action trouble his Government abolish his Empire corrupt his Reason disorder his Will and throw confusion into all the powers of his Soul It 's true we meet with some men in the world whom Nature seemeth to have produced to give the lye to this opinion and whose inclinations constrain us to believe that Passions are grafted in the Soul for we see some so effeminate that a word puts them into a rage a sincere reprehension irritates them and in what method soever you deal with them their anger or indignation is not to be avoided Some from their youth are sordid they affect Wealth almost before they know what it is and it would be more easie to change the face of a Negro into the colour of his Teeth than to pull out of their hearts the desire of heaping up Riches Others are naturally bashful as often as they speak in publick they blush and what art soever is used to make them confident in company they cannot hinder shamefacedness from altering their Countenance It is not hard to answer these Objections and whoever is at the trouble to examine the Nature of Passions will be constrained to acknowledg that nothing is proved though much be said For to proceed in order Anger is not that first motion that arises at the appearance of an evil and which oweth its original rather to the Infirmity of the Body than to the Strength of the Mind but that fury of the Soul which by Aristotle is stiled rational that motion which hurries us to take vengeance and invites us to contrive the ruine of him that hath offended us All those other emotions that prevent the Judgment cannot properly be called Passions and when they trouble or seize the Soul it may be said that she resents but produceth them not and that she rather suffers than operates Generals of Armies have been seen to swoon at the approach of Battel Commanders to grow pale at the sight of an Enemy Souldiers to tremble in putting on their Armour or their Head-piece and all that Valour wherewith they were animated could not hinder them from beginning their Victories with quaking and their Triumphs with signs that brought their Courage into question The most eloquent of Orators found himself often taken with these surprizes and he was astonisht that his Discourses should chase Fear from the minds of his Auditors and that his Reason should not be strong enough to drive apprehension from the possession of his heart to hinder Fear from bereaving him of his Strength to prevent his hairs from standing on end and to oppose his tongues cleaving to the roof of his mouth when he was to speak But all these sudden changes are but corporal and surprizes which borrow their aids from the temper and constitution of the body If Riches make some men covetous it is after the Judgment is seduced Nature hath produced nothing in the whole universe that is able to stir their desires she hides the Gold in the entrals of the Earth she leaves us nothing but the sight of the Heaven and the Stars and knowing that this mettle might corrupt them if she discovered it in its splendor she caused it to grow among the Sands and the Dirt to the end they might despise it True it is that Bashfulness seemeth more natural to man than Avarice and Anger and that he is become impudent and insolent that altereth not his countenance after the commission of a fault or an incivility But this timorous Passion is only the daughter of the Body the Mind hath no share in her Production and if the novelty of a thing occasion it the cause thereof is the leaping of the blood about the Heart hence old men rarely blush the furrows in their front seldom receive a foreign colour and when heat declines their heart it ceaseth to send into the Face that innocent Vermilion that makes the Countenance of Children so amiable As this motion is a pure effect of the Bodies temperature our Players could never yet get her to appear upon the Stage and the most ingenious of them despair at this day of adorning the Countenance of their Actors with this curious colour They represent us Sadness with all her shagrine humors and as silent as she is they find inventions to counterfeit her follies They shew us Fear upon a pale Face and imitate all her actions so well that they seem to tremble grow wan and fall into a swoon Love is the ordinary subject wherewith they entertain their Spectators and the smallest Apes-face of the Society can act the Gallant the Suitor and the mad Lover but none of them have yet been seen that could act the Shame-faced person and if some few have learned to stoop the Head abase the Voice and to look downwards we hardly observe any that have been able to call for Blushes to testifie that the Applauses given to them or the Reproches thrown at them were unpleasing But as Passions depend on us it must not be wondered if they be counterfeited with so much ease if they can become sad and angry audacious and desperate when they please and that consulting the mind and opinion of which they are formed they represent all those outward signs which Passions discover upon the Bodies of such as are possessed by them Discourse IV. That the Senses and opinion are the two Principles of Passions AMong all the advantages which man disputeth with other Creatures and which beget him so much reverence in them of his own Species Philosophy owneth none more glorious then that of knowledg and although she be interressed when she pleads her cause she believes not that the praises given her are any thing but due debt she stiles her the only felicity of them that possess her she makes her the image of the Diety maintains that it is she that lifteth man into Heaven to contemplate there the perfections of her Author and though she know that her Body have need of health to preserve her she is assured that her Soul wants nothing but knowledg to participate of his Eternity By these mens discourse this quality is as immense as absolute present every where including all differences of time coexistant with all Ages and having regard to the original nature and end of every being she finds nothing in the Univers that can confine her but Eternity and he only that is infinite Man is a lover only of what is good and as free an Agent as he is he suffers evil with violence the senses that seduce his imagination reverence his will they cease to provoke him when the understanding hath shewed him that the thing she seeks is not suitable to him and if sometimes she discover a displeasure it is because she hath suffered her self to be deceived by the senses or disordered by false opinions But nothing escapes mans Curiosity he will not be a stranger to any thing in nature the most hidden things stir him to make diligent
impious perceive her in their debaucheries if their Mouth protect them Reason condemns them if the night favour their Crimes the Sun laies them open and it 's but small comfort to have Companions in Sin when they find every where a Witness to accuse them a Judg to condemn them and the Executioner to punish them Reason is then Man's only benefit he must use it to climbe Heaven he must consult it to govern his Life and if he do but hearken unto her he shall be vertuous and tame the most insolent of his Passions Discourse IV. That a Wise Mans happiness is not built on the Goods of the Body SOme modern Philosophers seem to wonder that the least of all Causes should in our Actions be of the greatest use That the End which subsisteth but in Idaea should be the Motive of all our works and that that which hath so little share in all humane productions should be so necessary a Midwife to bring them forth They build their opinions upon Aristotles discourse and as they Learn of him that that which hath no being must needs be barren and that nothing can be drawn from it but what is imaginary they conclude that seeing the End is nothing in substance and that its being depends on our intelects it can conceive nought but Chymera's and bring forth nothing but conceited apparitions Others somewhat more ingenious do say that its subsistence is not so sensible as that of the matter that its manner of operation is different from that of the Form and efficient Cause and that when this unites the Soul with the Body and maketh them agree in one the End doth but figure out Idaea's and form imaginary Resemblances Nevertheless convinced by the deductions of the first of Philosophers they avow that if the End be not the more Noble of the four principles she is how ever the most necessary and that if she make less shew then her Companions she hath so much the ascendant of them as to make their operations Suitable to her Designs True it is that all our Projects would be monstrous if our intentions prevented not their birth and Nature that is so regular in her Works would commit nothing but Debaucheries if she directed them not to the End appointed by her Maker As Goodness is the most illustrious Object of Morality and all that is there intreated of tends to the acquisition thereof we are not to wonder if all men seek her if the guilty as well as the innocent court her and if she often procure her self real Lovers by the bare appearance of Goodness When a Tyrant oppresseth his people ransacks his Neighbours Countries depriveth the innocent of Liberty and to enlarge his Frontiers intrencheth upon those Bounds where wise Nature had limited his Authority Policy which is always self interessed excuseth all these disorders by Pretext of a greater Good and the advantages she hopeth for by weakning the Subject and ruining the Enemy seem considerable enough to justify such iniquities when a Criminal is accused and brought before the Judg finding himself engaged to shew innocency in the matters layed to his Charge he borroweth a good Countenance to excuse himself and as there is no man so impious as in his Crime purely to intend Evil he throweth his offence upon the sincerity of his intentions Goodness is so Natural to Man that he cannot loose the Love of her and when ignorance hides her Truth from him or that Opinion cheats him in the search of her he forbears not to Scuffle for her and to catch at all her Resemblances The Academia that made profession of understanding her Essence is of this an evident proof for designing to form a Felicity that should surpass all our desires they invented happinesses that have hitherto only bore the Name They would have it to consist in the health of the Body that Pleasure should be its inseparable Companion that Fortitude should have no other employment but to defend and preserve its healthful state and that Beauty which is but the Feminine ornament was part of a Wise Mans Felicity As Experience taught these Disciples that health was a fountain that watered all the parts with her perfections that its Comliness consisted in a good intelligence with the Elements and that all the Favours of Nature lost their Splender in an infirm Body they set up health as the Principle of their Felicity They averred that to live happily it was necessary to have a sound Body and that all our other Faculties were useless to us when the visage had lost its Color and the Members their strength and when the food that was for our nourishment became offensive to the Eyes They compared health to a Calm Sea They would have it that as this favored the Alcyons in laying their Eggs and in bringing forth their young the other assisted the Conqueror in the obtaining of Victories Princes in the Conduct of their Subjects Artificers in their Labours Orators in their Praises of vertue and Philosophers in outbraving their misfortunes That it was health that charmed the disturbances of our Life and that we should be condemned as eternally miserable if this did not sweeten the Travels of our Pilgrimage and change part of our miseries into delights If these Philosophers had well studied the Nature of Man's chief happiness and not ransact the Flesh for matter wherewith to content the mind I perswade my self that in seeking to be happy they would have put some difference between their own felicity and that of brute Beasts and that distinguishing their own condition from that of impious persons they would have learnt that that which entertaineth vice nourisheth all our Passions could not be a Principle of their Felicity For albeit that sin be familiar to us that we bear the seeds thereof in our Souls and that to will the commission of it be sufficient to make us guilty Mean while it is never more dangerous then when it meets with aids to second it then when it causeth our advantages to serve its designs and when by the health of our Body it throws Infection into our Souls There are some Men that know not what Vertue is till they become impotent in Vice Sickness must disable them to cure them of sin and they would never call to mind that Hell may be one day the place of their punishment if the enflaming feaver did not feed upon their Intrails Others there are that owe their innocence to the absence of health their Method of Life would be always criminal if they were not sometimes infirm and if some violent agitations did not overthrow their designs they might be ranckt in the Number of dissolute Persons As health is a benefit as frail as dangerous God bestows it but on few the Men of great action have been ever much concerned those high Enterprizes that have disturbed the whole World have afforded them little rest the violent eruptions of their
subordination in the faculties of the Soul that the inferiors seldom or never stir but according to the motion of the superiors and as Souldiers obey their Commanders or as the higher Sphear is followed by all them that are Subalterne so Reason and the will engage the sensitive appetite to side with them and cause it to embrace all as good which they approve and to reject all as evil which they condemn So then we must conclude with Seneca that Passions reside in the will it is there that all the operations of the Soul are perfected and the same powers which form our sins crimes comprehend our affections and desires For by the principles of this Learned Philosopher our Passions are not bare motions that arise from the appearance of good or evil which receive their succors from the imagination and finally stop in the inferior part of the Soul But productions of the mind sentiments of the rational faculty and to use the Stoick Language opinions that deprave the mind and corrupt the will perswading them to be approvers of their advices and to follow their irregular motions Also St. Austin who I look upon in this matter as Senecas warrant intermixeth our Passions with our rational appetite he giveth but one name to the cause and to the effects and well knowing that we have no Passion but what is in the will he assures us that the most dangerous motions of the Soul are but so many affections which draw their good or their evil from the objects to which they have respect our desire according to the words of this great Doctor is nothing but a will to an absent good which we pursue with much earnestness our hope is but a will to a good that flatters us and which we impatiently expect and fear and sadness are but wills of which the one opposeth the evil that threatens us and the other the mischief which we already feel contrary to our good liking So that the matter must get into the will before a man can be said to be in Passion and pleasure could never seize our wishes if the will were not consenting neither would our desires make such extravagant fallies out of the Fort if the will did not bear them company in the pursuit of the benefits we hunt after Upon the authority of this great man I think it can be no Error to declare for the Stoick Party and their Enemies are obliged to allow their sentiments unless they will contradict the opinion of the most solid and most enlightened of the Fathers Discourse II. Of the Number of Passions according to the Stoicks LEt Monarchs be absolute in their Territories let their orders in Council pass for Laws and let the publication of their edicts be sufficient to require obedience in the Subjects let flattery perswade them that they are the Gods of the World that they hold their power from no Earthly Soveraign and that the Dominion they exercise over the People is nothing less then the mark of their Independance yet those that understand the nature of Goverment consider them rather as Slaves then Free-men they call them the Tutors not Masters of their Subjects and demonstrate that as private Interest rules the Fathers of Families that which we call publick commands Kings and Potentates For indeed be it that they treat with their Neighbours be it that they assist their Allies be it that they govern peacably their Conquests be it that they defend them that implore their Protection and take up Armes to relieve the oppressed from Tyranny and the innocent from distress self interest is the end of their labors as well as the aime of their designs and when they prefer the good of their Subjects or the preservation of their Neighbours before their own private contentment it may be said that the same is but a tendency to the encrease of their Empire or at least to the securing of their own Kingdoms That which is practized at Court is but the constant exercise of the Schools and Cicero's testimony of Philosophical affaires is significant when he declares that to govern well Kings should become Philosophers or Philosophers Kings For if these be truth's combatants if they lay new Foundations if they form new arguments wherewith to establish the most probable methods if they return to the principles which they had once forsaken and if by a liberty permitted in the Schools they invent new explications to disguise the sense of their adversaries meaning they are rather governed by interest then the incitements of Justice they seek not so much to instruct the World as to be admired of men they labor more to glorifie their own fame then to edifie their Disciples When they declaim against the Reasons that support the Doctrin of their Predecessors it is that they hope for reputation from the novelty of their opinions or heighten their own credit by vanquishing the sentiments of their Teachers and Antagonists This truth appears evident in the Subject of Passions and if we examin well the design of those that describe them it must be owned that they are divided among themselves touching their number those that find it their advantage to engage with Aristotle and rather to leane upon his authority then upon the strength of his arguments endeavor to perswade us that they are in number eleven that nothing is to be added to or diminished from that division and that they are not to be multiplyed without mixture of superior Species nor retrencht without wrong to their diversity To ground their opinion they seperate the Soul into two faculties whereof one draws her name from Desire and the other from Anger In the first they place those Passions that are least violent and in the other them that are never at rest For they will have it that the six contained in the Concupiscible appetite are divided that some are but little employed and others active that some are sordid and others generous that some wander abroad and the other satisfied with their domestick Entertainments In fine they tell you that Love follows the inclination of the Body which tendeth to his center that desire is the moveing Orbe and that Joy represents him a place of content and rest that Hatred resembles that aversion which he discovers when he is placed in an uneasy condition that Flight imitates those earnest endeavors used to get out of trouble and danger and that Sadness respects the dislike that appears upon a violent detention therein But they inform us that the five Passions that are placed in the Irascible powers are all impetuous resembling the Heavens ever in motion that they create combats and scorn to retreat and that as they look upon good and evil as difficult they can delight in nothing but agitation nor love any thing less then rest The truth is Dispair is wretched Anger is out rageous Hope is negligent of the things she possesseth in aspireing to what she expects Fear
esteemed himself happy in his Exile the penury that attended him contributed to his quiet he thought he had lost his troublesom business not his Goods when they spoiled him of his Wealth and that by a happy mischief he had recovered his Liberty in being deprived of the care of preserving his Riches The poor live securely and as Fortune is not their Landlady they fear not her displeasure If a Tyrant invade the neighbouring Countries if he send the Alarm into their Quarters if he force the Walls that surround them they are not much concerned they know the Soldiers seek not for them and that that want which makes them unhappy is their shelter from the pursuits of Usurpers If they be banisht from their Country and if by a Power permitted by the Law of Arms to Conquerors they be forced to transplant they leave their Cottages without complaint they seek to get out and not to carry away and knowing that the whole Earth is their Country they assure themselves of finding every where sufficient to satisfie their needs Poverty is not insupportable but to them that think it so the imagination makes the greatest part of their Torments men must be abused by the noise of the people to be sensible of it and be ignorant of necessitous contentments to be afraid of their condition If we will take the pains to frequent the habitations of the Poor we shall see that there is nothing frightful in them but the name they bear that Joy covers the faces of most of their Guests that they dispute tranquillity of mind with the Rich and that without being loaden with the cares which disturb the wealthy they tast Lifes sweetness with delight But the rich are unhappy in the midst of Pleasures Calamities beset them on all sides their Treasures are their troubles and as they get them by Labor they possess them with Fear and lose them with Sorrow But to make it appear that Poverty hath nothing vexatious and that all its evil consisteth purely in opinion do we not see that rich men often imitate the poor when they have a mind to divert themselves That they appoint days to be entertained after their manner That they lay aside their Plate-Services for earthen Dishes That they change their Goblets of Gold into wooden Bowls That they prefer the Work of the Potter before the Art of the Goldsmith And that they set aside the magnificence of their stately dwellings to come and divert themselves in a Shepherds Hut Mean while these unhappy men fly from Want they fear what they sometimes seek and by a blindness which shews their infirmity they abhor what in their Delights they imitate So much it is a truth that indigence is but an imaginary thing that it hath nothing more terrible in it than the common opinion of men and that the incommodities that attend it hurt not our Mind but in proportion to the wound they give to our imagination Sometimes one and the same cause produceth different effects and that which made poverty odious makes plenty a burthen As it is of small importance whether a sick mans Bed be of Ivory or of Wood and as his being often removed allays not his Grief a man is as little satisfied with Poverty as with Wealth and because he carries his evil about him there is no help for his misery Therefore when any misfortune befalls us let us be assured that the evil we resent is only an effect of opinion that it offends us because we think it doth and that it afflicts our minds only because we have suffered our imagination to be seduced by it If we are fallen into disgrace if men have violently robbed us of our credit or good name and if by the malice of our Enemies or the displeasure of the Prince we are stript of our Dignities let us remember that we have no power over human things that there is a God above who hath reserved to himself the Jurisdiction thereof that we cannot be renowned any longer than pleaseth him and that as the Earth hath no pretensions upon the day which by intervals enlightens it we ought not to promise our selves eternal advantages here since men may spoil us of them every moment Fortune doth not imitate Nature in her conduct as this perfecteth her Works by gradations she brings them back by leisurely motions to their Principles the Planets withdraw from their Points at the same rate as they hastened to them But that sightless Dame doth often make us poor at once we lose in one day that which cost our Ancestors divers ages to acquire and as if she knew that we are all born equal that Riches fell unequally to our shares that we stript our Neighbours for our own accommodation that we have encreased them against the Laws of Nature she casts us violently into a state of poverty and makes our condition equal to the meanest Creatures on Earth Though this method of proceeding be a surprizal yet is it in some sort advantageous to us by wounding she cures us she stifles all our evils at once and as a skilful Chirurgion who nimbly draws an Arrow out of the Body she carries away with our Goods the care of their preservation and the apprehension of their loss If the fire violently ravage our fields if it burn our houses and consume all the substance we have in them we are to consider that this loss happens to us by an universal cause that this insatiable Element operates according to the matter it meets with and that it would be guilty of partiality if it should spare our habitations since it pays neither respect to the Temples of God nor to the Pallaces of Kings Let us represent to our selves that this burning is a forerunner of that fire which is one day to devour the whole world that this Creature is enraged against us that it is angry that we use it as a slave that we employ it in most of our Arts and that it is but just we should be content to receive some damage from that which affords us so many good services Let us perswade our selves that the evil befell us by the secret Providence of Heaven that God sends it to them that least think of it and that the flames would never destroy any houses if they were to stay for the consent of the owners As the fire is burning up our dwellings let us implore Heaven to consume our Passions By the light of the flames let us behold the vanity of temporal Goods let us therein adore the Hand that strikes us and which chastiseth us in this world to spare us in the next If Death snatch away any of our friends and by an innocent cruelty deprive us of them we loved most in the world let us bear this separation with submission let us be thankful to Providence that we had them so long let us take her favors in the best sense and not accuse her of
Fortune have not any thing to present you more glorious than the Command of the Roman Nation Nature cannot endow you with a more excellent Gift than a Will to preserve the unfortunate Although this Vertue be so fair in her out-side and that it seemeth as if we could not blame her without a renunciation of humanity nevertheless she ceaseth not to be found guilty of great defects and to pass for a Vice in the Stoick Morality For as these generous Philosophers strip their wise man of all the maladies of his Soul they allow not that other mens misfortunes should be his miseries they will have him as little concerned for his Neighbours afflictions as for his own disasters They will have him to be fortune proof and that that which discomposeth others should teach him Constancy and an even temper What say they doth Vertue consist in infirmity Must we be guilty of effeminacy to perform Acts of Generosity Can we not be charitable without being afflicted And can we not relieve those that are in misery unless we mingle our Sighs with their Sobs and Groans and our Cries with their Tears A wise may ought to consider the Poor for their Relief and not himself to share in their Calamities he ought to protect them from oppressions and not to be inwardly disturbed for them he ought to endeavour their comfort and not to be a Partner in their misfortunes But as this Notion seemeth somewhat strange to them that know not the Stoick Sentiments to apprehend it well we must suppose with Seneca That compassion is a composition of two different parts whereof one regards the Calamity to relieve it and the other to take a share of the suffering The Stoicks reject the second to embrace the first They say that Pity is unworthy of a man of Courage they call it the vice of effeminate persons and do declare that they cannot become sad without derogating from the Excellency of the Mind and that they must resolve to be miserable if other Mens misfortunes may as well pierce their Heart as their Eyes As we judge of the weakness of these when they water at the sight of others that have sore eyes as it is not so much a chearfulness of Spirit as an infirmity of Body to laugh with all that laugh and to gape every time that another opens his Mouth Pity is a badg of weakness and we must be of the disposition of Women not to be able to look upon other mens troubles without being assaulted by it our selves Therefore when a Wise man giveth Alms when he saves a man from Shipwrack when he hospitably receives the banished into his House he preserves still the same tranquility of Mind he is seen to be as little disturbed when he helps the distressed as when he rebukes the impious and chastiseth the guilty He accosts them without trouble he comforts them with Arguments he relieves them by his Liberality and knowing that his grieving can do them no good he rather draws money out of his Purse than tears from his Eyes If Compassion be sordid when she renders other mens misfortunes her own Envy is infamous when she makes her own Torment of other mens Prosperity and as we may not excuse the first by reason of her weakness we cannot but condemn the second because of her injustice Vices do at sometimes tickle us they often steal into the seat of vertue and some of them are so disguised that hardly we can know them from their Contraries Profusion seems so becoming in Monarchs that we make no difficulty of confounding it with Liberality Cruelty is often covered with the Robe of Justice Compassion is so tender hearted that she is hardly to be separated from Clemency and as she bears all her marks she is not afraid to pretend to her praises but Envy is always opprobrious Vertue is her torment the most innocent feel her fury she dares not appear to the eyes of men and as she cannot conceal her Malice she is forced to seek darkness to hide her deformities and discontents As if she were animated against the whole Race of Mankind she maks war against all men and without distinguishing their merits she sets both upon the perfect and the less accomplished She opposeth the most eminent because she cannot arrive to their perfections she persecuteth her equals because they reprove her Covetousness and Pride and she prosecutes her inferiours as having an apprehension of their happy Successors But though she be an Enemy to all the Vertues yet she exerciseth her fury particularly against the more Noble and resembling the Scorpions who sting most fiercely when the Sun is most hot and clear she assaults those which have the greatest Lustre and Glory From thence it comes that Tyrants hate the honesty of their Heirs that they fear the Valour of their Commanders that they dread the prudence of their Ministers and apprehend the Puissance of their friends They think themselves contemned in the praises of their inferiours they fancy that the Commendations given to them is an abatement of their own Grandeur and they are afraid of Designs to supplant them every time men speak in their favour But if Monarchs unwillingly suffer vertuous persons the Subjects do not less envy their Princes advantages Conspiracy is not always an effect of their evil Government it more often proceeds from the Malice of the People than from the Tyranny of Kings and their inaccessableness is oft times the only cause of their ruine Socrates lost not his Life but for being too Vertuous His integrity made all his Crimes and the Athenians would not at this day be accused of having put the wisest man of their Commonwealth to death if Envy had not furnished them with Arms to take him out of the way But as no Crime goes unpunished Envy finds her Chastisement in her self she drinks the greatest share of her own poyson and to make her miserable we need but leave her to her own fury All other Vices propose to themselves some advantage and though it be never any thing but shew it ceaseth not to give vigour to their pursuits but Envy looks upon good to afflict her self she rejoyceth not but in other mens harms and by a blindness proper to Avarice she measures her own Riches by the Poverty of her Neighbours and her own wants by their Treasures If a Passion be never so violent it lasteth not always it ceaseth after a time and often finds its suffocation in the cause that gave it birth Anger takes her ease after she hath tormented us a while Pleasure becomes our Pain when its Charms have tired us Gluttony is wearied in much feasting and our Soul hath not any faculty which admits not a Truce after a Combate But Envy is always in motion she lasts as long as her cause and what efforts soever we use to sweeten her she is not to be cured but by the Death of the Author From