes and lastly this quite otherwise than the juyce of meats when being newly come out of the stomack and bowels it passes through the liver to the heart The 16th Article How all the members may be moved by the objects of the sences and by the spirits without the help of the Soul Lastly it is to be observed that the machine of our body is so composed that all the changes befalling the motion of the spirits may so worke as to open some pores of the braine more than others and reciprocally that when any one of these pores are never so little more or lesse open than usuall by the Action of those nerves subservient to the senses it changes somewhat in the motion of the spirits and causes them to be conveyed into the muscles which serve to move the body in that manner it ordinarily is upon occasion of such an Action So that all the motions we make our will not contributing to them as it often happens that we sigh walk eat and to be short doe all actions common to us and beasts depend onely on the conformity of our members and the streame which the spirits excited by the heat of the heart follow naturally into the braine nerves and muscles Just as the motion of a watch is produced meerely by the strength of the spring and the fashion of the wheeles The 17th Article What the functions of the Soul are HAving thus considered all the functions belonging to the body only it is easie to know there remaines nothing in us which we ought to attribute to our Soul unlesse our thoughts which are chiefly of two kinds to wit some Actions of the Soul others her Passions Those which I call her actions are all our wills because we experimentally find they come directly from our Soul and seem to depend on nought but it as on the contrary one may generally call her Passions all those sorts of apprehensions and understandings to be found within us because oftimes our Soul does not make them such as they are to us and she alwayes receives things as they are represented to her by them The 18th Article Of the Will Again our Wills are of two sorts For some are actions of the Soul which terminate in the Soul it selfe as when we will love God or generally apply our thought to any object which is not materiall The other are actions which terminate in our body as in this case that we have onely a will to walke it followes that our legges must stir and we goe The 19th Article Of the Apprehension OUr Appprehensions also are of two sorts the Soul is the cause of some the Body of the other Those whereof the Soul is the cause are the apprehensions of our wills and all the imaginations or others thoughts thereon depending For we cannot will any thing but we must at the same time perceive that we doe will it And although in respect of our Soul it be an Action to will any thing it may be said also a passion in her to apprehend that she wills Yet because this apprehension and this will are in effect but one and the same thing the denomination comes still from that which is most noble therefore it is not customary to call it a Passion but onely an Action The 20th Article Of Imaginations and other thoughts framed by the Soul WHen our Soul applies her elfe to fancy any thing which is not as to represent to it selfe an inchanted Palace or a Chimera and also when she bends her selfe to consider any thing that is only intelligible not imaginable for example to ruminate on ones owne nature the apprehension she hath of things depends ptincipally on the Will which causeth her to perceive them Wherefore it is usuall to consider them as Actions rather than Passions The 21 Article Of Imaginations caused onely by the body Among the apprehensions caused by the body the greatest part depend on the nerves But yet there are some that depend not at all on them which are called Imaginations too as well as those I lately spoke of from which neverthelesse they differ herein that our Will hath no hand in framing them which is the reason wherefore they cannot be numbred among the actions of the Soul and they proceed from nothing but this that the spirits being agitated severall wayes and meeting the traces of divers impressions preceding them in the brain they take their course at haphazzard through some certaine pores rather than others Such are the illusions of our dreames and those dotages we often are troubled with waking when our thought carelessely roames witout applying it self to any thing of its own Now though some of these imaginations be Passions of the Soul taking this word in the genuine and peculiar signification and though they may be all called so if it be taken in a more generall acception yet seeing they have not so notorious and determined a cause as those apprehensions which the Soul receives by mediation of the nerves and that they seem to be onely the shadow and representation of the others before we can well distinguish them it is necessary to examine the difference between them The 22 Article Of the difference betwixt them and the other apprehensions ALL the apprehensions which I have not yet explained come to the Soul by mediation of the nerves and there is this difference between them that we attribute some of them to the objects from without that beat upon our senses some to our body or some parts of it and lastly
the rest to our Soul The 23th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to objects from without us Those which we attribute to things without us to wit to the objects of our enses are caused at least if our opinion be not false by those objects which exciting some motions in the organs of the exteriour senses by intercourse with the nerves stir up some in the brain which make the soul perceive them So when we see the light of a torch and hear the sound of a bell this sound and this light are two everall actions who meerly in this regard that they excite two severall motions in some of our nerves and by meanes of them in the brain deliver the Soul two different Resentments which we so attribute to those Subjects which we suppose to be their causes that we think we see the very flame and hear the bell not onely feel certain motions proceeding from them The 24th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to our body THe apprehensions which we attribute to our body or any of the parts thereof are those we have concerning hunger thirst and other our naturall appetites whereunto may be added paine heat and the rest of the affections we feel as in our members and not in the objects without us So we may at at the same time by the intercourse of the same nerves feel the coldnesse of our hand and the heat of the flame it drawes neere to or contrarily the heat of the hand and the cold of the aire whereto it is exposed and yet there is no difference between the Actions that make us feel the heat or the cold in our hand and those which make us feel that which is without us unlesse that one of these Actions succeeding the other we conceive the first to be already in us and that which followes not to be yet in us but in the object that causeth it The 25th Article Of the apprehensions which we attribute to our Soul THe Apprehensions attributed only to the Soul are those whereof the effects are felt as in the Soul it selfe and whereof any neer cause whereunto it may be attributed is commonly unknown Such are the resentments of joy wrath and the like which are sometimes excited in us by the objects which move our nerves and sometimes too by other causes Now although all our Apprehensions as well those attributed to objects without us as those relating to divers affections of our body be in truth Passions in respect of our Soul when this word is taken in the more generall signification yet it is usuall to restrain it to signifie onely those attributed to the Soul it selfe And they are onely these latter which I here undertake to explaine under the notion of Passions of the Soul The 26th Article That the imaginations which depend onely on the accidentall motion of the spirits may be as reall Passions as the apprehensions depending on the nerves IT is here to be observed that all the same things which the Soul perceives by intercourse with the nerves may also be represented to it by the accidentall course of the spirits and no difference between them but this that the impressions which come from the brain by the nerves are usually more lively and manifest than those the spirits excite there which made me say in the one and twentieth Article that these are onely as the shadow and representation of those It is also to be noted that it sometimes fals out this picture is so like the thing it represents that it is possible to be deceived concerning the apprehensions attributed to those objects without us or those referred to any parts of our body but not to be srved so concerning the Passions forasmuch as they are so neer and interiour to our Soul that it is impossible she should feele them unlesse they were truely such as she doth feel them So oftentimes when one sleeps and sometimes too being awake a man fancies things so strongly that he thinkes he sees them before him or feels them in his body though there be no such thing but although a man be asleep and doate he cannot feel himselfe sad ormoved with any other Passion but it is most true that the Soul hath in it that passion The 27th Article The definition of the Passions of the Soul AFter we have thus considered wherein the passions of the Soul differ from all other thoughts me thinkes they may be generally defined thus Apprehensions resentments or emotions of the Soul attributed particularly to it and caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits The 28th Article An explication of the first part of the definition THey may be called Apprehensions when this word is used in a generall sense to signifie all thoughts that are not Actions of the Soul or the wills but not then when it onely signifies evident knowledges For experience shewes us that those who are most agitated by their Passions are not such as understand them best and that they are in the Catalogue of those apprehensions which the strict alliance between the soul and the body renders confused and obscure they may also be called resentments because they are received into the soul in the same manner as the objects of the exteriour senses and are not otherwise understood by her but they may justlier be stiled the emotions of the Soul not only because this name may be attributed to all the mutations befalling her that is all the various thoughts thereof but particularly because of all kinds of thoughts that she can have there are none that agitate and shake it so hard as these Passions doe The 29th Article An explication of the other part I Adde that they are attributed particularly to the Soul to distinguish them from other resentments relating some to exteriour objects as smells sounds colours the others to our body as hunger thirst pain I also subjoyn that they are caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits to distinguish them from our Wills which cannot be called emotions of the Soul attributed to her but caused by her self as also to unfold their last and immediate cause that distinguisheth them again from other resentments The 30th article That the Soul is united to all the parts of the body joyntly BUt to understand all these things more perfectly it is necessary to know that the Soul is really joyned to all the body but it cannot properly bee said to bee in any of the parts thereof excluding the rest because it is One and in some sort indivisible by reason of the disposition of the organs which do all so relate one to another that when any one of them is taken away it renders the whole body defective and because it is of a nature that hath no reference to extension dimensions or other properties of matter whereof the body is composed but only to the whole masse or Contexture of Organs as appears by this that you cannot
when we read strange adventures in a book or see them personated on a stage it sometimes excites Sadnesse in us sometimes Joy or Love or Hatred and generally all the Passions according to the diversity of objects that offer themselves to our imagination but withall we take a delight to feel them excited in us and this delight is an intellectuall Joy which may as well spring from Sadnesse as all the rest of the Passions The 148 Article That the exercise of Vertue is a Soveraigne remedy against the Passions NOw forasmuch as these interiour emotions doe touch us neerest to the quick and consequently have more power over us then the Passions they differ from which are met withall in them it is certain that provided our Soul have wherewithall to content her interiour part all the troubles that come from abroad are not able to hurt her but rather serve to augment her Joy in that seeing she cannot be injured by them it lets her understand her own perfection And that our Soul may be thus contented she need do nothing but exactly follow the track of Vertue For whosoever hath lived so that his Conscience cannot hit him in the teeth for failing to doe all things which he judged to be best which is the thing I mean here by following the track of Vertue he from thence receives a satisfaction so effectuall to make him happy that the most violent assaults of the Passions shall never be strong enough to trouble the tranquility his Soul The Passions of the Soul The third part Of Particular Passions The 149th Article Of Estimation and Contempt NOw the six Originall Passions are explained which are as the kinds or Genera whereof all the rest are but sorts or Species I will here succinctly observe what there is peculiar in every one of the rest and I will keep still the same order wherein I have formerly marshall'd them The two first are Estimation and contempt For though they commonly signifie onely the opinions a man hath without any Passion of the vallue of any thing yet because from these opinions doe often spring Passions which want peculiar names me thinkes these may be attributed to them And Estimation as it is a Passion is an inclination of the Soul to represent unto her selfe the vallue of the thing esteemed which inclination is caused by a peculiar motion of the spirits so conveyed into the braine that they there fortifie the impressions belonging to that purpose As on the contrary the Passion of contempt is an inclination of the Soul to consider the meannesse or smallnesse of what it contemnes caused by the motion of the spirits which fortifie the Idea of this smallnesse The 150 Article That these two Passions are but Sorts of Admiration SO both these Passions are but sorts of Admiration For when we neither admire the greatnesse nor smallnesse of an object we make neither more nor lesse account of it than reason dictates to us we ought to doe so that we then esteeme or contemne it without Passion And though oft-times Estimation be excited in us by Love and Contempt by Hatred that is not so alwayes and proceeds onely from this that a man is more or lesse inclined to consider the greatnesse or smallnesse of an object as he hath more or lesse affection to it The 151 Article That a man may esteem or contemne himselfe NOw these two Passions may generally relate to all sorts of objects but they are especially remarkable when we referre them to our selves that is when it is our own merit that we either esteem or contemne and the motion of the spirits which cause them is then so manifest that it even changes the countenance gesture gate and generally all the actions of those who conceive a better or worse opinion of themselves than ordinary The 152 Article For what cause a man may esteem himselfe ANd because one of the chiefe parts of Wisdome is to know in what manner for what cause every one ought to esteem or contemn himself I will here endeavour to give my opinion thereof I observe but one thing in us which may give us just cause to esteem our selves to wit the use of our free Disposition and our empire over our Wills For only the actions depending on this free Disposition are those for which wee may justly be praised or blamed and it makes us in some manner like unto God by making us masters of our selves provided wee doe not lose the priviledges it gives us by our unworthiness The 153 Article Wherein Generosity consists SO I believe true Generosity which causeth a man to set himself at the highest rate he justly may consists only partly in knowing there is nothing which truly he can call his own unlesse this free Disposition of his Wills nor wherefore he ought to be praised or blamed unlesse for using that well or ill and partly in feeling a constant and firme resolution in himselfe to use it well that is his Will shall never be wanting to undertake and execute such things as hee shall judge to be best which is to follow Vertue absolutely The 154th Article That it restraines a man from contemning others THose who have this knowledge and resentment of themselves are easily perswaded that every other man hath such of himselfe too because there is nothing in it that depends of any thing else Wherefore they never contemne any body and though they oft-times see other men commit errours that make their weaknesse appeare yet they are evermore enclined to excuse than blame them and to believe that they doe it rather for want of knowledge than good will And as they doe not think themselves much inferiour to those who have greater estates honours nor yet more wit knowledge beauty or generally that surpass them in any other perfections so they do not esteem themselves much above those whom they surpasse because all these things seem very little considerable to them in comparison of their good Will for which only they esteem themselves and which they suppose is or at least may be in every other man The 155th Article Wherein vertuous Humility consists SO the most generous use to be most humble and Vertuous Humility consists only in this that the reflexion wee make on the infirmity of our own nature and the faults we may have formerly committed or those we are like to commit which are no whit lesse than those committed by others is the reason why we do not preferre our selves before any body but think that others who have their free Disposition as well as we may use it as well The 156th Article What the properties of Genorosity are and how it serves for a remedy against all unruliness of the Passions THey who thus are generous are naturally addicted to doe great things and yet to undertake nothing they are not capable of and because they esteem nothing greater than to doe good to other men and to contemn their own