agitated and subtlest only get in while the rest is dispersed into all the other parts of the body Now these very subtle parts of the blood make the animall spirits and they need not to this end undergoe any other change in the brain but only be separated from the other lesse subtle parts of the blood for what I here call spirits are but bodyes and have no other property unlesse tha they are bodies exceeding small which move very nimbly as the parts of a flame issuing from a torch so that they stay not in any one place but still as some get into the cavities of the brain some others get out through the pores in the substance of it which pores convey them into the nerves and from thence into the muscles by means whereof they mould the body into all the severall postures it can move The 11th Article How the muscles are moved FOR the only cause of the motion of all the members is that some Muscles shrink up and their opposites extend as hath been already said and the only cause why one muscle shrinkes rather than his opposite is that there come though never so little more spirits to the one than the other not that the spirits which flow immediatly from the brain are alone sufficient to move these Muscles but they dispose the other spirits which already are in these two Muscles of sally forth immediatly from one of them into the other by means whereof that from whence they came becomes longer and flaggier that wherein they are being suddenly swelled up by them shortens and attracts the member appendent to it which is easily conceived when it is known that there are but very few animal spirits which proceed continually from the brain to every Muscle but that there are abundance of others lockt in the same Muscle which move very swiftly in it sometimes in whirling round only in the places where they are this is when they find no passages open to get out at and sometimes by slipping into the opposite Muscle For there are little overtures in each of these Muscles through which hese spirits can slide from one to another which are so disposed too that when the spirits which come from the brain towards one of them are but never so little stronger than those going to theother they open all the entries through which the spirits of the other Muscle can fly into this and in the same instant bar up all those through which the spirits of this might get into that whereby all the spirits formerly contained in both Muscles crowd suddenly into one so swelling it up and shortning it while the other extends it self and gives The 12th Article How outward objects act contrary to the organs of the senses IT remains yet to know the causes why the spirits slide not from the brain into the Muscles always after one manner and wherefore they come sometimes more towards some than others For besides the action of the Soul which in truth is in us one of the causes as I shall shew hereafter there are yet two besides which depend not of any thing but the body which it is necessary to take notice of the first consists in the diversitie of motions excited in the organs of the senses by their objects which I have already amply enough explained in the Dioptricks but that those who see this may not need to have read ought else I will here repeat that there are three things to be considered in the sinews to wit their marrow or interiour substance which stretches it self out in the form of little threds from the brain the originall thereof to the extremities of the other members whereunto these threds are fastened next the skins wherein they are lapt which being continuous with those that invelope the brain make up litle pipes wherein these threds are enclosed lastly the animal spirits which being conveyed through these very pipes from the brain to the muscles are the cause that these thredd 's remain there entirely unmolested and extended in such a manner that the least thing that moves that part of the body whereunto the extremity of any one of them is fastened doth by the same reason move that part of the brain from whence it comes just as when a man pulls at one end of a string he causeth the other end to stirre The 13th Article That this Action of objects without may differently convey the spirits into the Muscles AND I have made it evident in the Diopticks how all the objects of the sight are not communicated to us any way but thus they move locally by mediation of transparent bodies between them and us those little thredd 's of the Optick nerves which are at the bottome of our eyes and after them the places of the brain from whence those nerves come they move them I say as many severall kinds of wayes as there are diversities of objects in things nor are they immediatly the motions made in the eye but in the brain that represent these objects to the Soul in imitation whereof it is easie to conceive that sounds odours heat pain hunger thirst and generally and objects as well of our other exteriour senses as our interiour appetites doe also excite some motion in our nerves which passes by means of them unto the brain and besides that these severall motions of the brain create in our soul different resentments it may so be that that without her the spirits direct their course rather towards some Muscles than others and so they may move our members which I will prove here only by one example If any one lift up his hand on a sudden towards our eyes as if he were about to strike although we know he is our friend that he does this only in jest and that he will be carefull enough not to doe us any hurt yet wee can scarce refrain from shutting them which shews it is not by the intermedling of our soul that they shut since it is against our will which is the only or at least the principall Action thereof but by reason this machine of our body is so composed that the moving of this hand up towards our eyes excites another motion in our brain which conveys the animal spirits into those muscles that close the eye-lids The 14th Article That the diversity of the spirits may diversifie their course THe other cause which serves to convey the animal spirits variously into the muscles is the unequal agitation of these spirits and the diversity of their parts for when any of their parts are more gross and agitated than the rest they passe forwards in a direct line into the cavities and pores of the brain and by this means are conveyed into toher muscles whereinto they should not had they been weaker The 15th Article What are the causes of their diversity ANd this inequality may proceed from the divers matters whereof they are composed as is seen in those who have
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
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
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
need of so much room so that retreating into the largest which are neerest the heart it deserts the remotest the most apparent whereof being those of the face that makes it look pale and wanne especially when the Sadness is great or comes upon one suddenly as is seen in Affrights whose surprizalls augment the action that obstructs the heart The 117th Article How a man looks red oft-times when he is Sad. BUt it oft-times befalls that a man does not wax pale when he is Sad but contrarily becomes red this ought to be atributed to other Passions joyned to sadness to wit Love Desire and sometimes even Hatred too for these passions heating or agitating the blood which comes from the liver entrailes and the rest of the interiour parts drive it to the heart and from thence through the great Artery to the veines of the face the Sadness which obstructs the Orifices of the heart on each side not being able to hinder it unless when it is mighty excessive but when it is only moderate it easily hinders the blood so come into the veines of the face from descending into the heart while Love Desire or Hatred drive other thither from the interiour parts Wherefore this blood being setled about the face makes it look red and indeed redder then in Joy because the colour of the blood appears so much the better as it flowes quicker and also because more blood can then get up into the veins of the face then when the Orifices of the heart are more open This is more palpable in shame which is compounded of self-Love and an earnest Desire to shunne present infamy which causeth the blood to come from the interiour parts to the heart from thence through the arteries into the face and withall of a moderate Sadness which hinders this blood from returning to the heart The same is also seen ordinarily when a man weeps for as I shall say hereafter it is Love joyned to Sadness which for the most part causes tears it appears also in Anger or oft-times an eager Desire of Revenge mixed with Love Hatred and Sadness The 118th Article Of Tremblings TRemblings have two severall causes one is that there come sometimes too few spirits from the brain into the nerves the other that there come sometimes too many so that the little passages of the muscles cannot be duly shut which as hath been said in the eleventh Article ought to be shut to determine the motion of the members the chiefe cause of it appears to be in Sadness and fearfulness as also when a man shakes with cold for these Passions as well as the cold of the aire may so thicken the blood that it may not furnish the brain with spirits enough to send any into the nerves the other cause appears often in those who ardently desire any thing and in those who are moved with wrath as also in those who are drunk for these two Passions as well as Wine sometimes make so many spirits go into the brain that they cannot regularly be conveyed from thence into the muscles The 119th Article Of Languishing LAnguishing is a disposition to ease ones selfe and be without motion which is felt in all the members it comes as trembling because there are not spirits enough in the nerves but in a different manner for the cause of trembling is that there are not enough in the brain to obey the determinations of the kernell when that drives them to any muscle whereas Languishing proceeds from hence that the kernell doth not determine them to goe to some muscles rathen others The 120th Article How it is caused by Love and by Desire ANd the Passion which most commonly causeth this effect is Love joyned to the Desire of a thing the acquisition whereof is not imagined possible for the present time for love so busies the Soul in considering the object beloved that it employes all the spirits which are in the brain to represent the image of it to her and stops all the motions of the kernell not subservient to this purpose And it is to be noted concerning Desire that the property which I ahve attributed to it of rendring the body more active agrees not to it but when a man imagines the object desired to be such that he may from that very time doe something which may serve to acquire it For if on the other side he imagines it is impossible for him at that time to doe any thing that may conduce thereunto all the agitation of Desire remaines in the brain not at all passing into the nerves and being wholly employed in fortifying the Idea of the object desired there leaves the rest of the body languishing The 121 Article That it may also be caused by other Passions ITis true that Hatred Sadness yes and Joy too may cause some kind of Languishing too when they are very violent because they wholly busie the Soul in considering their objects chiefly when the Desire of a thing to the acquisition whereof a man cannot contribute any thing for the present is joyned with them But because hee fixes more on the consideration of the objects which he hath joyned in Will to himself than those which he hath separated or any else and because Languishing depends not on a surprize but requires some time to be formed it is more frequently found in Love than any other Passion The 122 Article Of Swouning THere is not much difference betwixt Swounning and Death for a man dies when the fire in his heart is utterly extinguished and he falls in a Swoune only when it is smothered so that there remains only some residue of heat that may afterwards be kindled again Now there are divers indispositions of the body which may make a man fall to fainting thus but among the Passions none but extream joy is observed to have this power and the manner whereby I suppose it works its effect is thus opening extraordinarily the Orifices of the heart the blood of the veines doth so huddle in and in so abundant a quantity that it cannot there be rarified by the heat soon enough to lift up the little skins that shut the entries of those veines by which means it smothers the fire which it used to feed when it came into the heart in fit proportion The 123 Article Wherefore a man doth not swoun with Sadnesse ONe would think that a great Sadness unexpectedly falling might so shut the Orifices of the heart that it might extinguish the fire but yet that is not observed to happen or if it doe very rarely the reason whereof I believe is that there can scarce be so little blood in the heart but that it is sufficient to maintain the heat when the Orifices thereof are almost lockt up The 124th Article Of Laughter LAughter consists in this that the blood which comes from the right cavity of the heart by the arterious veine blowing up the lungs suddenly and at severall fits constrains the aire
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
speak we only think the sense of what we would say yet that makes us move our tongues and lips much better and farre readier than if wee thought to move them in all the manners requisite to pronounce the same words Forasmuch as the habit we have acquired in learning to speak hath taught us to joyn the action of the Soul which by the intercourse of the kernell can move the tongue and the lipps with the signification of the words which follow out of these motions rather than with the motions themselves The 45th Article What the power of the Soul is in respect of her Passions OUr Passions also cannot be directly excited or takenaway by the action of our Will but they may indirectly by the representation of things which use to be joyned with the Passions which we will have and which are contrary to those we will reject Thus to excite in ones selfe boldness and remove fear it is not enough to have a will to do so but reasons objects and examples are to be considered of that perswade the danger is not great that there is ever more security in defence than flight that there is glory and joy in vanquishing whereas there is nothing to be expected but griefe and dishonour in flying and the like The 46th Article What is the reason that hinders the Soul from disposing her Passions totally NOw there is a peculiar reason why the Soul cannot suddenly alter or stop her Passions which gave me occasion to put formerly in their definition that they are not only caused but somented and fortified by some peculiar motion of the spirits the reason is they are almost all coupled with some emotion made in the heart and consequently in all the blood and spirits too so that till this emotion cease they remain present in our thoughts just as sensible objects are present in them while they act against the organs of our senses and as the Soul being very sattentive on any other thing may choose whether shewill hear a little noise or feel a little pain or no but cannot keep her self from hearing thunder or feeling fire that burns the hand so shee may easily overcome the smaller Passions but not the violentest and strongest untill after the emotion of the blood and spirits is allayed The most the Will can doe while this emotion is in its full strength is not to consent to its effects and to restrain divers motions whereunto it disposes the body For example if wrath makes me lift up my hand to strike the Will can usually restrain it if fear incites my legs to fly the Will can stop them and so of the rest The 47th Article Wherein consist those contestations which use to be imagined between the superiour and inferiour part of the Soul ANd it is only in the repugnance of those motions which the body by its spirits and the Soul by her Wil endeavour to excite at the same time in the kernall that all the contestations which use to be imagined between the inferiour part of the Soul called sensitive and the superiour which is reasonable or else between the naturall appetites and the Will consist for there is in us but one Soul only and this Soul hath no diversity of parts in it the same which is sensible is rationall and all her appetites are her Wills The errour committed in making her act two severall parts which are usually contrary one to another proceeds meerly hence that her functions have not been distinguished from them of the body to which only all that can be observed in us repugnant to our reason ought to bee attributed so that there is here no other contestation unlesse that the little kernell in the middle of the brain being driven on one side by the soul and on the other by the animall spirits which are only bodies as I laid down before it happens oftentimes that these two impulsions are contrary and that the strongest hinders the operation of the other Now we may distiguish two sorts of motions excited by the spirits in the kernell some represent to the soul the objects which move the senses or the impressions found in the brain which use not any violence on the Will others doe use violence to wit such as cause the Passions or motions of the body concomitant with them And for the first though they often-times hinder the action of the soul or else be hindered by it yet by reason that they are not directly contrary there is not any contestation observed in them it is only taken notice of among the last and the Wills which resist them for example between that violence wherewith the spirits drive the kernell to cause in the soul a desire of any thing and that wherewith the Soul beats it back by the will she hath to avoid the same thing and what chiefly makes this contestation appear is that the Will having not the power to excite the Passions directly as hath been already said is constrained to use art and fall on considering successively divers things if but one wherof chance to be strong enough to alter the course of the spirits one moment it is possible that which follows is not and so the others many immediately resume it a-again because the disposition preceding in the nerves heart and blood is not changed which makes the soul feel her self instigated almost in the same instant to desire and not desire the very same thing From hence it was that occasion was taken to imagine two contesting powers in her Yet there may some kind of contestation be conceived herein that oft times the same cause which excites some Passion in the soul excites also certain motions in the body whereunto the soul contributes not and which she stops or strives to sto assoon as ever she perceives them as is then tried when that which excites fearfullnesse causeth also the Spirits to enter into the muscles that serve to stirre the legges to run away and the Will to be bold stops them The 48th Article Wherein the strength or weaknesse of souls are known and what is the misery of the weakest NOw it is by the successe of these contestations that every one may understand the strength or weaknesse of his soul For those in whom the Will can most easily conquer the Passions and stop the motions of the body that come along with them have without doubt the strongest souls But there are some who can never try their own strength because they never let the Will fight with her own weapons but onely with such as are borrowed from some Passions to resist others Those which I call her own weapons are firm and determinate judgements concerning the knowledge of good and evil according to which she hath resolved to steere the actions of her life and the weakest soul of all is such an one whose Will hath not at all determined to follow certaine judgements but suffers it self to be swayed with the present Passions
spirits fortifies them and then they are at the same time actions of vertue and Passions of the Soul So though there be no vertue whereunto me thinks good birth so much contributes as that which causeth a man to esteem himselfe according to his just value and it be easie to believe that all Souls which God puts into our bodies are not equally noble and strong wherefore I called this vertue Generositie according to the acception of our language rather than Magnanimity the School tearms that it may be the more unknown yet it is certain that good education much conduces to correct the defects of our birth and that if a man busy himselfe frequently to consider what this free Disposition is and how great advantages accrue from a stedfast resolution to use it well as on the other side how vain and unprofitable all the cares that puzzle the ambitious are a man may by exciting the Passion in himselfe acquire the vertue of Generosity which being as the key of all the other vertues and a generall remedy against all the irregularities of Passions me thinkes this consideration ought to be very seriously noted The 162. Article Of Veneration VEneration or respect is an inclination of the Soul not onely to esteeme the object it reverenceth but also so submit to it with some kind of fear to endeavour to make it become gracious to her So that we bear only a Veneration to free causes which we conceive able to do good or evill to us without knowing which of the two they will doe For we bear Love and Devotion rather than a meer Veneration to those from whom we onely expect good and we bear Hatred to none but such as we only expect evill from and if we conceive the cause of this good or evil not to be free we do not submit ourselves thereunto to get the goodwill of it So when the Pagans bore a Veneration to woods springs mountains they did not properly reverence these inanimate things but the Divinities which they thought presided over them And t he motion of the spirits that excite this Passion is compounded of that which excites Admiration and that which excites Fear whereof I will speak hereafter The 163 Article Of Disdain JUst so that which I call disdaine is an inclination of the Soul to contemne a free cause by judging that though of its own nature it be able to doe either good or evill yet it is so far beneath us that it can doe us neither and the motion of the spirits that excite it is compounded of phose that excite Admiration and Security or Boldnesse The 164th Article Of the use of these two Passions ANd it is either Generosity or Deification and weaknesse of spirit that determine the good or ill use of these two Passions for by how much a mans Soul is more noble or generous so much the more inclination hee hath to give every one his own and so hath not only an extraordinaty HUmility towards God but without reluctancy bestowes all the honour and respect which are due to men to each according to the rank and authority he holds in the world and contemnes nothing but Vice On the contrary they who are of a mean and weak spirit are apt to sinne in excesses sometimes by reverencing and fearing things only worthy of contempt sometimes by insolently disdaining such as deserve to be reverenced and they often slip suddenly from extream impiety to superstition thence again from superstition to impiety so that there is no vice nor irregularity of spirit which they are not subject to The 165 Article Of Hope and Feare HOpe is a disposition of the Soul to perswade her that what she desires shall come to passe which is caused by a peculiar motion of the spirits to wit by those of Joy and desire mixed together and Feare is another disposition of the Soul which perswades her that it shall not come to passe and it is to be noted that though these two Passions be contrary to one another yet a man may have them both together to wit when he fancies to himselfe severall reasons whereof some make him conceive the accomplishment of his Desire is easie the other make it seeme difficult The 166 Article Of Security and Despaire ANd one of these Passions never accompanies Desire but it leaves room for the other for when Hope is so strong that it utterly expellâ—â— Fear it alters the nature thereof and is called Security and when a man is sure that what hee desires shall come to pass though hee still wish that it would come yet he nevertheless ceases to be agitated with the Passion of Desire which made him seek after the event with anxietie In like manner when Fear is so extream that it takes away all kind of Hope it converts into Despaire and this Despaire fancying the thing impossible clearly extinguisheth Desire which only is bent on things possible The 167th Article Of Jealousie JEalousie is a sort of Feare relating to the Desire a man hath to keep the possession of some good and it proceeds not so much from strength of reason which makes him conjecture he may lose it as the great value he sets on it which causeth him to dive into the least occasions of suspition and take them for very considerable arguments The 168 Article Wherein this Passion may be laudable ANd because a man ought more carefully to keep great goods than lesse this Passion may be just and laudable on some occasions as for example A Captain that guards a place of great importance ought to be jealous of it that is mistrust all means whereby it may bee taken and and honest woman is not to be blamed for being jealous of her honour that is not only beware of doing ill but also avoid even the least occasions of detraction The 169 Article Wherein it is blameworthy BUt a covetous man is to be laught at when he is jealous of his treasure that is when hee broods over it with his eyes and will never be farre from it lest it should be stollen from him for money is not worth keeping with so much care and a man that is jealous of his wife is contemned because it is an evidence hee loves her not as he should doe and hath either an ill opinion of himselfe or her I say he loves her not as he should doe for if he bore a true Love to her hee would never be enclined to mistrust her but it is not her whom he properly loves it is only the good he imagines to consist in enjoying her alone to himselfe and he would not be afraid to lose this good if he did not either conceive himselfe unworthy of it or his wife disloyall Moreover this Passion relates only to suspicions and mistrusts for he is not properly Jealous that endeavours to shun an evill when he hath just reason to fear it The 170 Article Of Irresolution IRresolution also is a sort of
Pitty them The 188 Article Who those are that are not sensible of it BUt there are none but malignant and envious spirits who naturally hate all men or else those who are so belluine and blinded by good fortune or desperate through ill that they think no further evill can befall them who ar ein ensible of Pitty The 189 Article Why this Passion excites weeping NOw a man weeps easily in this Passion because Love sending much blood to the heart causeth many vapours to issue through the eyes and the coldness of Sadness retarding the agitation of these vapours converts them into tears as hath been formerly said The 190 Article Of Satisfaction of ones selfe THe Satisfaction that they have who constantly follow the paths of vertue is a habit in their Soul called Tranquility or quiet of conscience but that which a man acquires anew when he hath lately done any action that he thinks good is a Passion to wit a sort of Joy which I believe is the softest of all because the cause thereof depends only on our selves yet when this cause is not just that is when the actions from whence we deduct this Satisfaction are not of consequence or else are vicious it is ridiculous and serves only to produce a Pride and impertinent Arrogance which may particularly be observed in those who believing themselves to be devout are only hypocriticall and superstitious that is who under pretence of frequenting the Church saying many Prayers wearing short hair fasting giving alms suppose they are exquisitely perfect and imagine they are Gods so intimate friends that they can doe nothing that can displease him and whatsoever their Passions dictate to them is a good Zeale although it sometime dictate to them the greatest crimes that can be committed by men as betraying of Cities murdering of Princes exterminating whole Nations meerly for this that they are not of their opinion The 191 Article Of Repentance REpentance is directly contrary to Satisfaction of ones selfe and is a sort of Sadnesse proceeding from a beliefe that a man hath done some evill action and it is very bitter because the cause comes only from our selves Yet neverthelesse this hinders it not from being very usefull when it is true that the action we repent of is evill and that we have a certain knowledge thereof because it incites us to do better another time but it oft-times comes to pass that weak spirits repent the things they have done not knowing certainly that they are evill they perswade themselves so only because they fear it is so and had they done the contrary they had repented too which is an imperfection in them to be pittied and the remedies against this defect are the same that serve to take away Irresolution The 192 Article Of Good-will GOodwill is properly a desire to see good befall any one hath a Goodwill to but I use this word here to signifie this Will as it is excited in us by some good Action of him to whom we bear it for we are naturally addicted to love those who do things which we esteem good although no good come to us by them Goodwill in this sense is a sort of Love not desire though the desire of seeing good befall him whom we wish well to alwayes accompanieth it And it is ordinarily joyned with pity because the disgraces that we see betide the unfortunate cause us to reflect the more upon their deserts The 193 Article Of Gratitude GRatitude is also a sort of Love excited in us by some Action of him to whom we offer it and whereby we beleeve he hath done us some good or at least had an intention to do us some So it includes all that Goodwill doth and this besides that it is grounded on an Action we are very sensible of and whereof we have a desire to make a requitall Wherefore it is far more strong especially in Souls never so little noble and generous The 194 Article Of Ingratitude FOr Ingratitude it is not a Passion for nature never put any motion of the spirits in us to excite it but it is onely a vice directly opposite to Gratitude seeing this is ever vertuous and one of the principall bonds of humane society s Wherefore this vice appertaines to none but belluine men and the foolishly arrogant who thinke all things their due or the sottish who reflect not on the good deeds they receive or else the weak and abject who feeling their own infirmitie and necessity basely seek assistance from others and after they have received it hate them because having no Will to return the like or despairing ever to doe it and imagining the whole world as mercenary as themselves and that none doe good but with Hope of being rewarded for it they think they have desired it The 195 Article Of Indignation INdignation is a sort of Hatred or Aversion that a man naturally beares to those who doe some evil of what nature soever it be And it is often mixed with Envy or Pity but yet the object thereof is altogether different from them For he carryes an Indignation onely against those who doe good or evil to persons unworthy of it but he envies those who receive this good and pities those who receive this evil It is true in some respects it is evil to possesse a good whereof a man is not worthy Which may be the reason wherefore Aristotle and his followers supposing that Envy is alwayes a vice have called that Indignation which is not vicious The 196 Article Why it is sometimes joyned with Pity and sometimes with Derision TO doe an evill is also in some respects to receive one from whence it comes that some with their Indignation joyn Pity and others derision according as they bear a good or ill Will towards those whom they see commit faults Thus the laughter of Democritus and the weeping of Heraclitus might proceed from the same cause The 197 Article That it is often accompanied with Admiration and is not incompatible with Joy INdignation is also oftimes accompanied with Admiration For we use to think that all things shall be done in the same manner we conceive they ought to be done that is after that manner which we esteem good Wherefore when it falls out otherwise it surprizeth us and we Admire it Nor is it incompatible with Joy although it most commonly be joyned with Sadnesse For when the evill we bear an Indignation against cannot hurt us and we consider that we would not doe the like it gives us some delight and this may be one of the causes of Laughter which sometimes accompanies this Passion The 198 Article Of the use of it FUrthermore Indignation is observed to be more in those who would seem vertuous than those who really are For althought they who love vertue cannot without some Aversion look upon the vices of others they are Passionate onely against the great and extraordinary ones For it is to be nice and