which contracts the muscles towards their principle the soul using that exterior motion to shew that which it suffers interiourly because as we have said she retires into her self when she is surprised so that this contraction of the muscles is as the spring of all the other effects of laughter And perhaps there is no other made by the souls command all the rest being of necessity and without design For it is very unlikely that the soul should intend to form all those plights and wrinkles which are to be at the corners of the eyes to hold the eyes half shut and the mouth open to render the voice piercing and interrupted and so of the rest But these are effects which by a necessary pursuit accompany the motion of the muscles The better to understand this you must remember from what we have already said that when the surprise is light the muscles of the lips forehead and lids onely move because the Soul intending to make the emotion it feels appear useth this as the most manifest and most sensible motion But when the Surprise is great it moves all the muscles of the face and brest and in fine if it be very vehement there are none in the whole body which are not moved Now as there are but few muscles which have not their contraries and that there are some which lift up a part or carry it on one side there are also those which bring it down and draw it on the other side And yet in this contrariety of motion there are some stronger then others the actions they are to perform requiring more or less strength From thence it comes that in Laughter you see the parts take that figure which this contrariety of motions gives them So the Mouth keeps half open because the muscles which serve to open and shut it each moving his way it must necessarily retain that figure and even it must appear more shut then open because the muscles which serve to shut are the strongest So the Forehead remains smoothe and stretched being equally drawn upwards and downwards The Eyes also are half shut because the muscles which incline the lids are stronger then those which lift them up and so consequently the wrinkles are formed about the temples the skin which is delicate and fleshless being drawn by the motion of those muscles and constrained to grow uneven The Nose shrinks up and grows sharp because the muscles which lift it up having no contraries have always the liberty to lift it up which cannot be done but that the skin which covers them must wrinkle and the extremity of the Nose appear sharp The Lips lengthen out themselves because the muscles which draw them on the side are stronger then those which contract them and even the upper lip stretcheth it self more then the under because its muscles are more powerful The Tongue shortens it self a little and suspends it self being equally drawn on either side The Neck contracts and thickens it self because the muscles shorten when they retire themselves The Cheeks for the same reason lift themselves up and grow firmer and in some a little dent is formed in the middle of them the skin being tied in those parts by some small veins which restrain it whilst the surrounding parts lift themselves up Before we seek the causes of the brests and flanks motions and of that interrupted voice which appears here we must observe that the muscles do not retire themselves in a vehement laughter by an uniform and continued contraction but by several girds and shakes whether it be that in the designe the Minde hath to witness its surprise it moves it self and redoubles its struglings or that the novelty of the object sollicites it and by fits represents it self unto it as it chanceth to be in other Passions wherein every moment the soul animates and transports it self by those new Idea's which the object forms in the Fancie This then is the reason why those redoubled motions appear in Laughter and chiefly in the flanks by reason of the Diaphragma which is there situated and which is extremely moveable And because the agitation is violent it causeth also a pain in this part whither the hands cast themselves as if they ought to ease it For although they unwittingly do it Nature who takes care for the preservation of its parts directs the hands to those places where the ill may offend them without being led thither by Reason or Discourse So when a man falls or is ready to receive a blowe the hands by a natural instinct cast themselves presently before the face As for the rest as the Diaphragma is the chief organ of respiration that must necessarily be made with the same shakes which that part suffers and afterwards the voice must be interrupted because the air issues not equally and the muscles which should form it start up as the Diaphragma doth For we said that all the muscles retired themselves by surprises in a vehement laughter Whence it happens that the head the shoulders and the arms shake themselves in the same fashion as the flanks do In fine this general contraction which is made in all the organs of voluntary motion is the cause that all the body folds up and contracts it self that it is impossible to swallow any thing because the muscles which serve for that action contract and shut up their passages and that Laughter sometimes causeth the same effects as Medicines do by the compression of those parts which contain the humours Now forasmuch as these frequent girds of the Diaphragma hinder the liberty of respiration and are the cause it cannot contract and enlarge it self as it ought thence it comes that at last breath and speech is lost that the pulse grows irregular weakness follows and sometimes death For respiration is so necessary for life that when it is hindered the forces are lost and the whole oeconomy of Nature changed For which cause in this necessity the soul struggles very much to oppose this disorder sometimes she makes haste to draw a great quantity of air as if she stole that refreshment from the violence of her passion sometimes she makes a long breathing to drive away those fumes which the heat of the heart at every moment produceth and so forms those precipitated sobs and sighs which mingle themselves with Laughter I do not stay particularly to examine why the Pulse beats irregularly nor why weakness and syncopes happen in this encounter It is well known that the Pulse and Respiration follow one the other being both destined to one end and that weakness and faintings come from the disorder which is made in the heart which cannot suffer a greater then the hinderance of respiration Before we end this enquiry it will not be amiss to rehearse the opinions which have been hitherto held touching the motion of the muscles in Laughter because the absurdities in them will the more confirm the causes we have deduced All who
she cannot shun their encounter she puts on a certain disdainful severity which checks them and renders their caresses vain and their flatteries of no use We may even say that as there are things which instead of being molified harden themselves by heat it seems that the ardor of these Passions produceth the same effect in her and that that pleasure which melts and liquifies hearts hardens hers She becomes indeed as if she were stupid towards all those things which are the most desirable and the most delicious in the world the charms of Beauty the splendor of Riches move her not Praise and Glory have no allurements for her but quite contrary to that unhappy man who is feigned to be invironed with goods which flye from him when he seeks to enjoy them she appears in the midst of delights which she flies as soon as they become sensible If it happen that the Sences betray her and that unknown to her they taste the poyson which they present them withal she chastiseth them by the grief which she causeth them to suffer and for fear least she should herself be infected she keeps herself pecuish and austere and takes a certain disgust of all sweets and against all the enticements of Pleasure It 's thus also that she preserves herself from that Pride and Vanity wherewith Prosperity is commonly puffed up from the disquiet and impatience which move violent desires from those languors and transports which follow irregular contentments In fine it 's thus she maintains herself in so just a temper which renders her modest in good Fortune severe in Pleasure content in Necessity and every way equal and like herself These are the principal touches which Constancy imprints in the Soul we must now observe those which she makes on the Face and on the other parts of the Body But we may at first say that they are so like those which Boldness forms thereon that did we know them no other ways but as two Sister Germans we might easily by the likeness of their lineaments judge that they are of the same family or at least that they both have the same inclinations For as soon as ill presents it self to a Constant man he expects it with the same Eye with the same Front and in the same posture as if he were ready to assault and combate it his look is firm and assured his Countenance changeth not colour and without stirring his Brows or Lids he coldly considers the danger which threatens him and seems to brave with a resolved mind the misfortune it self You must not expect from him complaints of injuries nor any of those exclamations wherewith Fear and Anger unprofitably beat the Air. Silence commonly shuts his mouth and if he is obliged to speak it s with a tone of Voice which remarks the tranquillity of his Minde and the strength of his Courage for his voice is neither weak nor vehement slow nor impetuous it is strong equal and settled and it 's upheld with a certain majestical accent which mixeth respect and admiration with the fear we have to see him so near danger He holds up his Head without impudence his port is noble without Pride his pace is grave without Haughtiness and in all his actions there appears a generous coldness and a modest confidence But it is not onely before the assault that he appears thus resolved he carries the same air and the same assurance into danger and into fight When he is first prest by the enemy he stiffens his Nerves he holds his Breath and gathering himself up in himself he confirms and settles himself in his posture In this condition without going back he beats all assaults which are made against him he feels fire and sword fall on him without looking pale he sees his blood run from all parts without astonishment and findes his Body wounded with wounds and torn in pieces without complaining and without so much as wrinkling his Brow If sometimes any man makes him change colour cast forth crys or turn up his looks it passeth so suddenly that we may easily judge that the violence of the ill surprized him and that it hath robbed from him if we may so speak those motions from his Constancy For at the same time he suppresseth his complaints and his sighs he devoureth his grief and bringing back a calm in his Countenance with a smile and with the sweet looks of his eyes he doth not onely reprehend his first resolve but makes it appear more gay and better pleased In fine if he perceive the strength of his Body forsake him and that he must succumb under the effort of the enemy which assaults him in falling he makes it appear that his Courage is not cast down that by his fall he raiseth up himself and that it is not he that yields but his ill Fortune For he suffers all the insolency of the Victor without murmuring or so much as moving He sees those blows come without being frighted which will be the loss of his life and he is already sensible of death yet still hath a care to compose his Countenance and to leave on his dying body the remains of his Constancy But it 's time to enquire the cause of all these effects neither have we any thing more to say of those Characters which this Passion imprints on the body when she resists those pleasing and deceitful ills of which we have spoken since she adds nothing to her settled Countenance but severity disdain and frowardness wherewith she arms herself against their Allurements and that we have already observed them in the first figures of this Picture Let 's now examine what its nature is since its the source whence all these effects ought to take their original CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Constancy or strength of Courage ALthough at our enterance into this Discourse Why this Passion is necessary we have made the nature of this Passion appear having been obliged to distinguish it from Boldness to observe the difference of its motions and the end which the Appetite proposeth it self yet we must say that we have made therein but an imperfect draught wherein we have onely traced out the most remarkable parts and the grossest lineaments and that now we must add the last touches and those colours which were wanting thereunto For which purpose we must again betake our selves to those principles which we have established in the precedent Discourses and say that Nature hath inspired in every thing the care of its own preservation having taught them to seek what is fit and to flie what was hurtful and to combate what was contrary to them that the Soul as the most noble and the most excellent hath this knowledge and these inclinations most strong and most perfect And that all those Passions wherewith she is continually agitated are the means she useth to attain those ends some of them being appointed to pursue good others to flie ill and others
cannot be divided without diminishing the force and grace which the whole pretends to As for the rest wonder not if in the Pictures of the Passions I present thou findest some touches of vertues and vices and if for example in the description of Boldness thou encountrest actions which seem to belong to valor and generosity I consider Passion in its nature and in its essence and as it is a motion of the Soul every where where I know this Motion to be I also acknowledge the Passion So that vertue being nothing but a regulated motion and a Passion moderated by Reason and since a moderated Passion is still a Passion Discoursing in general of the Passions I may speak of those which are under Vertues direction aswell as those which are directed by Vice The Stationer to the Reader THe Gentleman whose pastime it was to English these Characters as they had pleased him so he judged they could not but be grateful to an ingenuous Reader and therefore commended them to the Press And to shew how far he was from the new vanity of erecting his Statue in the front he thought fit rather to use the practice of Painters who how well soever they may have copied Master-pieces never set their names but to Originals that as he pretends no Praise he may thereby frustrate Censure Yet he is consident of his Authors merit and that this Work of his will move love and delight in all but those who are possest with malignant Passions they indeed may quarrel with Love oppose Desire vex Joy frown on Laughter and even put Hope out of patience but against such Laughter alone will be sufficient And for the rest if the English Chanel run too neer the French Coast and that some may think the Translation over-fraught with Gallicisms perhaps they are such as themselves in their ordinary discourse often use with affectation But from them the Passions take about and steer their course to the Ladies acknowledging them the onely Admirals of these Seas to whom whether they come safe or are shipwrack'd they of right belong since none do more powerfully cause or more sensibly suffer them to whose fair hands I am obliged to present them and from whom alone they promise themselves protection March 10. 1649. JOHN HOLDEN A Necessary Advertisement To the READER WHat I here present is but a small part of a Great Designe wherein I intend to examine the Passions the Vertues and the Vices the Manners and Customs of People the several inclinations of Men their tempers the features of their faces in a word in which I pretend to shew thee what is most excellent and most rare in Physicks Morality and in Politicks I know thou already thinkest that my undertaking is full of Temerity that it is beyond my strength and that there is no likelihood I should ever accomplish a Work the least pieces whereof have startled the greatest men of the former times But I intreat thee Reader to consider that I am but at the beginning of it and that I shall not proceed without the knowledge of thy opinion and further advice therein For if this Essay please thee not and if thou believest that so rich a matter requires more expert and more cunning hands then mine I am ready to quit the Work and to finish it where I commenced it I shall at least have the satisfaction to have endeavoured to please thee and to have found for thy divertisement a designe which may pass for the greatest and the fairest which was ever conceived had it been but performed And that I may give thee a more particular knowledge thereof I will shew thee the Platform and make it appear that ill Architects may have fair Capriccio's and may sometimes form noble Designes What I then proposed to my self was to present thee with The Art to know Men which contains Five general Rules The first is founded on the Characters of the Passions of the Vertues and the Vices and shews that those who naturally have the same air which accompanies the Passions or Actions of Vertue or Vice are also naturally inclined to the same Passions and to the same Actions The second is drawn from the resemblance Men have with other Creatures and teacheth us that those who have any part like to those of beasts have also the inclinations they have The third is grounded on the beauty of the Sex and shews that men who have any thing of a feminine beauty are naturally effeminate and that those women who have any touch of a manly beauty participate also of manly inclinations The fourth is drawn from the likeness which the men of one Climat have with that of another So those who have short noses thick lips curl'd hair and a tawny skin as the Moors have are subject to the same vices to which they are inclined The fifth and last may be called Syllogistick because that without using particular signes which usually designe the Manners of persons it discovers them by discourse and reasonings which is done by two principal means The first is the knowledge of Tempers for without knowing the signes of the inclination a man hath to be angry so as we know that he is cholerick it will suffice to speak him to be inclined to that Passion The second is the most ingenuous and is drawn from the connexion and concatenation which the Passions and the Habits have amongst themselves So when we know a man is fearful we may assure our selves that he is inclined to Avarice that he is cunning and dissembling that he usually speaks sofily and submissively that he is suspicious incredulous an ill friend and the like And although we do not observe particular signes of all these later qualities yet we believe they are found in him because we know the principle whence they deduce their origine These are the first strokes which designe the Platform of the Great Work we intend For as all those Rules are grounded on the relation which Men have with other things its impossible to apply them well without the knowledge of those very things And it is bootless to say that any man is inclined to such a Passion because he bears the Character thereof unless we know what the Character thereof is We must therefore make as many Discourses as there are grounds for these general Rules and divide the whole Work into seven parts The I shall treat of the Characters of the Passions of Vertues and of Vices The II of the nature of the creatures which may be useful to this knowledge The III of the beauty of men and women and of the inclinations which follow them The IV of the difference of the bodies and manners of people The V of Tempers and of the effects which they cause in the Minde and on the Body The VI of the connexion which the Passions and the Habits have amongst themselves The VII shall reduce in order all the signes which shall have been
was to be added But as they are actions common to the Minde and to the Body and Physick and Moral Philosophy must help one the other to discourse exactly of them it happened that those who have undertaken it could never employ them both and that those who could have done it have had other designes which have hindered them from discovering to us the nature of these things whose good or ill use causeth all the felicity or mischief of our lives In effect if they are well regulated they form the Vertues and preserve Health but if they grow to excess they are the source whence the disorders of the Soul and of the Body deduce their origine And whoever would consider the great number of Sicknesses which momentanily assault the life of Man and the several ways whereby she customarily loseth her self will finde but few whose first cause was not some one of the Passions of the Minde So that we may say that the most profitable parts of Wisdom and Physick have not hitherto been discovered and that if I have endeavoured to give them any part of my cares and of my small labour I have not so much strayed from my Duty and my Profession as some may imagine To conclude what success soever my Undertaking have it in my opinion deserves some approbation or at least excuse and indeed Reader I must have both to oblige me to pursue it In a word if thy judgement be favourable it will afford me both very much glory and very much pains ERRATA In the Epistle dedicatory page ult line 6. for leave read learn l. 8. for love read have In the Book p. 7. l. 14. for ever read even P. 13. l. 25. for Maintica read Maintion P. 32. l. 4. for other read others P. 48. l. 22. for enlights read enlightens P. 99. l. ult for diffent read different P. 103. an accent upon Catoché P. 133. It would be c. P. 149. l. 24. for thicks read thickens P. 192. l. 14. for ardors read orders P. 226. l. 27. for graceful read grateful P. 260. l. 25. for venters read re-enters P. 272. l. 2 for general read generous P. 282. l. 21. for Theorictus read Theocritus THE CHARACTERS OF THE PASSIONS CHAP. I. What the Characters of the PASSIONS are in generall NATURE having destin'd Man for a civil life thought it not sufficient to have given him a tongue to discover his intentions but she would also imprint on his forehead and in his eyes the images of his thoughts that if his speech happened to belye his heart his face should give the lye to his speech In effect how secret soever the motions of his soul are what care soever he takes to hide them they are no sooner formed but they appear in his face and the disquiet they cause is sometimes so great that they may be truely called tempests which are more violent at Shore then out at Sea And that he who advised a man to consult his glass in his anger had reason to beleeve that the Passions are better known in the eyes then in the soul it self But that which is more wonderful those actions which spring from vertue and vice discover themselves in the same manner And although the goodness or malignity they have seem to have nothing to doe with the body yet they leave with it I know not what kind of images And even the soul not perceiving what it doth disposeth the parts in such a manner that by the plight and posture which they take we may judge whether its actions are good or ill Neither can the understanding work so secretly but the senses must perceive it If it elevate its thoughts if it recollect it self the looks grow fixed the car hears not in fine there is a general suspension of sense and motion And whether it be that at the same time the soul cannot intend such different functions or that the inferiour part respects and wil not divert its Mistris we know that this is imployed when the other operates not It s a most certain thing that the body changeth and varies it self when the soul is moved and that this performs almost no actions but it imprints the marks thereof which we may call Characters since they are the effects of them and that they bear their image and figure Now because the first Rule of Physionomy is grounded on these Characters and that it maketh use of them to discover inclinations assuring us that those who naturally have the same air and the same countenance which accompanies their moral actions are inclined to the same actions The designe which we have undertaken makes us here propose the particular Characters of all the Passions and after them of Vertues and Vices But first we must know wherein these Characters consist and what are the causes of them The Characters of Passions and of habits being the markes of the motions and designs of the soul are also its effects as is already said but because there are also two sorts of effects those which are performed in the soul and those which are effected in the body there are also two kinds of Characters the one Moral the other Corporal For if you consider a man in anger Violence appears in all his actions his words are full of threats and injuries he crys out he runs he strikes reason and remonstrances offend him and he knows no friends but those who favour his passion On the other side his countenance is inflam'd his eyes sparkle he wrinckles his forehead his words are fierce his voice is terrible his lookes are frightful and his whole behaviour is furious These then are two kinds of effects and two sorts of Characters the one whereof consists in moral actions and the other in the change and alteration of the body Now we must see what these actions are and what this change is for all moral actions cannot be used for Characters otherwise some would be Characters of themselves since Passions and Vertues are moral actions To take away this difficulty you must observe that the essence of human actions consists in the inward emotion which the object forms in the appetite and that all those things which are done in pursuance thereof are but as rivolets running from the same spring So anger is nothing but a desire of Vengeance and in the pursuit of that emotion the soul produceth exterior actions which may serve to this purpose as threatnings blows and other violences which we call Characters because they express and discover the alteration and interior motion of the appetite But there is also another thing to be here considered and it is that when we speak of Passions of Vertues and of Vices we are not to conceive them as qualities or simple actions but as compleat qualities and actions which are accompanyed by many others and yet which all tend to one principal end which the soul proposeth For although love to speake properly is but a simple
emotion of the soul by which it unites it self to that which is lovely Yet we doe not therein form its whole Idea we consider it as a Passion that hath beauty for its object and which to possesse it employs desire hope delight c. In the same manner Justice is a stedfast will to render to every one what belongs to him But to effect it she makes use of Prudence which makes her consider the quality of persons the time the place and all other circumstances She makes use of Temperance and of strength to moderate those passions which often traverse her design and although they are actions which precisely concern her not yet she forbears not to appropriate them because they conduce to her principal end Now all these borrowed and posterior actions are also a part of moral Characters because they design the passion or principal habit which is the spring and first cause whence they are derived It s far more difficult to say wherein the Corporal Characters consist and what intention nature hath in forming them We see that every passion carries I know not what air on the face that vertue sheds into its actions a certain grace and an agreeable aspect which is not to be found amongst the vitious but as we have always called it The I know not what it seems that we are thereby taught that it could not be said what it was For I suppose as it is true that the Characters we seek are nothing but the air of which we have but now spoken Now this is found in so many different things that it s almost impossible to observe what of common they have whereupon we may establish its essence for it most commonly happens in the motion of the parts and some have beleev'd that this air was nothing but that motion But it s certain there is a sixt and natural air wherein the parts move not and which is no effect of the souls emotions So that it would be more likely that this air were nothing but a certain relation of the parts amongst themselves which happens from the situation they take when they move or when they rest But nether is this sufficient since the colour which that relation compriseth not partly gives the air to the face and that ruddiness is one of the principal Characters of shame as paleness is of fear this ever encreaseth the difficulty since that in defining beauty we say that its a just proportion of the parts accompanied with a pleasing colour and with a grace and that colour and grace are esteem'd as two different things For grace is nothing but a pleasing air nay even custome often applyes it to what it is not when we say a man hath an ill grace and in this case grace is the same with air That we may know then what this marvelous air is where the serenity and the storms of the minde appear we are first to observe that the air of persons is discovered in their pictures that the grace of a fair face is exprest by colours and that consequently there must be somewhat of fixt and which flyes not away since there are none but stable and permanent things which painting hath power over and that of all visible objects there is only motion which subjects not it self to the pencil Now it is impossible to finde any thing stable common to living things and their pictures besides the figure and colour of the parts So that it seems this air is to be there placed But because there is yet another thing in the grace which the art of painting cannot attain to and that there is a certain vivacity which can never be fixt on the cloth we must with reason beleeve that motion serves also to this grace it s that which renders the beauty lively and piercing without which its sad dead and without attraction We cannot in effect doubt but that the motion of the parts gives something to this vivacity since 't is a part of its perfection But because that after it hath ceased there is yet I know not what which remains on the face and that we see a certain splendor shine in the eyes which depends neither upon their figure motion nor colour we must necessarily add to all this a certain secret influence which being sent into the eyes disperseth it self over the parts of the face and without doubt after having well enquired what it may be we shall finde it to be the spirits which the soul continually sends into those parts which leave there the brightness of the natural light they have and indeed there are faces which neer seem well and afar off appear very ill coloured because the spirits animate it not and that the splendor they give is so weak that the species of it cannot reach far and so they leave those of the colour more withered This grace then is in the colour in the figure in the motion of the parts and of the spirits And yet this doth not say that all these things are this grace For were they in other subjects then man they would not please and green which is the most perfect of all colours would cause a frightful deformity were it on a face It must then be that as sounds are not pleasing of themselves but as they are in a certain proportion so all these things are pleasing to the sight but only because they have a certain relation and a certain agreement which pleaseth the eyes and contents the minde To know this concordance you are to understand that there are two sorts of beauties in man The Intelligible and the Sensible The first is but the interiour perfection the just connexion of all faculties necessary for a man to perform the functions whereto he is designd and the sensible beauty consists in the disposition which the Organs ought to have to serve these faculties So that what renders the figure the colour and the motion agreeable is the fitness which those things have with the nature of man For how fair soever the colour be how perfect soever the figure of the parts are how regular soever the motions are if they are not conformable to his nature they produce neither a beauty nor a grace on the contrary they cause a deformity and render the body unseemly Now although there be but God alone who knows the principle of this conformity and why the forms have more inclination for one figure colour or some other accident then for another yet there are in our soul secret seeds of this knowledge which is the cause she pleaseth herself in these objects without knowing the reason in the same manner as she findes them displeasing when that conformity and proportion which they ought to have is wanting Some will perhaps say that I here confound grace with beauty placing grace in the proportion of the parts and in the colour which in the ordinary definition of beauty are separated from grace But I beleeve
which seems good unto it It s true that at first this will not seem true because that most commonly in Love the beloved object is absent with whom it is not likely the soul should unite it self but if you consider that objects may be united to the powers by their species and by their images or by their true beings and that consequently there is a real union and another that is not which the schools call intentional and which we may name Ideal you may observe that the union which the appetite makes with the object which the imagination proposeth is of the latter rank because the true being of things enters not into the imagination it s their Idea and their image only and this union is that alone which naturally belongs to the appetite for that it can no otherwise for its part unite it self to the good which is presented unto it if it move towards any other union 't is not for it self that it seeks it but for other powers which may really unite themselves to their objects for the the appetite is a politick faculty which works not only for it self but for all others which are beneath it and as the imagination is the Center of all the sences the appetite is it also of all the inclinations which are in the parts so that the imagination or the understanding proposing to it what is fit it seeks it for them and endevors to procure them the enjoyment thereof and then if they are capable really to unite themselves with their objects it covets their union but this hinders not but that it unites it self before with them by a union proper to it and which is as the principle and spring of all other unions belonging to the soul Perhaps you will say that the understanding and the imagination in the same manner unite themselves to what is fit for them and that therefore Love may be aswel formed there as in the appetite but the difference is great because that the objects come and go in the understanding and in the imagination and the knowledge they have of them is rather gained by rest then by motion as Avistotle says quite contrary to the appetite which moves it self towards its object and goes out as it were of it self to unite it self thereto so that the union which is made in the understanding and in the imagination is purely passive without any motion of its faculties but that of the appetite is active and performed with agitation considering also that the union made by the appetite is more perfect then that which is made by knowledge for as much as the minde may have an aversion from some thing which it hath conceived which is a kind of separation and therefore the union thereof is not so perfect as that of the appetite which cannot endure this division and which consequently is the most accomplished which can be found in the actions of life But if Love be a motion of the Soul to unite it self to what is lovely it seems as if when it is united thereunto there then should be no more motion and consequently no more Love and as this union may be made in a moment for that there is nothing can hinder it it seems as if this motion also were made in an instant and that therefore Love should not last any longer which would be a very strange proposition and contrary to the truth To answer this objection you must observe that there are things which move themselves to attain to some end separate from their motion and that there are others which finde in the motion it self the end they seek the first cease to move when they have attain'd their end But those who have no other end but motion or at least none that is separated from their motion never pretend to rest and as rest is a perfection in those so 't is an imperfection in these now the appetite is of this latter kinde which truly moves to unite it self to what is good but the union it seeks cannot be effected but in motion and when that ceaseth it vanisheth so that whilest the beloved object is present it must incessantly agitate it self to obtain the end it desires which is to unite it self thereunto and if it chance to rest it proceeds from that the object is no longer present with it or at least that it is no more offered unto it as good Love then is a motion and a union of the appetite to what is lovely whether absent or present because its absence hinders not the imagination from proposing the Idea thereof to the appetite which is the only one with which it naturally can unite its true that working for other powers as we have said it stops not at this simple union it seeks what is fit also for them it desires for the seeing and hearing that their objects may be at a reasonable distance for touching and tasting that theirs may be immediatly united to their organs In fine as many ways as things can be united the appetite and the will wish a fit union for them and you must confess that the concourse of all those motions makes the Passion of Love compleat and entire and the first of which we have spoken although it contains all its essence and its form yet hath it not all its extent we may say it is the source and that the others are the brooks which encrease it Le ts now see what this particular agitation is which the appetite causeth to make this union and in what its different from that which is to be found in Joy in Desire and in Hope by which as wel as by love it seems that the soul would unite it self to the good which is presented to it For t is not sufficient for the perfect knowledge of the Passions to say that they are motions unless you observe the differences of these motions and unless you make known the different impressions and the diverss progress which the diversity of these objects cause in the appetite You must then suppose there is some relation between the motions of the Soul and those of the body and that the differences which are found in these in some manner happen in the others For since the effects are like their causes the motions of the body which are the effects of the Soul ought to be the images of that agitation which it gives it self In effect they say that the understanding moves directly towards its object that it reflects and redoubles it self on it that it reenters it self that it wanders and confounds it self which are all phrases drawn from sensible motions and which ought to make us beleeve that somewhat like it is done in the soul and chiefly in its appetitive part because it is by it that in effect it moves and agitates it self neither is it to any purpose to say that they are not true motions but that they only are Metaphorical for besides that
in old men and women and that the joy which moved them was caused either by the gain of some unhoped for victory or by the encounter of some very ridiculous object or by the discovery of some great secret in learning which are joyes which only belong to the minde In effect as spiritual things have that beyond corporal that they are more noble and that they enter into the soul wholly without separating themselves the possession ought also to be more perfect and the joy the more ravishing so that it is likely that the syncopes which are the effects of all violent Passions follow those spiritual joyes as the greatest and most powerful and that they rather happen to weak natures then to those which are stronger and more capable of resistance the soul then finding herself surprised at first sight with these objects and agitating with precipitation to unite her self to them the spirits which follow those motions issue from the heart and dart themselves with so much violence to the superior parts that they lose the union they had with their principle in the same manner as water divides it self being driven with too much impetuosity and because the heat ought continually to inspire the parts with its vertue and that the spirits only can communicate it when they come to disunite themselves from it these influences must then stop and the sensitive and vital actions which depend upon them must also cease till their reunion And because the soul is then quite ravished in the injoyment of that good which she esteems so excellent she cannot minde to remedy that interruption which is made in the spirits nor to bring back those which are scattered or to send others to fill those empty places they left So that these faintings often last long and sometimes cause death heat being quite perished and nature not having strength enough to repair its loss nor to recover its first estate But this disorder cannot happen in the Love whereof we speak for that corporal beauty is never wholly possest and that there is still somewhat which entertaines Desire Hope and Fear So that the soul dividing it self to several designs and suffering it self not to be so powerfully transported as she doth in the enjoyment of spiritual goods the spirits throw themselves not with so much precipitation nor impetuosity and are not so subject to the division which they sometimes suffer in Joy and which is the cause of those syncopes of which we have spoken We shall touch upon this matter again in other places let 's now consider what heat it is which this Passion raiseth and what humors it particularly moves It s certain that Love Joy and Desire disperse through all the body a moist and pleasing heat for as much as the spirits in those Passions stir the most temperate humors whose vapors are sweet and humid but these humors are sooner mov'd then others because that the spirits which have a great likeness with the purest and most subtil parts of the blood as being those whence they draw their origine ought to mingle and unite with them more easily then with those which are grosser and farther from its nature therefore we must not doubt but when they are agitated they first of al draw along with them those parts of the blood whereto they are more strongly tyed which being the most subtil are also the more easie to be moved Besides that the soul to whom the humors serve as instruments to arrive at the end she proposeth employs both the one the other according as they have qualities sit to execute what she wills whence it is that amongst venemous beasts it moves the venome in anger and in all the rest it moves flegme and melancholy because they are the malignant humors which may destroy the ill she assaults so that there being no enemies to combat in the Passion of which we speak it ought not to move any other humors but those which are conformable to the good she would enjoy So that there is only the sweetest and purest blood which commonly moves in Love and causeth that sweet and vaporous heat which disperseth it self through the whole body PART 4. What the causes are of the Characters of LOVE BUt its time to come to the point we proposed from these principles we have established we must draw the causes of the Characters of this Passion let 's first therefore examine moral actions There being no Passion which produceth so many different actions or causeth so many extravagancies as this it would prove a troublesome thing to enquire into them all and besides unprofitable since the greatest part of them proceed from other Passions which accompany it of which we are particularly to speak for which cause we will only touch here the principal which in my opinion are The continual thought a Lover hath of the beloved Object The high esteem he values it at The means he imploys to possesse it And the extravagancy of the words he makes use of to discover his passion for there are few actions in Love which may not be reduced to some of these four For the first although it be a thing common to all the Passions powerfully to possesse the minde and to keep it fix'd on the object which entertains them yet there are none who do it more powerfully or longer then Love For either they are impetuous or turbulent or else they are pliable and docile the first are presently dissipated and the others are to be appeased or diverted by the power of discourse nay even by other Passions So the angry ones sweeten themselves by pleasure and the delightful diminish by affliction and all of them may change into others more strong if more powerful objects then those which have raised them present themselves for a great grief makes us forget a less and an excess of joy takes away a mean one But with Love it is nothing so it hath the propriety to be vehement and long lasting not to hearken to reason and can seldom be changed or diminished by the force of what Passion soever forasmuch as the imagination is so wounded that it fancies there is no greater good to be possest and which can affoord it more contentment then its beloved object so that there is no other how excellent so ever it be that can divert its inclination and draw it to it because the soul never leaves a greater good to seek a less 't is in the same manner with displeasure for if we are beloved there is no pain nor grief which vanisheth not by the contentment which we receive thereby and if we are not as the soul knows no greater ill then that all others are too weak to dispossess that thought for which cause it continually considers the good whereof it s deprived it uncessantly desires it and seeks in the possession thereof the only remedy which may cure all its displeasures But the first origine
the eyes because they are the channels through which the Passions issue out and the hands because they are the principal organs of its actions But amongst all the means which nature hath taught us to attain to this perfect union there is none more considerable then reciprocal Love because union supposing two things the Lover and the Object to render it accomplished both the one and the other must really unite Now if the beloved object is capable of loving it can no otherways unite it self but by Love forasmuch as the soul unites it self with things which are without it only by that Passion wherefore the first care of a Lover is to make himself beloved and to that end to render himself grateful whence it happens consequently that he accommodates himself to the inclinations of the person beloved that he changeth his humor his manner of living that he growes liberal curteous neat and in a word that he doth all what he thinks may make him be beloved We are now to enquire the cause of that extravagant manner of speaking which is so particular to Lovers In general we may say that the soul in that Passion carrying it self out of its self carries also other things beyond what they are and forms thoughts of them beyond the natural expression they should have whence it is that the good and ill it conceives is alwayes in excess and if the nature of the thing cannot suffer it it burthens it with some strange Idea to encrease the meaning thereof and so builds those bold Metaphors which give to the beloved object the title of the fairest and the noblest things in the world which of a gentle heat cause a burning fire of a mean disquiet a torment and a punishment of a little submission which beauty requires a captivity prisons and chains and so of the rest whereunto the error of the imagination contributes very much which being wholly fill'd with that violent instinct which it hath from beauty beleeves that there is no greater good nor heavier ill then it expects from Love so that it alwayes represents them in extremes and consequently useth more extravagant termes then in any other Passion considering also that Lovers who commonly employ in their entertainments but very few thoughts and who are never weary to repeat them are oblig'd to diversify the termes that they may be the less tedious which they cannot do but by many Metaphors which at last become extravagant being to seek to finde out reasonable ones enough for the variety they endeavor Besides these general reasons there are yet particular ones for some words which are always in the mouths of those that love and when they call the beloved person Their Heart Their Soul and Their Life when they call them Ungrateful Homicides and Cruel and when they so often say They dye for Love for although all these kinds of expressions seem extravagant yet they come from a principle which in some sort renders them true forasumch as Love keeping the Soul always stretched towards the beloved object and transporting it out of it self to unite it thereto separates it also morally from the subject it animates and in effect takes away from it the remembrance and the cause of all that belongs to it So that in that respect we may say that it lives no more in him nor for him being wholly in the beloved person that a Lover hath reason to call her his Heart and his Soul since his desires and thoughts which are the noblest parts of his life are alone in her and that its true that he dyes nay even that he is dead since that he no longer lives in himself Now as there is but reciprocal Love only which can make them live again forasmuch as then the beloved person transforms herself in him and communicates to him both soul and life if he be unhappy to so high a degree that he cannot be loved it seems that he hath cause to call her Ungrateful Cruel and Murtheress since giving himself wholly to her alone she is oblig'd to acknowledge so high a liberality and in separating his soul from him she kills him and it is a cruelty to let him dye whose life she may save It s true that to speak really we may say that there is but a very light shadow of truth in all these words that the soul operates here as in a dream and that Platonick Philosophy which approv'd these visions kept intelligence with this Passion or would consolate Lovers in the miseries they suffered let 's leave her employed on so fair a designe and seek the causes of the corporal Characters which we have described But we will not here examine whence that great diversity comes which appears in this Passion which makes it in some either sportful or pensive in others peaceable or turbulent in a word perhaps two persons have never been found in whom it hath bin altogether alike for its evident that it comes from the divers inclinations which the temperature or custome hath introduced into the soul which draw the Passions to the bend they take and makes them follow the same course which they are accustomed to the mixture of other Passions also contribute thereunto it being impossible that Love should be frolick when it s accompanied with Grief or Anger or that it should be severe when Hope or Joy are of the party But all these diversities are easie to be comprehended let 's now to our principal designe To follow the Method we have established we are here to place two kinds of these Characters some of which are done for some certain end others which happen by a pure necessity the first are made by the souls command who judgeth them fit to execute her passion although they are often unprofitable as we have said the other are purely natural and are made without design being only effects which by a necessary consequence come from the trouble and the agitation which is inwardly made Those of the first rank are the motions of the eyes and forehead the faultring of the tongue the sweetning and several falls of the voice laughter and the behaviour of the body All the rest are purely natural as for the Motion of the eyes there are so many several kinds of it that it s almost impossible to observe them For as all the Passions may spring from Love and suffer also with it and every of them causing the eyes to move diversly It also happens that all their motions meet there So that pleasure makes them sparkle Desire advanceth them forward Grief casts them down Fear renders them unquiet Respect inclines them Despight kindles them and so of the rest whose causes we will deduce in the discourse of every Passion all what we can herein do is to enquire which are the Amorous eyes and looks and what obligeth the Soul to use them by reason of the great difficulty there is both in the one and the other For the
We do not therefore say that Beauty consists in Knowledge onely for it would then follow that things would not be fair until they are known although it be most true that God would not cease to be infinitely fair although he were not known And there are things whose knowledge is equally clear and certain which are not equally fair for the Understanding distinguisheth the Natures as more or less perfect in the same manner as the eyes and ears judge that there are Colours and Harmonies the one fairer then the other Now as things are sensible not by reason of our sensibleness but because they can make themselves sensible and as the essence is not good in that it communicates it self but in that it can communicate it self so Goodness is not fair because it is known but because it may be known So that Beauty is nothing but Goodness in that order and essential relation it hath to Knowledge that is to say that it can communicate it self to the intelligent faculties And in my judgement we are so to understand Plato when he says that Beauty is a glittering and splendor of Goodness for as the brightness of light is that which renders it visible the brightness of goodness is that also which makes it known and this brightness is no other but the act whereby goodness resplends enlightens and communicates it self to the knowing faculties Now because there are two kindes of faculties the Intellectual and the Sensitive there must also be two kindes of Beauty the one intelligible the other sensible And because that in either kinde there are subjects which are fairer and more excellent some then other some we must on the foundation we have established observe the cause of this difference It is true it requires a higher meditation and a longer discourse then our designe will permit but we will onely touch on the principal and on what is necessary to understand what we shall say in consequence of Humane Beauty Suppose then that Beauty is but an effect of Goodness so far as it hath a relation to the knowing faculties and that Goodness is nothing also but the being and perfection of things so far as it can communicate it self as the School teacheth those things which have more of being and of essence must be better fairer and more perfect And we know they have more of being when they have more unity and in that unity they have more power and different vertues So God hath an infinite perfection because that in a most perfect and most simple unity he hath a power to do all things The intelligences which are the most simple and the most active of all creatures are also the most excellent Even amongst Bodies the mixt are more perfect then the simple whereof they are composed the Animate more then the Natural and those which have a Reasonable soul more then those which are onely Sensitive Because that in comparison of those they have more different vertues and more actions and therefore divers degrees more of essence Thus much for what concerns Intelligible Beauty But in Sensible objects the perfection is not absolutely considered as in that it must depend not onely from the being they have but also from the organs of the Senses which receives them and from the fitness they ought to have with the bodies where they appear So the Light which is most resplendent is more perfect then all Colours but in respect of the eyes Green is more although even that colour is displeasing in some subjects Now the cause of this diversity first of all comes for that the Senses having been given to creatures for their preservation they must not destroy them And as their action is performed by the impression which the objects make on their organs if this impression is not proportionable to them their action will be imperfect So that it ought to be strong enough to give knowledge of the thing but not so violent as to corrupt the organs Whence it is that the Senses cannot judge well of their objects in their extremity as the eyes of too great a light or of darkness the ears of a too violent sound or of silence And Aristotle says that neither of them are sensible because that this makes no true impression and that the other destroys the organ So that there are onely those objects which are between both extremities which can make a just impression proportionable to what the Senses require It is not therefore that all the objects equally touch the Senses there are some amongst them which are more perfect and more agreeable then the rest Green is fairer then Grey or Black the Eighth in Harmony is sweeter then the Fourth But the cause of this difference is extremely obscure yet if you observe what we have said of the perfection of Intelligible things you will finde that it depends from the same principle For it is certain that Colours and Harmonies have their beauty from the proportion they have and those which have it the most perfect are also the most agreeable Now proportions have the more perfection the neerer they are to unity and the more they are in that unity composed So the Diapason which is the most pleasing of all simple harmonies is made in a double proportion to wit of two to one which is the most perfect of all simple proportions because it is neerest the unity nothing being neerer unity then the number of Two and is the most composed for what is twice as much more is more composed then that which is but once and a half or once and a third part as the other proportions which are the Diapente and the Diatessaron It is the same with Colours for the proportions which make perfect harmonies make also as Aristotle says fair colours For which cause Green which is the most agreeable of all others is to be in the same proportion with the Diapason and that of Blue and Purple with that of Diapente and Diatessaron But seeing we have examined these things in their place it sufficeth to shew that Beauty and the perfection of Sensible things is deduced from the same principle as that of Intelligible things to wit in that they have more unity and that in this unity they have more powers in a word from that they have more of a sensible being It is easie by this Discourse to perceive that Light considered as in it self is the fairest thing which can be presented to our sight but that Green in respect of the organs is yet more pleasing then it It remains onely to discover why this colour renders not all those Bodies fair wherein it is To this end you must remember that things work not but according to the powers they have and that these powers follow onely the degrees of their being Now as there are things which cannot work without matter it is evident this matter ought to be fitted and proportioned to their actions and their powers
another condition to wit absence which never happens in Joy where the good must be alwayes present for when past things or those which are to come delight us it is an effect of the imagination which renders them present and makes them pass for such as they are in the thoughts For the rest by the word Good we must not onely conceive what is truely and apparently good but even also the ills which we have eschewed It is thus that the memory of the paines we have suffered and of the dangers we have escaped is pleasing forasmuch as it is good to have been delivered from them it is thus that vengeance is so sweet because that by overcoming the ill we no more fear the assaults thereof it is thus that tears are sometimes delightful because they discharge nature of an unprofitable burthen and that it even seems as if the grief which excited them runs and slides away with them You must besides observe that good being a thing agreeable to nature this is aswel to be understood of depraved nature as of that which is perfect for a sick man takes pleasure in things which are contrary to him and a vitious man finds contentment in his debauches because they are conformable to his corrupted and irregular nature Now after this to examine by retail all what may cause pleasure besides that it would wrong both our design and the Reader both which ask for brevity we may easily know it were but to lose time and words It will then suffice to say that since good is the source of all the sweets which this Passion causeth to flow into the soul and that it is nothing but what is fit for our nature and what perfects it it must be that the good which makes us the more perfect raises also the greater the more solid pleasures Now as we are composed of two parts of soul and body and as that is incomparably more excellent and therefore it follows that the perfection which it acquireth is also more excellent and that the goods which cause it are the most noble and the most delightful But because the goods of the body are for the preservation of the species or of the individuals and that that is more considerable to nature as being the most common or the most general good from thence it is that the pleasure which accompanies it is the sweetest and most sensible of all others and by the same reason the objects of Tasting and feeling delight most because they are the Senses most necessary for life and without which the creature cannot subsist It is true that the objects of Seeing and Hearing may contest the preheminency being more noble then those base and material qualities which respect the inferior Senses But if we consider that there are almost no creatures which delight themselves with the beauty of sounds and colours we may confess speaking generally that the objects of Tasting and Touching are the most delightful and yet that in Man those of Seeing and Hearing have the advantage because that those two Senses having a great affinity with the Understanding and being chiefly destined to its service their end is also more noble necessary then it is in beasts where they are for no other use but to preserve the animal life which they have From all these considerations it is easie to deduce the principal differences of Pleasure For it is either Intellectual or Sensible Pure or Impure True or False True Pleasures are those which are pure to wit which are not linked or mixed with Grief and they are those which are fit for Man in the most perfect condition that Nature could place him Such are the pleasures which are found in Contemplation and in the exercise of Vertue such are those which follow the actions of a secure Health and the functions of Senses perfectly disposed Now these Pleasures have this property that they are long lasting that they never tire that they may be relished at all times and that Grief never precedes nor follows them For a man who is in a state of Natural perfection is never weary of Meditation nor of performing good actions Life is always sweet and pleasing to him and the Senses are always disposed to receive their Objects with Delight Some may now say that Eating and Drinking and other natural actions are convenient for the perfect nature of Man which yet cause also disgust For Musick and the sight of the fairest things at last tires the ears and eyes and the sweetest flowers wherewith Venus was ever crowned as Pindarus says at last become importunate and displeasing It is true But we must also remember that all these things being sutable to Nature ought to have the conditions which perfection requires they must be moderate in quantity and quality the circumstance of time place and persons must meet Besides that the greatest part are not of themselves convenient for Nature but onely by accident that is to say they are onely convenient by reason of the irregularities which preceded them whose remedy they are So eating and drinking cure hunger and thirst so rest and sleep cause labour and weariness to cease In a word the greatest part of our actions afford pleasure onely because Nature empties or fills it self and corrects the one with the other wherefore the pleasure which follows them is not absolutely pure nor real but onely by accident whence it is that it tires that it lasts but little and that we are not at all times capable to taste it as those which are absolutely pure But let us leave these Moral Speculations and without staying any longer on things which are notorious to all the world let us seek new ones and see whether the Tempest which this Passion excites in us will not throw us into some unknown Land and make us know the motions of the Spirits which act as the wandering Stars whose courses and periods have not yet been observed PART 3. What the Motion of JOY is in the Spirits IN all kinde of Motion we must always fancie two terms The one where it is to begin the other where it ought to finish If the Spirits then move in Joy it seems they ought to come from the heart since it is their source and thence they move themselves towards what is Good wheresoever it presents it self to the soul Truely could Joy form it self all alone the motion of the Spirits must be so made and must by it be issued out of the heart to the meeting of what is good but because it never comes but with Love which ought always to precede it it is he who ought to cause that motion whereto Joy contributes nothing So that we must seek another for it conformable with that of the Appetite In a word we must discover how the Spirits in some manner disperse themselves even as that doth in this Passion This will not uneasily be conceived after having observed how Love carries
Pleasures as those of the Senses become distastful and importunate because they are not absolutely convenient for nature they surpass the natural capacity of the powers and their use weakens and corrupts the organs but those which are pure and true do never disgust because they never exceed the natural reach of the Soul but they perfect it and instead of burthening and weaking they ease and fortifie it It is true they may give a little because the minde being a lover of novelty and finding it no longer in an object whereto it hath long applied it self it also findes not that satisfaction which it took at the begining and seeks by change to nourish its desire and inclination But we have spoken enough of these things wherewith Moral Philosophy is full let us examine the Characters which Joy imprints on the Body Of all the many Characters which Joy imprints on the body There are the looks onely the serenity of the forehead Laughter Caresses and disquiet which are caused by the Souls command all the rest happen without her thought and have no other cause but the agitation of the humors which necessarily produce those effects For the Looks there are three kindes common to this Passion for it renders them sweet dying and unquiet we will say what is the cause of these last when we speak of the disquiet and impatience which appears in all its other actions The Looks are sweet either because they are modest or because they are laughing and these are proper to Joy which causeth the lids to fall a little and contract themselves and which fills the eyes with a certain pleasant splendor Now this splendor comes from the spirits which arrive in those parts and the motion of the lids is effected by smiling and by the design which the soul hath to preserve the image of the desirable object as we shewed in seeking the causes of amorous Looks so that we have onely these which are called dying which require a long examen We have already said in the discourse of Love that they were called so because those which dye cast forth the like lifting up their eyes on high and half hiding them under their lids But that seems very difficult to conceive that Looks which accompany Languor Grief and Death should be found in the excess of Pleasure Yet as there are several things contrary which have common effects because they have common causes it may also be that this kinde of Look findes the same cause in Grief and in Joy in the pangs of Death as in the ravishment of Pleasure Let us then examine the reasons why they are to be found in these troublesome Passions that we may see whether there be any which may be accommodated to Joy First we need not doubt but Grief lifts up the eyes on high and looks up to heaven as the place whence it expects help to drive away the ill which afflicts it For Nature hath given that instinct and inclination to man to have recourse to superiour powers when he believes himself abandoned by the rest So that without minding it his mouth invokes them his eyes turn towards them and his arms are lifted up to crave their assistance It also happens that this Passion which would flee the ill which presents it self gathering up within it self draws along with it all the more moveable parts and so retires the eyes in as if it thought to hide it self by hiding those organs whence she seems most to shew her self Or rather it comes from that the parts being void of spirits which the force of Grief dissipated or transported elsewhere they of themselves repossess their natural situation which is to be a little lifted up For it is certain that the situation of the parts when they rest is more natural then that which they have in action wherein there is always some kinde of constraint And we must consequently believe that the eyes which take that site in sleeping seek it as the most calm and most natural for them So that it seems the looks become dying in Grief as they do in Sleep by the flight of the spirits which leave the eyes to their rest Death may also cause this effect by the convulsion which often accompanies it and which makes the nerves retire to their origine or by reason of weakness cannot retain the parts in that tension which their action requires so that the lids fall and the eyes are lifted up taking again as we have said their natural situation Of all these causes there is onely the gathering up of the Soul and the drawing back of the Spirits which are to be found in Joy and from whence these dying looks may take their birth for they have no assistance to implore nor convulsion to fear But in the transport which the enjoyment of Good gives the Soul it often quits the exteriour parts gathers the spirits inwardly together or carries them elsewhere and so forsaking the eyes leaves them the liberty to regain their natural situation which makes them appear languishing and dying The Forehead is serene when it is smoothe and without wrinkles and this smoothness comes from that all the muscles are extended and equally draw it out on every side or from that they are all at rest and leave it in its ordinary situation Now it seems that Joy causeth a serenity of the forehead in both manners For it is certain that as it hath the property to dilate and disperse the soul and the spirits it seeks to do the same in all the parts of the body So that because the muscles cannot move but by contracting themselves it never intends to move those of the forehead since it would cause a motion contrary to its designe chiefly their action being not necessary in this encounter as that of the eyes might be and of the tongue and of others which it agitates in this Passion for particular reasons The Forehead then remains calm and without contracting it self On the contrary it seems to open and on all sides to extend it self by reason of the spirits which rarifie the parts and makes them appear the larger Yet because that in Laughter the forehead becomes smoothe by the stretching of the muscles which equally draw it upwards and downwards it might seem that Joy which causeth Laughter caused also that tension and brought that serenity to the forehead as well by moving as by slacking the muscles But in the following Discourse we will shew that it is not Joy which produceth that effect but the Surprize which is the true cause of Laughter 'T is not but that the Soul without that Surprize may extend the forehead by contracting the muscles but then it is a feigned and forced serenity as that of Flatterers of which Aristotle says that the Forehead is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say stretched and not contracted as the Translators have explained it for it is the Muscles which are contracted but the Forehead
there are divers things wonderful and which we admire which do not make us laugh even if admiration be very great it hinders Laughter And it is to no purpose to say that it ought to be mean and light to move it since it often happens that we laugh at those things which we very much admire Indeed the address which a facetious man hath to represent the actions the words the gestures of another to tell jests to make subtil and ingenious encounters is no less to be admired then that of a Painter who makes some excellent designe or of a man who seriously relates very fine things Why then doth the admiration which that causeth excite Laughter and that of this hinder it Are there not an hundred kinde of things which are new which are admired with mediocrity as the most part of those are which are rare which yet cause not Laughter On the contrary are there not some which seem to have lost the grace of a novelty and which cannot beget admiration which yet are ridiculous He who tells a good tale is often the first that laughs at it and yet it is neither new nor admirable seeing he knew it before As there are then ridiculous things which are marvellous and others which are not so we must seek the cause elsewhere then in Admiration Many to shun these difficulties have joyned these two opinions together and said that Joy and Admiration was the true motive of Laughter and that if there are wonderful things which move it not it is because they are not agreeable in the same manner as the agreeable are not ridiculous unless they are marvellous But it is certain that the greatest part of the inconveniences which we have observed are herein also to be found and that there are divers things which are pleasing and wonderful which never move Laughter Is there any thing so fair or so admirable as the Sun All the diversities of flowers and fruits which the seasons bring us all the treasures which the earth affords us all those master-pieces wherewith Art furnisheth us and all those rarities which strangers send us Are they not delightful do they not oblige us to admire them Yet was never any body seen to laugh at the sight of all these things Others have imagined that all these opinions might be maintained with modification that it was true to speak absolutely Joy and Admiration did not cause Laughter but when they were recreative that is to say when they were not serious and that they happened in Plays then they move it and that Nature requiring these divertisements to refresh the Minde and the Body and give them new forces it by that exteriour motion made the pleasure appear which it there searched But are there not Plays and divertisements which do not cause Laughter And should we reduce them to facetious things how should we finde them in ticklishness in the encounter of friends in indignation and in anger and even in the admiration of serious things This is what the Philosophers have left us touching ridiculous things But since they do not satisfie us let us see what the Poets and Orators have said on the Subject for the Ridiculous is the object of Comedy and the Orator is sometimes obliged to employ it in his Discourses Aristotle and Cicero must be consulted about the business The first treating of Comedy defined what was ridiculous to be A deformity without a grief And truely it seems that what we call Ridiculous is an imperfection which in appearance causeth no ill to him who hath it For did we think it would cause any it would not move Laughter but Compassion And this deformity is observable in all what 's done or said against the custom expectation or opinion of the Wise As for Cicero he confesseth there is deformity in the ridiculous but he will have another condition then that which Aristotle observed For he says that its Nature consists in representing ugly and deformed things with a good grace And if there are words and actions to be found which delightfully discover the defects of others they will infallibly move Laughter These two Opinions have without reason been followed or rejected by many Philosophers For those who say it comprehends not all ridiculous things and that there is no ugliness or deformity at the first sight in persons which are dear unto us in tickling and in divers other serious things which make us laugh lastly that an impertinent performs actions and discourses with an ill grace which are extremely ridiculous Those I say are deceived as well as others who in general seek the nature and essence of what is Ridiculous binding themselves to these definitions as if they perfectly exprest it and perplexing their mindes to excuse the defects they meet in them for it is certain that neither the one nor the other consider the Ridiculous but in relation to the Stage or the Bar that Cicero observes that which befits an Orator and that Aristotle comprehends all the ridiculous Subjects which may serve in Comedy So that the Objections made against them are vain and weak forasmuch as tickling belongs no ways to the Theatre no more then impertinencies done with an ill grace are not admitted into the Rules of Oratory And indeed to shew you that Aristotle did not discourse of the Ridiculous like a Philosopher and that he enquired not its essential form he hath not mentioned those deformities in those places where he examined the causes of Laughter And were we to suppose it would it not be useless to know the nature of this Passion What reason is there that an object should move Laughter for being deformed without grief I know well that there are some who have said that Laughter was composed of Grief and Joy that that proceeds from deformity as Joy comes from that it is without Grief and that in the combat which these two Passions give the Minde are formed those contrary motions of the heart of the Diaphragma and of the other parts which appear in Laughter But what likelihood is there that Sorrow should have a share in this action How can it cause a violent agitation or subsist so long with that excess of Pleasure being so little and so light as it is figured What Grief can we be sensible of at the meeting of persons we love in the relation of good news or in some ingenious encounter And we must not say that the Smile which these objects move is no true Laughter for the one differs not from the other but in that one is greater or less and we see every moment that the same object moves Laughter in some and but Smiles in others These are the most considerable opinions which have been on this Subject which in my opinion are all wanting in that they suppose that there are divers kindes of ridiculous things and of Laughters and that there can no general notion be found which can be equally common to
that Reason which is sometimes at liberty in these encounters sees nothing which contents it that she even confesseth this Laughter to be forced and yet that she cannot hide it it is nevertheless very true that there is still a secret pleasure either in the superiour part of the soul or in the sensitive For the alienation of the Minde takes away from frantick persons the sense of ill and giveth liking to the Ridiculous Chimera's which are there formed to move Laughter So that if Reason be not hurt the Pleasure must be hid in the Senses and unwittingly to the Understanding it causeth that commotion there The Imagination discerns not always exactly the Pleasure which the objects form in the particular Senses either because it is distracted or surprised or because the impression they make is secret although still the spirits the humours and the bodies agitate themselves powerfully So the first motions of Passions happen in the Minde unawares and there are divers things which move us which we can hardly say whether they are troublesome or graceful we must not then wonder if we sometimes laugh without knowing the cause thereof it is sufficient if the Senses have a confused and secret knowledge to stir up afterwards that motion in the Appetite for there is so strong a connexion between these powers that the one is no sooner touched by the object but the other resents it In this precipitation the Soul hath not time to discern what it doth and the parts are sooner touched then she is advised of it and she is not then able to stop the shake which she hath given her self the spirits and the humours having received the impression thereof whose impetuosity cannot be so suddenly stayed And hence the difficulty comes to hinder Laughter when it is vehement although it be a voluntary action in the same manner as it happens in other Passions wherein the Soul suffers the same violence as he who runs into a precipice for although he gave himself that motion it is no more in his power to stop it he must abandon himself to the swinge he hath taken and to that steepness whence he hath precipitated himself What remains of most importance is to know why of all creatures Man onely laughs since it appears that other beasts also may be surprised with Novelty and it is not impossible but that they may have a designe to shew how sensible they are thereof since they make other things known by their voice and by their actions But as there are but two motives which oblige Man to witness the surprise which ridiculous objects cause to wit his own excellency and civil society it is certain that the first is useless to beasts who are never touched with glory or with vanity And for Society it is so imperfect amongst them that it respects but the necessities of the body to which indeed they work in common but yet it is but for their particular interest so that there is no communication of the pleasure which every one resents considering that the novelty of agreeable things surpriseth them not to speak properly no more then they do men who are quite stupid because they do not discern whether things are new or no considering them but as if they had always been present although for to know them new we must imagine they were not always so And it is for that reason that children laugh not before the fourtieth day for the Soul which is as it were wholly buried and as it were drown'd in the great quantity of the humors they have is capable of no knowledge but acording as humidity diminisheth these lights encrease and so by degrees she gets the power of laughing beginning by a smile and after being capable of vehement Laughter Perhaps some will say that the excellency wherewith man flatters himself and the love of society can no more reach a childe at forty days old then other creatures being not of a condition to minde either of them therefore that they then are not more capable of laughing then beasts are if there be no other motions but those for laugher But it is not necessary exactly to know those things for which we have a natural inclination for desires being born with us carry us also by the pure instinct of nature to the enquiry of those goods and from the time that our soul hath the liberty to act she produceth actions which shew the secret fence she hath of her own excellency and of her being destined to a civil life Now as beasts are capable of neither of them they have also no share in this instinct whose sourse is hidden in the intellectual parts of the Soul and can come from no inferior power for although there are some kinds of Laughter which seem wholly to depend from the sensitive as that which comes from tickling it is certain that without the influence of the Reasonable Faculty the Senses cannot produce that effect its light insensibly disperseth it self on all its actions and the neighbourhood they have therewith alwayes communicates somewhat of its perfection which still serves to shew that beasts are not capable of laughter because their Senses are deprived of that brightness and of that influence which Reason causeth to flow in ours Before I finish this discourse I must tell you by the way who those are who are most given to laughter it is certain that young folkes laugh more willingly then old ones women then men fools then wise men sanguine then cholerick flegmatick then melancholy And this comes from that laughter being made by a pleasing surprise which we would make known those are more easily surprised are naturally merrier then these For the spirits which move quick and which consider not things are most easie to be deceived and those who are the most merry are the most easily touched with pleasant objects and are more fit for conversation then others who are severe and serious Yet as there are divers sorts of ridiculous objects that some respect our proper excellency and others society that there are some which require a great knowledge as quaint jeers and others wherein a mean one is onely requisite So there are also some persons which are more easily touched then others the young and cholerick laugh rather at the defects of others then the old and the wise being naturally insolent and proud fools ignorants observe not jests or witty encounters women and those of a sanguine complexion are more fit for the laughter which caresses occasion because they have a natural inclination to flattery After having thus discovered the nature of laughter and of ridiculous things we shall easily give a reason for all the effects which this Passion produceth on the body for there are none which proceed not from the surprise and Joy which the Soul resents the splendor of the eyes the redness of the face and tears come chiefly from Joy all the rest come from surprise
possest the Appetite But supposing that Love dilates them and Desire joynes it self with it will it not cause any change certainly when the Soul sees the good absent and that in effect she possesseth it not she must bate somewhat of the designe she had to open and extend herself to unite her to its Idea and she gathers her self together to pursue it the more swiftly So that it is likely she contracts not the Spirits in this Passion as she doth in Fear but that she reunites and somewhat regathers them driving them towards the absent Good But we will forbear these things which being too subtil and too obscure flee from our sight and tire the minde that we may seek the causes of the Characters we have marked PART 4. The Causes of the Characters of Desire LOve and Desire being the most general Passions of the minde are also the most fruitful in actions but if you respect the causes which are nearest their effects you must confess that Desire is the most active and that all human actions although they proceed from Love as from their original source seem to draw their origine from Desire as from their neerest and most sensible cause so that we may say that Love is as it were the seed but that Desire is the stock or trunk which affords life and motion to all the branches However it be we have not undertaken to give an account of all the effects which this Passion produceth it will be sufficient to examine the most general and the most ordinary And first of all to enquire what it is that renders it importunate impudent base and unquiet why it is boundless and how difficulties provoke it It is true that who ardently desires a thing renders himself easily Importunate because the violent Passion he hath to obtain it makes him blindly seek it without considering the persons and without examining the time or the place which might favour him in his designe he pursues it everywhere he craves it continually and as if all the world ought to contribute to his pleasure he solicites he urgeth he tires all those whose succour he may have and which may make him enjoy the good he desires besides having no other thought but that and his minde being continually bent on that Object reason findes no time to be understood nor power to contain the sallies of this unbridled Passion She even suffers herself to be thereby carried away and so abandons the conduct of her actions to blinde and rash powers And even from thence that Impudence comes which commonly accompanies Desire for as it is a certain boldness which makes us with pleasure undertake dishonest things and which makes us scorn the imfamy which they may cause he must necessarily be impudent who is pressing and importunate seeing he takes a liberty beyond good manners and that he fears not the blame which his shamelesness deserves But if desire cause boldness how can it then render a man Base and Timerous It may be said 't is done at several times That sometimes we fancy the things we desire are easily obtained and that sometimes there are great obstacles to be overcome and that as these different thoughts enter the minde they introduce either Boldness or Fear Hope or Despair Now although this be true it is also evident that that Boldness which breeds Impudence is not always incompatible with Baseness if it apprehend not infamy it may fear every other thing and we cannot doubt but those who sollicite with so much urgency and submission a person inferior to them are possest with a very cowardly Boldness and a base and servile Impudency Disquiet Impatience and Irresolution are also inseparable from Desire for the minde seeing it self deprived of the good she imagined necessary for her can take no rest til she hath obtained it The moments which retard its enjoyment seem years and ages the least impediments appear great obstacles and all the means she findes to make her the sooner enjoy the desired good are in her opinion weak and unprofitable so that forming at every moment new designes heaping desires upon desires and increasing difficulties by her irresolutions she uncessantly agitates and disquiets herself and findes not even in their possession the end of her troubles as we have shewed in the discourse of Joy But whenee comes it that Desires do thus encrease and multiply and that like waves they follow and drive one the other that obstacles make them encrease and that they have no bounds which can contain them It is true that the greatest part of our desires are of that Nature that they cannot be bounded and that they become infinite but there are others also which never pass their just extent To know the reason of this difference you must suppose that there are desires necessary for this life and others which are not so those are common to all creatures and are inspired by Nature these are proper to man and proceed from the opinion and choice he makes not onely of necessity but also of superfluous things The first have their certain bounds because Nature who leads them is determined to a certain end from which she never straggles and wherein she findes her rest when she is there arrived but the others are infinite for asmuch as the will whence they originally come is an Universal power which is not to be filled but by the possession of all things and which being unable to be satisfied by any one incessantly runs from one to another and forms as many desires as there are goods whersof she is in want it is not that all the desires which part from our choice are infinite when they are ruled by right reason they have also their bounds and we may also be sure that they are as natural and as necessary as those which serve ths necessities of life For right reason being nothing else but what is convenient for the Nature of man the Desires which are regulated thereby are as it were natural and by so much the more necessary as they serve the noblest part which is in him But this belongs to another Discourse Let us now see why Difficulty provokes Desire it is not that by putting of the Soul further off from the good she thought readily to enjoy she obligeth her to use the more endeavour to draw neerer unto it or else the impediments inspiring new designes give it also new subject for Desire which uniting it self to the former make the Passion appear the greater but these Passions are not Universal for they suppose we alwayes wish the good before these impediments present themselves and in the mean time it is true that difficulty and resistance doe often breed a desire of certain things which we had never sought how desireable soever they were had they not been forbidden us and difficult We must then conclude that the first source of this effect proceeds from the natural inclination which is in man for
have already spoken we shall without difficulty enquire the reasons and send back the Reader to the place whence we deduced them For sighs and extasies loss of speech sleep and appetite have herein no other causes but as in Love The face grows red and swell'd by the arrival of blood and spirits which cast themselves on the outward parts as is already said Tears proceed from grief which the privation of Good too attentively considered breeds in the Minde The motion of the heart and arteries is great because the soul endeavours to open them to send forth a quantity of spirits frequent because of the violence and haste it makes to get them out and unequal by the mixture of other Passions The body grows lean and dry because those parts which digest the humours and those which are to be nourished by them being weakned by the flight of the spirits perform it not as they ought and cannot convert them into their substance as was said in the Discourse of Love There remains nothing now but an effect of Desire which being extraordinary deserves a longer examen then the former It is that a too ardent Desire makes a man grow old in a day as Theorictus that is to say makes the hair gray in a short time according to the ordinary explication of that passage For my part I must confess that the observation is particular enough and I do not remember that I have seen it anywhere but in that Author But since the same thing happens in Fear and in Despair which in a night change the hair and that cares and displeasures make a man grow gray before his time it is impossible but Desire may sometimes cause the same effect all the difficulty is to know how it may be done You must then suppose with Aristotle that hair grows gray for want of heat fit and natural for it that it then suffers a kind of corruption and rottenness and that it happens as to all other things that in corrupting it turns white in effect we cannot deny but that it is the old age of the hair And since that of all the body happens from the diminution of natural heat it is likely it proceeds from the same cause when this heat then diminisheth it produceth two effects in the hair for the aliment which ought to nourish it digests not but flies into vapours and the air fills the place of the Spirits Now vapours contain much air and air is the first cause of whiteness as we see in scum and experience teacheth us that to make the hair white we must wet and expose it to the air And it is true that heat growing weak either by little and little or suddenly indigestion is the chief cause of whiteness of hair when the heat is consumed by dely grees but when it readily dissipates as it happens in sicknessess and vehement Passions it is chiefly the air which whitens it sliding into the pores and taking the place of the retired spirits Some will say If this be true the hair of dead men should be always white natural heat being extinct and the air environing them might easily insinuate it self into its pores To this it must be answered that after death there remains a natural heat in the hair as in the bones which are long preserved after the expiration of the creature whose parts they were But this heat is immoveable and incapable of any fruition of life being deprived of the souls influence which gave it efficacie and motion So there are no more crudities made because the aliments rise no more thither and the air cannot occupie the place of the spirits which are there fixt and stopt Certainly we cannot but confess that the soul inspires some vertue into those parts that she takes some care of them and that she governs them as she pleaseth otherwise what should cause that delightful and regular painting in the plumage of Birds what should so justly compass the eye-brows what should so carefully regulate the hair of the eye-lids lastly what should cause all that so wel measur'd a diversity which is to be observed in the hair of beasts As that commonly follows the species of every creature it must needs be that the soul wherein it is contained conduceth also to this work and that she at her pleasure disposeth of those parts wherein she causeth so many wonders This being granted it is not hard to say how Fear Desire and Cares may change the hair for in retiring the spirits they derive it of the influence it received from them they dry up that spring of life which did rise to its roots and draw away that vital heat which ran thorow its pores It is true this seldom happens and there must be a great violence and a great disposition to produce this effect For there are certain actions from which it is very difficult to withdraw Nature and what tempest soever happens to it she but seldome forsakes their rudder and conduct Such are the functions of the Vegetative soul which are principally made by the means of the fixt spirits and being not subject to the power of the Imagination or of the Appetite remain quiet whilst the others erre here and there and are agitated by the several motions which the Passions impress But yet it sometimes happens that by reason of the conjunction which there is between the parts of the soul the disorders of the one are communicated to the other and that the Natural faculty is carried away by the Sensitive principally in those whose spirits are more mobile and the substance of their parts more soft So that those persons whose imagination is very strong and who have the weakest brain more easily grow gray then other men by the violence of those Passions which we have spoken of CHAP. VI. The Characters of Hope HE who gave away all he had and reserved onely Hope made not so ill a bargain as it may be imagined He took for himself that which is the sweetest in life the most durable Good which can be found therein In a word we may say that he had for his share all what he had not and that he truely divided for himself like a King Indeed as there are no other Goods whereof we are sensible but those which we possess and those which we hope for it is certain that possession affords not a perfect contentment here belowe for that it cloys the Minde and takes away the knowledge of the good it possesseth that it even corrupts the Nature of it and straight begets a distaste But Hope which awakens the Minde and renders it clearer-sighted represents the Good as it is shews it in its purity and gives a far more delicious taste of it then Enjoyment can For it is so ingenious that it separates it self from all the Ills which are mixt with it it purifies it self from all the defects which accompany it and as we may say that it is then the
did we believe that nothing could hinder us from the possession of them they could never beget Hope in us and the Soul would be content to adde to the Desire which she would then form faith and assurance that it would happen which is an effect of the Judgement and not of the Appetite The difficulty then in Hope comes always from a third which is as the medium betwixt him who hopes and the thing hoped for in whose liberty we suppose it is to do or not to do what we hope For although we should often hope good from those things which do not freely operate even from those things which are inanimate as when we hope that Lands will be fertile and that Seasons will be pleasant that a beast will delight us or be serviceable to us we fancie them to our selves as if they had that liberty whether it be that there is in beasts an image of true liberty or for that we have a natural instinct which secretly instructs us that there is a Superiour power in the world which disposeth thereof at will and according as it thinks fit So that what we hope depending from the will of others whose masters we cannot absolutely be it is impossible but we must esteem it difficult and but that the success must seem doubtful It is not but that sometimes the difficulty may be in the thing it self we desire and the means we use to obtain it but it is not considerable in this Passion being not essential to it However from what part soever it comes we must take it for granted that it is necessary to form Hope Let us now see what its designe is and what the motion is which it causeth in the Appetite All the difficulties presented to the Soul either in the search of Good or assault and flight of Ill appear greater or less then its forces that is to say she believes she can overcome them or that she cannot resist them If they are the weaker they beget Hope Boldness and Anger if they are the greater they cause Despair and Fear Now it is likely that in difficulties the Soul doth in it self what we outwardly do when they present themselves to us For as we bend our selves against them if we suppose we can overcome them and as we lose strength and courage if they appear invincible it must needs be since the motions of the body follow those of the soul and that there is some relation and resemblance between them that the soul bends or slackens her self as the body doth in the encounter of the difficulties she fancies And indeed it is the onely difference which can distinguish the motions of the Irascible appetite from those of the Concupiscible For in these the Soul hath no occasion to employ her force or courage seeing no enemy she ought to assault or against whom she is obliged to defend her self Or if she pursue Good or flee from Ill it is without bending or slackning her self Since it is then a thing common to Hope Boldness and Anger to bend the Soul against difficulties let us see wherein they are different and chiefly what Hope hath particularly therein it being the subject of this Discourse We must then suppose that in Hope the Soul distinctly observes the Good but confusedly sees the difficulties on the contrary in Boldness and Anger it considers the difficulties more then the good For although in these the soul assaults ill to enjoy the good she expects by victory she chiefly sixeth her thoughts on the enemy she fights against and thinks onely on the good which shall thereby accrue but as a thing at a distance which provokes not as the presence of ill doth But in Hope she neerly faceth the good which presents it self she attentively considers it and sees but by the way the difficulties which besiege her so that they do not appear so great and consequently do not oblige her to use such endeavours to resist them as in other Passions Indeed in Boldness and Anger she riseth up and assaults the ill because she thinks it so powerful that she believe she cannot overcome it without assault or combat But in Hope it appears not so strong as that it ought to be assaulted nor so weak as to be slighted She keeps her self in a certain mean betwixt heat and neglect and without animating her self gainst it she puts herself in safety stands upon her guard which she doth in stiffening and fortifying her self in her self as it happens to the body which its parts being all equally stretched without changing place and almost without moving makes a vigorous motion which keeps it firm and extended which for that cause is called in the Schools The Tonick motion The Soul then doth the same in this Passion without assaulting or fleeing the ill which might traverse it she fortifies her self stands on her guard and with assurance expects the good she seeks So that we may define it to be A motion of the Appetite in which the Soul in expectation of the good it desires strengthens and stiffens her self in her self to resist the difficulties she may encounter therein Indeed the whole nature the properties and conditions required in Hope are contained in this definition Desire and Expectation which consist in the opinion that the good will come are marked as the necessary conditions which always precede it the desired good as the object which moves it the appetite as the subject where it is received and that firm assurance as the difference of the emotion which is proper to it and which distinguisheth it from all other Passions For although Boldness and Anger stiffen the soul also as we have said yet are they not content to keep it fixed in it self they make it rise up and drive it against the ill and force it to fight with it But this breeds a very reasonable doubt for did the soul keep it self stiff steady in Boldness Anger as she doth in Hope it would follow that Hope must always accompany them And yet it is true a man may cast himself into danger without hope of ever getting out and that sometimes we desire to be revenged of an injury whereof we know we shall never have satisfaction yet it hinders not but that this proposition is most certain and but that it is true that Boldness and Anger are ever accompanied with Hope For it is not always the onely good which Boldness proposeth to get out of the danger which it casts it self into honour and glory which spring from generous actions are often the Goods it aspires to and the enjoyment of which it always hopes what mischance soever happens to it although it fall under the difficulties it assaults it still thinks 't will be to overcome them if they do but serve to obtain what it pretends to as in the Discourse of Boldness we shall more fully shew For Anger we will in its place make it appear that
phrases in these Passions For when we say that the Desire is urgent ardent and violent that it moves it self towards Good that Hope is fixt and assured that it upholds those who hope that it expects the desired things we unawares manifest how the Soul darts her self out in Desire and retains her self in Hope So that these two motions being opposite it is impossible that they can be performed at the same time and that those two Passions should be there together but necessarily they must form themselves the one after the other as we said it must happen in those of which we have spoken in the foregoing Discourses Yet it is very true that this is not always so but that Hope mixeth it self most commonly with Desire Boldness and Anger in all which the Soul never fails to cast forth her self for the stedfastness she keeps in that is not contrary to the darting out of her self which she makes in this the first being a motion of the parts amongst themselves and the other a motion of the whole thing And as you see a body may keep it self stiff in it self and move it self from one place to another you must conceive the same in the Appetite and imagine that Hope remains stable whilst those other Passions transport it out of it self But neither doth it then stop as we have said the cause of these sallies being stronger then that of her restraint which to speak truth is not essential to Hope but a pure accident which never meets with it but when it is quite alone Let us now observe what moves the Appetite to stiffen thus for although it have the vertue to move it self as it pleaseth and that it bends it self to resist difficulties yet being a blinde power it knows not the difficulties and the Fancie must necessarily propose them to it and consequently it must be that which gives it the first shake and teacheth the motion which in this encounter it ought to employ After it hath then discovered the difficulties which might traverse its designes and that it believes it may overcome them it commands the Appetite to stand upon its guard and hold it self firm for to make resistance But whence comes the belief it hath to overcome them From the good opinion it hath of its own strength Whence it is that those who have many friends much wealth and honour those who have suffered no disgraces and to whom all hath happily succeeded those who are young and lusty in fine all those who think themselves potent in the goods of the Body of the Minde and of Fortune easily hope because they believe they have strength enough to oppose all obstacles and overcome all difficulties which can happen This good opinion is so necessary for Hope that it makes almost all its kindes and differences as it is greater or less it causeth the strength or weakness the excess or defect of that Passion It is that which produceth Presumption and Confidence which renders Hopes either doubtful or certain good or ill which augments or enfeebles them Indeed Presumption is nothing but an immoderate hope which proceeds from a too-great opinion we have of our own strength Confidence is an assurance we have of an expected help 'T is like the faith we give to promises which the things seem to make in these encounters for we say The season promiseth us fruit That we promise our selves such and such a success from our courage forces and friends Finally Hopes are either doubtful or certain great or little good or ill according as we conceive the difficulties strong or weak or as we suppose them to be more or less easie to be overcome Yet I think some distinction were here necessary for the most certain hope is not always the greatest and it is likely it is the greater the more the soul stiffens it self since it is the particular motion which forms this Passion Now she stiffens herself the more the greater the difficulties are she encounters But when the hinderances are light she moves not her self so carefully consequently Hope is less although it be more certain Our common phrase confounds these things for we say that we have great strong and good hopes when we would speak them assured and that they are small ill and weak when they are doubtful Yet for all this we ought to observe the distinctions we have made for it is evident that there are hopes which are weak and small not because they are uncertain but because the success is so sure and the difficulties so small that the Soul makes no motion at all for them And truely we can never call these hopes ill although vulgarly great and strong ones are esteemed good It may be demanded how there may be hopes which are certain since the belief we have of the event of the things we hope for is always doubtful Certainly we must confess that the certainty which is therein to be found is not infallible and of necessity it is onely likely and moral And we call those certain and sure hopes which are the less doubtful and in which there is the least to be feared But what it seems then as if Fear were always mixt with Hope although they are two contrary Passions It is true there is always some cause of Fear there being reason always to doubt But it follows not that Fear therefore forms it self and mingles it self with Hope although even the Soul were surprised therewith The Passions rise not always up in sight of their objects whether it be that there are stronger which restrain them and stifle them at their birth or whether the Minde considers not attentively enough the causes which ought to move it In Hope the Soul is more attentive to the Good then to the difficulties which besiege her She looks upon them but by the way and believes she can overcome them Even then also what subject soever there be of Fear without examination she in effect fears it not But if she consider the difficulties more then the good and if she take an opinion that she is unable to overcome them Hope gives place to Fear which flees in its turn out of other considerations causing a flood and ebbe which is often so swift and rapid that it seems as if these two Passions mixt and confounded themselves together But we must review these things in the Discourse of Fear Let us now consider what the motions of the Spirits and of the Humours are in Hope PART 3. What the motion of the Spirits is in Hope SInce the Spirits move in the Passions conformable to the emotion of the Soul they must when she stiffens and confirms her self in her self when she hopes in some manner suffer also the same agitation All the difficulty then is to know how it may be done for it is not easie to conceive how those fluid and subtil bodies can get a quality which belongs to those onely which are gross and solid
the only End she tends to and if that afterwards serves to obtain some good 't is a success which happens unknown to it and which she did not at all propose herself otherwise we must say that Hatred and Fear and the rest of the Passions which flye from ill have good also for their object since we flie not from ill but for some good which may thereby accrew But if any man ask what good and profit the Soul may make by this Combate in a word what the principal motive is which engageth her to assault ill There is no man but will readily answer That it s to overcome it But this is not to give a full Answer to the Question we would know what she pretends to by this Victory for it is not sufficient to say that it 's to defeat or chase away an enemy that it 's to have preheminence over him or to acquire the glory to have overcome him Forasmuch as these latter motions touch not the Sensitive Appetite and that the other two leave the difficulty intire Since we may further demand why the Soul would defeat or drive away an Enemy and what ever we should say that it were to flie from ill besides that this Reason is too loose and too general and befits all the angry Passions It 's certain that in flying she estrangeth herself from it in another manner then when she drives it away so that we must enquire the particular which in this encounter she proposeth herself Now he that will consider that the Soul stirs up forces in Boldness and that she imploys them only when she thinks that her enemy makes use of her own to ruine her it 's to be beleeved that she hath no other design in assaulting it but to take away from it the power and strength of ill-doing For which cause we are not satisfied to see our Enemies flie but we pursue them that making them lose either their life or liberty we may bereave them of all their wreacking power But we shall insist upon this matter in the Chapter of Constancy After which What the Nature of Boldness is we believe we shall have satisfied all the proposed difficulties for as to what concerns the common manner of speaking which gives the title of Bold to him who is no longer in danger it 's sufficient to say that we speak not here of Boldness as of a Habit which keeps its name even when it acts not but as of a Passion which is altogether in motion and out of which it no longer is the Passion of Boldness Let 's then conclude that Boldness is nothing else but the motion which the Appetite makes in assaulting ill But how doth it assault it It can be by no other way but by that whereby all things use to assault their Enemies for as they fortifie themselves raise themselves up and throw themselves on them the Appetite doth the same stiffens and fastens it self in it self it animates it lifts it self up and shoots out it self against ill In effect either we must not fancy motions in the Soul nor qualifie the Passions with the name of Motions or of necessity we must confess that that of Boldness is such as we have said it to be It 's so natural and so conformable to Reason that we cannot'assure that the Soul pursues good and that she runs after it that she estrangeth her self from ill and flies it but we must be forced to confess that seeing she ought to combate it she is also obliged to raise up and throw her self against it And did not Reason perswade this let 's but consider the motions of the Body which provokes it with which hers must necessarily have a correspondence for it 's impossible to see the putting forward of the Head the startings out of the Eyes the elevation of the Muscles the motions of the Arms the precipitate course and impetuous fallies which all the parts perform in this Passion but we must presently fancy that it 's the Soul which raiseth up it self that throws it self abroad and even goes out of it self to joyn and fight against her Enemy so that we cannot err in saying That Boldness is a motion of the Appetite by which the Soul throws it self forth against ill to combate it For this shooting forth is the different motion which distinguisheth it from all the rest of the Passions in which the Soul shoots not herself forth as in that of Love and of Hatred of Joy and of Grief of Hope and of Despair and the motive of this springing forth which is to assault ill and to combate it renders it different from Desire and Aversion from Fear and from Anger forasmuch as if the Soul cast it self forth in Aversion or in Fear it s to estrange it self from ill and not to assault it In Desire it 's to approach the Good and in Anger it 's to revenge it self as in its place shall be declared It 's true this definition is very different from that which Aristotle gave us in his Rhetorick where he says That Boldness is nothing else but a Hope which comes from the opinion which we have that expected Goods are near and that things which we fear are far off But who fees not that it is the true portraicture of Confidence which is a kinde of Hope and that Aristotle in that place pretended not to define that of Boldness seeing that in that place where he was obliged most carefully to observe it's Nature he says in express terms That dangers ought to be very near to provoke this Passion Beyond all what definition soever he hath given it he considered it not as a Passion but onely as a Habit. Without stopping therefore at these things which concern us not let 's fall on those which are more important and first let us see whether it be true That the Soul hath a design to assault and combate ill in all sorts of Boldness There are two things which make us doubt this proposition the first is Whether all sorts of Boldness assault ill That Boldness is not onely employed in assaulting of ill but also in resisting and sustaining it Since a man may support a mischief and suffer even death with a Courage The second is that there are certain Boldnesses wherein there is no combate to be made there being no apparent ill As when a man runs into danger without knowing it when he is impudent or ambitious for this considers nothing but honors and boldly pursues them and the other is bold and takes delight to commit dishonest actions where it seems he hath no enemy to fight But these Reasons are easily answered for as for the first although we may say that resistance is a kinde of combate since the Soul cannot resist but by opposition and that to oppose she must stiffen herself against ill which in some sence is to assault and combate it Yet it 's certain that simply to resist ill
or constantly to suffer its encounters and violence without making any other effort properly are not the effects of Boldness but of another Passion which we call Constancy or staiedness of Courage of which in the following Chapter As for the second it 's most certain that there are those which run into dangers without knowing it and that in such an encounter the Soul needs not assault the ill seeing it sees it not but neither then is there Boldness For as no man will say that a blind man is bold when he passeth a precipice which he thinks not of nor that a Childe is couragious that will touch the flame and take up coals of fire being ignorant of the effects thereof It 's the same of any other who goes or lights into dangers which are unknown to him He will onely appear Bold to such as are like him blind or ignorant In a word the Appetite moves not it self but through knowledge and when that enlightens it not it remains immoveable and forms no Passion It must have an object to raise it and if there be any which it knows not of it is no more touched with it then if it were not at all So that the danger which is unknown to him is to him no danger and therefore he neither flies nor assaults it and hath neither Fear nor Boldness for it It 's true that those who are in that condition do often seem to be bold because we see them in the midst of dangers without astonishment that difficulties stop them not and that they march with assurance through those obstacles which present themselves before them but indeed are not such as they appear and they are rather possest with blindness and stupidity then with true Boldness Yet it 's that wherein we are most commonly deceived forasmuch as it is nothing easie to discern those deceitful signs from those which are true and chiefly when the Soul is agitated by some ardent Passion for carrying her with precipitation whether she would go she takes from her the thought of all what may cross her and makes her run after her object without regarding the lets and dangers she meets in her way Now it 's certain that then it seems to be Boldness which inspires her with that ardor and which gives her those noble motions Although in truth it is not she but the impetuosity of the Passion which transports her And it is thus that the ambitious the proud and the voluptuous seem bold in several occasions whereas in effect they are nothing so because that not considering the difficulties which are in the pursuit which they make afree Honors and Pleasures they neither see them nor do they assault them And without doubt we are to place in this rank the most part of those who fear not dangers being accustomed thereunto as Souldiers and Seamen or having never tried them like those who engage themselves in great undertakings the difficulties whereof they never foresaw or because they beleeve that they are not threatned by them as such as think themselves far off such as are happy such as are good men forasmuch as honest men fear nothing For it 's certain that in the most part of those encounters Boldness is not if you take it for a Passion Forasmuch as to some dangers are not known to be so and to others they are reputed so although they be absent Now so it is that unknown or absent ill raiseth not Boldness and therefore it is not really to be found in those we have now observed unless as a disposition or a Habit. But we will have another touch upon this Subject How Impudence assaults ill Let 's now see how Boldness which is to be found in Impudence may assault ill since we cannot now say what we have said before that it may be taken for a Habit or for a disposition since Impudence is a Passion composed of the other two to wit Pleasure and Boldness So that if there be nothing to be fought against in Impudence there is some Boldness which as a Passion is not obliged to assault it Certainly to be Impudent we must know the action we do is contrary to civility and honesty otherwise it were folly or brutality and not Impudence For a Childe a Blockhead one that is senceless is never esteemed impudent forasmuch as they know not what actions are uncivil He therefore that knows them and hath an intention to do them at that time feels in himself the reason which opposeth it and the honor which defends him to execute it Now all what opposeth it self to the Appetite is an obstacle against it and seems unto it as an evil and yet Reason Honor and Modesty are the Enemies which Impudence assaults which she fights with which she triumphs over But we will examine this more particularly in discovering of this Passion It 's sufficient to shew That there is no Boldness which assaults not true or apparent ill We have nothing more to enquire What the ill is which Soldness asaults but whether all sorts of ill can raise this Passion for besides that it is not said that there is Boldness in fighting with Enemies which are weak nor that any ought to accuse his ignorance impudence or other defects which may be numbered amongst the greatest ills which can happen Besides these and many other such like reasons which might be produced on this subject I say there is no likelihood that what is properly ill should move this Passion since that is nothing but a privation of perfection and that the soul nor ought nor can assault what is not To resolve this difficulty we must observe that the Soul acknowledgeth not only this privation which we have spoken of to be an ill but even all the causes which it produceth and all those disorders which customarily follow it For there ever is some weakness or some inconvenience which follows the privation or absence of a perfection and this weakness or impotency is a real quality as the Schools teach us we may therefore say that Privation which is a Non ens is not an object which can excite Boldness because the Soul cannot assault what is not unless she fancy it as if it were a real thing as it is with Children who conceive death as a fantasm That if there be any ill which she ought to combate it 's those causes which she brings forth and the inconveniences which follow And truly she commonly confounds those two things with the ill it self for when we say a man suffers death with courage we do not precisely understand it of death for as yet it is not but of the action of those causes which destroy life and of the grief which they raise and when with constancy we support the loss of goods of honor or of health it is not properly the loss which occupies the constancy but the impotency the imcommodity and the affliction which are derived from thence
of the Heart which could not get out during this constraint But why doth he keep in his breath Why he keeps in his breath Doubtless to fortifie the motion of the other parts for that we commonly never employ this action but when we intend to give a great blow to do some other great endeavour The reason of this Effect is drawn from the nature of the Motion which is to be on some stable thing whereon the body moving upholds it self It 's thus that Beasts move that Birds flie and that Fish swim and that all other things move for in all these motions the Earth the Air and the Water or some other Body remains firm and resists the thing agitated and in proportion as the resistance and firmness is greater the motion also is greater and stronger Now as the parts of Animals lean more the one upon the other when any of them is to perform any powerful motion it 's necessary the rest keep close and even to the furthermost which contribute thereunto It must finde without it self somewhat which may sustain it self otherwise the motion of the first of these will be weak and their actions will be the less perfect Whence it comes that Birds are troubled to flye when their Legs are broken that we run not so well when our Hands are tied and leap but ill unless we stiffen our Arms and shut our Fists because those parts in the condition they then are cannot uphold as they ought to do the motions of the rest The Soul then which hath a secret knowledge of all what is beneficial unto her and who knows that in violent endeavors there must be a great and strong support for those organs which are to move retains the Breath that that air which is stopped in the Lungs may keep up the Muscles of respiration and that pressing them on all sides she stiffens them to support the rest which are engaged in the action So that we are not content onely to stop the breath but we drive it and cause it to descend down that the diaphragma may dilate it self and press the neighboring parts which thereby are rendred more fit to support those which are in motion In pursuit he shuts his Lips and his Tteeh as well the better to stop the passages of respiration as to confirm the parts whether it be that their confirmation truly contributes to the great designs we have spoken of or whether the Soul is abused in the choice she makes as being useless as it often happens in divers other occasions wherein she is hindered by Passion to discern things and to remember the true use of the organs That Coldness which is observed in the beginnings of Boldness Whence comes the coldness of the Face is nothing but a certain constancy and assurance of countenance which is not astonished at the sight of danger and which also witnesseth neither ardor nor impatience to fight And it hath been so called because that besides that it is the property of cold to render things immoveable defect of heat is commonly called Coldness Now this constancy and outward assurance comes from that which is made in the Soul and in the Spirits and which retaining the humors and the parts in the posture she findes them in hinders the blood from retiring or expanding it self and the organs from moveing For in this condition the countenance must not change colour must remain firm and settled must appear cold and resolute at the encounter of difficulties But the first cause of all these effects is that at that time the Soul raiseth it self not yet up against the enemy onely prepares herself for the combate as hath been said for when she assaults him the Spirits must rise up with her must carry blood and redress to the face and fill all with vivacity ardor and impatience The fierceness of the Countenance This Coldness is followed with a noble fierceness which animates the countenance of a Bold man chiefly when he goes into danger for it appears not commonly in the first motions of Boldness nor in the heat of fight but onely when he is ready for the assault and marcheth towards the Enemy So that it seems it is as a mean betwixt his staiedness at first and that ardor which transports him at last In effect as this Fierceness is a kind of severe and disdainful Pride which comes from the presumption and scorn which Boldness useth to inspire The Soul cannot be susceptible of it before she hath conceived a great opinion of her own strength because that is the ground of her Pride nor after she hath found any strong resistance because that makes her perceive the danger greater then she fancied it and that therefore she ought not to slight it It 's therefore onely when she is ready to fight for then she is full of the esteem which she hath of herself and then she disdains the enemy whose forces she hath not yet experimented However it be the Head is then kept erect and the Brow lifted up the look quick and full of assurance the countenance swell'd and double-gorged and hath I know not what in it that 's rude and disdainful Now all these are the effects and characters of Pride as in its place shall be said For the Soul which in this Passion swells it self raiseth up the Head lifts up the Brows and swels the Face as if she thought more room to enlarge her self or by those exterior motions she would make that appear which she hath in herself An assured look comes from that considence which accompanies its Pride and that severe and disdainful countenance from the indignation she hath to finde obstacles in her designs The Posture and the Gate contribute also to this Fierceness for all the Body keeps it self streight and set and if he stir his march is haughty and proud The Stature erects it self because the Soul raiseth and stiffens it self in the design which she hath to assault which puts the Body into such a posture as is most advantagious for it to act as we said in the Discourse of Hope As for the proud Gate it s that which Aristotle calls Magnifick which is natural to Lions and is a sign of strength and of greatness of Courage It 's performed with great and grave paces balancing the Body on either side and at every step lifting inwards and forewards the Shoulders But how difficult soever it be to express this action to the life it s yet harder to finde the true cause thereof Some have sought it in the same temperature which renders the Body robustious and have said that constitution being more firm and solid their parts also were more united and shut together and so they communicated the motion wherewith they were agitated to one another and in pursuit that when the Legs did lift themselves up and advance to go the Shoulders must be moved in the same manner Of a truth if all those
herself For in resistance she knows nothing but how to stiffen and streng then herself in herself to stop the effort of the Enemy But in assault she goes out of herself and casts herself on it to combate it here she darts and precipitates herself there she stays and remains stable here she boldly bestows the blow there she receives them with assurance In a word in the one she would overcome in the other she is content not to be overcome But if this Reason will not oblige us to distinguish these Passions which Philosophy hath always confounded let 's but follow the common opinion of men and the ordinary way of speaking in such like encounters For they never say That a man with Boldness bears his ill fortune nor that he suffers Infamy Grief or Death boldly but that he endures them that he suffers with Courage with Resolution with Constancy and with Patience If it be not Boldness therefore which produceth these effects and if amongst the Passions mentioned by the Schools there is none whereto we can refer them we are constrained to encrease the number of them and to add to the emotions of the Irascible Appetite that which serves to support ills and to resist them Now as those who discover a new Land commonly give it the name of those Countries which are best known unto them and which have some likeness together We have by their example taken the liberty to give this Passion the name of Constancy a vertue known to all the world and whereto it hath a great conformity And truly there are Passions which always carry the name of Vices because they always appear to be vitious as Envy and Impudence It must follow that those which always appear vertuous should also bear the name of Vertues Now this is of this kinde for in what condition soever we finde her what defects soever she hath we still see some image of Vertue in her And even when she is altogether irregular we are forced to admire her and to afford her those praises which are due to fair actions let 's boldly therefore give her the name of Constancy since she is not unworthy of those advantages which are due unto Vertue But if any man would object That what we call Passion is nothing but the action of that Vertue and therefore that it is nothing necessary to introduce a new Passion since the actions of Vertues are not properly Passions We must first say That all the actions of Constancy cannot be reckoned for actions of Vertue since some of them may be vicious as when we resist ills which necessarily we should flie or when we do not resist them as we ought nor when we ought nor for that end which Vertue hath proposed to it self Moreover an action of Constancy may be performed without possessing of the Vertue forasmuch as Vertue is a habit which is gotten by custom and that there is no habit acquired till we perform the first actions of Constancy Now if there are but three things in the Soul Power Habit and Passion this first action must be a Passion since it is neither a Power nor an Habit as it is easie to be judged In fine If Constancy is a Vertue it must needs have a Passion which serves for its subject and which makes if we may so speak the body and the substance of this action for Vertue to speak properly is but an order and a rule which Reason gives to the actions and motions of the Soul So that we must suppose motions before they can be regulated and these Motions are Passions which for that cause are called the substance of Vertues Constancy being then a Vertue ought to have a Passion to work upon which is no other but that which we have spoken of for the reasons already declared Now although we ought not to think it strange that both of them bear the same name since the word Boldness is common both to the Passion and to the Vertue yet if after all these reasons any shall think its to prophane the name of Constancy to assign it to a Passion I will not oppose him he may if he please chuse that of Strength of Courage because the Soul stiffens it self to resist the ill which assaults it as shall be seen in the following Discourse Let 's therefore no longer stop at words but examine the things in that order which we have proposed You must not think to meet here with an insolent and an ambitious Passion which like Love or Boldness would be Queen and Mistris of the rest The Elegy of Constancy She is too generous to use flatteries and baseness which the one employs to establish its power and she is too modest to subject her Companions by force and violence as Boldness doth what advantage soever she hath over them she yeelds them the precedence without pretending to command she contents her self not to obey them And without marching at the head of the Passions it 's sufficient for her to be a follower of the Vertues In effect it 's she which maintains and preserves them it 's she which makes them overcome and which crowns them and he who would more nearly examine what she doth for them might boldly say that if she brings them not forth yet at least she accomplisheth them and renders them worthy of the names they bear and of the recompence they expect and truly a vertue which yeelds and keeps not firm which gives up its arms after the first fight or flies after the victory is an imperfect Vertue And the perfection which it wants can be added unto it by nothing but Constancy which alone can consummate commenced vertues and make them deserve the glory they aspire unto But I say further that to examine them from their birth we may see that they wholly owe it unto her and that after reason hath conceived them it 's she that brings them forth which makes them operate and makes them subsist For it 's certain that what service soever Vertue draws from the Passions they are the onely enemies which resist her they alone form those difficulties which cross her and it 's none but they which are capable to stifle her when she comes to light and to destroy her when she is in her greatest strength Without doubt were there no Passions Vertue would appear in the Soul like a pure light which would have neither vapors nor clouds to overcome It would be a Star which would direct its course towards good without any let and which would conduct us to felicity without trouble or disquiet We should no longer speak of those vices and crimes but as of such monsters as were invented by Fables and all that great croud of ills which at every moment disturbs the tranquillity of life would be unknown or impotent at least if it yet caused any disorders we should not rescent them since it's Fear and Grief onely which render them sensible But as
pretend not to conquer him she at least assures herself that she shall not be overcome as knowing that the strongest waves break themselves against the rocks and that the banks hinder the overflowings of the most impetuous Rivers she promiseth herself the same success from her resistance and believes that the strength of her Courage will break off the violence of the ills and stop the course of all those mischiefs which come pouring upon her In her opinion there is no effort strong enough to make her yield all the Elements would change place without making her change her station and were it possible the mass of the Heavens should break she imagines that she could sustain its ruines without being over-turned But what is more wonderful is that she often mistrusts her forces and sees well enough that her resistance will be useless and her loss inevitable Neither is this capable to make her change her resolution although even she might escape the danger by flight she remains firm and expects the shock of the enemy with the same tranquillity and with the same confidence as if she were sure of the Victory She also believes that a man is never overcome if he loseth not his heart if he delivers not up his arms that yielding to force we yield not to honor of the Battel and that in that of Constancy we have always this advantage To triumph over the Conqueror She in pursuit hereof represents to herself the glory which so many great Courages have acquired in torments and in punishments the Crowns which they have deserved in the most difficult proofs of patience and the immortal renown of such fair examples make her hope if she can but constantly suffer the ills which threaten her with this thought she encourageth her self and without hearing those reasons which might make her yield she puts herself in a condition to receive the enemy and vigorously to maintain his assaults Behold her now grappling with him behold her either assaulted with the violence of grief or by the outrages of Fortune or by the darts of Calumny as if she were insensible of all their blows she neither troubles herself to flie from them or to repel them and although she be cruelly wounded by them she suffers not so much as a complaint nor a threat to come from her which might make the least resentment of hers appear She sees her body torn with tortures or with sickness as if it did not truly belong unto her or in effect were but her Garment She considers the loss of her Goods as a debt she repays Fortune and thinks that an injury is ill onely in the opinion of him that suffers it and can truly offend onely him that doth it Whilst by these reasons she seeks to sweeten her ills they forbear not incessantly to perplex her with fresh pangs which sometimes are so violent that she cannot save the Body from succumbing under their violence and from betraying its sensibleness by its weakness and by that languor which appals it But for her own part instead of growing weaker she becomes more strong and vigorous and as the earth strengthens it self when it s beaten we may say that the blows of grief harden her and render her impenetrable against all its attaints Grief it self which seems to be the inseparable companion of adversity and misfortune cannot reach her at least it never riseth to that high Region where she forms her designs and where she entertains a calm and a continual serenity It 's from thence she securely beholds the storms and the tempests which agitate the inferior parts the troubles and sufferings whereof she with pleasure often considers and sheds abroad a chearfulness in the complaints and tears which the rigor of her ill often extorts from her Mouth and Eyes And truly there is cause of astonishment to see her so calm in the midst of chains and fire in the midst of publick desolations in the midst of so many things the thought of which alone produceth horror and terror but that in these encounters she should witness joy that she should bless her persecutors and that she should speak her pains to be pleasing and glorious it 's a thing which seems to combate Reason and Nature and which is almost unconceivable We must also confess that this is the last effort of Constancy and that she then ought to be upheld by some great and noble Passion to produce some great and wonderful effect For commonly griefs and misfortunes use to convey into the strongest and most resolute Soul I know not what kinde of bitterness which renders it pecuish and wary which at every instant forceth from it some secret complaints and at length bereaves it of its strength at least of that ardor and vivacity which it had at first It 's then there that the Soul employs Constancy against Adversaries It 's thus she defends herself from those ills which assault her with open force Let 's now see what she doth against those which under the appearance of good seek to seduce her which to betray her flatter her and to overcome her use no other violence but onely those of enticements and charms I mean Voluptuousness and Ambition and all those unjust desires which continually present themselves unto her which at every moment provoke and sollicite her and which are the more to be feared the Sences keeping intelligence with them and forasmuch as they promise felicity to those who suffer themselves to be overcome by their allurements We must certainly confess that she useth no other arms to defend herself against such dangerous enemies but onely those which Constancy in these encounters affords her she knows that to render their plots and their forces useless she needs onely to keep herself stiff and firm and that in that condition she cannot be mollified with Pleasures nor lifted up with the winde of Honor nor carried away by the hope of those goods which she hath not she knows that Pleasure is ever accompanied with Repentance that Ambition never walks but on precipices and that Desire is not so much a sign as it is the cause of Poverty Moreover she knows that all the contentment and all the good fortune which those deceivers promise are but impoisoned sweets which corrupt Health and Reason and destroy the quiet of the Mind and the tranquillity of Life On such like Reasons being resolved to hold out against them she puts herself upon her guard and shuts up all the avenues by which they might surprise her affections she turns her eyes from the most pleasing objects she shuts her ears to the most charming words and perswasions she flies the approach of all those things which might tickle or seduce the sence For it 's certain that she expects not such kinde of enemies in a stedfast posture and that she receives them not chearfully as she doth the rest She commonly defends herself from these by a wise retreat and when
it by and estrange it from her presence she ought to follow the motion of this Passion and not expect an enemy she cannot overcome Did Reason onely engage her to this resistance it were easie to discover the advantages she pretends to make those motives of honor and glory which she commonly proposeth in those encounters would evidently make it appear that she aspires to those noble rewards and that those are the fruits which her Courage pretends to gather but because these motives are extraordinary and unknown to the fancy as hath been shewn that they are not in beasts and that in our selves Reason doth not always force the inferior part but suffers it to go its common road we must seek some other end proper and natural unto it and see what she pretends unto when she takes a resolution to resist those ills which assault her To speak to the purpose it 's not so easie to be discovered as some may think And we must confess that that light which enlightens the Soul in those occasions is of the rank of those which Nature sheds abroad in all those things which without knowing know whereto they ought to tend and which without perceiving it moves to their end The Soul indeed knows that she ought to assault ill and that she ought to overcome it that she ought to resist it and that she must oppose violence but she knows not why and the understanding it self which often doth the same actions is not always advised of the true motion which made it undertake them Upon this ground we may say that as the Soul assaults her enemy out of hope to overcome him and that she seeks to overcome him to take from him the power of doing ill that she also resists him not to take away his power but onely to stop the course thereof and hinder it from producing its effect that the advantage she pretends to make from this hinderance is to retard her own loss as long as she resists or to cause the enemy to lose its will to contuinue his assaults letting of him know that with the strength she hath she cannot be overcome And last of all to shun the danger wherein she would be engaged did she but yield or take flight for she can never slye but she must forsake and quite abandon her Strength and Courage and to augment those of her enemy or at least give him freedom to do all the ill he is capable of In effect did we not oppose grief fear and other evils which are in us they would overflow all the parts of the soul and would bring her to languish and to despair Did we not constantly suffer injuries adversities and other mischiefs which come from without the imagination seeing no means whereby to stop their course would fansie them greater then they are and make them always appear extream and insufferable did we not even sometimes stiffen under the burthen of our sufferings we should be opprest by their weight and those parts which yielded to the violence thereof falling on those which upheld them would batter them by their fall and fill them with grief In a word whatsoever ill the Soul would flie she is in the same danger that a Souldier casts himself into who falls before his enemy or that a whole Army incurs when it flies the sight of a Conqueror who comes pouring down upon it Let 's then conclude that the motive which she proposeth in Boldness is to bereave the enemy of the power of doing ill that in Constancy she onely suspends its effect and that in Fear she seeks to shun it by flight Now as there is more security to have no enemy then to have one who doth harm us and neither is this so much to be feared as one who puts himself in posture to do it So it 's also true that the Soul is more secure in Boldness which destroys ill then in Constancy which hinders onely its effect As for the same reason she ever thinks to fight before she thinks of her own defence and never resolves to flye but at her greatest extremity that being her worst condition and the saddest posture she can be reduced unto leaving the enemy with full power and liberty to work her ruine The soul then resists the ills which assault her Why Constancy resists ill to stop the course of them Let 's now see how she resists them For we question not here that exterior resistance which is performed by the action of the parts which oppose themselves against the efforts of those things which might harm them Besides that there ate ills against which the motions of the Soul would in vain employ this resistance as those which are purely spiritual are for it resists not afflictions by the opposition of corporal forces but by her own proper strength Besides that the motions of the Appetite do not always descend to the organs whether it be because they are restrained by Reason or because they are sometimes formed so quickly and move so readily that it 's impossible they should have time to communicate themselves with the Body It 's certain that all these exterior motions which are observed in the Passions are the effects and sequels of those which are formed within the Soul so that if the Body resist outwardly the Soul also must within herself perform the same action or to speak it better she must of herself resist before she can resist by the Bodies means So that we are obliged to seek in what manner she makes this secret and inward resistance which she employs against spiritual ills and which is the source and cause of that which she causeth to be made in the organs This will be nothing difficult having so often shewn that the agitations of the body are the images and the Characters of those which are made in the Appetite that there is some relation and some resemblance betwixt them and that the Soul exciting both of them it s very likely she would render them as uniform as she can Now we experiment it in our selves that when we must make an outward resistance against a puissant Adversary we stop and remain firm and to fortifie our selves against his assaults we stiffen our Muscles and our Nerves and there is no part about us which becomes not harder and more solid by the effort which we give our selves Somewhat therefore like this must be done in the Soul and consequently she must necessarily stop and confirm herself that gathering her forces together she must stiffen herself in herself In a word she must take as it were a kinde of a consistence which yields not easily to the shock and assault of the enemy The stiffening of the Soul stops the course of ill and how We are now to see how she can stiffen herself and of what nature this Firmness is which she makes use of in this occasion but because this hath been already done in the Discourse
the other to stop it which is above the power of a material and determinate Faculty Nay even the Understanding how separate soever it be from matter and how universal soever it be would never go so far had she not those several stages and those several degrees which its known to have For those who have most curiously examined the nature thereof confess that there are as it were two parts in it the one of which is low next to the sensitive Soul and which by reason of that neighborhood suffers it self to be easily carried away and corrupted by the sences the other is more pure and raised up higher which for that cause is called the top and height of the Understanding wherein God hath effused the light of true Reason and the seeds of all the vertues and it 's that also which inspires the Will to resist those Passions which the other hath raised there unknown or contrary to its advice thus these contrary designs whereof we have spoken are not formed by one and the same power since that which serves for Constancy is formed in the highest part of the Understanding and that which serves to that Passion to which it is to be opposed is made in the lower region But we have marched too far on precipices and on thorns The Soul resists not ill but by Constancy let 's leave these by-ways and these subjects which with their difficulty astonish the mind Let 's onely observe that Constancy and strength of courage is alone the only means by which the Soul truly resists the Passions for although ordinary Philosophy proposeth others unto us as to divert our thoughts from the object which raiseth them to weaken their power by Ratiocination to fall upon other contrary Passions and the like Yet to consider it well therein there is no true resistance they are rather flights or fights then a simple defence For when we will not consider the injury which we receive that is not to defend our selves from Anger it 's to flie it even as it is to assault it when we employ a contrary Passion for to destroy it But yet to deserve the honor to have resisted them in what way soever it were we must have had the design for we may divert a man from being angry we may also inspire another Passion in him which may appease his fury and fear may fall upon him which may take from him that fence of vengeance which he may have conceived And yet a man will not say that in these encounters he resists his Passion for that he had it not in his intention It is even so with Beasts in whom one Passion may weaken and destroy another in whom the same Appetite may stiffen it self and by its stiffening hinder it self from taking the impression of another motion No they do not for that resist their Passions because besides that they cannot as I have said form the design of it it must needs be that they must be able to reflect on their actions against those maxims which we have elsewhere established Let 's then conclude that Constancy is a motion of the Appetite by which the Soul confirms and stiffens it self in it self with an intention to resist those ills which assault it To examine now those ills would be to fall into useless and impertinent repetitions for they are the same which move Boldness and all what we have said of them in that place may be here applied It will suffice if we remember that under the notion of ill we understand not onely a pure privation but also the causes which produce it and the incommodities which follow it and that the two latter are the true ills which the Soul resists The differences of Constancy We should have nothing more to say on this subject did not the method which we have followed in the rest of the Passions oblige us to observe the most remarkable differences of Constancy and chiefly those which may serve to afford us a reason for those Characters which she imprints in the Soul and in the Body Let 's then say that there are none essential forasmuch as the motion and the motive which cause all the essence of this Passion are equally to be found in all sorts of Constancy as for those which we call accidental the most remarkable are drawn from the subject wherein she is found or from the object which raiseth it or from the relation which it hath with Reason For if we consider its subject it hath one which is in the Will and another which is in the sensitive Appotite In respect of the Object there are divers sorts according to the several sorts of ill which assault the Soul but the most considerable is that which resists the Passions and that which opposeth it self to the violence and endeavors of exterior ills this is common to all Animals and depends altogether on corporal strength namely on those which are most proper to suffer such as are to be found in the melancholy temperature of which we have spoke in the Discourse of Boldness the other is proper and peculiar for Men and principally for those which are most reasonable because it 's commonly Reason which moves us to oppose the Passions so that herein there needs no other strength but that of the Soul wherefore those whose spirits are strong by nature or by study are most susceptible of it It 's true that the force of the minde depends often from the temperature whence it is that young people and Women whose spirits by reason of their constitution are less strong are troubled to resist their Passions Finally There are some that are vertuous others vicious according as they are conformable or contrary to right Reason and so serve for the matter of Vertues or Vices In effect Justice borroweth from this Passion Firmness which is necessary unto it to resist Love Hatred and such other things as might corrupt it Temperance could not moderate the motions of the concupiscible Appetite but by its means and those Vertues which force produceth by resistance such as are Patience Constancy and Perseverance are maintained onely by it On the contrary when she straggles out of the right way and abandons the conduct of Reason there is no Vice which she doth not encourage and assist because she alone resists those motions which the Conscience inspires always in those who undertake or execute any evil design But although she may be found in all vicious actions there are some wherein she appears more as in Temerity in Hard-heartedness and in Opiniastrecy as we shall hereafter make it appear Now all those terms wherewith we use to express Boldness are also employed for Constancy For to say a man hath suffered death Constantly we use to say he hath suffered it with a Courage with Resolution with Assurance without fear and without apprehension and this happens from that Constancy is as it were a demy Boldness at least it is
traverses which they meet with in the way to Glory and that Martyrs have always had contentment in their Souls and vigor in their Looks in the greatest of their torments and sufferings Yet this difficulty is easily resolved if we do but remember that there are two Appetites in Man which at the same time may be moved with two contrary Passions and that in the Will it self there are as it were two parts which may be agitated with several motions for these truths being supposed it 's easie to conceive how Grief assaults the Sences whilst Joy sheds it self abroad in the Mind and how Sadness disturbs the lower region of the Will whilst the higher is quiet as ravished with those pleasures which Love Ambition or some other noble Desire proposeth unto it Yet I will not say that Joy and Grief move to that height in Constancy No it is impossible that either of them can be very great by reason of the stiffening of the Soul which hinders their motion but this signifies that if when strong they are compatible together they may more easily be so when they are weakened and consequently Frowardness which commonly accompanies Constancy and is but the commencement of Sadness may subsist with that gayity which is often observed in this Passion not but that transports and ravishments of Joy may cause soundings and faintings of Grief neither is there then any Constancy left and in that very moment the Appetite must release it self to follow the violence of those Passions It 's true that she afterwards stiffens herself but yet it would be but an interrupted Constancy and which continues but by several efforts which are sometimes so quick that the Passions which interrupted them confounded themselves with this as we have said it often happens in all the rest of them For the rest from the insensibility which she hath for the ills of another She is indifferent to all and from the severity she takes in the use of goods an Indifferency springs which she is subject unto forasmuch as he who is not touched with those ills which he sees others suffer and resists all the pleasures of life is certainly free from all those things which may the most powerfully stop the Mind and engage it in the duties of civil society we are not from him to expect the sweets of friendship nor those succors which compassion promiseth to those that are miserable the good and ill of particulars and of the publick are indifferent to him so that rendring himself useless to all the world he becomes rude austere and savage These indeed are those vices which have been observed in the Sect of the Stoicks who studied nothing but to exercise Constancy since all their Philosophy consisted to abstain and to sustain which are the two employments this Passion is destinated unto so that it is no wonder if they fell into those defects which usually follow her when we use her not as we ought Yet we must observe that the indifferency we speak of respects not those things which Constancy is not tied unto for if she oppose a difficulty she hath no indifferency for it On the contrary she stiffens herself opinionates and obstinates herself against it but beyond that all is indifferent to her and she cares neither what may happen nor what concerns the rest And again She is equal and content it 's for the same reason that she always appear Equal and Content forasmuch as that indifferency which she hath for all things she hath no desires nor apprehensions for them and is exempt from those cares and disquiets which those Passions breed add hereunto that equally stiffening herself at the encounter of goods and of ills good and ill fortune finde her always in the same plight and without being carried away by that or being cast down by this she always remains in one posture and ever appears like herself But we have strayed too long to finde Reasons which are easie to be drawn from the principles we have established and which present themselves unto the Mind as soon as a man would but know them Let 's turn to those Characters which this Passion imprints on the Body We shall not be much troubled in this enquiry there being but few whereof we have not spoken in the former Discourse since in the Chapter of Boldness we have examined the causes of an assured Look of the motion of the Lids and Brows of silence of coldness of the face and of the retention of the breath as in the Chapter of Hope we have observed whence was the strength of the Voice and of the Pulse why the Face changed not its colour why the Head and Stature were streight for Constancy hath these effects common with them and useth the same motives and the same means which they employ to produce them we shall only remark some little differences which are to be encountred in them For it 's certain What the Looks are in Constancy that this Assured Look is here formed with a large opening of the Lids a firm Sight and with vivacity But its vivacity is not so great as in Boldness because that in the design which this hath to assault ill she drives the Spirits out and so abundantly fills the Eyes with them that they become altogether sparkling instead of which Constancy which stands upon the defensive stiffens them only without driving them forth with impetuosity so that she renders the Eyes quick because she stops the Spirits which give them force and vigor but they glister not because they come not thither in any quantity and that they want that active motion which makes them glister and sparkle On the other side this firmness of sight is accompanied with a certain severity which is not to be found in Hope because the Soul considers here onely the Ill the presence whereof makes her peevish and that even there she looks on the Good the expectation whereof sweetens the pain which springs from the difficulties which she encounters When the Brows are lifted up What kinde of motion the Brows have it 's onely the better to behold the Enemy and not to help the rasing up of the Soul as it happens in Boldness For which cause they lift not themselves up so much nor so often as in that Passion because the Soul keeping herself firm and stiff to defend herself sollicites not the organs to make those great and frequent sallyes which follow that impetuosity which she suffers herself to be carried away withall in assaulting So that she lifts up the Brows no more then the necessity of the sight requires and not to serve the motion wherewith she is agitated She also represseth them for the same reason as in Boldness For she thinks herself fortified when she hath provided for the securing of her Eyes as hath been shewed in the former Chapter But it sometimes happens that in the strongest assaults of Ills she keeps them unmovable
or continually to keep ones Arms stiff then if we used them to different motions because that all the Muscles agitate therein without taking any rest and herein there is but a part engaged which rests also when the other is in action Every muscle in particular grows stiff when its work operates but that is because it grows hard now it hardens by pressing and contracting the parts together for having no other action but to contract and shut up it self to bring towards it the members it ought to move it must needs take up less room and therefore its parts must be the more streightned whence this hardness comes Which although it happens out of necessity forbears not also to be sought for by the Soul as a thing which may render the body stronger and the less exposed to injuries and it is for the same reason that the skin of Animals streightens it self when they will defend themselves whence it follows that their hair and feathers stand on end as we have elsewhere declared Besides this stifness the Muscles and the skin may also acquire another by tention But because there are two sorts of it the one which is made by drawing strongly those things which may be extended as a rope or parchment the other of filling them with some body as a baloon it 's certain that Constancy cannot render those parts firm and strong by this but onely by the former And this happens when the Muscles cause a member to bend very much for those which are opposed to them and which do not agitate are constrained to lengthen out and extend themselves and by this extention they become firm and so render the skin hard It 's thus that this Passion sometimes extends the hands that the inside which they oppose to the danger may become harder and consequently more fit to resist ill As for the Body it grows stiff not onely when all its parts are stiffened but also by the support and weight which it giveth it self Now it may be upheld by some exterior prop for the Soul which puts it self on the defensive seeks both in and out of it self all what can stiffen it So that when a man is assaulted he who hath somewhat at his back to stay him up and help to support him against the effort of his enemy may make the better resistance The body also upholds it self by the situation and posture which it takes for by advancing a foot or widening a little the legs it makes for it self as it were a prop or a butteress to support it self which hinders it from being overturned on that side it rests on Add also how it also enlargeth its Basis and doth that which Art ordains for great pillars which are better upheld the larger and greater the pedestal is Lastly by making it self weighty it s less subject to be shaken because that augmenting its weight it the better resists the motion of those things which beat against it and so renders it more firm and more stable in its situation But how can it make it self heavy Certainly it is not that it hath more weight then it had but it is that it makes it more efficient by the motion which it gives it self for weighty things have much more strength and make incomparably a greater impression when they are moved when the Body therefore stiffens it self it burthens all the superior parts on the lower and those pressing the earth by the motion of the Muscles which are destined for that purpose they make an effort which augments the force of the weight which they sustain and so render the Body more firm and less easie to be shaken Besides these motions this Passion employs also that of the Hands to oppose herself against the shock she is threatened withal for as they are parts destined to the service of the body she freely exposeth them and hazards them to save it from danger and useth them as Barriers to stop the enemy or as a Buckler to receive the assaults for which cause she opens them that she may cover and defend a greater space she extends them to render them stronger and harder and she advanceth them that she may break and dead the violence of the blows which she cannot hinder from falling on it This is what we had to say of the Characters of Constancy for the rest which we have observed in its description they belong unto her onely by reason of those Passions which sometimes mix themselves with her So Cries Sighs Tears Groans the weakness of the Body proceed all from Pain Indignation Threatnings Blows follow Boldness or Anger The sweetness of the Eyes the gayness of the Countenance arise from the contentment which Love Desire and Hope propose PART III. CHAP. I. The Characters of Anger ALthough Anger be a flame which Nature kindles in the soul of all Animals The Elogy of Anger and that it may be compared to that fire which shines in the Stars for the preservation of the Universe It 's strange that it 's almost never considered but as a frightful Comet which declares and produceth nothing but fire and sword and that Humane Reason should be so unjust as always to condemn a Passion which always fights for Reason and for Justice Yes without doubt since she is onely raised in the Soul to repel injuries and to chastise those she believes have unjustly offended her we may boldly say that she never arms herself but against Violence and ever sides with Reason and Equity It is not but that men which abuse all the most useful presents of Nature do often make it serve evill designs but besides that to judge according to Reason of the price and value of things we must not consult concerning the abuses which are found in them nor the ill use which may be made of them It 's certain that when she appears most unjust she hath motives which seem equitable that she must at least have the appearance of Justice to oblige her to take arms and that if she be deceived therein it is not she that is to be accused but rather Malice and Error who call her to their releif As we do not blame Souldiers who are of a Princes Guard when they follow him in temerous enterprises and that it 's sometimes the duty of a good Subject to obey a Tyrant neither must we condemn Anger which was submitted to Reason to serve for its guard and defence when she follows it in its irregularities and obeys its orders how unjust soever they be In a word it is not in corruption we are to seek the purity of Anger we must go back to its source and enquire in the first channels wherein it runs if it hath Vertues and Qualities useful for life and worthy the praise we have given it If it be then true that she comes from Nature and that this Nature is nothing else but the Art of God and the effusion of his goodness and wisdom
approach of those vapors which the Humors casts on those organs which extending the Membrane which environs them render it more united more polished and more fit to reverberate the light which they receive Add also that the continual motion wherewith they are agitated makes them sparkle and glister the more to which we may also add that their Driness renders their brightness more quick and peircing it being certain that humidity dims the light and that the refraction it makes there weakens the rayes instead that on dry and polished bodies it 's reflected and reverberated all whole and pure for which cause in Love and in Joy how sparkling soever the eyes be by reason of their humidity yet they have not so strong and so penetrating a splendor as these have But whence doth this driness proceed Is it not from the vehemency of the heat which consumes all the humour which runs over the Eyes or rather sharp and drying vapors which rise from that cholerick humour which is agitated for where-ever they arrive they render the skin dry and parched as is observable in burning Feavors and in cholerick constitutions Besides this Fiery Eyes the splendor we have spoken of mixing it self with that colour which the blood brought to those parts produceth an enflamed redness which renders the Eyes fiery even like unto coals of fire They cast themselves forth The Eyes advance outwards whether because they receive a great quantity of spirits of vapor and of blood they swell and so are constrained to occupy the greater room or because the spirits which issue out with impetuosity drive those parts out of their natural scituation or finally because the Soul which is carried out of her self draws them along with her and causeth them to make a sally like her own Wandering Eyes The Eyes are wandering which continually move their sight here and there without fixing on any object make a part of this furious look and it 's principally what renders them frightful and formidable for which cause those who have treated of the Nature of Beasts say that the Panther which after this manner always rowls its Eyes hath a more terrible and frightful look then any other and that there is no Beast how fierce or bold soever it be which it doth not fright and terrifie therewithal However when the sight becomes thus wandering in sickness it 's a certain sign that the party is falling into fury Yet we must observe that fear also produceth the same effect and often renders the looks wilde and inconstant but besides that the air of the Face which accompanies those Passions may alone observe a great difference betwixt those looks it 's most certain that they are effectually different from one the other neither are they made in the same manner For fear causeth us to cast our eyes on this and on that side but how light or quick soever the motion it affords them is it for a while stops them on those objects which present themselves and it appears clearly that it seeks them to consider them and to see whether it be from them the ill must happen which she fears But fury without design carries the sight here and there and without heeding what it encounters casts the eyes on things without seeing them and all its looks are lost looks and truly wandering Now these motions partly come from heat which is a moving quality and when it 's provoked it puts all in disorder partly from that agitation which the spirits suffer which easily communicates it self to the Eyes being as they are moving partly from the Souls transport which abandons the conduct of those organs and suffers them to move at the pleasure of the tempest which she raised The Brows are not knit And according to my opinion it s also the reason why the Brows are not shrunk up as in the fierce look for since their contraction is an effect of that care which the Soul takes to fortifie herself which she always also preserves so long as she is herself when she is once carried away with fury and that she is as it were out of herself she then loseth the remembrance of her preservation and hath no other motions but those which the blindness and madness of the Passion gives For which cause when she darts impetuously casts herself out of her natural situation she draws with her the most movable parts and so causeth the Brows and Lids to lift themselves up in pursuit wherof the openings of the eyes must not onely be greater but they must also-become rounder because the Lid cannot open much but its angles must be widened which must also be drawn the nearer to one another to facilitate this extention which is made in the circumference Now besides that this causeth a round figure a greater part of the white of the Eye must also appear which renders the look more strange and dreadful Tears which are sometimes shed in Anger may come from the Grief which we suffer by reason of an injury Whence Tears in Anger yet commonly they have no other source but the despight we have for not being revenged for which cause Women and Children are more subject to weep in the strength of this Passion then Men because they then acknowledge their weakness and are forced to suffer the wrong which was done them without seeking satisfaction To know now how these tears are formed and what the motive of the Soul is when upon these occasions she sheds them its what in its place must be examined and to which we have destined a particular Discourse which shall follow that of Grief But we have sufficiently spoken of the Charactâ—â—â— which Anger imprints on the Eyes 〈◊〉 now consider those which she forms on the other parts of the Face The Lips grow thick by reason their substance is soft and spungy The Lips grows thick which easily imbibes the blood which runs thither And being filled therewith they overturn themselves their bounds being free and being not restrained by the neighboring parts But whence comes their trembling The Lips tremble and principally that of the lower Lip Is it not that the spirits crackle in those parts and cause that part which is extreamly movable to tremble or that the Choler which is moved pricks the stomack which hath a great sympathy with the neather Lip whence it is that in sickness the trembling of that part is a sign of vomiting The Lips press one another Sometimes they joyn and press one the other to retain breath and thereby to render the motion the more strong or to fortifie those parts which grow hard and stiff by the contraction of the Muscles as hath been said in the Chapter of Boldness They also sometimes retire themselves The Lips retire themselves and discover the teeth which most part of Beasts usually do when they are angry because those are their natural Arms which they discover to fright
exposeth her self to danger and abandons her self to all the rage which possesseth her The Respiration in this is just as it is in Boldness for although it proceeds from the same causes the Pulse doth that it is of the same use and that its motions have the same relation yet hath it not all the differences or at least it hath not made them known because we are not sensible by the touch of the Body of the Lungs where it is formed as we are sensible of that of the Arteries and that there is not such a tie betwixt that and the rest of the exterior organs which renders it sensible as there is betwixt the Heart and these kind of Veins for which cause there is neither hardness nor softness in the Respiration as is in the pulse nor can we observe any thing which comes near this kind of beating which we said was proper to Anger although the Lungs suffer the same changes and be in the same condition as the Heat then is for Hippocrates assures us that in this Passion both the one and the other retire and restrain themselves in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although heat at the same time swells them and lifts them up Now although we cannot doubt but these contrary motions come from the mixture of these two Passions whereof we have spoken yet it is not easie to observe how they may be compatible together nor what parts are destined for their reception it being not probable that the same should be agitated by both together For we cannot herein say of the Heart and Lungs what we have said of the Arteries their natural constitution and the action which they are obliged to perform suffers them not to be restrained as they are to be lift up It must necessarily be that they must extend when they open themselves But if they extend themselves so how can they restrain themselves Certainly we must say that their flesh and substance gathers comprench and restrains it self and that their cavities enlarge themselves instead that in Joy all the parts release and soften themselves having not that need to fortifie themselves as here they have in effect the pulse which appears harder in Anger then in Boldness is a certain sign that the substance of the Arteries restrains and hardens it self and we cannot doubt but that the hardness of these parts comes from the contraction of the Soul since it is for that onely reason that the pulse becomes hard in Fear All the difficulty remaining is To know why the Arteries which borrow the vertue of moving themselves from the Heart have not a motion like his and that they streighten their cavity on the sides although that enlargeth his own on all sides To resolve this difficulty we must observe that the beating of the Arteries is not the same which is in the Heart since those open and lift themselves up whilst this fall and shuts it self So that they must needs be too different motions and consequently proceed from two different vertues And if this be true there is no necessity that they should resemble in all things and the Heart in any sence may enlarge it self without any necessity for the Arteries to do the same now as the Heart hath its Ventricles placed on the right and left which necessarily ought to open themselves to receive blood and air which enters therein it 's impossible the Soul should cause it to make a motion conformable to the Passions wherewith it is agitated as is made in the Arteries where this impediment is not and where she hath all the liberty to satisfie Grief by restraining them and Boldness by raising them up as hath been said As for the Lungs there is a particular reason for which they cannot restrain themselves as the others do for they have not the power to move themselves and of themselves they lift themselves not up to give place to the air which enters It is the muscles of respiration which extending themselves widen the capacity of the Breast and constrain the Lungs to open to hinder a vacuum for which cause waving the motive Faculty they have not those kinds of motion which depend therefrom But it is to pry too far into the secrets of Physick and the further clearing hereof would be useless to those who know it and those who are ignorant of it would never be sufficiently informed Let us onely say That although Anger causeth often very great disorders in the Soul and in the Body Anger is profitable to health yet it is not always an enemy to Reason nor to Health It is absolutely necessary for weak and idle minds and for cold and gross constitutions and even in all others it may be compared to winds which how impetuous soever they are drive away vapors and mists clearing the air and rendring it the more pure and wholesom In effect if we seek to hinder its course or that we would restrain it without suffering it so much as to exhale it self by words it preserves it self a long time in the Soul and at last alters the humors whence often happen great and pernicious sicknesses For as the inferior part is deaf to the counsels of Reason and that she proposeth to herself revenge as the end she tends unto she will cause her motion to cease untill she is at least in some manner revenged So that the Will may then hinder those actions over which it hath a power such as are words blows and the like but for those which are not under its direction as are the motions of the Heart and the agitation of the Humors they must necessarily be continued they must even by this restraint be rendred the more violent and they must last the longer time since we delay our revenge which is the end which ought to terminate them FINIS
those who vvould offend them or to be the readier to make use of them This is also observed in some persons vvhen they fall into a rage and fasten on the flesh of any one whether it be that the Soul makes this endeavor thinking to fortifie herself as she doth by knitting the Brows or whether in effect she would with her teeth tear in peices and if she could even devour her enemy For there are men who grind their teeth who in their anger bite what they meet withal and who would eat the heart and bowels of those who have done them an injury The Voice is sharp and vehement because Anger being composed of Grief and Boldness What the Voice is in Anger this with impetuosity driving the air which is in the Lungs and Grief restraining the Muscles and streightning the passages so that the voice must needs become shrill passing through so streight a channel and being driven out with vehemency must needs also be strong But there are two Propositions which Aristotle hath made in his Physionomy which may make us doubt whether this voice be that which principally belongs to Anger The first is that which is gross at first and at last grows sharp is the sign of a cholerick person and this relates to Oxen and to the likeness of their voice Indeed when these Beasts bellow their voice at last grows sharp and hath somewhat in it which is sad and languishing and even in men affliction and grief in complaints form the same air and the same languor Now if this be so the voice of Anger is not as we said strong and vehement The second is That those who have a sharp and vehement Voice are cholerick and that this relates to Goats But besides that these creatures have not that kind of Voice they were never observed to be inclined to that Passion we must therefore say that there is an error in those two propositions by the fault of the Translators for in the first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not Anger as they have translated it but sad languishing cast down for matter of courage and in that sence it 's true that the Voice which is grosse at first and sharp at last is a sign of sadness as we shall shew in the Chapter of Grief In the last there is also the same fault in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies not Anger but rather Lasciviousness which is indeed a quality proper to Goats Add also that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not simply a strong and vehement Voice but a forced and constrained Voice such as is the bleating of Goats as shall be said in its place The Voice becomes hoarse by the inequality of its organs The Voice is hoarse for heat melting the humors and making them run on those parts it renders them moist and unequal and the voice which it utters is rude and sounds not and because that vehemency is joyned with this sharpness thence it is it becomes terrible and frightfull Lastly The Voice stops all at once Sometimes it stops all at once in despight of ones teeth whether it be that the violence wherewith it drives the breath quickly clears the Lungs and deprives the Heart of its refreshings and that in this necessity the Soul making haste to cause a new attraction of the air the Voice is constrained to stop to give it passage Or whether the Nerves which help to form it suffer a kind of convulsion being pricked by those Humors which heat agitates as it happens to children which cry whose voice and respiration leaps and so cut and suddenly stop themselves The Tongue faulters The Tongue faulters either by reason of the quantity of blood which thickens it or renders it heavy or by reason of driness which hinders its motion or by reason of the Souls transport which sends the Spirits elsewhere and hinders them from having recourse to those parts The Words interfare by the hast and impetuosity which the Soul causeth The Words imerfare which precipitates the words and thoughts one upon another The Discourse is entangled from the disorder of reason The Discourse is entangled and from the several designs it weaves and confounds together The Breathing is vehement Respiration is vehement and proceeds from the impetuous respiration which the heat of the Heart and the endeavor of the Soul causeth For the principal end of Respiration is to refresh the Heart and the Spirits wherefore when they are heated it is at the same time augmented But because also this action is partly voluntary since it will advance or retard even as the Soul desires it should thence it is that the endeavor she makes in all her actions appears in this rendring it violent and precipitate The same heat renders the Mouth dry The Mouth is dry and gives it an ardent Thirst which is not so easily satisfied as that which happens in Fear as shall be said elsewhere Those malignant humors which are moved and heated cause a Sticking Breath Laughter is often an effect of Indignation or of Scorn Laughter in Anger which are mixed with Anger as we said it happened to Boldness but commonly it comes from the malignant pleasure we have in Revenge yet the Temperature contributes much to this effect For Septentrional people have almost the same air in fight and we may see them assault their Enemies with a certain insolent Fierceness and with I know not what kind of scoffing Laughter instead whereof the Southern people carry on their Countenance a fierce Frowardness and a sharp and cruel Sadness the reasons whereof shall in its place be discovered The Redness which this Passion commonly raiseth up in the Face is not altogether like that which Joy The Face becomes red Shame and some other Passions shed abroad in it it is far more clear and less vermilion then in this for that it proceeds from a cholerick blood whose colour is more pale by reason the tincture of the Gall which weakens the splendor and Vermilion of the Blood and causeth this inflamed Redness which is visible in the Face and Breast of those who are angry It also sometimes happens that it becomes obscure and blackish and this chiefly is when Anger is turned into Fury for the agitation is then so great that the thickest blood is cast on the outward parts which affords it its natural colour and paints them of that black and livid colour which is to be observed on the Cheecks and on the Lips because they are the most sanguine parts of the Face As for that paleness which sometimes happens at the beginning of this Passion we have spoken of it in the Chapter of Boldness We must not stay long on the most part of the rest of the Characters which this Passion imprints on the body the reasons are easily found by those principles which we have established For we cannot remember
the impetuosity and the boilings wherwith the blood and spirits are agited but we must presently judge that that is the cause which makes the Veins and Arteries swelled and extended and that all the rest of the parts are full and puffed up and whosoever shall represent to himself the impatience and the transport wherein the Soul is will nothing wonder at these motions which in this Passion the Body suffers The Head is lifted up and the Stature grows erect for as much as the Soul raiseth up herself to assault the Enemy And although he be absent she forbears not to put herself into this posture as if she were ready to throw herself on him for that the violence of those Passions which trouble her represent him to her thought as if he were truly present and as if he ought in effect to feel the blows she intends to inflict The frequent flinging out of the Arms The motion of the parts in Anger a light and quick pace a continual change of posture and place are effects which note the endeavors and sallies of the Soul the precipitation and impatience she hath to revenge herself But whence comes it that we set up our Hands by our sides when with anger and threatnings we quarrel with any man it is without doubt to confirm the parts that the Muscles of respiration which they uphold may the more powerfully operate and by that means the voice may have the more force and be the longer lasting For which cause we are never content to place our hands thus on our sides but that we also advance the Arms and the Elbows whereby enlarging and extending the Shoulders we render them for the same purpose more stiff As for those blows wherewith a man in Anger beats the ground and all what comes under his hands or under his feet it 's very likely that they are such means as the soul useth to give a repulse to those difficulties which traverse her designs and that the trouble and blindness she is in causing her to take all things for true obstacles which stop her she strikes against she drives and she beats them as it were to break them and to put them by or else they are the effects of a precipitated Vengeance which Anger doth discharge on the first Objects it meets having not either the patience or the power to make them be rescued by its real Enemy It 's thus that Dogs bite the stones which are thrown at them it is thus we break the Sword which wounded us in a word it is thus we revenge our selves on our selves and above all its what concerns those from whom we have received an injury But what reason can we give for all those shakings of the Head which are remarkable in this Passion Whence the shakings of the Head What can oblige the Soul to move it one while to the right and then to the left sometimes up and sometimes down and sometimes on one side onely And to what end doth she cause these so extravagant motions and so different the one from another For to conclude that they are signs and natural effects which Anger produceth in all men of what Nation or of what constitution soever they are So that if Nature doth nothing in vain she must herein have her causes and reasons as well as in her greatest and most considerable actions It is true in my judgement they are very hard to be known and it is with them as with most part of things which hide them selves so much the more unto the Mind the more they discover themselves unto the Sences and which are as difficult to be comprehended as they are easily remarkable And certainly as all natural things are made for some end or out of necessity we cannot say but that the alteration of the Body or the agitation of the Humors must cause these motions by a necessary consequence as it happens in the redness of the Face in the wrinckles of the Forehead in the splendor of the Eyes and the like which are formed by necessity without being destined for any use and if we would place them in the rank of actions which are performed for some end it is nothing easie to observe what motive the Soul therein proposeth it self no what service she pretends to draw from thence To give further light to these obscurities you must first know whether these motions are not in other Passions and afterwards seek those motives for the which they were therein formed and lastly to see whether they may be applied to Anger It is certain that we use to shake the Head and to give it readily two or three turns about when any thing displeaseth Why we toss the Head as especially when we refuse or disapprove of any thing when we are sensible of an ungrateful smel or when we tast ought that is disgustful For which cause the vulgar commonly call Wine when it is not good Wine with two ears because it makes those two parts move when we turn the Head from one side to the other and that by that motion we would signifie that we found it to be naught But what relation can this action have with these sentiments Is it not that the Soul would turn away the face where the organs of the sences are from those objects which are displeasing to it as she useth to fix them on those which please Or that she seeks by that endeavor to estrange from her what is troublesome At least it is thus that when any thing incommodates those parts we shake them about to drive them away for although this in these encounters we speak of be useless unto it yet are they nothing extraordinary since she often deceives herself in the same manner upon other occasions wherein she abuseth those means which Nature hath prescribed her to attain her ends employing them in others where they are of no use as hath been shewed speaking of that water which Desire causeth in the Mouth and of the motion of the Brows at the sight of distasteful things Or we may rather say that this shaking of the Head is a mark the Soul would make of the impression which some kind of objects make on her and that it is an outward image of that action which she performs in herself For it is her custom that when she would have that appear outwardly which is done within she causeth those motions of the organs which have some relation and resemblance with her own as we may judge by the laughter of the looks and by all those other effects whereof we have spoken in this Work And certainly since that at the encounter of pleasant things she makes particular signs which make known the sence she hath of them she must needs also have some for those which are displeasing So that if she sweetly casts down the Head when good presents it self unto her as it happens when we meet a friend when we approve a