are observable from their respective Characters or Effects In Hope therefore which we defined to be a gentle and sweet Effusion or Expansion of the Soul towards some good expected to come if we be possessed with an opinion that the thing desired will shortly come to pass I conceive that presently the Animal Spirits which before were imployed as Emissaries to contemplate the image of the object returning toward the Soul give notice of the approach of the guest expected and that thereupon the whole Soul composing herself by expansion to receive and welcome the same sets open all the doors of the Senses to admit more freely all the good belonging thereunto retains the imagination fixt and intent upon the gratefull idea thereof and by copious supplies of spirits dispatched into the nerves of the Heart so invigorates and quickens the pulse thereof that thereby the blood is more briskly sent forth into the outward parts of t he body as it were to meet the expected thing Whence it is that when we are full of Hope we feel a certain inflation both within and without in our whole body together with a glowing but pleasant heat from the blood and spirits universaly diffused But if during this comfortable emotion of the Soul there occurr any suddain cause of Doubt or fear she is instantly checked and coold into an anxious Retraction of herself and a sinking of the spirits so that the motion of the heart becomes weaker and slower and the external parts grow languid and pale For In Fear the Sensitive Soul which was before expansed being surprised with apprehension of approaching Evil and willing to decline it immediately withdraws herself into her retiring room and shrinks up herself into herself at the same time recalling her forces the spirits to her aid and compressing them If the Fear be exalted to the degree of Terror and the Evil seem impendent then at the same time the spirits are suddainly recall'd from the outguards the pores of the skin also are shut up by strong constriction as if the Soul would obstruct and barricado all avenues against her invading enemy whereby the hairs are raised an end and the whole body is put into a Horror or shaking After this if the passion continue the whole army of spirits being put into confusion so that they can not execute their offices the usual succors of Reason fail and the powers of voluntary motion become weak yea sometimes by reason of a resolution of the nerves and sphincters of the gutts and bladder the Excrements themselves are let forth involuntarily From this damp obscuring the Lucid part of the Sensitive Soul there quickly succeeds an Eclipse also of the Vital For the influx of the Animal spirits from the brain into the Cardiac nerves being intermitted the motions of the heart must of necessity be renderd weak and insufficient to maintain with due vigour and celerity the circulation of the blood which therefore stopping and stagnating in the ventricles of the heart causeth fainting and swooning by oppression and sometimes where the passion is hightned into Consternation also suddain death And from this arrest of the blood in the heart by strong constriction of the nerves thereunto belonging we may with reason derive that same anxious oppression and chilling weight which men commonly feel in their breast when they are invaded by violent Fear and upon which the most acute Monsieur Des Cartes seems to have reflected his thoughts when he defined Consternation to be not only a cold but also a perturbation and stupor of the Soul which takes from her the power of resisting evils that she apprehends to be neer This Fear when it excludes all hope of evasion degenerateth into the most cruel of all passions Desperation Which though by exhibiting the thing desired as impossible it wholy extinguish desire which is never carried but to things apprehended as possible yet it so afflicts the Soul that she persevering in her Constriction either through absolute despondency yeelds up herself as overcome and remains half-extinct and entombd in the body or driven into confusion and neglect of all things contracts a deep Melancholy or flyes out into a furious Madness in both cases seeking to put an end to her misery by destroying herself On the contrary when Fear gives place to Hope and that Hope is strong enough to produce Courage thereby to incense the Soul to encounter the difficulties that oppose her in the way to her end in this case she first dilates herself with great vigor and celerity breaking forth as it were into flashes of efforts then instantly diffuseth whole legions of spirits into the nerves and muscles to extend them in order to resistence or striking with all their forces and uniting all her powers into a brave devoir to overcome undauntedly pursues the the conflict Hence it comes that the breast being strongly dilated and contracted alternately the voice is sent forth more sounding and piercing than at other times as if to sound a defiance and charge at once the armes are raised up the hands constringed into fists the head advanced into a posture of daring and contempt of danger the brows contracted and the whole face distorted into an aspect full of terror and threatnings the neck swoln and most other parts distended beyond their usual dimensions All which symptoms evidently arise from a copious and impetuous effusion of Animal spirits from the brain and of blood from the heart into the outward parts ¶ From this concise explication of the motions of the Sensitive Soul the spirits and blood that constitute the passions of Hope and Fear with their dependents Animosity and Desperation the clue of our method leads us to the fifth classis of passions The consideration of good present and belonging to us in particular begets in the Soul that delight which we call Ioy wherein consisteth our possession of that good which the impressions of the brain represent to the Soul as her own First I say that in this delightful commotion doth consist the possession of good because in truth the Soul reaps no other fruit from all the goods she possesseth and when she takes no delight or joy in them it may justly be said she doth no more injoy them than if she did not at all possess them Then I add that the good is such as the impressions made upon the brain represent to the Soul as hers that I may not confound this Joy whereof I now speak and which is a Passion with Joy purely intellectual which enters into the Rational Soul by an action proper to her alone and which we may call a pleasant commotion raised by herself in herself wherein consisteth the possession of good that her intellect represents to her as her own Tho realy so long as the Rational Soul continues conjoyned with the Sensitive it can hardly be but that this intellectual joy will have the other that is a passion for its
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PASSIONS Mihi crede qui nihil agere videntur Majora agunt humana divinaque simul tractant Seneca Epist. 8. In the SAVOY Printed by T. N. for Iames Magnes in Russell-Street near the Piazza in Convent-Garden 1674. EPISTLE PREFATORY To a Person of Honor Friend to the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercetur ad virtutem in solitudine anima was the the saying of a Bragman or Indian Philosopher to Alexander the the Great and how memorable it is you may perhaps collect from this diversion For the imperfect Discourse I herewith send to you my dear Friend concerning the PASSIONS is the product of my late ten weeks solitude in the Country Where being remote from my Library and wanting conversation with Learned Men I knew not how more innocently to shorten the winter evenings than by spending them in revising some Philosophical papers of my own wherein among other things I had formerly out of the best Authors made certain Collections concerning the divine art of acquiring constant Tranquillity of Mind by Wisedom or the right use of Reason And of this serious Diversion I then made choice both because I well understood the best part of Human Science to be that which teacheth us how to moderate our Affections to the deceiptfull and transitory things of this life and so to regulate our Actions as to reap from them whatever their Events may be the happy fruit of internal Acquiescence and Satisfaction and because my accumulated Misfortunes had at that time reduced me to a necessity of consulting that part of Philosophy about the most effectual Remedies against Discontent In this state and resolution then first I remembred that Nature hath made Man subject to no other real Evil but only pain of the Body all Grief or pain of the Mind though many times more sharp and intollerable being created by our own false Opinion that we stand in want of things that are in truth without the circle of ourselves and therefore not absolutely necessary to our wel-being Then I considered that most commonly false Opinions are occasioned and so exorbitant Desires suggested to us by our Passions upon which all the Good and Evil incident to us in this life seem's to depend as Ioy and Grief are the two points in which all Human actions end For though it be undoubtedly true that the Reasonable Soul hath her intellectual Delights and Disquiets apart such as are proper to her simple and spiritual nature yet is it no less true that those other Delights and Disquiets that are common to her with the Body depend intirely upon the Affections Which when regular that is moderated and directed by reason are indeed of good use to the Soul in that they serve to incite her to desire such objects which she well know's to be pleasant and beneficial to her and to persist in that desire but when irregular by representing as realy good things that are so only in apparence provoke her to erroneous Desires and in persuit of them to Actions also repugnant to the dictates of right Reason and consequently to peace and tranquility of Mind From these Cogitations it was not difficult for me to infer that the whole art of attaining unto that internal serenity after which I was seeking consisteth principaly in Directing our Desires aright that is to things which we clearly and distinctly know to be realy Good and that the only way so to direct our Desires is to imploy our Understanding or Faculty of Discerning which God hath to that end given us strictly and attentively to examine and consider the goodness of things recommended to us by our Passions before we determin our Will to affect and persue them For most certain it is that as our faculty of Discerning that is our Intellect cannot naturaly tend to falsity so neither can our faculty of Assenting that is our Will be deceived when it is determined only upon objects which we clearly and distinctly understand and where our Will is not misplaced there can be no just cause of Perturbation of mind Being soon convinced of this no less evident than important verity in the next place I considered that if our inordinate Affections be the bitter fountain from whence the greatest part of if not all our practical Errors and by consequence most of the Evils we suffer flow and if as the diseases of the Body so likewise those of the Mind may be more easily cured when their nature and causes are understood then would it be requisite for me first to inquire as far as I should be able into the nature causes motions c. of the Passions before I proceeded further in my research after the most powerfull Remedies against their Excesses To this inquiry therefore I diligently applied myself both by reading and meditation by Reading that I might recall into my memory what I had long before transcribed out of the books of such Authors who had written judiciously and laudably of the Passions by Meditation that I might examin the weight of what I read by comparing it with what I daily observed within the theatre of my own breast every Man living being naturaly so sensible of the various Commotions hapning in various Passions especialy more violent ones that some have held the knowledge of their nature and causes may be without much of difficulty derived from thence alone without any help from foreign observations And while I proceeded in this course I digested my Collections and private Sentiments into such an order or Method which seem'd to me most convenient aswell to show their genuin succession and mutual dependence as to make the Antecedents support the Consequents and both to illustrate each other reciprocaly I put them also into a dress of Language so plain and familiar as may alone evince my design was to write of this Argument neither as an Orator nor as a Moral Philosopher but only as a Natural one conversant in Pathology and that too more for his own private satisfaction than the instruction of others And thus have I succinctly acquainted you with the Occasion Subject Scope and Stile of the Treatise that accompanieth this Epistle But this Noble Sir is not all whereof I ought to advertise you before you come to open the Treatise itself There remain yet two or three things more which it imports me to offer to your notice as Preparatives against prejudice ONE is that if in the preliminary part of the Discourse where it was necessary for me to investigate the Subjectum Primarium of the Passions I have declared my assent to their opinion who hold that in every individual Man there are two distinct Souls coexistent conjoined and cooperating one only Rational by which he is made a Reasonable creature the other Sensitive by virtue whereof he participateth also of Life and Sense I did so chiefly for these two reasons First it seem'd to me unintelligible how an Agent incorporeal but not infinite
such as the Rational Soul by her excellent faculties and proper acts appear's to be can act physicaly in and upon a gross and ponderous body such as ours are immediately or without the mediation of a third thing which though corporeal too may yet be of a substance so refined and subtil as to approach somwhat neerer to the nature of a pure Spirit than the body itself doth and therefore for the more probable explication of the Phenomena of the Passions which are not raised in the Rational Soul I found myself obliged to admit her to have a Sensitive one conjoyned with her to receive her immediate suggestions and to actuate the body according to her soveraign will and pleasure there being less of disparity betwixt the most thin and subtil bodies of Light and Flame whereof many eminent Philosophers have conceived a Sensitive Soul to consist and a substance purely Spiritual than between a pure spirit and a gross heavy body as ours is Secondly it seem'd to me no less unconceivable whence that dismal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intestin war which every Man too frequently feels within himself and whereof even St. Paul himself so sadly complained when in Epist. ad Roman cap. 3. he cries out video aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae should arise if not from a Duumvirate as it were of Rulers contending for superiority within us and inclining us two contrary ways at once For to conceive that one and the. same Simple thing such as the Reasonable Soul is rightly presumed to be can be repugnant to itself or at one and the same time be possessed with opposite affections is manifestly absurd There are indeed who to evade this absurdity imagine it possible that of one and the same Rational simple Soul there may be two distinct Faculties or powers opposite each to other from whose clashings and contrary inclinations this civil war may proceed But to oblige us to swallow this palpable contradiction these Men ought to have reconciled those two repugnant notions of Simple and Compound and to have told us why in the same simple substance of fire there cannot likewise be two mutualy repugnant faculties heat and cold In a Mixed body there may be I confess opposite faculties and therefore the like may be imagined also in the Rational Soul if she be conceived to be of a mixed or compound nature but this is against their own supposition and destructive to the natural immortality of the Soul What then can remain to cause this dire war daily observed within us betwixt the allurements of our Sense on one side and the grave dictates of our Mind on the other but two distinct Agents the Rational Soul and the Sensitive coexistent within us and hotly contending about the conduct of our Will But You Sir will perhaps tell me there may another and that a more probable cause be given of this hostility and that the searching wit of Monsieur des Cartes hath been so happy to discover what it is in libr. de Passion part 1. art 47. where he thus reasoneth In no other thing saith he but in the repugnancy that is between the motions which the Body by its spirits and those which the Soul by her will do at the same time endeavour to excite in the Glandula Pinealis in the brain consist all the Conflicts which Men commonly imagin betwixt the inferior part of the Soul which is named the Sensitive and the Superior which is called the Rational or betwixt the appetites natural and the will For in us there is only one Soul which hath in her no variety of parts the same that is Sensitive is also Rational and all the appetites thereof are volitions The Error by which divers persons as it were that are for the most part mutualy contrary come to be imposed upon her hath proceeded only from hence that hitherto her functions have not been sufficiently distinguished from the functions of the Body to which alone is to be ascribed all that can be observed in us to be repugnant to our reason So that here is no other Contrast but that when the Glandule seated in the middle of the brain is impell'd on one part by the Soul and on the other by the Spirits Animal which are nothing but bodies as I have before declared it often happens that those two impulses or impressions are contrary each to other and that the strongger hindereth the effect of the weaker Now there may be distinguished two kinds of motions excited in the Glandule by the spirits some represent to the Soul objects that move the Senses or impressions found in the brain and use no force upon the will others use force namely those that make the Passions or the motions of the body that accompany them And as for the first though they often hinder the actions of the Soul or be hindered by them yet because they are not directly contrary there is no strife or contention observed in them but only betwixt the last and the Wills that are repugnant to them for Example betwixt the endeavour by which the spirits impell the Glandule to induce upon the Soul a desire of some one thing and that by which the Soul repells the same Glandule by her will to avoid it And this chiefly demonstrateth this strife that since the will hath not power as hath been already shown to excite Passions directly the Soul is therefore compell'd to use art and to apply herself to the consideration of various things successively Whence if it happen that any one of those various things hath the force of changing for a moment the cours of the spirits it may so fall out that the next thing that occurs to be considered may want the like force and the spirits may resume their former cours because the precedent disposition in the nerves in the heart and in the blood hath not been changed whereby it comes to pass that the Soul almost in the same moment feels herself impell'd to desire and decline the same thing And this hath given Men occasion of imagining in the Soul two powers mutualy repugnant But yet there may be conceived a certain Conflict in this that oftentimes the same cause that exciteth some Passion in the Soul exciteth also in the Body some certain motions whereunto the Soul contributeth nothing at all and which she stops or endevours to stop so soon as she observes them as is manifest from experience when that which exciteth Fear causeth also the spirits to flow into the Muscles that serve to move the leggs to flight and occasioneth the will of exercising Courage to stop them To this Objection therefore I answer 1. that had this excellent Man Monsieur des Cartes been but half as conversant in Anatomy as he seems to have been in Geometry doubtles he would never have lodged so noble a guest as the Rational Soul in so incommodious a closet of the brain as the
quicquid benè dictum est ab ullo meum est Epist. 16. I will only add as a reason of my so frank communication of these unpolished papers to you who are my Lucilius what the same Latin Stoic most affectionately pâ—ofessed to his on the like occasion Ego vero cupio ista omnia in te transfundere in hoc gaudeo aliquid discere ut doceam Nec me ulla res delectabit licet eximia sit salutaris quam mihi uni sciturus sim. Si cum hac exceptione detur Sapientia ut illam inclusam teneam nec enunciem rejiciam Epist. 6. ¶ INDEX OF THE CONTENTS SECTION I. INtroduction Page 2. SECT II. Article 1 WHat kind of Substance a Sensitive Soul may be conceived to be pag. 5. 2. Two Reasons of that Supposition p. 6. 3. Second Supposition that the substance of a Sensitive Soul is fiery p. 9. 4. Because Life is seated principaly in the blood and can no more than fire itself subsiâ—t without aliment and ventilation p. 9. 5. And because a Sensitive Soul seems to be first formed of the most Spirituous particles of the same seminal matter whereof the body itself is made p. 12. 6. A Sensitive Soul imagined to be also of the same figure with the body it animates p. 13. 7. That the Existence of a Sensitive Soul dâ—th â—s that of flame depend intirely upon motion p. 14. 8. That the first Operation of a Sensitive Soul is the Formation of the body according to the modell preordained by nature p. 16. 9. Recapitulation of the premises p. 19. 10. The Faculties and Organs of a Sensitive Soul reciprocaly inservient each to other p. 20. 11. A twofold desire or inclination congenial to a Sensitive Soul viz. of Self-preservation and Propagation of her kind p. 22. 12. To what various Mutations and irregular Commotions a Sensitive Soul is subject from her own Passions p. 24. 13. From the temperament and diseases of the body p. 26. 14. From various impressions of external objects and exorbitant motions of the Animal Spirits p. 27. 15. The various Gestures of a Sensitive Soul respective to the impressions of external objects variously affecting her p. 28. 16. An inquiry concerning the Knowledge whereby Brutes are directed in actions voluntary p. 30. 17. The Knowledge of Brutes either innate or acquired p. 39. 18. That Brutes are directed only by natural instinct in all actions conducing either to their own preservation or to the propagation of their species not by Reason p. 41. 19. Nor Material Necessity p. 43. SECT III. 1. THe Excellency of a Rational Soul Pag. 46. 2. Manifest from her proper Objects p. 47. 3. And Acts. p. 48. 4. Life and Sense depend not on the Rational Soul of Man and p. 51. 5. Therefore he seems to have also a Sensitive Soul p. 53. 6. The same inferred from the civil war betwixt the Rational and Sensitive Souls p. 54. 7. The Causes of that war p. 55. 8. Wherein somtimes the Sensitive Appetite prevails and p. 57. 9. Somtimes the Rational p. 59. 10. That the Rational Soul is created immediately by God p. 60 11. The Resemblance betwixt Father and Son ascribed to the Sensitive Soul p. 61. 12. The Rational Soul seated in that part of the brain which serves to Imagination and p. 61. 13. There connexed to the Sensitive by the will of her Creator p. 64. 14. Where the manner how she judges of the images of things formed in the Imagination seems to be inexplicable p. 65. SECT IV. Of the Passions of the Mind in general 1. A Twofold state of the Sensitive Soul viz. of Tranquility and p. 68. 2. Of Perturbation p. 69. 3. The first most observable in sleep and when objects appear indifferent p. 70. 4. The other manifest in all Passions ibidem 5. That in the state of Perturbation the Sensisitive Soul varieth her Gestures by Contraction or Expansion p. 72. 6. We are not moved to Passion by Good or Evil but only when we conceive ourselves particularly concerned therein p. 73. 7. All Passions distinguished into Physical Metaphysical and Moral p. 74. 8. What are Passions Physical p. 75. 9. What Metaphysical p. 77. 10. And what Moral p. 81. 11. All Passions referred to Pleasure or Pain and p. 82. 12. All their Motions to Contraction and Effusion p. 83. 13. Wherein consist Pleasure and Displeasure of Sense p. 83. 14. Rehearsal of the heads handled in this Section p. 85. SECT V. Of the Passions in particular 1. WHy Men have not been able to observe all Passions incident to the Sensitive Soul p. 85. 2. The Passions best distinguished by having respect to the differences of Time p. 86. 3. Admiration p. 87. 4. Which causeth no Commotion in the heart and blood and p. 89. 5. Yet is dangerous when immoderate p. 90. 6. Estimation and Contempt p. 91. 7. Both Consequents of Admiration p. 92. 8. No just cause of Self-esteem but the right use our free will p. 92. 9. Pride p. 93. 10. Humility virtuous and p. 90. 11. Vicious or Dejection of Spirit p. 96. 12. Shame and Impudence p. 97. 13. That Pride and its contrary Abjectness of Spirit are not only Vices but Passions also p. 99. 14. Love and Hatred p. 100. 15. Defined p. 101. 16. Love not well distinguished into Benevolence and Concupiscence p. 101. 17. But by the various degrees of Estimation p. 103. 18. That there are not so many distinct sorts of Love as of Objects to excite it p. 104 19. Hatred less various than Love p. 106. 20. Desire alwayes a consequent of Love but p. 106. 21. Not alwaies a Concomitant of it p. 106. 22. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in Love and their Symptomes p. 107. 23. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in Desire p. 109. 24. The Motions of the spirits and blood in Hatred p. 111. 25. Hate alwaies accompanyed with Sadness p. 114. 26. Hope and Fear p. 115. 27. Pusillanimity and Courage p. 116 28. Emulation a sort of Magnanimity p. 117. 29. Confidence and Despair p. 117. 30. Doubting p. 118. 31. Remorse and Acquiescence p. 119. 32. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in Hope p. 121. 33. The Motions of the Soul and spirits in Fear and p. 122. 34. In Desperation p. 124. 35. Ioy. p. 126. 36. The various Degrees of Ioy and their Names p. 127. 37. The various Degrees of Grief and their distinct Appellations p. 127. 38. Envy and Pity p. 128. 39. Generous Men most inclined to Commiseration and why p. 129. 40. Commiseration a species of Grief mixed with Benevolence p. 131. 41. Envy a sort of Grief mixed with Hate p. 131. 42. Acquiescence of mind a kind of Joy p. 132. 43. Repentance a species of Grief but allayd with a touch of Joy p. 133. 44. Favour p. 134. 45. Gratitude p. 135. 46. Indignation p. 136. 47. Anger p. 137. 48. Two sorts of Anger one Harmless the other Revengeful p. 138. 49. Glory and
both conjoyned and improved into Habits by long practice and experience yet in the end we shall be forced to confess that even the most intricate and most cunning of all their actions come far short of those that are ordinarily done by Man by virtue of the Reasonable Soul wherewith he is by the immense bounty of his Creator endowed This is a Verity so obvious to every Man of common sense and understanding so evident by its own splendor that it needs neither Arguments drawn from reason to establish nor Examples drawn from frequent observations to illustrate it especially now after the many excellent discourses thereupon writen by Learned Men of almost all ages all nations all professions It being therefore unnecessary for me by prolix reasoning to evince and superfluous by multiplicity of instances to elucidate the vast disparity betwixt the proper Acts and Operations of a Reasonable Soul and those inferior ones of a Sensitive I shall only in brief and analytically recount to you a few of those many Excellencies and Prerogatives essential to the former and by the law of nature incommunicable to the later The Preeminence then of Mans Reasonable Soul is undeniably manifest from both her Objects and her Acts. Her Objects are all things whatsoever true or false real or imaginary within or without the World sensible or insensible infinite or finite for to all these can she extend her unconfined power of speculation I doubt indeed whether it be possible for her in this life while she is obliged to speculate all things by the help of images or corporeal representations to have an adequate and full cognition of the superexcellent nature of God but yet it cannot be denied that she is capable of knowing for certain that there is such an incomprehensible Being as God and that He is infinite and Eternal I doubt also whether the mind of Man be capable of any true notion of an Angell Spirit Daemon or other the like Beings which the Schools commonly how intelligibly let others dispute call immaterial Substances because I myself can represent to my thoughts nothing but under some certain figure and quantity which are inseparable from body and yet who dares deny th' Existence of such Beings in the World To speculate such objects then as fall not under the perception of any of the senses is the prerogative of a Rational Soul nor can a Sensitive possibly have any knowledge of things above the sphere of her own nature all her faculties being corporeal and by consequence limited to corporeal objects and those too no other than what are perceptible by the senses Her Acts also equaly declare her transcendent Powers That act of simple apprehension which in Brutes is Imagination is in Man Intellection and the intellect presides over imagination discerning the Errors of it occasion'd by the senses and correcting them yea subliming the notions thereof into true and usefull ones And as for forming of Propositions by compounding or dividing the simple notions of sensible things that power is indeed common to the Sensitive Soul also and usualy exercised by her when an image of some object newly admitted meets with one or more images either fâ—â—merly stored up in the Memory or at that instant suggested by natural instinct and is found associable or repugnant to them but yet the same falls incomparably short of that which belongs to the Human Intellect Which doth not only review all propositions conceiv'd from the Phantasy but judges also whether they be true or false congruous or incongruous and then orders and disposes them accordingly into trains of notions convenient either to Speculation or to practice Moreover it restrains the Phantasy of itself instable and prone to ramble through various phantasms calls it away from extravagant and useless conceptions directs it to others more conform to reason and at pleasure confines it within certain bounds that it may not divert or range too wide from the purpose All which Acts give clear evidence that there is in Man a Soul superiour to the sensitive and which moderates and governs all the faculties and operations of it yea more yet which from representations sensible deduces many other notions of things altogether unknown to sense and which the Phantasy is of itself wholly incapable to imagine For it understands Axioms or first principles and that by its own power alone without recourse to corporeal species and what is yet more noble and sublime by a reflex act views itself thinks that it thinks from thence certainly knowing its ' own Existence which cannot be either perceived by sense or imagined by Phantasy Whereas neither the Sense nor Imagination for of these there are no images extant can perceive that they perceive or imagine To these royal prerogatives of Mans Rational Soul let us subjoyn the native right she hath to the whole Encyclopaedia or Zodiac of Arts and Sciences Theology Logic Physic Metaphysics Mathematics Algebra Geometry Astronomy Mechanics which being all Theology alone excepted the products or creatures of Mans Mind sufficiently attest their Author to be an Agent Spiritual admirably intelligent immaterial and therefore immortal Now if this be true as most certainly it is then one of these two Assumptions must be so too Either the Rational Soul of man doth alone perform all offices not only of Vnderstanding and discourse but of sense also and life and so administer the whole oeconony of Human nature Or else there are in every individual Man two distinct Souls conjoined and acting together one only Rational t'other merely Sensitive that as Queen regent this as inferior and subordinate The FIRST seems to me not a little improbable For 1 all acts of the Senses and animal Motions as likewise the Passions are corporeal divided and extended to various parts and therefore the Rational Soul which we conceive to be incorporeal indivisible and finite seems incapable to cause or impress those motions immediately or by herself To me I confess it seems Unintelligible how an incorporeal Agent not infinite can physically act in and upon a gross body immediately or without the intervention of a third thing which though corporeal too is yet notwithstanding of parts so spirituous and of a constitution so subtil as to approach somwhat neerer to the nature of a pure Spirit than solid and ponderous body doth Flame and light I acknowledge to be bodies but yet methinks there is less of disproportion or disparity betwixt them and a substance purely spiritual than is betwixt a pure Spirit and a gross heavy body such as ours is And therefore in my weak judgment it is more conceivable that the Reasonable Soul should have some spirituous and subtile thing as flame or light is viz. the Sensitive Soul conjoyned with her to be a convenient Medium betwixt herself and the gross body to receive her immediate influence and actuate the body according to her will and pleasure than it is that she should immediately move
obtain her end and there occur to her more reasons for the facility then there succeeds that gentle Effusion or Tendency of the Soul toward the good desired which is called Hope or Expectation of good to come Whereas on the contrary if the greater weight be found in the other Scale and she apprehend the thing desired to be Difficult she is immediately Contracted and coold with that ungrateful passion Fear which is expectation of Evil to come And as Hope exalted to the highest degree is changed into Trust Confidence or Security So on the contrary Fear in extremity becomes Desperation Again if this Contraction of the Soul by Fear be suddain and profound and the Evil expected very great then is the passion called Terror Dread and Consternation which sometimes is so violent as to cause Exanimation or suddain Death If the Soul upon apprehension that the Good desired is not indeed absolutely impossible but highly difficult for her to obtain or the Evil feared is not altogether impossible yet extremely hard to be avoided persist in her Contraction she is daunted or cowd into that ignoble weakness called Pusillanimity or Cowardise But if after her Contraction at first she exserting her strength spring forth as it were and with vehemency dilate herself to surmount her fear and overcome the difficulties apprehended then is she reanimated as it were or fortified with the noblest of all Passions Courage or Boldness or Bravery of Mind which makes her contemn all obstacles to her attainment of her end whether it be the acquisition of good or declination of Evil and which when it is not a habit or natural inclination seems to be an ardor or flashing of the Sensitive Soul disposing her to act vigorously and without fear toward the vanquishing of difficulties that stand betwixt her and the scope she aims at And of this Animosity Emulation is a species whereby the Soul is disposed to attempt or enetrprise difficult things which she hopes will succeed happily to her because she observes them to do so to others But then it is to be distinguished from simple Animosity by two proprieties Whereof One is that it hath not only an internal Cause viz. such a disposition of the spirits and body that Desire and Hope may have greater power in impelling the blood in abundance to the heart than Fear or Despair can have in hindering that motion but also an external Cause namely the Example of others who have been prosperous in the like attempts which creates a belief in us that we also shall be able to conquer the difficulties occurring afwell as those others have done The Other this that Emulation is ever accompanied with secret Grief which ariseth from seeing ourselves exceeded or excelled by our concurrents But simple Animosity wants both Example for incitement and Grief for alloy But both these passions equaly depend upon Hope of good success For Though the object of Audacity be difficulty yet to animate us to contend bravely with that difficulty we must be possessed with a strong hope or certain belief that we shall at length attain our end Yet this end is not the same thing with that object for there cannot be both Certitude and Despair of the same thing at the same time So when the Roman Decii rushed into the thickest troops of their enemies and ran to certain death the object of their daring was the difficulty of conserving their lives in that action for which difficulty they had nothing but Desperation being resolved certainly to dye but their End was either by their example to inspire courage into the Roman army and by them to obtain the victory they hoped or to acquire posthume Glory whereof they were certain If therefore even in this action that was in itself desperate Courage were grounded upon Hope we may well conclude that it is alwaies so From the reasons we have alleged of Hope and Fear it is evident that we may have those contrary passions excited in us though the Event of the thing expected no way depend upon our selves But when we proceed to consider the Event as altogether or for the most part depending upon our own counsel and perceive a difficulty to arise either in our election or execution of the means whereby to obtain our end then there immediately follows a Doubting or Fluctuation of the mind whereby we are disposed to deliberate and consult and which is indeed a species of Fear And this wavering while it retains the Soul as it were in a doubtful balance betwixt two actions which are offered to her election is the cause that she performs neither but takes time to consider before she determineth which to do for fear of erring in her choice Which Fear if moderate and under the command of Prudence is always of good use in that it serves to prevent Temerity or Rashness but in some over-cautious persons it is so vehement that though but one thing occurr to be done or omitted by them it holds them too long upon the rack of suspence and hinders them from proceeding to action And in this case the passion is Excess of Doubting arising from too ardent desire of good success and weakness of Vnderstanding which hath indeed many confused notions but none perspicuous and distinct concerning the means to effect its design If during this irresolution we have determined the liberty of our choice and fixed upon some one action in order to our end and the event be not answerable to our expectation presently we are affected with that disquiet of mind which is named by the Greeks Synteresis by the Latins Morsus Conscientiae and by the French Regret which yet doth not as the precedent passions respect the future but present or past time This Remorse of Conscience is no other but a kind of Sorrow arising from a scruple interposed whether what we are doing or have done be good or not And it necessarily presupposeth dubitation For if we were clearly convinced that the action we are doing is realy evil we should certainly abstain from doing it because the will is not carried to any thing but what hath some shew of goodness in it And if it were manifest that what we have done is realy evil we should presently be touched not with simple regret but with Repentance For as the Good we have done gives us that internal Acquiescence or satisfaction which is of all other Passions the sweetest so on the contrary the ill we have done punisheth us with Repentance which is of all passions the bitterest Having in this manner discovered the originals and distinct proprieties of these two opposite Passions Hope and Fear with their genuin dependents it may not a little conduce to the illustration of what hath here been briefly delivered concerning them if we more expresly describe the divers Motions of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits that constitute their formal reasons so far at least as those motions
point of temperament and as this or that of the usual concomitants of it is more powerful than the rest so must the Effects thereof upon the body be likewise various And from this variety men have taken notice chiefly of two sorts of Anger One that is quickly kindled violent at first and discovers it self visibly by outward signs but performs little and may be easily composed And to this they are most obnoxious who are good-natur'd i.e. who are inclined to goodness and love For it ariseth not from profound Hatred but from a sudden Aversion surprising them because being propens to conceive that all things ought to proceed in that manner which they judge to be the best whenever they see others to act otherwise first they admire and then are offended and so what would be to others matter only of Indignation to them proves cause of Anger But this commotion is soon calmed because the force of the sudain Aversion that raised it continues not long and so soon as they perceive that the thing for which they were offended ought not to have commoved them to passion they suppress their displeasure and repent of it The Other that wherein Hatred and Grief are predominant and which though at first it hardly betray it self by external signs unless by the suddain paleness of the countenance and trembling is notwithstanding more impetuous within secretly gnaws the very heart and produceth dangerous effects And to this pernicious sort of Anger they are most subject who have prouâ— cowardly and weak Souls For so much the greater doe injuries appear by how much the better opinion pride makes Men to have of themselves yea and by how much greater value is put upon the things which the injuries take away and these things are alwaies so much the more valued by how much the more weak and abject the Soul is because they depend upon others but the Generous put little value upon any thing that is not dependent upon themselves When we consider what opinion other Men have of Us the Good which we believe to be in us disposeth us to Glory which seems to be composed of Self-estimation and Ioy for to see ourselves well esteemed by others gives us cause to have a good esteem for ourselves and on the contrary the Evil we are conscious of forceth us to Shame which is a sort of Modesty or Humility and Self-diffidence for as we have formerly observed who thinks himself above Contempt will hardly be humbled to shame These two Passions Glory and Shame tho directly opposite each to other doe yet agree in their End which is to incite us to Virtue the first by hope the other by fear and that we may make a right use of them both we are to have our judgment well instructed what actions are truely worthy praise or dispraise lest otherwise we be ashamed of virtuous actions or affect glory from vices as it happeneth to too great a part of mankind Thus have we at length recounted all the Passions of this our fifth division and deduced them successively from their several causes or occasions in that order wherein their most remarkable diversity seemd to us most easily distinguishable But now because some of these passions are simple others Composed and that to our more clear understanding of the nature of both sorts it is necessary to enquire more profoundly into the Motions of the Sensitive Soul and spirits that constitute their Essential Differences it remains that we yeeld obedience to that necessity so far forth at least as to explain the Motions proper to that couplet of more simple affections Ioy and Grief the two points in which all human actions end and to that most violent one Anger In Ioy therefore which is a delightful commotion of the Sensitive Soul as it were triumphing in her fruition of good or pleasure I conceive that the Animal spirits being in great abundance but with a placid and equal motion sent by the nerves to the heart cause the orifices thereof to be opened and dilated more than at other times and so the blood to be imported and exported more copiously and freely and that by this means from the blood are brought into the brain a plentious supply of new spirits which extracted out of the purest and most refined parts of the blood are most fit to confirm the idea formed of the present good in the imagination and so to continue the Soul in her pleasant Emotion Hence probably it is that in this most agreeable passion both the pulse is alwaies made equal and more frequent tho not so intense and strong as in Love and a certain gratefull heat is felt not only through the Lungs and all the breast but through all outward parts of the body from the diffusion of the blood in full streams into them which is discernible even by the florid purple colour wherewith they are suddainly tinged and by the inflation or plumpness of all the muscles of the face which is thereby rendered more serene sweet and cheerful Easy therefore it is to infer that as this passion is most congruous to the nature of the Corporeal Soul so are the corporeal motions that accompany and characterize it most profitable to health provided they be moderare For this Commotion and Effusion may be so vehement and suddain that the Soul may become weak and unable to rule the body or to actuate the organs of speech yea swooning and death itself somtimes follow profuse and insolent Joy So Lacon Chilo an eminent Philosopher suddainly expired in excessive joy beholding his Sonne a Victor in the Olympic games So Sophocles the Tragedian also and Dionysius the Tyrant died of a surfet of suddain Joy The reason whereof seems to consist not in a vehement effusion and dissipation of the vital spirits and a destitution of the Heart consequent thereunto as Fernelius would have it because the faster the blood is effused through the arteries from the heart the swifter must it return to the heart through the veines so that the heart cannot be totaly exhausted and left destitute of blood but rather in a surcharge and suffocation of the heart by too redundant an afflux of blood For upon extraordinary dilatation of the floud-gates of the heart by immoderate joy the current of blood both out of the Vena cava and from the arteria venosa may pour itself with so much violence and in so great a quantity into the ventricles thereof that the heart unable to discharge itself soon enough of that oppressing deluge by retruding its valves may be suffocated its motions stopped and the Vital Flame in a moment extinguished For certain it is that in the state of health the blood is not admitted into the heart beyond a certain proportion nor can that proportion be much exceeded whatever the cause be that maketh an apertio portarum there without manifest danger of life Among the Signs of this delightful passion
some have given the upper hand to that distortion of the countenance accompanied with a loud but inarticulate voice which we call Laughter but this being neither proper to nor inseparable from Ioy cannot therefore belong to it essentialy That it is frequently a concomitant of Mirth or Hilarity is not to be disputed but Mirth is the lowest degree of Joy a light and superficial emotion of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits a kind of short tickling of the Imagination usualy expressed by Laughter whereas Ioy is serious profound and grave according to that memorable Sentence of Seneca epist. 23. res severa est verum gaudium Laughter then as I said is not proper to all Joy because common to some other affections for some are observed to laugh out of Indignation others out of Contempt and disdain neither of which belong to any kind of Joy Nor is it inseparable from Joy because in truth Joy cannot produce Laughter unless when it is very moderate and hath somthing of Admiration or Hate mixt with it For we have it from the oracle of Experience that in great and profound Joy the cause of it whatsoever it be doth never force us to break forth into laughter nay more that we are most easily provoked to laugh when we are sad Whereof the reason seems to be either because in solid Joy the Sensitive Soul is so deeply commoved so intirely taken up with the delight of fruition that she cannot attend to shake the Midriff Lungs and Muscles of the breast nimbly and strongly enough to create laughter or because at that time the Lungs are so distended with blood that they cannot by repeted concussions or alternate contractions and relaxations be further inflated with air whereof no little quantity is required to produce that loud sound emitted in Laughter That we may understand this matter more fully let us examine the cause or occasion and the Motions of Laughter As for the First viz. the Occasion or Motive whatsoever it be there must concur therein these three Conditions following 1. it must be new and surprising because whatsoever is ridiculous at first ceaseth to be so when grown stale 2. it must be such a novelty as may suggest to us a conception of some eminency or advantage in our selves above another whom the occasion chiefly concerns for why are we naturally prone to laugh at either a jest which is nothing but a witty or elegant discovery and representation of some absurdity or indecency of another abstracted from his person or at the mischances and infirmities of others unless from hence that thereby our own abilities are the more set off and illustrated and recommended to us by way of comparison 3. It must not touch our own or our friends honour for in that point we are too tender to tolerate much less to laugh at a jest broken upon our selves or friends of whose dishonour we participate These requisites in a ridiculous cause considered we may adventure to conclude that Laughter is an effect of sudden but light Joy arising from the unexpected discovery of some infirmity in another not our friend and from imagination of our own eminency and exemption from the like Here then you see is something of Admiration from the Novelty something of Aversion from the Infirmity something of Ioy or triumph from our opinion of some eminency in our selves And as for that Laughter which is sometimes joyned with Indignation it is most commonly fictitious or artificial and then it depends intirely upon our will as a voluntary action but when 't is true or Natural it seems likewise to arise from Ioy conceived from hence that we see our selves to be above offence by that evil which is the cause or subject of our indignation and that we feel our selves surprised by the unexpected novelty of the same So that to the production of this Laughter also is required a concurs of Ioy Aversion and Admiration but all moderate If this be so what then shall we think of that odd example of Laughter in Ludovicus vives who writes of himself lib. 3. de Anima cap. de Risu that usually when he began to eat after long fasting he could not forbear to break forth into a fit of loud laughter This doubtless was not voluntary because he strove to suppress it nor could it be Convulsive such as Physicians call Risus Sardonius because he was in perfect health sensible of no pain therein nor incommodity thereupon It must therefore be Natural though not Passionate proceeding from some cause very obscure and idiosyncritical that is peculiar to his constitution perhaps this that in this Learned man either the Lungs were more apt to be distended with blood or the Midriff more easily put into the motions that produce laughter than commonly they are in most other men The First because in general whatsoever causeth the Lungs to be suddenly puffed up and distended with blood causeth also the external action of Laughter unless where sorrow changeth that action into groaning and weeping the other because all Laughter is made chiefly by quick and short vibrations of the Midriff But this rare Phenomenon we shall perhaps be better able to solve when we have considered how the action of Laughter is performed in all other men Concerning this Problem therefore it is observable that in Man there seems to be a greater consent or sympathy or rather commerce of motions betwixt the Midriff and the Heart yea and the Imagination also than in Brutes of what order or tribe soever and that the Reason given hereof by the most accurate of our Modern Anatomists is this that the principal Nerve of the Midriff is rooted in the same Nerve of the Spine named Nervus vertebralis from whence there comes a conspicuous branch into the grand plexus of the Intercostal nerve and that commonly two sometimes three other branches more are derived from that same notable plexus into the very trunk of the Nerve of the Diaphragm as you may see most elegantly represented by Dr. Willis in the 9 th Table of his most elaborate Book de Anatomia Cerebri which are not found in Beasts For from this plenty and singular contexture of nerves it may be conjectured not only why the Diaphragm doth so readily conform its motions to those of the Praecordia and of the Animal Spirits excited in passions of the Mind and cooperate with them but also why Risibility is an affection proper only to Man For as the same most curious Dr. Willis reasoneth in his chapter of the functions and uses of the Intercostal pair of nerves when the Imagination is affected with some pleasant and new conceipt instantly there is caused a brisk and placid motion of the heart as if it sprung up with joy to be alleviated or eased of its burden Wherefore that the blood may be the more speedily discharged out of the right Ventricle of the heart into the Lungs and out
of the left into the Aorta or grand Artery the Diaphragm being by abundance of Animal spirits immitted through so many nerves proceeding from the aforesaid Plexus briskly agitated is by nimble contraction drawn upwards and so making many vibrations doth at once raise up the Lungs and force them to expell the blood out of their vessels into the arteria venosa and to explode the aire out of their pipes into the windpipe and this by frequent contractions of their lax and spongy substance answerable in time and quickness to the vibrations of the Midriff And then because the same Intercostal nerve which communicateth with the nerve of the Diaphragm below is conjoyned above also with the nerves of the jaws and muscles of the face thence it is that the motions of Laughter being once begun in the brest the face also is distorted into gestures or grimasces patheticaly correspondent thereunto And this is the most probable account I am able at present to give of the occasions and motions of passionate Laughter in general nor can I at present think of any more plausible conjecture concerning the reason of the admirable laughter of Ludovicus Vives than this that in him the nerves inservient to the motion of the Midriff might be after such a peculiar manner contrived and framed as easily to cause quick and short reciprocations thereof upon the pleasant affection of his Imagination by the grateful relish of his meat after long abstinence which doth alwaies highten the pleasure of refection But we have insisted too long upon the motions of Ioy. In the contrary whereof viz. Grief or Sorrow which we have above described to be an ingrateful languor of the Soul from a conception of evil present moving her to contract herself that she may avoid it the Animal Spirits are indeed recalled inward but slowly and without violence so that the blood being by degrees destitute of a sufficient influx of them is trasmitted through the heart with too slow a motion Whence the pulse is rendered little slow rare and weak and there is felt about the heart a certain oppressive strictness as if the orifices of it were drawn together with a manifest chilness congealing the blood and communicating itself to the rest of the body From which dejecting symptoms it is easy to collect that this dolefull affection especialy if it be vehement and of long continuance cannot but infer many and grievous incommodities to the whole body For besides this that it darkneth the spirits and so dulls the wit obscures the judgment blunts the memory and in a word beclouds the Lucid part of the Soul it doth moreover incrassate the blood by refrigeration and by that reason immoderately constringe the heart cause the lamp of life to burn weakly and dimly induce want of sleep by drying the brain corrupt the nutritive juice and convert it into that Devil of a humor Melancholy No wonder then if in men overcome with this so dismal passion the countenance appears pale wan and liveless the limbs grow heavy and indisposed to motion the flesh decays and consumes through want of nourishment and the whole body be precipated into imbecillity Cachexy or an evil habit languishing and other cold and chronic diseases All which the wisest of Men King Salomon hath summ'd up in few words in 17 Chap. of his Proverbs where he advertiseth that a sorrowful spirit drieth up the very bones And yet notwithstanding it is very rarely found that from Grief either long and obstinate or violent and suddainly invading any man hath fallen into a swoon or been suddenly extinguished Which I am apt to refer to this that in the ventricles of the heart tho but very slowly commoved there can hardly be so smale a quantity of blood but it may suffice to keep alive the vital flame burning therein when the orifices of them are almost closed as commonly they are by immoderate grief Somtimes this bitter passion is signified by a certain uncomely distortion of the face somwhat different from that of Laughter and acompanied with Tears somtimes only by Sighs by Sighs when the Grief is extreme by Tears when it is but moderate For as Laughter never proceeds from great and profound Joy so neither doe Tears flow from profound sorrow according to that of the Tragedian leves curae loquuntur ingentes stupent Nor is weeping the pathognomonic or infallible sign of Grief For all tears are not voluntary every light hurt or pain of the Eyes causing them to distill against our will nor all voluntary ones the effect of Grief Some weep for sudden joy joyned with Love especialy old men some when their Revenge is suddainly frustrated by the repentance and submission of the offender and such are the tears of Reconciliation Some again weep out of Anger when they meet with a repulse or check of their desires which causing them with regret to reflect upon their own weakness and insufficiency to compass their wills affects them with displeasure and dissolves them into tears as if they fell out with themselves upon a sudden sense of their own defect and this kind of weeping is most familiar to Children and Women when they are crossed in their wills and expectation as also to Revengefull Men upon their beholding of those whom they commisserate and their want of power to help them Notwithstanding the Occasions of weeping be thus various yet since Tears are frequently both an effect and testimony of sorrow the nature and motions whereof we have now attempted to explain it can be no impertinent Digression to inquire further into their original or sours and the manner how they are made to flow when we are willing to signify our present sorrow by shedding them As for the Fountain therefore whence all our Tears flow and the Matter whereof they consist the succesful industry of Modern Anatomists hath discovered that in the Glandules placed at each corner of the Eyes there is either from the blood brought thither by the arteries as the vulgar doctrine is or as I upon good reasons elswhere delivered conceive from the Nutritive juice brought by nerves separated and kept in store a certain thin clear and watery humor partly saline partly subacid in tast the use whereof is aswell to keep the globes of the eyes moist and slippery for their more easy motion as to serve for Tears when we have occasion to shed them And to this some have added that because there are certain branches of nerves like the tendrels of a vine incircling the vessells leading to and from those Glandules and by their tension somtimes constringing them therefore it is probable that when the serous humor is too abundant in the blood brought into the brain the same is by the arteries whose pulse is quickned somwhat by the pressure of these nerves brought more copiously than at other times into those Glandules and after its separation there detained from returning by the veins that
Sense depend not on the the Rational Soul of man Art 5. And therefore he 〈◊〉 to have also a Sensitive Soul Art 6. That there are in every individual Man two distinct Souls coexistent argued from the civil warr observed betwixt them Art 7. The Causes of that warr Art 8. wherein somtimes the Sensitive appetite prevails Art 9. And sometimes the Rational Art 10. That the Rational Soul is created immediately by God Art 11. The resemblance betwixt Father and Son imputed to the Sensitive Soul Art 12. The Rational Soul seated in that part of the brain which serves to Imagination Art 13. And there connexed to the Sensitive by the will of her Creator Art 14. Where how she exerciseth her faculty of judging of the images of things formed in the Imagination seems to be inexplicable Art 1 A two-fold state of the Sensitive Soul viz. of tranquillity Art 2. And Perturbation Art 3. The first most observable in sleep and when objects appear indifferent Art 4. The other manifest in all Passion Art 5. That in the state of Perturbation the Sensitive Soul vaâ—â—â—th her Gestures by Contraction or Expansion Art 6. We are not moved to Passion by Good or Evil but only when we conceive the same to concern our selves in particular Art 7. All Passions distinguished into Physical Metaphysical and Moral Art 8. What are passions Physical Art 9. What Metaphysical Art 10. And what Moral Art 11. All Passions referred to Pleasure or Pain Art 12. And all their Motions to Contraction and Eff Art 13. Wherein consist Pleasure and displeasure of sense Art 14. A rehearsal of the heads handled in this Section Art 11. Why Men have not been able to observe all Passions incident to the Sensitive Soul Art 2. The Passions best distinguished by having respect to the circumstances of Time Art 3. Admiration Art 4. Which causeth no commotion in the heart and blood Art 5. And yet is dangerous when immoderate Art 6. Estimation and Contempt Art 7. Both consequents of Admiration Art 8. That there is no just cause for a man to have a high value for himself but the right use of his free-will Art 9. Pride Art 10. Humility Virtuous Art 11. Vicious or Dejection of Spirit Art 12. Shame and Impudence Art 13. That Pride and its contrary Abjectness of Spirit are notonly Vices but Passions also Art 14. Love and hatred Art 15. Defined Art 16. Love not well distinguished into Benevolence and concupiscence Art 17. But by the various degrees of Eâ—â—imation Art 18. That there are not so many distinct sorts of Love as of objects to excite it Art 19. Hatred less various than Love Art 20. Desire alwaies a Consequent of Love Art 21. But not alwayes Concomitant of it Art 22. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in Love and their Symtoms Art 23. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in desire Art 24. The Motions of the Spirits and blood in Hatred Art 25. Hate alwaies accompanied with Sadness Art 26. Hope and Fear Art 27. Pusillanimity and Courage Art 28. Emulation a species of Magnanimity Art â—â— Confidence and Despair Art 30 Doubting Art 31 Remorse and acquiescence Art 32. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in Hope Art 33. The Motions of the Soul and Spirits in Fear Art 34. The Motions in Desperation Art 35. Joy Art 36. The various Degrees of Ioy and their names Art 37. The various Degrees of Grief and their names Art 35. Envy and Pitty Art 39. Generous men most inclined to Commiseration and why Art 40. Commiseration a species of Grief mixed with Benevolence Art 41 Envy a sort of Grief mixed with Hate Art 42. Acquiescence of mind a kind of Ioy. Art 43. Repentance a species of Grief but allayd with somthing of Ioy. 〈◊〉 44. â—avour 〈◊〉 45. Gratitude Art 46. Indignation Art 47. Anger Art 48. Two sorts of Anger one Harmless the other Revengefull Art 49. Glory and Shame Art 50. The Motions of the Soul and spirits iâ— Ioy. Art 51. Laughter Art 52. The occasions of Laughter Art 53. Laughter out of Indignation Art â—4 A rare example of involuntary Laughter Art 55. A conjecture concerning the cause thereof Art 56. The Motions and Effects of Sorrow Art 57. Sighs and Tears Art 58. Whence Tears flow Art 59. How they are expressed Art 60. The reason of weeping for Ioy. Art 61. Why Infants and Old men are more 〈◊〉 prone than others to shed tears Art 62. The reason of Sighing and Sobbing Art 63. The Motions and Symptoms of Anger Art 64. â—xcess of Anger to be avoided and that chiefly by the help of true Generosity Art 65. That of all the Passions hitherto considered only six are Simple the rest Mixed Art 65. Reasons against publication of this discourse Art 1. That all the Good and Evil of this life depends upon the Passions Art 2. Which yet were instituted by Nature as incitements to the Soul Art 3. That we are prone to Errors not from want of an omniscious understanding Art 4. But from our ill use of that understanding we have in the conduct of our desires suggested by passions Art 5. That all Errors to which the desires excited by our Passions expose us arise from hence that we doe not sufficiently distinguish things that depend intirely upon ourselves from those that depend upon others Art 6. And that they may be prevented by two General Remedies viz. Generosity Art 7. And frequent reflections upon Providence Divine Art 8. Which utterly excludeth Fortune but leaveth us at liberty to direct our desires Art 9. How we may expedite our selves from the difficulties that seem to make the decree of Divine Providence irreconcileable to the liberty of our will Art 10. How it comes that we are often deceived by our will though we are never deceived with ouâ— will Art 11. A third general Remedy against Error occasioned by inordinate Passions viz. Premeditation and Deliberation Art 12. A fourth universal Remedy viz. the constant exercise of Vertue Art 13. The study of Epicurus's Morals recommended
Souls are unequal in their natural capacity of understanding and discourse because the disparity proceeds immediately from difference of Imagination mediately and principally from the various dispositions of the Brain For when the Animal Spirits being either of themselves less pure subtil and active than is requisite or hinderd in their expansion and motions are not able duely to irradiate and actuate the Brain affected with some distemper or originally formed amiss in such case the Phatasms created in the Imagination must be either deficient or distorted and the Intellect being obliged to judge of them accordingly must be misinformed Hence it often happens that by reason of some wound contusion or other great hurt done to the brain men who formerly were of acute wit and excellent understanding are more or less deprived of those noble Faculties and degenerate into mere fools or idiots For the acquiring and loseing the habit of intellection and ratiocination depends totally upon the Brain and Imagination the corporeal subject thereof but the Intellect it self since it hath no parts cannot be perfected by parts being from the beginning and of its own nature a full and perfect power of Understanding Nor doth it by accession of any whatever Habit understand more but is it self rather a Habit alwayes comparated to understand And in truth the principal Function of the human Intellect seems to be this that it be of its own nature merely intelligent that is knowing things not by ratiocination but by simple intuition But during its confinement within the body it is surrounded with that darkness that it doth not simply nakedly and as it were by way of intuition perceive all things which it understands but attains to most of its knowledge by reasoning that is successively and by proceeding as it were by degrees If therefore the Organ or instrument by the help of which the Intellect is obliged to ratiocinate or gradualy to attain to the knowledge of things be unfit or out of tune no wonder if it be not able to make good Musick thereupon Concerning the Fourth and last thing therefore namely the Manner how this Unintelligible Intellect of man comes to know speculate and judge of all Phantasms or images pourtraid in the Imagination I can much more easily guess what it is not than what it is I am not inclined to espouse their conceit who tell us that the Rational Soul sitting in the brain somewhere near the original of the nerves belonging to the Senses as a Spider sits watching in the centre of her net and feeling all strokes made upon them by the Species of sensible objects distinguishes and judges of their several qualities and proprieties by the different modes of their impressions Because the supposition of a percussion or stroke to be made by a Corporeal image is manifestly repugnant to a Faculty incorporeal But whether or no I ought to acquiesce in that other opinion delivered and maintained by a whole army of Contemplative men viz. That the Intellect knowes and discerns things by simple Intuition i.e. by beholding their Images represented in the Phantasy as we see our faces represented in a mirror or looking-glass truely I am yet to learn from wiser heads than mine For though I admire the subtilty of the conceipt and love not to be immodestly Sceptical especially in matters that transcend my narrow comprehension yet to speak ingenuously I as little understand how Intuition can be ascribed to an immaterial that hath no Eyes as I do how Feeling of strokes can be ascribed to a thing that cannot be touched Nevertheless I will not point blanck deny this latter opinion to be true only because I cannot perceive the Competency of such an act as intuition to the incorporeal Soul of man for that were to make my scanty reason the measure of truth and to confide more in my own dulness than in the admired perspicacity of so many eminent Wits preceding me Wherefore having confess'd my ignorance I refer the matter to your arbitration allowing you as much time as you shall think fit seriously to consider the same and in the interim contentedly suspending my curiosity which hath too often perplexed me For hitherto could I never drive it into my head how those terms of infusion connexion and intuition can be intelligibly applyed to a spiritual or incompound essence such as we conceive the Reasonable Soul to be and if I have used them in this discourse it was rather because I could think of none less improper than because I approved them as adequate to the notions to which they are vulgarly accommodated Besides I hold it extremly difficult not to speak some non-sense when we adventure to treat of the nature of spirits whereof we understand so little and you I presume will rather pitty than condemn a man for stumbling in the dark But I have too long detain'd you upon Preliminaries and therefore deprecating your impatience invite you now from the porch into the little Theatre of the Passions which I design'd to erect more for your divertisement than study SECT IV. Of the Passions of the Mind in general TAking it for granted then from the reasons precedent that in Man besides the Rational Soul by which he becomes a Reasonable creature there is also a Sensitive one by which he is made a living and sensitive creature and that this later being merely Corporeal and coextens to the body it animates is by the law of its nature subject to various Mutations I come in the next place to consider what are the most remarkable of those Mutations and the Causes whence they usually arise as likewise the principal effects of them upon the body and mind of man Obvious it is to every mans notice that there is a twofold state or condition of his Sensitive Soul one of quiet and tranquillity another of disquiet and perturbation every man living finding his spirit sometimes calm and serene sometimes agitated and ruffled more or less by the winds and tempests of passions raised within him In the state of Tranquillity it seems probable that the whole Corporeal Soul being coextens to the whole body inshrining it as the body is to the skin envesting it doth at the same time both inliven all parts with the vital flame of the blood to that end carried in a perpetual round as the vulgar conceive the Sun to be uncessantly moved round about the Earth to illuminate and warm all parts of it and irradiate and invigorate them with a continual supply of Animal spirits for the offices of Sense and Motion And this Halcyon state certainly is the only fair weather we enjoy within the region of our breast and the best part of human life On the contrary in the state of Perturbation all that excellent Oeconomy is more or less discomposed Then it seems that the same frail soul is so strongly shock'd and commoved that not only her vital part the blood the calm and equal circulation
being interrupted is forced to undergo irregular floods and ebbs and other violent fluctuations but the Animal spirits also impelled to and fro in a tumultuous manner cause great disorders in the functions of sense and motion yea more by their exorbitant manner of influx into the nerves of the Heart and Lungs they move them irregularly and so contribute to render the course of the blood yet more unequal Nor doth the tempest stop here it extends sometimes also to other Humors of the body to the solid parts and members of it and even to the discomposure of the Reasonable Soul her self The Tranquillity of the Sensitive Soul is easily observable in sleep when the spirits are bound up or at least at rest and very often also when we are awake namely whensoever the objects affecting the sense or created in the imagination appear to import neither good nor evil to us and we are no further concerned than barely to apprehend and know them For then they smoothly and calmly slide into the common sensory and imagination and soon pass away without any the least disquiet or commotion of the appetite The Perturbation of it is as easily manifest in all the passions which are the consequents of desire or of aversation For when any object is represented under the apparence of good or evil to us in particular instantly the Sensitive Soul is moved to imbrace or avoid it and imployes not only the Animal Spirits her Emissaries but the blood also and other humors universally diffused through the body and even the solid parts too as instruments to effect her design More plainly when the Imagination conceives any thing to be embraced as good or avoided as evil presently by the spirits residing in the brain and ranged as it were into order the Appetite is formed and then the impression being transmitted to the Heart according as that is contracted or dilated the blood is impelled and forced to various fluctuations and irregular motions and thence the Appetite being by instinct transmitted to the nerves ordained for that use they cause motions of the solid parts respective thereunto And this we may conjecture to be the order of motions excited successively in the phantasy spirits blood and solid parts in every Passion of the mind of what sort soever Nor can it indeed sink into my dull head by what other means of mutual intercourse besides such a quick transmission of spirits first from the brain into the Praecordia and thence back again to the brain by nerves to that end extended betwixt those sources of life and sense the great and speedy commerce in all passions observed to be maintained between them can be effected But however this admirable Commerce may be otherwise explained it is lawful for us us to conceive that the Sensitive Soul when put into this state of perturbation doth strangely vary her Postures according to the diversity of motions caused in her and though that diversity be very great yet that in all perturbations whatever she is more or less amplified so as to swell beyond her ordinary bounds or more or less contracted within her self so as to be less extense or diffused than usually she is at other times in her state of tranquillity as will be exemplified in all the passions we design particularly to describe Mean while it is observable that sometimes she being affected with joy or pride and as it were exulting above measure doth advance and expand her self as if she strove to be greater and to stretch her grandure beyond the narrow limits of the body Whereupon the Animal Spirits being respectively commoved in the brain enlarge the sphere of their irradiation and by a more abundant influx vigorously agitate the Praecordia or vital parts so forcing the blood to flow more copiously into all parts and to diffuse it self more freely and speedily through the whole body On the contrary sometimes being surprised with grief or fear she contracts her self into a narrower compass so that shrunk up to a scantling less than her usual circuit of emanation she becomes of too small a size vigorously to actuate the body as she ought Whence the Animal faculties drooping as it were perform their actions either slowly and weakly or perversly and the Praecordia wanting their due influx of spirits almost flagg suffering the blood to remain in their conduits longer than it ought even to danger of stagnation and consequently of sudden death These two contrary Motions therefore of Contraction and Expansion I suppose to be the two General ones to which all the various Postures of the Sensitive Soul when she is perturbed may be commodiously referr'd it seeming to me considering her to be exactly like a Flame and obnoxious to the like accidental mutations that she is not naturally capable of other besides these and that how great soever the variety of such her Mutations may be in the vast diversity of Passions yet they are all but several degrees and divers modes of either her Extension or Contraction This being then supposed I proceed to the first and General Causes of all Passions Where I observe first what was only hinted a little afore that it is not the simple representation of good or evil in any object how great soever it be that is sufficient to raise Commotion in the sensitive Soul for we usualy without perturbation behold the prosperous or adverse events befalling other Men no waies related to us and therefore it is further required to the moving our affections that the good or evil apprehended be by us conceived to concern ourselves in particular or our Friends at least and near relations who in this case are part of our selves Secondly that even that good or evil wherein a Man conceives himself to be concern'd is not always apprehended by him under one and the same ration or aspect but variously aswell in respect of the object itself as of the Subject to which it doth more peculiarly and immediately appertain Of the divers rations under which one and the same object good or evil may be apprehended by one and the same Man respectively to the various circumstances thereof we shall more opportunely speak anon And as for those that respect the Subject or Man apprehending it is worthy our serious remark That all Good or Evil represented to Man doth concern the Sensitive Soul either as she is distinct from the body and abstract from all relation or as she is intimately conjoyn'd to the body and interressed therein or finally as she is subordinate to the Rational Soul For though every Affect or Passion be founded in the Corporeal Soul yet it always respects the good or evil of one or other of these three subjects and is first raised on the behalf of this that or the other Wherefore according to this triple relation of the Sensitive Soul all Passions incident thereto may be said to be either Physical or Metaphysical or