NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PASSIONS Mihi crede qui nihil agere videntur Majora agunt humana divinaque simul tractant Seneca Epist. 8. In the SAVOY Printed by T. N. for Iames Magnes in Russell-Street near the Piazza in Convent-Garden 1674. EPISTLE PREFATORY To a Person of Honor Friend to the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercetur ad virtutem in solitudine anima was the the saying of a Bragman or Indian Philosopher to Alexander the the Great and how memorable it is you may perhaps collect from this diversion For the imperfect Discourse I herewith send to you my dear Friend concerning the PASSIONS is the product of my late ten weeks solitude in the Country Where being remote from my Library and wanting conversation with Learned Men I knew not how more innocently to shorten the winter evenings than by spending them in revising some Philosophical papers of my own wherein among other things I had formerly out of the best Authors made certain Collections concerning the divine art of acquiring constant Tranquillity of Mind by Wisedom or the right use of Reason And of this serious Diversion I then made choice both because I well understood the best part of Human Science to be that which teacheth us how to moderate our Affections to the deceiptfull and transitory things of this life and so to regulate our Actions as to reap from them whatever their Events may be the happy fruit of internal Acquiescence and Satisfaction and because my accumulated Misfortunes had at that time reduced me to a necessity of consulting that part of Philosophy about the most effectual Remedies against Discontent In this state and resolution then first I remembred that Nature hath made Man subject to no other real Evil but only pain of the Body all Grief or pain of the Mind though many times more sharp and intollerable being created by our own false Opinion that we stand in want of things that are in truth without the circle of ourselves and therefore not absolutely necessary to our wel-being Then I considered that most commonly false Opinions are occasioned and so exorbitant Desires suggested to us by our Passions upon which all the Good and Evil incident to us in this life seem's to depend as Ioy and Grief are the two points in which all Human actions end For though it be undoubtedly true that the Reasonable Soul hath her intellectual Delights and Disquiets apart such as are proper to her simple and spiritual nature yet is it no less true that those other Delights and Disquiets that are common to her with the Body depend intirely upon the Affections Which when regular that is moderated and directed by reason are indeed of good use to the Soul in that they serve to incite her to desire such objects which she well know's to be pleasant and beneficial to her and to persist in that desire but when irregular by representing as realy good things that are so only in apparence provoke her to erroneous Desires and in persuit of them to Actions also repugnant to the dictates of right Reason and consequently to peace and tranquility of Mind From these Cogitations it was not difficult for me to infer that the whole art of attaining unto that internal serenity after which I was seeking consisteth principaly in Directing our Desires aright that is to things which we clearly and distinctly know to be realy Good and that the only way so to direct our Desires is to imploy our Understanding or Faculty of Discerning which God hath to that end given us strictly and attentively to examine and consider the goodness of things recommended to us by our Passions before we determin our Will to affect and persue them For most certain it is that as our faculty of Discerning that is our Intellect cannot naturaly tend to falsity so neither can our faculty of Assenting that is our Will be deceived when it is determined only upon objects which we clearly and distinctly understand and where our Will is not misplaced there can be no just cause of Perturbation of mind Being soon convinced of this no less evident than important verity in the next place I considered that if our inordinate Affections be the bitter fountain from whence the greatest part of if not all our practical Errors and by consequence most of the Evils we suffer flow and if as the diseases of the Body so likewise those of the Mind may be more easily cured when their nature and causes are understood then would it be requisite for me first to inquire as far as I should be able into the nature causes motions c. of the Passions before I proceeded further in my research after the most powerfull Remedies against their Excesses To this inquiry therefore I diligently applied myself both by reading and meditation by Reading that I might recall into my memory what I had long before transcribed out of the books of such Authors who had written judiciously and laudably of the Passions by Meditation that I might examin the weight of what I read by comparing it with what I daily observed within the theatre of my own breast every Man living being naturaly so sensible of the various Commotions hapning in various Passions especialy more violent ones that some have held the knowledge of their nature and causes may be without much of difficulty derived from thence alone without any help from foreign observations And while I proceeded in this course I digested my Collections and private Sentiments into such an order or Method which seem'd to me most convenient aswell to show their genuin succession and mutual dependence as to make the Antecedents support the Consequents and both to illustrate each other reciprocaly I put them also into a dress of Language so plain and familiar as may alone evince my design was to write of this Argument neither as an Orator nor as a Moral Philosopher but only as a Natural one conversant in Pathology and that too more for his own private satisfaction than the instruction of others And thus have I succinctly acquainted you with the Occasion Subject Scope and Stile of the Treatise that accompanieth this Epistle But this Noble Sir is not all whereof I ought to advertise you before you come to open the Treatise itself There remain yet two or three things more which it imports me to offer to your notice as Preparatives against prejudice ONE is that if in the preliminary part of the Discourse where it was necessary for me to investigate the Subjectum Primarium of the Passions I have declared my assent to their opinion who hold that in every individual Man there are two distinct Souls coexistent conjoined and cooperating one only Rational by which he is made a Reasonable creature the other Sensitive by virtue whereof he participateth also of Life and Sense I did so chiefly for these two reasons First it seem'd to me unintelligible how an Agent incorporeal but not infinite
Souls are unequal in their natural capacity of understanding and discourse because the disparity proceeds immediately from difference of Imagination mediately and principally from the various dispositions of the Brain For when the Animal Spirits being either of themselves less pure subtil and active than is requisite or hinderd in their expansion and motions are not able duely to irradiate and actuate the Brain affected with some distemper or originally formed amiss in such case the Phatasms created in the Imagination must be either deficient or distorted and the Intellect being obliged to judge of them accordingly must be misinformed Hence it often happens that by reason of some wound contusion or other great hurt done to the brain men who formerly were of acute wit and excellent understanding are more or less deprived of those noble Faculties and degenerate into mere fools or idiots For the acquiring and loseing the habit of intellection and ratiocination depends totally upon the Brain and Imagination the corporeal subject thereof but the Intellect it self since it hath no parts cannot be perfected by parts being from the beginning and of its own nature a full and perfect power of Understanding Nor doth it by accession of any whatever Habit understand more but is it self rather a Habit alwayes comparated to understand And in truth the principal Function of the human Intellect seems to be this that it be of its own nature merely intelligent that is knowing things not by ratiocination but by simple intuition But during its confinement within the body it is surrounded with that darkness that it doth not simply nakedly and as it were by way of intuition perceive all things which it understands but attains to most of its knowledge by reasoning that is successively and by proceeding as it were by degrees If therefore the Organ or instrument by the help of which the Intellect is obliged to ratiocinate or gradualy to attain to the knowledge of things be unfit or out of tune no wonder if it be not able to make good Musick thereupon Concerning the Fourth and last thing therefore namely the Manner how this Unintelligible Intellect of man comes to know speculate and judge of all Phantasms or images pourtraid in the Imagination I can much more easily guess what it is not than what it is I am not inclined to espouse their conceit who tell us that the Rational Soul sitting in the brain somewhere near the original of the nerves belonging to the Senses as a Spider sits watching in the centre of her net and feeling all strokes made upon them by the Species of sensible objects distinguishes and judges of their several qualities and proprieties by the different modes of their impressions Because the supposition of a percussion or stroke to be made by a Corporeal image is manifestly repugnant to a Faculty incorporeal But whether or no I ought to acquiesce in that other opinion delivered and maintained by a whole army of Contemplative men viz. That the Intellect knowes and discerns things by simple Intuition i.e. by beholding their Images represented in the Phantasy as we see our faces represented in a mirror or looking-glass truely I am yet to learn from wiser heads than mine For though I admire the subtilty of the conceipt and love not to be immodestly Sceptical especially in matters that transcend my narrow comprehension yet to speak ingenuously I as little understand how Intuition can be ascribed to an immaterial that hath no Eyes as I do how Feeling of strokes can be ascribed to a thing that cannot be touched Nevertheless I will not point blanck deny this latter opinion to be true only because I cannot perceive the Competency of such an act as intuition to the incorporeal Soul of man for that were to make my scanty reason the measure of truth and to confide more in my own dulness than in the admired perspicacity of so many eminent Wits preceding me Wherefore having confess'd my ignorance I refer the matter to your arbitration allowing you as much time as you shall think fit seriously to consider the same and in the interim contentedly suspending my curiosity which hath too often perplexed me For hitherto could I never drive it into my head how those terms of infusion connexion and intuition can be intelligibly applyed to a spiritual or incompound essence such as we conceive the Reasonable Soul to be and if I have used them in this discourse it was rather because I could think of none less improper than because I approved them as adequate to the notions to which they are vulgarly accommodated Besides I hold it extremly difficult not to speak some non-sense when we adventure to treat of the nature of spirits whereof we understand so little and you I presume will rather pitty than condemn a man for stumbling in the dark But I have too long detain'd you upon Preliminaries and therefore deprecating your impatience invite you now from the porch into the little Theatre of the Passions which I design'd to erect more for your divertisement than study SECT IV. Of the Passions of the Mind in general TAking it for granted then from the reasons precedent that in Man besides the Rational Soul by which he becomes a Reasonable creature there is also a Sensitive one by which he is made a living and sensitive creature and that this later being merely Corporeal and coextens to the body it animates is by the law of its nature subject to various Mutations I come in the next place to consider what are the most remarkable of those Mutations and the Causes whence they usually arise as likewise the principal effects of them upon the body and mind of man Obvious it is to every mans notice that there is a twofold state or condition of his Sensitive Soul one of quiet and tranquillity another of disquiet and perturbation every man living finding his spirit sometimes calm and serene sometimes agitated and ruffled more or less by the winds and tempests of passions raised within him In the state of Tranquillity it seems probable that the whole Corporeal Soul being coextens to the whole body inshrining it as the body is to the skin envesting it doth at the same time both inliven all parts with the vital flame of the blood to that end carried in a perpetual round as the vulgar conceive the Sun to be uncessantly moved round about the Earth to illuminate and warm all parts of it and irradiate and invigorate them with a continual supply of Animal spirits for the offices of Sense and Motion And this Halcyon state certainly is the only fair weather we enjoy within the region of our breast and the best part of human life On the contrary in the state of Perturbation all that excellent Oeconomy is more or less discomposed Then it seems that the same frail soul is so strongly shock'd and commoved that not only her vital part the blood the calm and equal circulation
obtain her end and there occur to her more reasons for the facility then there succeeds that gentle Effusion or Tendency of the Soul toward the good desired which is called Hope or Expectation of good to come Whereas on the contrary if the greater weight be found in the other Scale and she apprehend the thing desired to be Difficult she is immediately Contracted and coold with that ungrateful passion Fear which is expectation of Evil to come And as Hope exalted to the highest degree is changed into Trust Confidence or Security So on the contrary Fear in extremity becomes Desperation Again if this Contraction of the Soul by Fear be suddain and profound and the Evil expected very great then is the passion called Terror Dread and Consternation which sometimes is so violent as to cause Exanimation or suddain Death If the Soul upon apprehension that the Good desired is not indeed absolutely impossible but highly difficult for her to obtain or the Evil feared is not altogether impossible yet extremely hard to be avoided persist in her Contraction she is daunted or cowd into that ignoble weakness called Pusillanimity or Cowardise But if after her Contraction at first she exserting her strength spring forth as it were and with vehemency dilate herself to surmount her fear and overcome the difficulties apprehended then is she reanimated as it were or fortified with the noblest of all Passions Courage or Boldness or Bravery of Mind which makes her contemn all obstacles to her attainment of her end whether it be the acquisition of good or declination of Evil and which when it is not a habit or natural inclination seems to be an ardor or flashing of the Sensitive Soul disposing her to act vigorously and without fear toward the vanquishing of difficulties that stand betwixt her and the scope she aims at And of this Animosity Emulation is a species whereby the Soul is disposed to attempt or enetrprise difficult things which she hopes will succeed happily to her because she observes them to do so to others But then it is to be distinguished from simple Animosity by two proprieties Whereof One is that it hath not only an internal Cause viz. such a disposition of the spirits and body that Desire and Hope may have greater power in impelling the blood in abundance to the heart than Fear or Despair can have in hindering that motion but also an external Cause namely the Example of others who have been prosperous in the like attempts which creates a belief in us that we also shall be able to conquer the difficulties occurring afwell as those others have done The Other this that Emulation is ever accompanied with secret Grief which ariseth from seeing ourselves exceeded or excelled by our concurrents But simple Animosity wants both Example for incitement and Grief for alloy But both these passions equaly depend upon Hope of good success For Though the object of Audacity be difficulty yet to animate us to contend bravely with that difficulty we must be possessed with a strong hope or certain belief that we shall at length attain our end Yet this end is not the same thing with that object for there cannot be both Certitude and Despair of the same thing at the same time So when the Roman Decii rushed into the thickest troops of their enemies and ran to certain death the object of their daring was the difficulty of conserving their lives in that action for which difficulty they had nothing but Desperation being resolved certainly to dye but their End was either by their example to inspire courage into the Roman army and by them to obtain the victory they hoped or to acquire posthume Glory whereof they were certain If therefore even in this action that was in itself desperate Courage were grounded upon Hope we may well conclude that it is alwaies so From the reasons we have alleged of Hope and Fear it is evident that we may have those contrary passions excited in us though the Event of the thing expected no way depend upon our selves But when we proceed to consider the Event as altogether or for the most part depending upon our own counsel and perceive a difficulty to arise either in our election or execution of the means whereby to obtain our end then there immediately follows a Doubting or Fluctuation of the mind whereby we are disposed to deliberate and consult and which is indeed a species of Fear And this wavering while it retains the Soul as it were in a doubtful balance betwixt two actions which are offered to her election is the cause that she performs neither but takes time to consider before she determineth which to do for fear of erring in her choice Which Fear if moderate and under the command of Prudence is always of good use in that it serves to prevent Temerity or Rashness but in some over-cautious persons it is so vehement that though but one thing occurr to be done or omitted by them it holds them too long upon the rack of suspence and hinders them from proceeding to action And in this case the passion is Excess of Doubting arising from too ardent desire of good success and weakness of Vnderstanding which hath indeed many confused notions but none perspicuous and distinct concerning the means to effect its design If during this irresolution we have determined the liberty of our choice and fixed upon some one action in order to our end and the event be not answerable to our expectation presently we are affected with that disquiet of mind which is named by the Greeks Synteresis by the Latins Morsus Conscientiae and by the French Regret which yet doth not as the precedent passions respect the future but present or past time This Remorse of Conscience is no other but a kind of Sorrow arising from a scruple interposed whether what we are doing or have done be good or not And it necessarily presupposeth dubitation For if we were clearly convinced that the action we are doing is realy evil we should certainly abstain from doing it because the will is not carried to any thing but what hath some shew of goodness in it And if it were manifest that what we have done is realy evil we should presently be touched not with simple regret but with Repentance For as the Good we have done gives us that internal Acquiescence or satisfaction which is of all other Passions the sweetest so on the contrary the ill we have done punisheth us with Repentance which is of all passions the bitterest Having in this manner discovered the originals and distinct proprieties of these two opposite Passions Hope and Fear with their genuin dependents it may not a little conduce to the illustration of what hath here been briefly delivered concerning them if we more expresly describe the divers Motions of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits that constitute their formal reasons so far at least as those motions
are observable from their respective Characters or Effects In Hope therefore which we defined to be a gentle and sweet Effusion or Expansion of the Soul towards some good expected to come if we be possessed with an opinion that the thing desired will shortly come to pass I conceive that presently the Animal Spirits which before were imployed as Emissaries to contemplate the image of the object returning toward the Soul give notice of the approach of the guest expected and that thereupon the whole Soul composing herself by expansion to receive and welcome the same sets open all the doors of the Senses to admit more freely all the good belonging thereunto retains the imagination fixt and intent upon the gratefull idea thereof and by copious supplies of spirits dispatched into the nerves of the Heart so invigorates and quickens the pulse thereof that thereby the blood is more briskly sent forth into the outward parts of t he body as it were to meet the expected thing Whence it is that when we are full of Hope we feel a certain inflation both within and without in our whole body together with a glowing but pleasant heat from the blood and spirits universaly diffused But if during this comfortable emotion of the Soul there occurr any suddain cause of Doubt or fear she is instantly checked and coold into an anxious Retraction of herself and a sinking of the spirits so that the motion of the heart becomes weaker and slower and the external parts grow languid and pale For In Fear the Sensitive Soul which was before expansed being surprised with apprehension of approaching Evil and willing to decline it immediately withdraws herself into her retiring room and shrinks up herself into herself at the same time recalling her forces the spirits to her aid and compressing them If the Fear be exalted to the degree of Terror and the Evil seem impendent then at the same time the spirits are suddainly recall'd from the outguards the pores of the skin also are shut up by strong constriction as if the Soul would obstruct and barricado all avenues against her invading enemy whereby the hairs are raised an end and the whole body is put into a Horror or shaking After this if the passion continue the whole army of spirits being put into confusion so that they can not execute their offices the usual succors of Reason fail and the powers of voluntary motion become weak yea sometimes by reason of a resolution of the nerves and sphincters of the gutts and bladder the Excrements themselves are let forth involuntarily From this damp obscuring the Lucid part of the Sensitive Soul there quickly succeeds an Eclipse also of the Vital For the influx of the Animal spirits from the brain into the Cardiac nerves being intermitted the motions of the heart must of necessity be renderd weak and insufficient to maintain with due vigour and celerity the circulation of the blood which therefore stopping and stagnating in the ventricles of the heart causeth fainting and swooning by oppression and sometimes where the passion is hightned into Consternation also suddain death And from this arrest of the blood in the heart by strong constriction of the nerves thereunto belonging we may with reason derive that same anxious oppression and chilling weight which men commonly feel in their breast when they are invaded by violent Fear and upon which the most acute Monsieur Des Cartes seems to have reflected his thoughts when he defined Consternation to be not only a cold but also a perturbation and stupor of the Soul which takes from her the power of resisting evils that she apprehends to be neer This Fear when it excludes all hope of evasion degenerateth into the most cruel of all passions Desperation Which though by exhibiting the thing desired as impossible it wholy extinguish desire which is never carried but to things apprehended as possible yet it so afflicts the Soul that she persevering in her Constriction either through absolute despondency yeelds up herself as overcome and remains half-extinct and entombd in the body or driven into confusion and neglect of all things contracts a deep Melancholy or flyes out into a furious Madness in both cases seeking to put an end to her misery by destroying herself On the contrary when Fear gives place to Hope and that Hope is strong enough to produce Courage thereby to incense the Soul to encounter the difficulties that oppose her in the way to her end in this case she first dilates herself with great vigor and celerity breaking forth as it were into flashes of efforts then instantly diffuseth whole legions of spirits into the nerves and muscles to extend them in order to resistence or striking with all their forces and uniting all her powers into a brave devoir to overcome undauntedly pursues the the conflict Hence it comes that the breast being strongly dilated and contracted alternately the voice is sent forth more sounding and piercing than at other times as if to sound a defiance and charge at once the armes are raised up the hands constringed into fists the head advanced into a posture of daring and contempt of danger the brows contracted and the whole face distorted into an aspect full of terror and threatnings the neck swoln and most other parts distended beyond their usual dimensions All which symptoms evidently arise from a copious and impetuous effusion of Animal spirits from the brain and of blood from the heart into the outward parts ¶ From this concise explication of the motions of the Sensitive Soul the spirits and blood that constitute the passions of Hope and Fear with their dependents Animosity and Desperation the clue of our method leads us to the fifth classis of passions The consideration of good present and belonging to us in particular begets in the Soul that delight which we call Ioy wherein consisteth our possession of that good which the impressions of the brain represent to the Soul as her own First I say that in this delightful commotion doth consist the possession of good because in truth the Soul reaps no other fruit from all the goods she possesseth and when she takes no delight or joy in them it may justly be said she doth no more injoy them than if she did not at all possess them Then I add that the good is such as the impressions made upon the brain represent to the Soul as hers that I may not confound this Joy whereof I now speak and which is a Passion with Joy purely intellectual which enters into the Rational Soul by an action proper to her alone and which we may call a pleasant commotion raised by herself in herself wherein consisteth the possession of good that her intellect represents to her as her own Tho realy so long as the Rational Soul continues conjoyned with the Sensitive it can hardly be but that this intellectual joy will have the other that is a passion for its
of the left into the Aorta or grand Artery the Diaphragm being by abundance of Animal spirits immitted through so many nerves proceeding from the aforesaid Plexus briskly agitated is by nimble contraction drawn upwards and so making many vibrations doth at once raise up the Lungs and force them to expell the blood out of their vessels into the arteria venosa and to explode the aire out of their pipes into the windpipe and this by frequent contractions of their lax and spongy substance answerable in time and quickness to the vibrations of the Midriff And then because the same Intercostal nerve which communicateth with the nerve of the Diaphragm below is conjoyned above also with the nerves of the jaws and muscles of the face thence it is that the motions of Laughter being once begun in the brest the face also is distorted into gestures or grimasces patheticaly correspondent thereunto And this is the most probable account I am able at present to give of the occasions and motions of passionate Laughter in general nor can I at present think of any more plausible conjecture concerning the reason of the admirable laughter of Ludovicus Vives than this that in him the nerves inservient to the motion of the Midriff might be after such a peculiar manner contrived and framed as easily to cause quick and short reciprocations thereof upon the pleasant affection of his Imagination by the grateful relish of his meat after long abstinence which doth alwaies highten the pleasure of refection But we have insisted too long upon the motions of Ioy. In the contrary whereof viz. Grief or Sorrow which we have above described to be an ingrateful languor of the Soul from a conception of evil present moving her to contract herself that she may avoid it the Animal Spirits are indeed recalled inward but slowly and without violence so that the blood being by degrees destitute of a sufficient influx of them is trasmitted through the heart with too slow a motion Whence the pulse is rendered little slow rare and weak and there is felt about the heart a certain oppressive strictness as if the orifices of it were drawn together with a manifest chilness congealing the blood and communicating itself to the rest of the body From which dejecting symptoms it is easy to collect that this dolefull affection especialy if it be vehement and of long continuance cannot but infer many and grievous incommodities to the whole body For besides this that it darkneth the spirits and so dulls the wit obscures the judgment blunts the memory and in a word beclouds the Lucid part of the Soul it doth moreover incrassate the blood by refrigeration and by that reason immoderately constringe the heart cause the lamp of life to burn weakly and dimly induce want of sleep by drying the brain corrupt the nutritive juice and convert it into that Devil of a humor Melancholy No wonder then if in men overcome with this so dismal passion the countenance appears pale wan and liveless the limbs grow heavy and indisposed to motion the flesh decays and consumes through want of nourishment and the whole body be precipated into imbecillity Cachexy or an evil habit languishing and other cold and chronic diseases All which the wisest of Men King Salomon hath summ'd up in few words in 17 Chap. of his Proverbs where he advertiseth that a sorrowful spirit drieth up the very bones And yet notwithstanding it is very rarely found that from Grief either long and obstinate or violent and suddainly invading any man hath fallen into a swoon or been suddenly extinguished Which I am apt to refer to this that in the ventricles of the heart tho but very slowly commoved there can hardly be so smale a quantity of blood but it may suffice to keep alive the vital flame burning therein when the orifices of them are almost closed as commonly they are by immoderate grief Somtimes this bitter passion is signified by a certain uncomely distortion of the face somwhat different from that of Laughter and acompanied with Tears somtimes only by Sighs by Sighs when the Grief is extreme by Tears when it is but moderate For as Laughter never proceeds from great and profound Joy so neither doe Tears flow from profound sorrow according to that of the Tragedian leves curae loquuntur ingentes stupent Nor is weeping the pathognomonic or infallible sign of Grief For all tears are not voluntary every light hurt or pain of the Eyes causing them to distill against our will nor all voluntary ones the effect of Grief Some weep for sudden joy joyned with Love especialy old men some when their Revenge is suddainly frustrated by the repentance and submission of the offender and such are the tears of Reconciliation Some again weep out of Anger when they meet with a repulse or check of their desires which causing them with regret to reflect upon their own weakness and insufficiency to compass their wills affects them with displeasure and dissolves them into tears as if they fell out with themselves upon a sudden sense of their own defect and this kind of weeping is most familiar to Children and Women when they are crossed in their wills and expectation as also to Revengefull Men upon their beholding of those whom they commisserate and their want of power to help them Notwithstanding the Occasions of weeping be thus various yet since Tears are frequently both an effect and testimony of sorrow the nature and motions whereof we have now attempted to explain it can be no impertinent Digression to inquire further into their original or sours and the manner how they are made to flow when we are willing to signify our present sorrow by shedding them As for the Fountain therefore whence all our Tears flow and the Matter whereof they consist the succesful industry of Modern Anatomists hath discovered that in the Glandules placed at each corner of the Eyes there is either from the blood brought thither by the arteries as the vulgar doctrine is or as I upon good reasons elswhere delivered conceive from the Nutritive juice brought by nerves separated and kept in store a certain thin clear and watery humor partly saline partly subacid in tast the use whereof is aswell to keep the globes of the eyes moist and slippery for their more easy motion as to serve for Tears when we have occasion to shed them And to this some have added that because there are certain branches of nerves like the tendrels of a vine incircling the vessells leading to and from those Glandules and by their tension somtimes constringing them therefore it is probable that when the serous humor is too abundant in the blood brought into the brain the same is by the arteries whose pulse is quickned somwhat by the pressure of these nerves brought more copiously than at other times into those Glandules and after its separation there detained from returning by the veins that
only to make all the Evils they produce easily tollerable but even to reap internal satisfaction and joy from all And secondly it is evident from the very nature of our Passions that they cannot carry us on to any actions whatsoever but only by the Desire they excite in us and therefore if we can but direct that desire to right objects that is to things realy Good we may by that alone prevent our being deceived that is our being carried to evil actions by violence of our Passions but that Right Reason is of itself able so to direct our desire arising from passions is manifest from the known Utility of Moral Philosophy which prescribeth certain rules to that end I will conclude then that I commit Errors in passion not because I am naturaly prone to Passions nor because I want an omniscious Understanding but only because I make not a right use of that finite indeed yet sufficient Vnderstanding God hath given me in the conduct of that Cupidity my passions excite in me That I may therefore be henceforth better able to make use of my Understanding as I ought in such occasions it highly concerneth me to enquire in the next place into the origin of that Error to which the Cupidity accompanying our Passions doth most frequently expose us for that being once known will be the more easily avoidable This Error then doth arise if I mistake not from hence that we do not sufficiently distinguish those things that depend intirely upon ourselves from those that depend upon others as to their events it being a general rule that Desire is alwaies good when grounded upon certain Knowledge and on the contrary alwaies evil when founded upon some error Now as to things that depend upon ourselves alone that is upon our Free-will to know them to be good is sufficient to assure us we cannot desire them too fervently because to doe good things that depend upon ourselves is to pursue Virtue which cannot be too fervently desired nor can the event of our desire of such things possibly be unhappy because from the conscience that by desiring them we have rightly used the freedom of our will we receive all the satisfaction we expected But alass the Error that is too commonly committed in such cases lieth not in the over fervent but in the overcold desire And the best remedy against this defect is to free the mind as much as is possible from all other desires less profitable and then to endeavour clearly to understand and with due attention to examine the goodness of the thing that is represented as worthy to be desired As for the things that are altogether independent upon Vs however good they may be yet we are never to desire them vehemently not only because t is possible they may never arrive and so vex and torment the mind so much the more bitterly by how much the more eagerly they have been desired but chiefly because by preoccupating our thoughts they withdraw our study from other things whereof the acquisition depends upon ourselves And against these vain desires there are two general Remedies whereof the first is true Generosity the other a firm belief of and tranquill dependence upon Providence Divine For that noble and heroic habit of the mind which is called Generosity and which seems to comprehend all other Virtues though it animateth Men to great and honorable enterprises doth yet at the same time restrain them from attempting things which they conceive themselves incapable to effect inspiring courage not temerity Then by teaching that nothing is either more worthy of or more delightful to a spirit elevated by the love of Virtue above the vulgar that to doe good to others and in order thereunto to prefer beneficence to self-interest it makes us perfectly charitable benign affable and ready to oblige every one by good offices when it is in our power so to do Again being inseparable from virtuous Humility it makes us both to measure our own Merits by the impartial rule of right reason and to know that we can have no just right to praise or reward but from the genuin and lauâ—â—ble use of the freedom of our Will. And from these and other the like excellent effects of this divine Virtue it is that the Generous attain to an absolute dominion over their exorbitant passions and desires They conquer Iealousie and Envy by considering that nothing whereof the acquisition depends not wholy upon themselves is realy valuable enough to justify their earnest desire of it They exempt themselves from Hatred towards any by esteeming all as worthy of love as themselves They admit no Fear by being duely conscious of their own innocency and secure in the confidence of their own Virtue They banish Grief by remembring that while they conserve their will to doe good they can be deprived of nothing that is properly theirs And Anger they exclude because little esteeming whatsoever depends upon others they never yeeld so much to their Adversaries as to acknowledge themselves within the reach of their injuries It is not then without reason that I fix upon Generosity as one of the universal remedies against our inordinate Cupidities And As for the other namely frequent reflection upon Providence Divine this doubtless must likewise be of soveraign efficacy to preserve us from all distempers of mind For it establish us in a certain perswasion that it is absolutely impossible that any thing should come to pass otherwise than this Providence hath from all eternity determined and consequently that Fortune is but a Chimera hatch'd in the brain out of an Error of human understanding and nourished by popular superstition For we cannot desire any thing unless we first think the same to be some way or other possible nor can we think those things to be possible that depend not upon us unless so far as we imagine them to depend upon Fortune and that the like have hapned in times past But this opinion proceeds only from hence that we know not all the Causes that concurr to single Effects For when a thing that we have apprehended to depend upon Fortune and so to be possible succeeds not that is a certain sign that some one of the Causes necessary to make it succeed or come to pass hath been wanting and consequently that the same was absolutely impossible as also that the like event that is such a one to the production whereof the like necessary Cause was wanting hath never come to pass So that had we not been ignorant of that deficient Cause we never had thought that event to be possible nor by consequence ever desired it We are therefore utterly to renounce that vulgar absurdity that there is in the World a certain Power called Fortune that makes things to happen or not to hapen as she pleaseth and in the â—oom thereof to establish this great verity that all things are directed by Divine Providence whose decree