spirits fortifies them and then they are at the same time actions of vertue and Passions of the Soul So though there be no vertue whereunto me thinks good birth so much contributes as that which causeth a man to esteem himselfe according to his just value and it be easie to believe that all Souls which God puts into our bodies are not equally noble and strong wherefore I called this vertue Generositie according to the acception of our language rather than Magnanimity the School tearms that it may be the more unknown yet it is certain that good education much conduces to correct the defects of our birth and that if a man busy himselfe frequently to consider what this free Disposition is and how great advantages accrue from a stedfast resolution to use it well as on the other side how vain and unprofitable all the cares that puzzle the ambitious are a man may by exciting the Passion in himselfe acquire the vertue of Generosity which being as the key of all the other vertues and a generall remedy against all the irregularities of Passions me thinkes this consideration ought to be very seriously noted The 162. Article Of Veneration VEneration or respect is an inclination of the Soul not onely to esteeme the object it reverenceth but also so submit to it with some kind of fear to endeavour to make it become gracious to her So that we bear only a Veneration to free causes which we conceive able to do good or evill to us without knowing which of the two they will doe For we bear Love and Devotion rather than a meer Veneration to those from whom we onely expect good and we bear Hatred to none but such as we only expect evill from and if we conceive the cause of this good or evil not to be free we do not submit ourselves thereunto to get the goodwill of it So when the Pagans bore a Veneration to woods springs mountains they did not properly reverence these inanimate things but the Divinities which they thought presided over them And t he motion of the spirits that excite this Passion is compounded of that which excites Admiration and that which excites Fear whereof I will speak hereafter The 163 Article Of Disdain JUst so that which I call disdaine is an inclination of the Soul to contemne a free cause by judging that though of its own nature it be able to doe either good or evill yet it is so far beneath us that it can doe us neither and the motion of the spirits that excite it is compounded of phose that excite Admiration and Security or Boldnesse The 164th Article Of the use of these two Passions ANd it is either Generosity or Deification and weaknesse of spirit that determine the good or ill use of these two Passions for by how much a mans Soul is more noble or generous so much the more inclination hee hath to give every one his own and so hath not only an extraordinaty HUmility towards God but without reluctancy bestowes all the honour and respect which are due to men to each according to the rank and authority he holds in the world and contemnes nothing but Vice On the contrary they who are of a mean and weak spirit are apt to sinne in excesses sometimes by reverencing and fearing things only worthy of contempt sometimes by insolently disdaining such as deserve to be reverenced and they often slip suddenly from extream impiety to superstition thence again from superstition to impiety so that there is no vice nor irregularity of spirit which they are not subject to The 165 Article Of Hope and Feare HOpe is a disposition of the Soul to perswade her that what she desires shall come to passe which is caused by a peculiar motion of the spirits to wit by those of Joy and desire mixed together and Feare is another disposition of the Soul which perswades her that it shall not come to passe and it is to be noted that though these two Passions be contrary to one another yet a man may have them both together to wit when he fancies to himselfe severall reasons whereof some make him conceive the accomplishment of his Desire is easie the other make it seeme difficult The 166 Article Of Security and Despaire ANd one of these Passions never accompanies Desire but it leaves room for the other for when Hope is so strong that it utterly expellâ—â— Fear it alters the nature thereof and is called Security and when a man is sure that what hee desires shall come to pass though hee still wish that it would come yet he nevertheless ceases to be agitated with the Passion of Desire which made him seek after the event with anxietie In like manner when Fear is so extream that it takes away all kind of Hope it converts into Despaire and this Despaire fancying the thing impossible clearly extinguisheth Desire which only is bent on things possible The 167th Article Of Jealousie JEalousie is a sort of Feare relating to the Desire a man hath to keep the possession of some good and it proceeds not so much from strength of reason which makes him conjecture he may lose it as the great value he sets on it which causeth him to dive into the least occasions of suspition and take them for very considerable arguments The 168 Article Wherein this Passion may be laudable ANd because a man ought more carefully to keep great goods than lesse this Passion may be just and laudable on some occasions as for example A Captain that guards a place of great importance ought to be jealous of it that is mistrust all means whereby it may bee taken and and honest woman is not to be blamed for being jealous of her honour that is not only beware of doing ill but also avoid even the least occasions of detraction The 169 Article Wherein it is blameworthy BUt a covetous man is to be laught at when he is jealous of his treasure that is when hee broods over it with his eyes and will never be farre from it lest it should be stollen from him for money is not worth keeping with so much care and a man that is jealous of his wife is contemned because it is an evidence hee loves her not as he should doe and hath either an ill opinion of himselfe or her I say he loves her not as he should doe for if he bore a true Love to her hee would never be enclined to mistrust her but it is not her whom he properly loves it is only the good he imagines to consist in enjoying her alone to himselfe and he would not be afraid to lose this good if he did not either conceive himselfe unworthy of it or his wife disloyall Moreover this Passion relates only to suspicions and mistrusts for he is not properly Jealous that endeavours to shun an evill when he hath just reason to fear it The 170 Article Of Irresolution IRresolution also is a sort of
by some kind of tickling which exciting the Passion of Joy in her breeds afterwards Love of that she believes to be the cause of it and at last Desire to acquire that which may either cause this Joy to continue in her or to enjoy after it another like it which shews that they are all five very usefull in behalfe of the body and indeed that Sadnesse is in some sort superiour to and more necessary than Joy and Hatred than Love because it is of more moment to repell things noxious and destructive than to acquire such as adde some kind of perfection without which it is possible to subsist The 138th Article Of their faults and the means to correct them BBut although this use of the Passions be the naturallest they can have and all irrationall creatures regulate their life only by corporall motions resembling those which in us use to follow them and whereunto they incite our Soul to consent yet it is not alwayes good seeing there are many things hurtfull to the body which at first cause not any Sadness nor yet conferre Joy and others beneficiall to it though at first they be incommodious And besides they most commonly make the evills and goods they represent to us seem much greater and weightier then they are so that they incite us to seek after the one and avoid the other with more vehemency and anxiety then is convenient as we see beasts are often entrapped by baits and to shun little evills they precipitate themselves into greater Wherefore wee ought to make use of our experience and reason to distinguish good from evill and know their just valew that we may not take one for the other nor addict our selves to any thing excessively The 139th Article Of the use of the same Passions as they relate to the Soul and first of Love THis were sufficient if wee had only a body or if that were our better part but seeing it is the least we ought chiefly to consider the Passions as they relate to the Soul in respect whereof Love and Hatred proceed from Knowledge and precede Joy and Sadness except when these two last hold the place of Knowledge whereof those are sorts and when this Knowledge is true that is when the things it inclines us to love are truly good and those it inclines us to hate are truly evill then Love is incomparable better then Hatred nor can it be too great or fail to produce Joy I say this Love is extraordinary good because joyning true goods to us it makes us so much the more perfect I say also that it cannot be too great for what the most excessive can do is but to joyne us so absolutely to those goods that we put distinction between the love we bear to that and our selves which I beleeve cannot be evil And it is necessarily followed by Joy because it represents what we love as a good be-belonging to us The 140 Article Of Hatred HAtred on the contrary cannot be so small but it hurts and it is never without Sadnesse I say it cannot be too small because we are not incited by Hatred to any Action but what we may be by Love of the good contrary to it at least when this good and evil are enough understood For I confesse that the Hatred of evil which is not manifested but by pain is necessary in respect of the Body but I speak here of that which proceeds from a more cleare knowledge and I attribute it only to the Soul I say also that it is never without Sadnesse because evill being but a privation it cannot be conceived without some reall subject wherein it is and there is nothing reall but hath some goodnesse in it so that the Hatred which make us refrain from evill doth also make us refrain from the good whereunto it is annexed and the privation of this good being represented to our Soul as a defect in her excites Sadnesse For example the Hatred which makes us refrain from the evill manners of any one does by the same meanes make us refrain from his conversation wherein we might otherwise finde some good which we are vexed to be deprived of And so in all other kinds of Hatred some subject of Sadnesse may be observed The 141. Article Of Desire Joy and Sadnesse FOr desire it is evident that when it proceeds from a true knowledge it cannot be evill provided it be not immoderate and that this knowledge regulate it It is evident also that Joy cannot chuse but be good nor Sadnesse but be evil in respect of the Soul because in the last consist all the inconveniences that the Soul receives by evil and in the first all the enjoyment of good belonging to her So that if we had no Bodies I durst say we could not give our selves up too much to Love and Joy nor too much shunne Hatred and Sadnesse But the corporall motions that accompany them may be all hurtfull to the health when they are very violent and on the other side usefull when they are but moderate The 142 Article Of Joy and Love compared with Sadnesse and Hatred FUrthermore since Hatred and Sadness ought to be rejected by the Soul even then when they proceed from a true knowledge much more ought they to be when they come from any false opinion but it may be doubted whether Love and Joy are good or no when they likewise are ill grounded and me thinks if it be only considered what they are precisely in themselves in respect of the Soul it may be said that although the Joy be less solid and the Love lesse advantagious then when they have a better foundation they are at the worst to be preferred before Sadness and Hatred as ill grounded so that in the occurrences of life where we cannot avoid the hazard of being deceived wee doe alwayes best to lean to those Passions which tend towards good then those which have relation to evill although it be to shun it Nay sometimes a false Joy is better then a Sadness from a true cause but I dare not say the same of Love in relation to Hatred For when Hatred is just it removes us not from any thing but the subject which contains the Evill from which it is good to be separated whereas unjust Love joyns us to hurtfull things or at least to such as desire not to be so much considered by us as they are which devours and abases us The 143 Article Of the same Passions as they relate to Desire ANd it must be exactly noted that what I now spake of these foure Passions takes place only when they are considered precisely in themselves and encline us not to any action for seeing they excite Desire in us by whose interposition they regulate our manners it is certain that all those that come from a wrong cause may hurt and on the other side those that come of a just cause may be usefull and further that when they are
known to wit the nature of the loadstone fire aire water earth and all that appeares in the heavens seem not to be lesse difficult then those which may be desire Yet I must adde here that let an Architect be never so expert in his art it is impossible hee should finish the edifice hee hath begun if materials requisite are deficient in like manner let your method be never so exact yet you cannot make any further progresse in the explication of naturall causes unless you be able to make requisite experiments to determine their effects which is the last of the three things I believe ought chiefly to be explained because most men conceive not how necessary experiments are nor what expence they require those who not stirring out of their study nor casting their eyes on any thing but their books undertake to discourse of nature may well tell how they would have created the world had God given them authority and power to do it that is they might describe Chimera's that have as much Analogy with the imbecilitie of their wit as the admirable beauty of this Universe with the infinite puissance of its Maker but without a spirit truly divine they cannot of themselves frame an Idea of things like that which God had to create them And though your Method promise all that may be hoped for from humane wit concerning the enquiry after truth in the Sciences yet it doth not promise to teach Prophecie but to deduce from certain things laid down all truths that may from thence be deducted and the things laid down in Physicks can be nothing but experiments Moreover because experiments are of two sorts some easie that depend only on the reflexion a man makes on things represented to the senses of themselves others more rare and difficult which are not attained without some study and expence it may bee observed that you have already inserted in your writings all that seems may be gahtered out of easie experiments and also the rarest too that you could learn out of books For besides your explaining the nature of all qualities that move the senses and the most ordinary bodies on the earth as fire air water and some others in them you have also therein given an account of all that hath been observed hitherto in the heavens of all the properties of the Loadstone and many Chymicall observations So that there is no reason to expect any more from you concerning Physicks till you have made more experiments whereof you might enquire the causes And I wonder not that you undertake not to try these experiments at your own charges For I know the enquirie after the smallest things cost a great deal and not to quote Chymists nor the rest of the hunters after secrets who use to undoe themselves at that trade I heard say that the Loadstone only cost Gilbert above 50000 crowns though he were a man of very great parts as he hath shewed by being the first who discovered the chief properties of that stone I have also seen the Advancement to Learning and the New Atlantis of my Lord Chancellour Bacon who of all them that have written before you seems to me the man who had the best notions concerning the method to be held to bring the Physicks to their perfection but the whole Revenue of two or three of the richest Kings on the earth would not be enough to set all things he requires for this purpose on work And although I think you doe not need so many sorts of experiments as hee imagines because you may supply many as well by your dexterity as the knowledge of truths you have already found yet considering that the number of particular bodies unexamined is almost infinite that there is not any one but hath a great many severall properties and whereof severall tryals may be made to take up the time and labour of many men that according to the rules of your method it is necessary at once to examine all things who have any affinitie between them the better to marke their differences and to make such quantities as you may be assured that so you may profitably make use at the same time of more severall experiments than the labour of a great many able men could furnish you withall and lastly that you cannot get these able men but at a great rate because if some would employ themselves gratis they would not be obedient enough to your orders and would only give you occasion to lose time considering I say all these things I easily comprehend you cannot handsomly finish the designe you have begun in your principles that is particularly to lay open the nature of all Minerals Plants animals and man as you have already done all the elements of the earth and all observable in the heavens unlesse the publique defray the expences necessary for that purpose and the more liberall they shall be to you the better you shall be able to goe through with your designe Now because all these things may be easily comprehended by every one and are all so true they cannot be doubted I am confident that if you represented them in such a manner as they might come to the knowledge of those to whom God hath given power to command the people of the earth and charge also to doe their utmost to advance the common good there is none of them but would contribute to a designe so manifestly profitable to the whole world and though out France which is your Country be so mighty a State that you might easily obtain from her alone whatsoever is requisite to this purpose yet because other Nations are no less interessed therein than shee I am confident many would be generous enough not to give her place in that duty and that there would not any bee so barbarous as not to put in a hand But if all that I have written be not enough to make you of another humour pray at least oblige me so farre as to send me your Treatise of the Passions and give me leave to adde a Preface to it wherewith it may be printed I will see it shall be so done that there shall be nothing you can dislike in it but it shall be so conformable to the resentment of all those who have either wit or vertue that no man after hee hath read it but shall participate in the zeale I have to the advancement of Sciences and to be c. Paris Nov. 6. 1648. In answer to the precedent letter Sir Among the many injuries and taunts I find in the long letter you tooke the paines to write to me I observe so many things to my advantage that should you put it to be printed as you declare you will I am afraid it would be imagined there were a greater combination betwixt us than there is and I had entreated you to insert many things that modesty would not suffer me my self to publish to the world Wherfore I will not here
the rest to our Soul The 23th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to objects from without us Those which we attribute to things without us to wit to the objects of our enses are caused at least if our opinion be not false by those objects which exciting some motions in the organs of the exteriour senses by intercourse with the nerves stir up some in the brain which make the soul perceive them So when we see the light of a torch and hear the sound of a bell this sound and this light are two everall actions who meerly in this regard that they excite two severall motions in some of our nerves and by meanes of them in the brain deliver the Soul two different Resentments which we so attribute to those Subjects which we suppose to be their causes that we think we see the very flame and hear the bell not onely feel certain motions proceeding from them The 24th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to our body THe apprehensions which we attribute to our body or any of the parts thereof are those we have concerning hunger thirst and other our naturall appetites whereunto may be added paine heat and the rest of the affections we feel as in our members and not in the objects without us So we may at at the same time by the intercourse of the same nerves feel the coldnesse of our hand and the heat of the flame it drawes neere to or contrarily the heat of the hand and the cold of the aire whereto it is exposed and yet there is no difference between the Actions that make us feel the heat or the cold in our hand and those which make us feel that which is without us unlesse that one of these Actions succeeding the other we conceive the first to be already in us and that which followes not to be yet in us but in the object that causeth it The 25th Article Of the apprehensions which we attribute to our Soul THe Apprehensions attributed only to the Soul are those whereof the effects are felt as in the Soul it selfe and whereof any neer cause whereunto it may be attributed is commonly unknown Such are the resentments of joy wrath and the like which are sometimes excited in us by the objects which move our nerves and sometimes too by other causes Now although all our Apprehensions as well those attributed to objects without us as those relating to divers affections of our body be in truth Passions in respect of our Soul when this word is taken in the more generall signification yet it is usuall to restrain it to signifie onely those attributed to the Soul it selfe And they are onely these latter which I here undertake to explaine under the notion of Passions of the Soul The 26th Article That the imaginations which depend onely on the accidentall motion of the spirits may be as reall Passions as the apprehensions depending on the nerves IT is here to be observed that all the same things which the Soul perceives by intercourse with the nerves may also be represented to it by the accidentall course of the spirits and no difference between them but this that the impressions which come from the brain by the nerves are usually more lively and manifest than those the spirits excite there which made me say in the one and twentieth Article that these are onely as the shadow and representation of those It is also to be noted that it sometimes fals out this picture is so like the thing it represents that it is possible to be deceived concerning the apprehensions attributed to those objects without us or those referred to any parts of our body but not to be srved so concerning the Passions forasmuch as they are so neer and interiour to our Soul that it is impossible she should feele them unlesse they were truely such as she doth feel them So oftentimes when one sleeps and sometimes too being awake a man fancies things so strongly that he thinkes he sees them before him or feels them in his body though there be no such thing but although a man be asleep and doate he cannot feel himselfe sad ormoved with any other Passion but it is most true that the Soul hath in it that passion The 27th Article The definition of the Passions of the Soul AFter we have thus considered wherein the passions of the Soul differ from all other thoughts me thinkes they may be generally defined thus Apprehensions resentments or emotions of the Soul attributed particularly to it and caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits The 28th Article An explication of the first part of the definition THey may be called Apprehensions when this word is used in a generall sense to signifie all thoughts that are not Actions of the Soul or the wills but not then when it onely signifies evident knowledges For experience shewes us that those who are most agitated by their Passions are not such as understand them best and that they are in the Catalogue of those apprehensions which the strict alliance between the soul and the body renders confused and obscure they may also be called resentments because they are received into the soul in the same manner as the objects of the exteriour senses and are not otherwise understood by her but they may justlier be stiled the emotions of the Soul not only because this name may be attributed to all the mutations befalling her that is all the various thoughts thereof but particularly because of all kinds of thoughts that she can have there are none that agitate and shake it so hard as these Passions doe The 29th Article An explication of the other part I Adde that they are attributed particularly to the Soul to distinguish them from other resentments relating some to exteriour objects as smells sounds colours the others to our body as hunger thirst pain I also subjoyn that they are caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits to distinguish them from our Wills which cannot be called emotions of the Soul attributed to her but caused by her self as also to unfold their last and immediate cause that distinguisheth them again from other resentments The 30th article That the Soul is united to all the parts of the body joyntly BUt to understand all these things more perfectly it is necessary to know that the Soul is really joyned to all the body but it cannot properly bee said to bee in any of the parts thereof excluding the rest because it is One and in some sort indivisible by reason of the disposition of the organs which do all so relate one to another that when any one of them is taken away it renders the whole body defective and because it is of a nature that hath no reference to extension dimensions or other properties of matter whereof the body is composed but only to the whole masse or Contexture of Organs as appears by this that you cannot
which being often contrary one to the other draw it backwards and forwards to either side and keeping her busie in contesting against her self put the soul into the most miserable estate she can be as then when fearfulnesse represents death as an extream evill which cannot be shunned but by flight if on the other side ambition represent the infamy of this flight as a mischief worse than death these two Passions variously agitate the Will which obeying now the one and then the other continually opposeth its own self and yields up the soul to slaverie and misfortune The 49th Article That the strength of the soul is not enough without the knowledge of truth IT is true there are very few men so wake and irresolute that they will nothing but what their present Passion dictates to them The most part have determinate judgements according to which they regulate part of their actions And though oft times these judgements be false and indeed grounded on some Passions by which the Wil hath formerly suffered her self to be vanquished or seduced yet because she persevers in following them then when the Passion that caused them is absent they may be considered as her own weapons and souls may be thought stronger or weaker according as they do smore or lesse follow these judgements and resist the present Passions contrary to them But there is a great deal of difference between the resolutions proceeding from some false opinion and those which are onely held up by the knowledge of the truth since following these last man is sure never to acquire sorrow or repentance whereas following the first they are inseparably companions after the errour is discovered The 50th Article That there is no soul so weak but well mannaged may acquire an absolute Mastery over her Passions IT will be commodious here to know that as before hath been said although every motion of the kernell seem to have been joyned by nature to each of our thoughts even from the beginning of our life they may yet he annexed to others by habit as experience shews in words that excite motions in the kernell which according to the institution of nature represent only to the soul their sound when they are pronounced by the Will or by the figure of their letters when they are written and which yet neverthelesse by a habit acquired by thinking what they signifie assoon as ever their sound is heard or their letters seen use to make us conceive the signification rather then the form of our letters or the sound of their sillables It is also convenient to know that although the motions as well of the kernell as the spirits and braine which represent certain objects to the Soul be naturally joyned with those that excite certain Passions in her yet they may by habit be separated and annexed to others very different and moreover that this habit may be acquired by one action onely and requires not a long usuage as as when a man at unawares meets with any nasty thing in a dish of meat which he hath a very good stomack to this accident may so alter the disposition of the brain thataman shall never afterwards see any such kind of meat without loathing whereas before he took delight in eating it The very same thing may be seen in beasts for although they have no reason nor it may be any thought all the motions of the spirits and the kernell which excite Passions in us yet are in them and serve to foment and fortifie not as in us the Passions but the motions of the nerves andmuscles their concomitants So when a dog sees a Partridge he is naturally enclined to run to it and when he heares a piece go off this noise incites him naturally to run away yet neverthelesse we ordinarily breed up spanniels so that the sight of a Partridge makes them couch and the noise of a discharged piece makes them run to it Now these things are profitable to know to encourage every one to study the regulation of his Passions For since with a little art the motions of the brain in beasts who are void of reason may be altered it is evident they may more easily in men and that even those who have the weakest Souls may acquire a most absolute Empire over all their Passions if art and industry be used to mannage and govern them The Passions of the Soul The second part Of the number and order of the Passions and explication of the six chief or Primitive The 51th Article What are the first causes of the Passions IT is knowne by what hath formerly been said that the utmost and neerest cause of the Passions of the Soul is nothing but the agitation by which the spirits move the little kernel in the middle of the braine But this is not sufficient to distinguish them from one another it is necessary therefore to seek after their originalls and examine their first causes NOw although they may sometimes be caused by the Action of the Soul which determines to conceive such or such objects as also by the meere temper of the body or by the impressions accidentally found in the brain as it oft befalls that a man feels himselfe sad or merry not knowing upon what occasion it appears neverthelesse by what hath been said that the same may bee excited also by the objects which move the senses and that these objects are their most oridinary and principall causes whence it followes that to find them all out it is sufficient to consider all the effects of these objects The 52 Article What is the use of them and that they may be numbered FUrthermore I observe that the objects which move the senses excite not divers Passions in us by reason of so many diversities in them but meerly because they may severall wayes hurt sor profit us or else in generall be important to us and that the use of all the Passions consists onely in this that they dispose the Soul to will the things which Nature dictates are profitable to us and to persist in this will as also the very agitation of the spirits accustomed to cause them dispose the body to the motions that further the execution of those things Wherefore to calculate them we are only to examine in order after how many considerable manners our senses may be moved by their objects And I will here make a generall muster of all the principall Passions according to order that so they may be found The order and Numeration of the Passions The 53 Article Admiration WHen the first encounter of any object surprizeth us and we judge it to be new or far different from what we knew before or from what we supposed it should have been we admire it and are astonished at it And because this may fall out before we know at all whether this object be convenient or no me thinkes admiration is the first of all the Passions And it hath no contrary because
I also adde it is of that good which the impressions of the brain represent to her as her own that I may not confound this Joy which is a Passion with that Joy purely intellectuall which comes into the Soul by the sole action of the Soul and which may be called a pleasing emotion in her excited by her selfe wherein consists her enjoyment of good which her understanding represents to her as her own it is true while the Soul is joyned to the body this intellectuall Joy can hardly be rid of the company of that which is a Passion for as soon as ever our understanding perceives that we possesse any good although this good may be so farre different from all that belongs to the body that it be not imaginable yet will not the Imagination forbear to make immediatly some impression in the brain whereupon ensue the motion of the spirits which excite the Passion of Joy The 92 Article The Definition of Sadnesse SAdnesse is a displeasant languishing wherein consists the discommodity the Soul receives from evill or defect which the impressions of the brain represent unto her as belonging to her and there is also an intellectuall Sadnesse which is not the Passion but which wants but little of being accompanied by it The 93 Article What are the causes of these two Passions NOW when the intellectuall Joy or Sadnesse so excites that which is a Passion their cause is evident enough and one may see by their defintions that Joy comes from the opinion a man hath that he possesses some good and Sadnesse from the opinion of some evill or defect but it oft falls out that a man is Sad or joyfull and yet he cannot distinctly observe the good or evill which are the causes of it to wit when this good or this evill make their impressions in the brain without the intercourse of the Soul sometimes because they belong only to the body and sometimes too although they belong to the Soul because shee considers them not as good or evill but under some other notion the impression whereof is joyned in the brain with that of good and evill The 94th Article How the Passions are excited by Goods and evills which only respect the budy and wherein consists tick ling and pain SO when a man is in sound health and the weather is fairer then ordinary hee feels a lightsomnesse in himselfe which proceeds not from any function of the understanding but only from the impressions which the motion of the spirits makes in the brains and he feels himselfe sad likewise when his body is indisposed although he know not that it is Thus the tickling of the senses is so closely followed by Joy and pain by sadness that most men cannot distinguish them yet they differ so farre that a man may somtimes suffer pains with Joy and receive ticklings that displease but the cause why Joy commonly follows tickling is because all that is called tickling or a pleasing touch consists in this that the objects of the senses excite some morions in the nerves which would be apt to hurt them if they had not strength enough to resist it or the body were not well disposed which makes an impression in the brain which being instituted by nature to signifie this good disposition and this strength represents it to the Soul as a good belonging to her seeing she is united to the Body and so excites Joy in her the cause is almost the same why a man naturally takes delight to feel himself moved to all sorts of Passions yea even Sadness \ and Hatred when these Passions are caused only by strange adventures which he sees personated on a stage or by such like occasions which not being capable to trouble us any way seem to tickle the Soul by touching it And the reason why pain usually produces Sadness is because that feeling which is called pain proceeds alwayes from some action so violent that it offends the nerves so that being instituted by nature to signifie to the Soul the dammage the body receives by this action and its weaknesse-in not being able to resist it it represents each of them to him as evils alwayes displeasing unlesse then when they cause some good things which she esteems of more than them The 95th Article How they may also be excited by goods andevils which the Soul observes not though they belong to her as the delight a man takes to run into a danger or remember an evil past SO the delight which oft-times young men take to undertake difficult things and expose themselves to great perills though they do not so much as look for any profit or honour thereby comes from hence the conceit they have that they undertake a difficult thing makes an impression in the brain which being joyned to that which they may make if they thought it a good thing to be couragious fortunate active or strong enough to dare to hazzard so farre is the reason that they take delight in it and the content which old men take when they remember the miseries they suffered proceeds from hence they imagine to themselves it is a good thing that they could subsist in spight of them The 96th Article What are the motions of the blood and spirits that cause the five preceding Passions THe five Passions which I have here begun to explain are so joyned or opposed to one another that it is easier to consider them all together then to treat distinctly of each as I handled Admiration and their cause is not like that in the braine onely but also in the Heart Spleen Liver and all other parts of the body in as much as they serve to the production of the blood and afterwards of the Spirits For although all the veins convey the blood they contain into the heart yet it sometimes falls out that the blood of some of them is driven with a stronger force than the rest and it happens also that the overtures through which it enters into he heart or those through which it goes out are more dilated or contracted one time than another The 97th Article The principall experiments conducing to the knowledge of these motions in Love NOW considering the sundry alterations that experience lets us see in our bodies while our Soul is agitated with divers Passions I observe in Love when it is alone that is when it is not accompanied with any extream Ioy desire or Sadnes that the beating of the pulse is even much greater and stronger than ordinary that a man feels a gentle heart in his breast and quick digestion ofmeat so that this Passion is profitable for the health The 98 Article In Hatred ON the contrary I observe in Hatred that the pulse is uneven weaker and oftentimes faster that a man feels colds intermingled with I know not what sharp and pricking heat in the breast that the stomack ceases to do its office is enclined to vomit and reject the meats he hath
when we read strange adventures in a book or see them personated on a stage it sometimes excites Sadnesse in us sometimes Joy or Love or Hatred and generally all the Passions according to the diversity of objects that offer themselves to our imagination but withall we take a delight to feel them excited in us and this delight is an intellectuall Joy which may as well spring from Sadnesse as all the rest of the Passions The 148 Article That the exercise of Vertue is a Soveraigne remedy against the Passions NOw forasmuch as these interiour emotions doe touch us neerest to the quick and consequently have more power over us then the Passions they differ from which are met withall in them it is certain that provided our Soul have wherewithall to content her interiour part all the troubles that come from abroad are not able to hurt her but rather serve to augment her Joy in that seeing she cannot be injured by them it lets her understand her own perfection And that our Soul may be thus contented she need do nothing but exactly follow the track of Vertue For whosoever hath lived so that his Conscience cannot hit him in the teeth for failing to doe all things which he judged to be best which is the thing I mean here by following the track of Vertue he from thence receives a satisfaction so effectuall to make him happy that the most violent assaults of the Passions shall never be strong enough to trouble the tranquility his Soul The Passions of the Soul The third part Of Particular Passions The 149th Article Of Estimation and Contempt NOw the six Originall Passions are explained which are as the kinds or Genera whereof all the rest are but sorts or Species I will here succinctly observe what there is peculiar in every one of the rest and I will keep still the same order wherein I have formerly marshall'd them The two first are Estimation and contempt For though they commonly signifie onely the opinions a man hath without any Passion of the vallue of any thing yet because from these opinions doe often spring Passions which want peculiar names me thinkes these may be attributed to them And Estimation as it is a Passion is an inclination of the Soul to represent unto her selfe the vallue of the thing esteemed which inclination is caused by a peculiar motion of the spirits so conveyed into the braine that they there fortifie the impressions belonging to that purpose As on the contrary the Passion of contempt is an inclination of the Soul to consider the meannesse or smallnesse of what it contemnes caused by the motion of the spirits which fortifie the Idea of this smallnesse The 150 Article That these two Passions are but Sorts of Admiration SO both these Passions are but sorts of Admiration For when we neither admire the greatnesse nor smallnesse of an object we make neither more nor lesse account of it than reason dictates to us we ought to doe so that we then esteeme or contemne it without Passion And though oft-times Estimation be excited in us by Love and Contempt by Hatred that is not so alwayes and proceeds onely from this that a man is more or lesse inclined to consider the greatnesse or smallnesse of an object as he hath more or lesse affection to it The 151 Article That a man may esteem or contemne himselfe NOw these two Passions may generally relate to all sorts of objects but they are especially remarkable when we referre them to our selves that is when it is our own merit that we either esteem or contemne and the motion of the spirits which cause them is then so manifest that it even changes the countenance gesture gate and generally all the actions of those who conceive a better or worse opinion of themselves than ordinary The 152 Article For what cause a man may esteem himselfe ANd because one of the chiefe parts of Wisdome is to know in what manner for what cause every one ought to esteem or contemn himself I will here endeavour to give my opinion thereof I observe but one thing in us which may give us just cause to esteem our selves to wit the use of our free Disposition and our empire over our Wills For only the actions depending on this free Disposition are those for which wee may justly be praised or blamed and it makes us in some manner like unto God by making us masters of our selves provided wee doe not lose the priviledges it gives us by our unworthiness The 153 Article Wherein Generosity consists SO I believe true Generosity which causeth a man to set himself at the highest rate he justly may consists only partly in knowing there is nothing which truly he can call his own unlesse this free Disposition of his Wills nor wherefore he ought to be praised or blamed unlesse for using that well or ill and partly in feeling a constant and firme resolution in himselfe to use it well that is his Will shall never be wanting to undertake and execute such things as hee shall judge to be best which is to follow Vertue absolutely The 154th Article That it restraines a man from contemning others THose who have this knowledge and resentment of themselves are easily perswaded that every other man hath such of himselfe too because there is nothing in it that depends of any thing else Wherefore they never contemne any body and though they oft-times see other men commit errours that make their weaknesse appeare yet they are evermore enclined to excuse than blame them and to believe that they doe it rather for want of knowledge than good will And as they doe not think themselves much inferiour to those who have greater estates honours nor yet more wit knowledge beauty or generally that surpass them in any other perfections so they do not esteem themselves much above those whom they surpasse because all these things seem very little considerable to them in comparison of their good Will for which only they esteem themselves and which they suppose is or at least may be in every other man The 155th Article Wherein vertuous Humility consists SO the most generous use to be most humble and Vertuous Humility consists only in this that the reflexion wee make on the infirmity of our own nature and the faults we may have formerly committed or those we are like to commit which are no whit lesse than those committed by others is the reason why we do not preferre our selves before any body but think that others who have their free Disposition as well as we may use it as well The 156th Article What the properties of Genorosity are and how it serves for a remedy against all unruliness of the Passions THey who thus are generous are naturally addicted to doe great things and yet to undertake nothing they are not capable of and because they esteem nothing greater than to doe good to other men and to contemn their own
Pitty them The 188 Article Who those are that are not sensible of it BUt there are none but malignant and envious spirits who naturally hate all men or else those who are so belluine and blinded by good fortune or desperate through ill that they think no further evill can befall them who ar ein ensible of Pitty The 189 Article Why this Passion excites weeping NOw a man weeps easily in this Passion because Love sending much blood to the heart causeth many vapours to issue through the eyes and the coldness of Sadness retarding the agitation of these vapours converts them into tears as hath been formerly said The 190 Article Of Satisfaction of ones selfe THe Satisfaction that they have who constantly follow the paths of vertue is a habit in their Soul called Tranquility or quiet of conscience but that which a man acquires anew when he hath lately done any action that he thinks good is a Passion to wit a sort of Joy which I believe is the softest of all because the cause thereof depends only on our selves yet when this cause is not just that is when the actions from whence we deduct this Satisfaction are not of consequence or else are vicious it is ridiculous and serves only to produce a Pride and impertinent Arrogance which may particularly be observed in those who believing themselves to be devout are only hypocriticall and superstitious that is who under pretence of frequenting the Church saying many Prayers wearing short hair fasting giving alms suppose they are exquisitely perfect and imagine they are Gods so intimate friends that they can doe nothing that can displease him and whatsoever their Passions dictate to them is a good Zeale although it sometime dictate to them the greatest crimes that can be committed by men as betraying of Cities murdering of Princes exterminating whole Nations meerly for this that they are not of their opinion The 191 Article Of Repentance REpentance is directly contrary to Satisfaction of ones selfe and is a sort of Sadnesse proceeding from a beliefe that a man hath done some evill action and it is very bitter because the cause comes only from our selves Yet neverthelesse this hinders it not from being very usefull when it is true that the action we repent of is evill and that we have a certain knowledge thereof because it incites us to do better another time but it oft-times comes to pass that weak spirits repent the things they have done not knowing certainly that they are evill they perswade themselves so only because they fear it is so and had they done the contrary they had repented too which is an imperfection in them to be pittied and the remedies against this defect are the same that serve to take away Irresolution The 192 Article Of Good-will GOodwill is properly a desire to see good befall any one hath a Goodwill to but I use this word here to signifie this Will as it is excited in us by some good Action of him to whom we bear it for we are naturally addicted to love those who do things which we esteem good although no good come to us by them Goodwill in this sense is a sort of Love not desire though the desire of seeing good befall him whom we wish well to alwayes accompanieth it And it is ordinarily joyned with pity because the disgraces that we see betide the unfortunate cause us to reflect the more upon their deserts The 193 Article Of Gratitude GRatitude is also a sort of Love excited in us by some Action of him to whom we offer it and whereby we beleeve he hath done us some good or at least had an intention to do us some So it includes all that Goodwill doth and this besides that it is grounded on an Action we are very sensible of and whereof we have a desire to make a requitall Wherefore it is far more strong especially in Souls never so little noble and generous The 194 Article Of Ingratitude FOr Ingratitude it is not a Passion for nature never put any motion of the spirits in us to excite it but it is onely a vice directly opposite to Gratitude seeing this is ever vertuous and one of the principall bonds of humane society s Wherefore this vice appertaines to none but belluine men and the foolishly arrogant who thinke all things their due or the sottish who reflect not on the good deeds they receive or else the weak and abject who feeling their own infirmitie and necessity basely seek assistance from others and after they have received it hate them because having no Will to return the like or despairing ever to doe it and imagining the whole world as mercenary as themselves and that none doe good but with Hope of being rewarded for it they think they have desired it The 195 Article Of Indignation INdignation is a sort of Hatred or Aversion that a man naturally beares to those who doe some evil of what nature soever it be And it is often mixed with Envy or Pity but yet the object thereof is altogether different from them For he carryes an Indignation onely against those who doe good or evil to persons unworthy of it but he envies those who receive this good and pities those who receive this evil It is true in some respects it is evil to possesse a good whereof a man is not worthy Which may be the reason wherefore Aristotle and his followers supposing that Envy is alwayes a vice have called that Indignation which is not vicious The 196 Article Why it is sometimes joyned with Pity and sometimes with Derision TO doe an evill is also in some respects to receive one from whence it comes that some with their Indignation joyn Pity and others derision according as they bear a good or ill Will towards those whom they see commit faults Thus the laughter of Democritus and the weeping of Heraclitus might proceed from the same cause The 197 Article That it is often accompanied with Admiration and is not incompatible with Joy INdignation is also oftimes accompanied with Admiration For we use to think that all things shall be done in the same manner we conceive they ought to be done that is after that manner which we esteem good Wherefore when it falls out otherwise it surprizeth us and we Admire it Nor is it incompatible with Joy although it most commonly be joyned with Sadnesse For when the evill we bear an Indignation against cannot hurt us and we consider that we would not doe the like it gives us some delight and this may be one of the causes of Laughter which sometimes accompanies this Passion The 198 Article Of the use of it FUrthermore Indignation is observed to be more in those who would seem vertuous than those who really are For althought they who love vertue cannot without some Aversion look upon the vices of others they are Passionate onely against the great and extraordinary ones For it is to be nice and
Fear which causing the Soul to waver between severall actions that she may doe is the cause she cannot execute any and thereby she hath time to choose before she determines on them Whereof truly some good use may be made but when it lasts longer than it ought and it takes up that time to debate which is required to act it is very evill Now I say it is a sort of Feare though it may so fall out when a man hath choyce of many things whose goodnesse is equally apparent that he may bee at a stand and irresolute and yet not be afraid For this sort of Irresolution comes onely from the subject presented and not from any emotion of the spirits Wherefore it is not a Passion unlesse the sear of failing in his choyce encrease the uncertainty But this fear is so usuall and so strong in some that oftentimes although they have not any choyce and though they see only one thing to take or leave yet it seizes on them and causeth them unprofitably to stop there and search after others and then it is an excesse of Irresolution which proceeds from too great a Desire to doe well and an imbecillity in the understanding which having no clear and distinct notions hath only a great company of confused ones Wherefore the remedy against this excesse is to accustome a mans selfe to frame certaine and determinate Judgements concerning all things that present themselves and conceive he doth alwayes doe his duty when he doth what he conceives to be best though it may be he conceive amisse The 171 Article Of Courage and Boldnesse COurage when it is a Passion and not a habit or naturall inclination is a certain heat or agitation which disposeth the Soul to addict her powerfully to the execution of the things she will doe of what nature soever they be and Boldnesse is a sort of Courage that disposeth the Soul to the execution of things most dangerous The 172 Article Of Emulation AND Emulation also is a sort of it but in another sense for Courage may be considered as a kind or Genus that is divided into as many sorts or Species as there are severall objects and as many more as it hath causes In the first sence Boldnesse is a sort in the other Emulation and this last is nothing else but a heat which disposeth the Soul to undertake things that she hopes may succeed with her because shee sees them succeed with others and so it is a sort of Courage whose externall cause is example I say the externall cause because it ought ever besides that to have an internall one which consists in this that the body is so disposed as Desire and Hope are stronger to drive abundance of blood to the heart than Fear or Despaire to hinder it The 173 Article How Boldnesse depends on Hope FOr it is to be noted that although the object of Boldnesse be difficulty from whence commonly ensues Fear or even Despaire so that it is in most dangerous and desperate affairs that most Boldnesse and Courage is required neverthelesse there must be some Hope or else a man must be assured that the end he propounds to himselfe shall succeed to oppose himselfe vigorously against the difficulties he shall encounter But this end is different from this object For he can not be assured and despairing of the same thing at the same time So when the Decij flung themselves in the midst of their enemies and ran upon a certain death the object of their Boldnesse was the difficulty of keeping their lives in this action of which difficulty they utterly despaired for they were sure to die but their end was to animate their souldiers by their example and make them winne the victory of which they had Hope or else their end was to get Fame after their death whereof they were assured The 174 Article Of Cowardice and fearfulnesse COwardice is directly opposite to Courage and is a Ianguishing or coldnesse which hinders the Soul from addicting her selfe to the execution of things which she would doe if she were exempted from this Passion And fearefulnesse or affright the contrary to Boldnesse is not onely a coldnesse but a distraction and astonishment of the Soul that robs her of the power to resist evils which she thinks are neer her The 175 Article Of the use of Cowardice NOw although I cannot be perswaded that nature hath bestowed on man any Passion that is alwayes vicious and hath not some good and laudable use yet I am very much puzzeled to divine what these two are good for Only me thinkes Cowardice is of some use when it causeth a man to be free from paines he might be incited to take for reasons like truths if other more certain truths which make them be judged unprofitable had not invited this Passion in him For besides her exemption of the Soul from these paines it is then also very usefull to the Body for that retarding the motion of the spirits it hinders the forces thereof from being dissipated But is commonly very hurtfull because it diverts the Will from profitable Actions And because it proceeds from hence that a man hath not Hope or Desire enough to correct it he need onely augment these two Passions in himselfe The 176 Article Of the use of Fearfulnesse AS for Fearfulnesse or affright I see not how it can ever be laudable or usefull Neither is it one particular Passion but onely an excesse of Cowardice astonishment and Fear which is alsayes vicious as Boldnesse is an excesse of Courage ever good provided the end proposed be good And because the chiefe cause of Fearfulnesse is surprize there is no better way to be rid of it than to use premeditation and prepare ones selfe against all events the fear whereof may cause them The 177 Article Of Remorse REmorse of conscience is a sort of Sadnesse which comes from the scruple a man hath that a thing he hath done or hath not done is not good And it necessarily presupposes doubt For if he had been absolutely assured that what he did had been evill he had refrained from doing it since the Will enclines us not to any things but such as have an appearance of goodnesse And if he were assured that what he hath already done were evill it would breed repentance and not only Remorse Now the use of this Passion is to make him examine whether the thing he doubts of be good or no and to hinder him from doing it another time if he be not assured that it is good But because it presupposeth an evill the best way were never to be subject to feel it and it may be prevented the same way as a man may be exempted of Irresolution The 178 Article Of Derision DErision is a sort of Joy mingled with Hatred which proceeds from this that a man perceives some little evill in a person whereof he thinks him worthy He hates this evil and rejoyces to see