many praiers wear short hair observe fasting-daies give alms and perform other the like external duties of Religion therefore think themselves to be arrived at the highest degree of purity and to be so far in the favor of Almighty God that they can do nothing that may displease him and that whatever their passion suggesteth to them is of holy zeal though it not seldome suggesteth the most detestable crimes that can enter into the heart of Man as the betraying of Cities assassination of Princes extermination of Nations only because they follow not their fanatique opinions And this Delusion seems to be the Daughter of internal Acquiescence grounded upon an unjust cause Again to excite this most comfortable passion it is requisite that the good act upon which we reflect be newly done by us because that constant satisfaction or self-acquiescence which alwaies is a concomitant and certain reward of Virtue is not a passion but a pacific Habit in the Rational Soul and is therefore call'd Tranquility and Quiet of Conscience On the contrary from our remembrance of an Evil act by us committed ariseth Repentance which is a branch of Grief alwaies most bitter because the cause of it is only from ourselves but then this Grief is allayed by expectation of amendment or returning into the right way to good which is referrible to Ioy. Nor doth the bitterness of this passion hinder it from being of excellent use in our life when the action whereof we repent is realy Evil and we certainly know it to be so because in such cases it strongly inciteth us to doe better in the future But it is not universaly profitable For it is no rarity for men of weak and timorous minds to be touchd with Repentance of actions they have done tho they do not certainly know those actions to be realy evil but only believe them to be so because they fear lest they be so and if they had done the contrary they would have been equally disquieted with repentance Which is an imperfection in them well worthy Commiseration and they ought to repent of such their Repentance When we observe or recall to mind good performed by an other tho not to ourselves we are thereby moved to Favour the doer because we are by nature inclined to like and love those who doe actions that we think good althouh from thence nothing of good redounds to us in particular Favour therefore is a species of Love accompanied with desire of seeing good to happen to the person whom we favour and somtimes with Commiseration because the adversity that falls upon those whom we think to be good makes us the more to reflect upon their merits But if the good done by another upon which we reflect our cogitations hath been done to Vs then to favor is adjoined Gratitude which likewise is a kind of Love excited in us by some action of another whereby we believe that eitheâ—â—he hath realy benefited noâ— at least intended to benefit us in particularâ— and accompanied with Desire to shew ourselves thankful to 〈…〉 therefore this passion of Gratitude 〈…〉 excells simple Favour in this that it is grounded upon an action which concerns Vs so hath it far greater force upon the mind especialy in men of noble and generous natures The Contrary hereunto is Ingratitude which notwithstanding is no Passion for Nature as if she abhorr'd it hath ordained in us no motion of the Spirits whereby it might be excited but a meer Vice proper to men who are either foolishly proud and therefore think all benefits due to them or fottishly stupid so as to make no reflexion upon good turns done them or of weak and abject minds who having been obliged by the bounty and charity of their Benefactors instead of being gratefull prosecute them with hatred and this because either wanting the will to requite or despairing of ability to make equal returns and falsely imagining that all are like themselves venal and mercenary and that none doth good offices but in hope of remuneration they think that their Benefactors have deceived them and so deprave the benefit itself into an injury Hatred then being an adjunct to Ingratitude it follows that Love must attend on Gratitude which is therefore alwaies honest and one of the principal bonds of human Society On the contrary when we consider Evil committed by an other tho not against us we are moved to Indignation which is a species of Hatred or Aversion raised in us against those who do any thing that we judge to be evil or unjust whatsoever it be somtimes commixed with Envy somtimes with Commiseration somtimes with Derision as having its object very much diversified For we conceive Indignation against those who doe good or evil to such who are unworthy thereof but we Envy those who receive that good and pity those who suffer that evil And yet in truth to obtain good whereof one is unworthy is in some degree to doe evil and to do Evil is in some sort to suffer evil Whence it comes that somtimes we conjoyn Pity somtimes Derision to our Indignation according as we stand well or ill affected toward them whom we observe to commit Errors And therefore the Laughter of Democritus who derided the folly and the Tears of Heraclitus who bewail'd the misery of mankind might both proceed from the same cause Indignation But when Evil is done to ourselves the passion thereby kindled in us is Anger which likewise is a species of Hatred or Aversation but different from Indignation in this that it is founded upon an action done by another with intention to hurt us in particular and in this that when it hath proceeded to a determination of hurting him who did it it passeth into Revenge whereas at first accension the Passion is no more but Excandescence or suddain Heat of blood The Desire of Revenge that for the most part accompanieth Anger whether it aim at the death or only at the subjection of our Enemy is indeed directly opposed to Gratitude for this is desire of returning good for good and that desire of requiting evil with evil as Indignation is to Favour but incomparably more vehement than either of those three affections because the desire of repelling harm and revenging our selves is a part of natural instinct necessary to self-preservation and so of all desires the strongest and most urgent And being consociated with Love of ourselves it affords to Anger all that impetuous agitation of the Spirits and blood that Animosity and Boldness or Courage can excite and its assistant Hatred promoting the accension of the Choleric or more Sulphureous parts of the blood as it passeth through the heart raiseth in the whole mass thereof a more pricking and fervent heat than that which is observed in the most ardent Love or most profuse Ioy. Now as men inflamed with this violent passion or as Seneca calls itâ— short fury of Anger differ in
most swiftly transmitted from the brain into all parts of the body that may any way serve to do the actions requisite to that end but above all into the Heart which being thereby dilated and contracted both more strongly and more frequently than in the state of tranquility quickly forceth up a more abundant supply of Vital Spirits with the blood into the brain aswell that they may there conserve and corroborate the Idea of this Desire as that whole brigades of them may be from thence dispatched into the Organs of the Senses and into all Muscles whose motions may more especially conduce to obtain what is so vehemently desired And from the Souls reflexion upon the delay of her fruition which she at the same time makes there ariseth in her a sollicitude or trouble whereby she is checked and contracted again and the spirits are by intervals retracted toward the brain So that the more subtil and spiritual blood being with the spirits recalled from the outward parts the heart comes to be constringed and streightned the Circulation of the blood retarded and consequently the whole body left without spirits and vigor Let none therefore admire if many of those Men whom Lust or Concupiscence Ambition Avarice or any other more fervent desire hath long exercised and inslaved be by continual sollicitude of mind brought at length into an ill Habit of body to leanness a defect of Nutrition Melancholy the Scurvy Consumption and other incurable diseases Nor are you after this so clear manifestation of the great disparity betwixt the Motions and necessary Consequents of Love when pure and simple and those of Love commixt with Cupidity or ardent Desire of enjoyment longer to doubt but that Love and Desire are Passions essentially different notwithstanding it be true that the Later is alwaies dependent upon the Former And as for the Motions of the Spirits and blood in that anxious Affect of the mind Hatred which is directly opposed to Love evident it is that when the Soul is moved to withdraw herself from any object that appears to threaten Evil or pain instantly the Spirits are retracted inwards to the brain and principaly to that part of it which is the instrument or mint of Imagination there to corroborate the idea of Hatred which the first thought hath formed of the ungrateful object and to dispose the Soul to sentiments full of bitterness and detestation So that the while very few of them and those too inordinately and by unequal impulses are transmitted into the Heart by the Pathetic nerves And from this offensive Contraction of the whole Sensitive Soul and as it were compression of the Animal spirits and subsequent destitution of the Heart it comes that in this sowr passion alwaies the Pulse is made weak and unequal and oftentimes frequent and creeping that cold mixt with a certain pricking heat not easy to be described but sensibly injurious to the vital parts and repugnant to their regular motions is felt within the breast and that even the stomach itself diverted from its office of Concoction nauseateth the meats it had received and strives to reject them by vomit Which often happens upon sight of an odious and abominable object Now all these evil effects of Hate give indisputable evidence that it can never be either gratefull to the mind or beneficial to the motions of life upon which health so nearly depends and this because Hate always hath Sadness for its concomitant and because by diversion of the Animal spirits partly to assist the Imagination partly to move the members for avoidance of the hated object it defrauds the blood of its due supplies of spirits and fewel retards the motion and equal distribution of it and by that means destroies concoction incrassates the humors heaps up melancholy and by degrees brings the whole body to poverty and leanness Moreover sometimes this disagreeable Passion is exalted to Anger whereby the Soul offended with the Evil or wrong she hath suffered at first Contracts herself and by and by with vehemency springs back again to her natural posture of Coextension with the whole body as if the strove to break out into revenge and then it is that the spirits are in a tumultuous manner and impetuously hurried hither and thither now from the brain to the heart then back again from the heart to the brain and so there follow from these contrary motions alternately reciprocated aswell a violent agitation palpitation burning and anxiety of the heart as a diffusion of the blood distension of the veins redness of the face and sparkling of the eyes together with a distorsion of the mouth such as may be observed in great indignation and seems composed of laughter and weeping mixt together grinding of the teeth and other symptoms of Anger and fury It is not then without reason Physicians advise Men to decline this passion as a powerful enemy to health in all but such as are of a cold dull and phlegmatic temperament because it inflames first the spirits then the blood and when violent it puts us into fevers and other acute distempers by accension of choler and confusion of humors And I could furnish you with examples of some whom this short fury hath fired into perpetual madness of others whom it hath fell'd with Apoplexies others whom it hath thrown into Epilepsies rack'd with Convulsions unnerved with Palseys disjoynted with the Gout shook with tremblings and the like but that the books of Physicians are full of them Here before we proceed to other consequent Passions it is fit to make a short reflexion upon Hatred that I may verify what was only hinted in the precedent enumeration of the evil Effects thereof viz. that it is ever accompanied with Sadness Concerning this therefore I reason thus Forasmuch as Evil the proper object of Hate is nothing but a Privation and that we can have no conception thereof without some real Subject wherein we apprehend it to be and that there is in nature nothing real which hath not some goodness in it it follows of necessity that Hatred which withdraws us from some Evil doth at the same time remove us also from some Good to which the same is conjoyn'd And since the Privation of this Good is represented to the Soul as a Defect or want belonging to her it instantly affecteth her with sorrow For Example the Hate that alienateth us from the evil manners of a man with whom formerly we have been acquainted separateth us likewise from his Conversation wherein we might find somthing of Good and to be deprived of that Good is matter of regret and Sorrow So in all other Hatred we may soon observe some cause of Sorrow ¶ To the excitement of Desire in the Soul it is sufficient that she conceive the acquisition of the Good or avoidance of the Evil represented to her as to come to be possible but if she further consider whether it be Easy or Difficult for her to
Moral of which in their order 1. Passions meerly Physical or which properly belong to the Sensitive Soul alone are those natural and occult inclinations and aversations commonly call'd Sympathies and Antipathies whereby one Man more than another is not only disposed but even by secret impuls forced to affect or dislike such or such a person or thing without any manifest cause or inducement so to do Of Sympathies betwixt Persons there is great variety of Examples especialy in Lovers among whom many are not allured by that grand bait of the Sensitive Soul Beauty but strongly attracted and as it were fascinated by they know not what hidden Congruity or as the French call it agreeableness of Spirits which enchains them so firmly to the persons beloved that notwithstanding the deformities they see and acknowledge to be in them yea and the contempt they somtimes receive from them they still doat upon and with delightful submissions court and adore them And as for Antipathies as well toward Persons as things instances of them also are without number and many shew themselves at our very table Where one Man abhors a brest of Mutton yet loves the Shoulder cut from it a second swoons at the sight of Eels and yet will feast upon Lampreys or Congers a third abominates Chees but is pleased with Milk a fourth devests rosted Pigg yet can make a meal upon bacon This Man sweats at presence of a Cat that falls into an agony by casting his eye upon a Frogg or Toad an other can never be reconciled to Oysters Nay more there are who feel themselves ready to faint if a Cat be hidden in some secret place of the room wherein they are though they suspect no such encountre of their natural enemy till they are wounded with the invisible darts or emanations from her body And all these admirable Effects proceed not from any positive Evil or malignity in the things abhorred for what 's one Mans meat is an others poyson but only from their incongruity or occult Enmity to this or that particular Sensitive Soul For if at any time it happens that the consistence of Animal Spirits that constitute the lucid or Sensitive part of this Soul be by the encountre of any object put into great disorder she ever after abhors the approach or effâ—luvia of the same Whereas the Congruity of particles proceeding from an object to the contexture of the Soul is on the contrary the ground of all her secret Amities 2. Passions Metaphysical or which seem to have their first rise from and principaly to relate to the Rational Soul are those which Divines call devout and religious Affections directed to objects Supernatural and chiefly to God For when our nobler Soul reflecting upon the excellency and immortality of her nature aspires by sublime speculations toward her supreme felicity the contemplation and love of her Creator and determines her Will to persue that incomprehensible because infinite subject of all perfections which alone can satisfy her understanding with light or knowledge and her will with love she doth not only exercise herself in simple and abstracted conceptions such as are proper to her immaterial essence alone and conformable to the dignity of the thing she speculates but communicates her affects also to the Sensitive Soul by whose subordinate motions she is obliged to act respectively to her end And these motions or acts being thus traduced from the superiour to the inferior Soul and thence derived first to the brain and imagination then to the heart produce therein and so in the blood the various motions that constitute such Passions as we observe in our selves when we are most ardently urged to acts of devotion and piety toward the supream Being Whence it is doubtless that Divine love detestation of sin repentance hope of Salvation fear of incensing Divine justice and most if not all other acts or passions of devotion are commonly ascribed to the heart and that not without some reason For though I cannot admit the heart to be the Seat of the Passions as the Aristoteleans unanimously hold it to be only because of the sensible alterations therein produced in most passions since in truth those alterations are rather consequents than causes of Passions and since they are not felt by us as in the heart but only by means of the nerves descending thither from the brain as pain is not felt as in the foot but by intervention of nerves betwixt the foot and the brain and as the starrs appear to us as in heaven by mediation of their light affecting our Optick nerves So that it is no more necessary the Soul should exercise her functions or receive her passions immediately in the heart only because she feels her passions therein than it is she should be in heaven because she sees the starrs to be there or in the foot because pain appears to her to be there Notwithstanding this I say yet the adscription of these devout Passions to the heart is not altogether destitute of reason For for instance when the inferiour Soul is commanded by the Superior to humble and as it were to prostrate herself in adoration of the sacred Majesty of God instantly both parts thereof as well the Sensitive as the Vital are forced to repress and restrain their wonted emanations or effusions Whereupon the Animal Spirits being in whole legions withdrawn from minis tring to the Imagination and Senses are by the nerves transmitted in crowds to the heart which while they closely contract and shut they cause the blood to remain longer than is usual in the cavities thereof and by that means keep it both from being too much kindled in the Lungs and from being sent from the heart in too great abundance into the rest of the body and more especialy into the brain as if Nature itself had instituted that in sacred passions the blood or principal seat of life should be offered up to the Author of life upon the altar of the heart while the brain or seat of reason is kept serene and clear Nor is it difficult to a man praying to Almighty God with fervency of Spirit to observe in himself that his blood is more and more arrested and detained within his breast the while insomuch that his heart seems to swell his lungs to be opprest and he is forced frequently to interrupt his oraisons with profound sighs for attraction of fresh aer as if the reasonable Soul not content to devote herself alone and pour forth her holy desires to God laboured to make a libation also of the vital blood for a propitiatory oblation So that though the Soul cannot in strictness of truth be said to receive her passions in the heart yet since the alterations caused in us by them are greater and more sensible in the heart and consequently in the blood than in any other part of the whole body beside I am not so addicted to vitilitigation as to contend about