A MISCELLANY OF DIVERS Problems Containing ingenuous Solutions of sundry Questions partly Moral partly of other subjects Translated out of French by HENRY SOME M. A. late Fellow of the Kings Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed for Charles Adams and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Talbot near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street Anno Dom. 1662. To the vertuous Ladies Mris Elizabeth Chase Mris Frances Heywood and Mris Laetitia Briggs the three sisters of his dear friend Mr. H. Some Vertuous Ladies WHereas common and low spirits might suspect this action as a design to renew a past sorrow seeing me after a year of mourning recall the memory of so sad a loss I know your more generous souls will rather interpret my intent an endeavour to allay your too long grief when I revive the memory of a dear dead Brother Since your reason being so near of kind to his cannot but judge it a weakness to preferr the passion of an useless sorrow above the merit of a pious gratitude And yet considering that others will be so partial as to blame whatever their fancies do not approve I must forbear to heighten the cause of sadness by recounting the particulars of your loss only I would fain begg your leaves to acquaint the world that in this they and you are partners But how shall I effect that since experience hath now taught the vulgar what was formerly reserved to the knowledge of the more prudent That the commendation of our friend is frequently but the cloak of a self-conceited folly And the world having been of late so much abused by hypocrisie is now become suspicious even of vertue if once recommended especially by a person whose obscurity leaves him lyable to their censure However the love of goodness the obligation of friendship and consciousness of truth shall prevail with me to the hazard of repute I should indeed both betray an high folly in my self and injure the worth of my Friend should I considering my own disability undertake to discourse at large of all his merits and yet thus much I cannot but say his ingenuous discourse his modest deportment his humility and candour gained a more then ordinary respect from all that ever he conversed with and this they shall witness for me They that had the happy opportunity of knowing him more throughly found his Learning so great and communicated with that freeness his piety so true and practised with that innocence that they could not but love him with admiration which also increased in those that had a more special and constant intimacy with him for such knew him so passionate a Lover of all ingenuous Learning that he ever counted that hour lost which was not imployed in some kind or other of it He hated naught so much as idleness or doing nothing and that made his very recreations as serious as others studies And this gave him the advantage of being skilled in modern languages which although he attained unto by a sagacity proper to his disposition and his own industry yet his courtesie would afterwards entertain discourse with the common Tutors and professed Teachers of them upon all emergent occasions This his true love to Learning gave our Nation the opportunity of knowing the Nature and Constitution of the new Famous French Academy by his translation of their History written by Monsieur P. Pellison which was a thing so acceptable to the Author that he was pleased to write him a particular acknowledgement and communicate to him also this present Treatise which likewise at times of divertisement he taught to speak English In the perusal of which I doubt not but the more ingenuous will reap satisfaction and find sufficient cause to love the Translators memory if they consider that it is not offered as a part of his more solid labours but as a valuable Essay of wit and to be used as it was made only in a Diversion That which I offer to you worthy Ladies I give not as a Present but repay as a due which without injustice I cannot detain a greater reason then that which engageth me to a publication entituling you to the right of Patronage For the memory of a dear friendship cannot herein challenge any thing from me but what the interest of a nearer relation makes entirely yours and together with it the Devoirs of Your most humble servant Samuel Thoms Cambridge Jan. 10. 1661. TO THE READER Reader I Conceive it would be rather presumption in me than humility if before you come to read what I here present you I should not give an account of some things that respect my design and the manner of these Problems which may occasion you either to bear with their faults or to condemn them with the more reason and justice In the first place seeing me alledge commonly many several reasons of the Questions I handle you may possibly desire to know Whether I propound part of them to exercise my wit and to beautifie my work like an Oratour that saies not only all he believes to be true or like truth but also all that he thinks advantagious to his cause To this Reader let me tell you that in some places indeed the obscurity of my matter hath given me licence to make bold conjectures and such as seemed to me more likely to add Beauty than Light to my work But that these places are very rare and that everywhere else I have laboured to give only solid reasons and have alledged many of them because having considered my matter many wayes and at several distances I thought they might be all true Some indeed may here say that it is not very likely that one and the same effect should have such different causes for commonly when we think we have found one solid cause of an effect this makes us despise all others and we are apt for this reason to esteem them vain and frivilous But Reader I am not of this judgement nay on the contrary do think that when we discourse upon an effect we should scarce ever content our selves with one good and true cause of it alone because every considerable effect hath many causes which contribute to its grandeur as all Rivers are formed by the uniting of several brooks and many petty rivuletts This is very evident of its self in some kind of things as for example That which casts a man into a disease cannot be alwayes one sole cause but many causes united so when the Question is to discourse of the ruine of a State it is clear that it will never be sufficient to think of finding one solid reason only because it alwayes hath many But though I see my self confined within the bounds of a Preface which I am afraid to exceed too much yet I will in some sort shew you as much as the brevity which I study will suffer me that this is no less true in regard of our Passions Actions and Humours which are
greatness of it makes us weep even in the midst of our joy through a kind of pitty we have of our selves Or else shall I take it thus that in the sudden motions of a great joy the dilatation of the spirits of the heart is so great that it is weakned thereby and that our soul finding its own weakness by this means is apt to be wounded by every reflexion that hath never so little of trouble in it Or lastly do not these tears of joy proceed from hence that learning all on a sudden that we are delivered from some great evil under which we have lain a long time the news cannot presently gain an entire belief in us and that as a body that is frozen doth not lose its coldness at that very instant it is brought to the fire by the same reason our soul cannot lose that impression of its passed sadness at the very same instant that the good it was deprived of becomes present to it See then the causes which it seems may be given of that marvellous state of man wherein he weeps although he have a serene spirit by an accident which we see sometimes happen in the air when it rains and shines both at once There are are also Tears which abundant laughter brings into our eyes but they are not of the same species with those I spake of but now and I conceive they proceed only from that great and violent agitation which laughter causes within us for there is no passion which shakes a man all over with greater violence and it may very well be that a motion so violent forces out of the eyes some humidity as we see that the violent agitation of a vessel wherein there is some liquor makes some drops of it sparkle out and as the wind that shakes the trees after a rain makes those drops which lay there fall to the ground PROB. 6. Whence comes it that many very wicked men are oftentimes the best friends IT is found by experience that very bad men are often most zealous friends to them that they bear an affection to nay sometimes more then the best of men To enquire then the causes of this effect is it not that there is a kind of amity which is not begotten by reason but by a means more low namely long acquaintance and familiarity so that souls of the lowest rank and that have the least of reason are not incapable of it but on the contrary are in some sort more capable than others because not governing themselves by judgement they do only follow the impressions of other things amongst which that which length of time and use makes is none of the least Or else is it not because good men are friends only ad aras that is as far as will stand with Religion and wicked men beyond So that if they must only prostitute their consciences to their friends and tread underfoot all things sacred and despoile themselves of the fairest ornaments the soul can be adorned with they do it very willingly Or else is it not that as dogs are faithful to us and succour us against those that set upon us partly indeed out of love but partly also because it is their disposition to be easily provoked so wicked men help us with great ardour against our enemies and combat them with great animosity not only for the affection they bear us but partly also for that by reason of their natural curstness and venome of which they are full they are more apt to be inflamed with a violent choler Or else is it because it is very natural for us to love with violence something without us wicked men that love neither God nor Justice nor common goodness are constrained by the force of nature to love infinitely some particular persons Or else is it that cultivating only that part of their duty which consists only in friendship and keeping that only as a remainder of the beauty of the soul which hinders them from altogether resembling savage beasts they have the more love for that as a mother hath the more love for her son if he be her only one Or lastly is it not that the nature of things is such that generally in every extream there is some light mixture of the contrary extream For instance we see by experience that in cold Countries there are sometimes in summer more violent heats then those of the hot Countries and on the contrary the subtilty of the air of the hot Countries is the reason that sometimes the cold there is more penetrating than that of the cold Countries The Germans that pass for the least subtle people of Europe have more of subtilty than any of the rest in all sort of mechanick inventions The most ingenious people are commonly the most awkward and unapt in some slight things Melancholy persons are subject to more violent joyes then those that are sanguine covetous people according to the vulgar opinion are sometimes carried out to a greater excess of prodigality then prodigals Men extraordinary valiant do often tremble more then others at the sight of a great danger Women whose visage is more properly then that of men the seat of Beauty are also more susceptible then men of an extream and horrid ugliness Lastly to return to the mixture of goodness and wickedness one of the cruellest Emperours of Rome could not as the Historian saith be present at the acting of a Tragedy but those faigned miseries which he there heard raised a compassion in him which made him weep We read as much of another Tyrant of Greece of the same nature and when a man is arrived at the highest degree of wickedness the last crime he commits is to be his own murderer and voluntarily to throw himself into everlasting pains by the violence of the remorse of his conscience In which there seems to be a certain air and shaddow of magnanimity and heroick goodness PROB. 7. What is the reason that the Wind which comes in at a window or a little hole is more dangerous than that which we feel abroad in the open field UPon this Problem some may possibly think that as the water meeting with a very narrow channel becomes more rapid so the wind that comes in at a door or a window or a small chink for the same reason redoubles its violence Which is very true but nothing to the purpose for the clearing the difficulty of this Question because it is certain that a very little wind gliding in at a cranny is more apt to hurt one then another wind much more violent when one is in the open field This cause then being thus rejected is it not rather because the wind which we suffer in the open field doth presently close the pores through its coldness and so arms us against it self whereas the wind that comes into the house by some little hole finds us hot all the time and consequently doth as long as it continues blowing
which I understand not reproach to him his contradictions fight against him with those arms which he hath put into my hands and appear more able and more understanding by this censure of him then indeed I am On the contrary to commend any one with success one must not suppose for ttue any thing that he saies but must prove and maintain it by reasons fetcht elswhere PROB. 35. What is the reason that when the Winter hath been very cold they commonly say the Summer that follows will be very hot THere are sometimes some slight things the clearing whereof fails not to bring some light to our common sense and in this number one may reckon this which at first sight hath some difficulty by reason that one would think the quite contrary that if the Winter hath very much cooled the Earth and Air they should be the more difficultly heated by the following Summer Is it therefore quite otherwise that the heat of the Summer finding the earth and air very cold doth redouble its violence by the opposition of its contrary Or else do they say so because they see that one contrary doth naturally succeed another in the same degree as for example the water doth naturally ascend as much as it hath descended the excess of heat in a feaver ariseth to the same violence with the excess of cold great friendships leave behind them great enmities and great displeasures when they end produce extream contentments after an extraordinary cloudy and wet season we enjoy an extraordinary serenity and purity of air and much fairer then that which went before it and one that is recovered from a great sickness hath commonly better health then he had before and recovers a soundness that is more firme and of a greater value then that which he had lost Or else is it that when the Winter hath been extraordinary cold it hath also been necessarily dry by the same reason the earth being very dry is disposed to receive a great heat Or else that when it hath been long cold it is a sign that the matter of the cold and Northern wind or of the other causes that do cool the air is spent for a long time and therefore it is likely it will be very hot PROB. 36. What is the reason that Fear makes ones hair stand on end FOr the clearing of this Problem I think it is needful to consider in the first place that Admiration and Fear have some affinity and do often accompany one another Which being so it seems that as Admiration makes a Chilness run through ones whole body by reason that it brings into the soul a certain shadow of Fear So Fear makes the hair stand on end out of some mixture of Admiration Indeed this seems so much the more probable because the frights which make the hair stand on end must spring from a danger whose image presently strikes the soul and yet it knows no cause of it and that those frights which come upon us when we think we see dead men or Ghosts or Devils do chiefly produce this effect because they are not only fearful things but also very admirable as being supernatural Virgil hath excellently well comprized this for when he would expresse the Fear which the ghost of his wife Creusa strook into Aeneas the prodigy of Polydorus's tomb the arrival of Mercury that came to bring him a message from Jupiter or the Fear that Turnus was in seeing an infernal monster flap his buckler with its wings upon all these occasions he puts down this circumstance that their hair stood up right because that all these things were as Admirable as terrible But in other kinds of fear he is contented to mention only coldness and trembling And if any demand of me why Admiration makes the hair to stand up right I answer that the soul having its faculties intent on the consideration of that which appears admirable doth also contract the organs of the brain and with them the skin that covers the head Now a man may easily imagine that we cannot contract this skin but by pulling it up nor pull it up but the hairs will stare a little It is true that the motion of fear doth also contribute thereto because it makes one cold and that a part of our body cannot be cold without being a little more contracted then before PROB. 37. Whence comes it that many being in a frenzy have spoke Latin or Greek without having ever learned either of these languages MAny of those that have examined this Question endeavouring to rid themselves of the great difficulty which it presents at first to the mind have in my judgement made use of such answers as are more against all appearance of reason then the Question it self and given us remedies worse then the disease For they would give such strange force to our imagination that no man of a sound judgement is able to give credit to their vain discourses Wherefore omiting all that they have said of it we will search only amongst known causes according to our custom the reason of so marvellous an effect First then it is remarkable that those words which many being in a frenzy have pronounced in a tongue which they knew not have been ordinarily Latin or Greek or sometimes Hebrew according to the report of those that have treated of them In the second place I suppose that the words which they have thus spoken did not make any discourse that was coherent or that was pertinent to that which was asked them since that the transports of their frenzy hindred them from discoursing rationally These two things being thus supposed one may add that although those that have spoken Latin Greek or Hebrew in a frenzy never studied it and yet they easily may have heard those words before which they spoke seeing that these three languages are commonly taught throughout Europe and that private houses and those places which are set apart for speaking in publick do very often retain them Now it is possible that these words at the same time when they heard them made some impression in the organs of their memories which through its weakness did not appear to them untill they fell into madness because that the heat of the frenzy by its immoderate subtilizing of the spirits of the brain renders the sense of the imagination so quick and so delicate that there cannot be in its organs any impressions so weak which it discovers not and is lively enough affected with it And that the images of certain things can lodge in our memories and we have no knowledge of them at all because they are only painted very weakly and as it were with dead colours may sufficiently be proved by Reminiscence which brings to our minds many things which we thought we had utterly forgotten Besides many otherlike impressions are also made oftentimes in the other organs of our faculties and we never perceive it and it is not to be doubted
and clammy humour continued some whole years without eating or drinking Now as this temper of the Silk-worm discovers to us the cause why it can live so long without meat So this entire abstinence in which it passes a great part of its life may be a new confirmation to us that it hath the same temper which we attributed to it at first For though for a certain season it eats abundantly enough of which there may be easily some other particular reason yet considering its whole life in gross it must pass for one of the soberest creatures These are then in my opinion the causes of whatsoever appears marvelous in the Silk-worm If any one hath a mind to think that there are more strange and more occult ones it is not my intent that this discourse should hinder him But yet I believe that as we oftentimes do not see many things because they are too far distant from the eyes of our mind so at other times we do not see them because they are too near and that we search at the other end of the world for that which lyes before our noses and that the great eagerness that our understanding uses to arrive at their causes makes it go much beyond them PROB. 40. Why are good men often-times subject to a light promptitude of Choler DO they not only seem to be so because they are more free and open and so know not how to dissemble the smallest anger and least discontentments that arise in them but let them presently appear in their eyes and words whereas those that are less free do conceal them what they can possibly Or else is it that those that have honest and good minds are angry for many things that regard not their particular interests as for example for the glory of God and for any thing that respects Honesty and Piety so that as these are general things which come every moment into our discourse ordinary conversation offers them more often occasion to speak with heat and emotion and in some sort to be provoked whereas a brutish man to whom all things are indifferent except his own proper interest can hear without any disturbance all kind of discourse which he is not the subject of be they never so strange which makes him often appear more sweet and gentle because his interests being some particular things and little known to others they scarce ever come to be the matter of a common discourse Or else may we not give light to this Problem by that which Aristotle saith that Choler is enclined to obey Reason but that it obeyes it too soon and stayes not until the first appearance of Reason hath given place to another more clear and solid And may it not be said that if so it must needs be that good minds must naturally have some seeds of a light promptitude to Choler because the inclination readily to obey Reason is without doubt a good disposition of mind and a token of excellence though by accident-there may arise from it vitious actions and other inconveniencies Or else may we not add further that one shall have less reason to wonder that Good men have many times such a disposition if it be considered that there are some kinds of Anger so handsom that one may maintain they mark out more of Goodness Tenderness and Love of good than even motions of Pitty or Good-will because in the motions of Affection and Pitty the soul doth meerly desire to do good but those of a generous and laudable Anger are the motions of a soul that doth so much love good and hate evil that it troubles it self at it even to fury and becomes foolish for a time It may indeed be further alledged in favour of this Paradox that the tenderness of nature of any creature appears not so much for example when it takes care to give food to its little ones as when full of anger and as it were in a fury it layes on load with its wings or horns or other arms that Nature hath given it on those that would come too near them Or else in conclusion we may say that there are certain emotions of choler in which a man hath no intentions to do any hurt to those of whom he complains with sharp words but rather to incite them to produce their justifications to be able to find them innocent or less culpable and to continue by this means to love them so that as they do not proceed out of malice but tenderness there is no cause to wonder that good men are subject thereunto and that they shew a good nature like in this to Lightnings that appear in Summer evenings and are oftentimes signs of fair weather whereas they should seem rather to presage foul PROB. 41. Whence comes it that they say The Love of Grand-fathers to their Grand-children is greater then that of their Fathers IS it not because a man attains through longer cares to have a Grand-child then to have a Son and that alwayes that which we acquire through more care is more dear to us Or else is not a Grand-child dearer because it hath been a long time desired Or else do we not look upon it as a more rare favour and such as heaven eommunicates only to few persons which makes us love it the more because generally all rare things have a particular allurement for our minds Or else is not a Grand-child more beloved of his Grand-father then of his Father because that his Grand-father as being more old and nigher his death doth for this reason desire the more to live again in another Or else is it because the love we bear to those that proceed from us arising from a desire to extend our being successively to many generations he that by this natural course is more removed shews to us this design more advanced and so doth more touch our inclinations Or else is it because the Father loves his Son only for his own sake but the Grand-father loves him for his own sake and for his Sons sake too and sees in him the image of himself and of him whom he hath begotten and that these two divers considerations do produce in him two divers tendernesses very powerful Indeed this reason is very likely for to go about to object that the Father hath likewise two divers causes of loving his Son because he may love him for the Grand-fathers sake this makes nothing to the purpose since that as every one knows the affection which blood inspires hath much less force in ascending than in descending But if still another reason must be given of this Problem one may also say that perhaps the affection of Grand-fathers doth only seem to be greater then that of Fathers because the Son being in a more particular manner the very blood and substance of the Father the Father for this reason thinks that to love him very much is to love himself very much and that therefore he
the matters the greatest part of this book is composed of First for our Actions and the particular and ordinary motions of our mind I may say that all our Passions do there appear together alwayes and act their parts there though it be not alwayes after the same fashion just as in each Comedy that is acted they are the same Actors that appear upon the Stage though they do not there represent the same persons And as they say that no Element ever appears to us in its purity that is entirely separated from others and void of all mixtures I conceive also that after the very same manner not one of our ordinary Passions which are as it were the Principles and Elements of our manners doth ever appear in its purity and without some mixture of the others so that by this means it scarce ever happens that it is only one spring which moves and actuates our spirits It would be as long as it is easie to prove this by abundance of examples but I shall content my self to alledge some of them If it be demanded Why we desire glory It is without question to give one solid reason of it because we look upon it as a second Life and that we think our Being is amplified and extended according as our renown spreads very far and as we are known to many men but for all this if there be not another cause given we shall not very well satisfie this demand For it is very evident that we desire it also because the good opinion that others have of our excellency fortifies and upholds the opinion which we have of it our selves Besides we do without doubt desire to gain Esteem because it is a way to make us be beloved and that we desire to be beloved nay farther we wish it both for its own sake because there is a natural sweetness in being beloved and that none of the least and for the conveniences that come by it Even so too if a man enquires Why we revenge our selves he will presently find that we do it for divers several causes which come from different respects For it is partly because pretending that the injury received hath cast us down we labour to raise our selves up again by making him repent that did it And partly we do not desire only to make him repent but we think also that we discharge our selves in some sort of the hurt we received from him in making him suffer as much As we see that children think to free themselves of a kiss which one hath given them by force in re-kissing him from whom they have received it and say they will give it back to be rid of it themselves Partly also without having any regard to the thing in its self we revenge our selves for the opinion of others and for fear one should come to think that we had not power or credit enough to do it Besides this we do it out of Fear for the future and to the end that he which hath offended us may not presume to do so any more For though this be not formally the desire of Revenge certain it is that it alwayes contributes thereunto And lastly we revenge our selves because that as the shaking of Fear ceases not so soon as the danger is over so the hurt we received hath left in us a blind impression of hatred which lasts still after that is past and hath only its self for the reason of its self If we should now examine the motion of the soul in Love we should find in it a stranger mixture of all sorts of Causes Natural and Moral Corporal and Spiritual In a word we should as easily find that it is the same with all the other ordinary and extraordinary humours of our minds I mean that there is not any of them that hath one only source and that they have alwayes many roots some whereof look backward and some forward some to the right hand others to the left nay we should find they have almost alwayes quite contrary causes since that most commonly they come to us partly from strength and partly from weakness partly from reason and partly from blindness and that they almost alwayes shew both some perfection and some imperfection both at once Behold Reader the first thing I was to speak to you of upon which I have it may be insisted too long Pass we now to that which remains with all possible brevity Some of my friends whose least advice weighs much with me counselled me not to forget in several places of this Book some reasons that are commonly given upon the Questions I here handle for fear least I seem to be ignorant of them But I told them that this might breed in you a great dislike and that besides though those causes which are vulgarly given of divers Questions are many times very good yet are they more often superficial or at least not the principal and this in my opinion proceeds from hence that the vulgar hath the common sense much better than its understanding and that by this means it sees indeed well enough with a single eye the things that touch the common sense but is much less able to give the reasons of them or discovers ordinarily only the shallowest This I told them for mine own justification and after they had heard me they believed it was sufficient that I alledge these vulgar reasons when it is altogether necessary to do so and that I should here acquaint you that I have slighted many others or for fear of rendring my self tedious I would not alledge them all Moreover I have formed the most part of these Problems in a very concise and succinct manner and by way of Question in imitation of several antient Philosophers and that I might comprehend the more things in fewer words But because a concise and succinct reason which strâ—kes the mind suddainly seems at first to be more acute and gentle than solid and profound and because I know that people judge often enough of things as of men by their countenance and habit I was not willing to tie my self alwayes to this method and have many times vented my reasons after a more Dogmatical and positive manner and made my discourse a little more diffuse Nevertheless I hope that in judging the whole work in gross you will acknowledge to me that I could not have allowed less room to these meditations which I here offer you and that I had not a design to make you lose in the reading of my book any considerable part of your time which you ought to imploy better otherwise These are the three things Reader which I desired to speak to you of However I do not pretend by telling you what I have endeavoured to do to prejudice you in favour of me I say only that I have endeavoured and not that I have performed any thing and on the contrary to take from you all preoccupation and to leave
other men and perhaps they seem so because that some relicks of friendship which they cannot chase out of their mind rendring the injuries which they mutually do one another more grievous makes them complain thereof with words fuller of passion and talk of it uncessantly Indeed it is questionless much more grievous to be wronged by him that one loves then by him that one hates because this kind of wrong raises as it were a Civil war in our passions exciting one part of our heart against the other and hinders us not only from obtaining what we desire but also from desiring it compleatly and without repugnance of a piece of our selves and Lovers may be good testimonies of this truth for it is certain as there are many waters that do not offend the sound parts of our bodies but yet when they touch a sore place cause there incredible pain So this sweet wounding of their heart makes them most sensible of injuries which without that would not vex nor move them at all Or lastly those that loved very dearly do combate one another with the cruellest acts of enmity to learn as I may so say to hate one another and to confirm themselves in that bitterness and violence into which they are faln because they find that all sorts of habits are fortified by exercise and by the acts which they produce PROB. 11. Why hath extream affliction no tears DOth it not proceed from hence for that the soul in an extream affliction hath no lively apprehensions such as those must be that raise tears but falls into a kind of stupidity and insensibleness Or is it not because when we are extreamly afflicted Nature which finds that the greatness of our Affliction would make us shed too many tears and that so great an evacuation might excessively weaken instead of comforting us keeps them back altogether and resists the motion of our disordered minds which were it not for that would abuse this soveraign remedy and employ it to our own ruine Or else may we not upon this subject say that he that is mightily afflicted cannot weep as he would do because generally every excessive passion hinders it self from arriving at its end and becomes an obstacle to its self and that for this reason those that are oppressed with too much Fear desiring to flie find that it hath nailed their feet to the ground and that their hand shakes that are too much in Choler and that they cannot express but by inconsequent and disjoynted words the greatness of their passion no more then those whom a too great Love possesses or those who are in a too great excess of Joy Certainly it seems that this is not void of likelihood And if it be asked Why every excessive passion fails of arriving at its end it may be answered that this happens to it because it is a malady of the soul and a defect and that the qualities proper to a malady are impotence weakness and ill success Or else every inordinate passion is an obstacle to its self and is impotent because it desires things vast and infinite and beyond all possibility which hinders our soul from executing those that are real and possible For we see evidently that he which is moved with a very great Choler cannot express at least in common and ordinary words his resentment and the indignity which raised it because he seeks the most strong and desires to use a more eager expression then the language of man is capable of It is plain also that Lovers do many times hack and hammer instead of speaking for the same reason namely because they would invent terms that should be as it were all flame and have more force and energie then they can have and that a like desire is the cause also why Joy which is so talkative becomes mute in being increased too much or brings forth only sighs and inarticulate and confused sounds And as for excessive Fear though this be a passion to which one cannot so easily apply this reason yet one may say possibly that he which is too lively possest by the image of a terrible and present danger hinders himself that in this perturbation and trouble wherein he is he desires not simply to run but to use some means more prompt and efficacious then natural and ordinary ones by which a man runs away and that his imagination thus overslipping whatsoever is real and possible as that of others which we spake of but now does not by reason hereof put in practice those faculties that move the parts of his body for it is evident that it is the operation of the Fancy that must put in practice those faculties But however it be it is very likely that Anger Joy and Love fail of expressing themselves well for this reason and if it be so we may with likelihood say that even so he which is very much afflicted cannot weep because that his soul disdaining the common characters of sadness searches in that ardour wherein it is so great ones that they are impossible Or else we may say that it doth not search for such but as that antient Painter that chose rather to cover with a veil the face of Agamemnon then venture to represent his grief it also chuseth rather to refrain tears and words and not to paint forth the greatness of its affliction then to be forced to paint it by the same things which the smallest of afflictions make use of If any one be not satisfied with all these reasons it may yet possibly be added that as we said before a moderate compressing of the inward parts may squeeze forth the humidity of tears and a too violent compression of the same parts may on the contrary keep them in by closing up the passages by which they use to come to the eyes PROB. 12. What is the reason some things are gotten best by neglecting them WE said in the fore-going Problem that a Passion being wrought to a very high pitch is an obstacle to its self and hinders us from arriving at what we aim at Now we will endeavour to give a reason of a difficulty like to that but yet greater viz. Why there are many things which are best acquired by neglecting them and looking another way Thus for example the Philosophers have observed to us that Glory is of such a nature that the best means to get it is to run away from it and not to desire it and that she favours those most that do least regard her Pleasure if we consider it well is like to it in this for the soul being softened through the love of pleasure and rest becomes so sensible of incommodities and griefs so vulnerable by all sorts of crosses and so feeble that the least thing wounds it mortally and makes it despair and even the smallest misfortunes become great unto it On the contrary the contempt of pleasure gives it presently a more strong constitution by which it
insensibly that we perceive it not and so make no resistance Or else as we love more those meats which having delighted the palate do not lie heavy upon our stomacks do we not in some sort love more for the same reason the services that do us good and yet leave no weight of necessary and forced obligation upon our spirits as questionless petty services often reiterated do because that on one side their number supplies their weakness and makes them countervaile a great benefit all at once and that on the other side they are of such a nature that he which did them cannot handsomely reproach them to us Whence it comes that the acknowledgement we preserve of them in our minds seems to us to be the more voluntary Or else that which we search for proceeds it not hence that he which doth us a great good turn is believed by us to do it out of vanity to gain the reputation of generousness or bounty because a great service makes a noise and is exposed to view but that we cannot suspect the same of him who is assiduous to render us a thousand petty devoires which appear not to the eyes of others and are perceived only by our selves Or else shall we say that one may do us a great service in our absence but that this train of petty services presuppoâ—â—â— that he that would make himself be beloved is not absent from him by whom he desires to be beloved but that on the contrary he converses ordinarily with him and that this familiarity is that which aids him principally to insinuate himself into our heart Or lastly doth not this also contribute to it that when we have received some notable benefit from another as it is a thing commonly known it happens many times that those whose interest it is to make us forget it have so much artifice to extenuate it to give it ill interpretations and to take away its lustre and weight that they seduce us and extinguish in us the resentment which we should have had of it whereas when any one hath insinuated himself into our favour and hath witnessed to us the ardour of his affections in many occurrences by petty services which have not been observed by others the resentment which we have thereof is not exposed the assaults of his enemies or rivals and he is so much the more assured the more it is secret and the cause of it not known PROB. 15. What is the reason that a great joy makes us facile to pardon injuries IT is certain that a great joy disposes us extreamly to clemency that it softens our hearts and expells that hardness and bitterness which injuries have caused in them and makes us easie to pardon them and as it is a thing certain and such whereof the enquiry cannot be otherwise than curious pleasant and profitable I conceive I have reason to allow it a place among'st these Problems and endeavour to discover all the causes of it In the first place then I believe I shall speak a very great truth if I say that our soul being surprized on a sudden by a great happiness finds it self secretly obliged to some soveraign power and hath secret motions of gratitude towards it and that finding its self unable to do it any good whereby to testifie its thanks it is so much the more constrained to do good to his works that is to say that it becomes good and disposed to do good even to those that have wronged it But besides this reason which without doubt contributes very much to the effect we speak of I conceive that Joy doth besides of its own nature beautifie the soul as well as it beautifies the countenance And indeed seeing that Joy is more according to nature than Sadness seeing it is a Good as Sadness is an Evil it must needs for this reason inspire also into it and waken the passions that are more conform to nature and better than those which are awakened by Sadness Now there is nothing more according to nature then Goodness If it be objected that Affliction corrects us and makes us better I answer that it doth not do it out of its own nature but by accident as a medicine cures us by accident although at other times it be a kind of poyson and is alwayes in some sort contrary to the temper of our bodies For if we consider affliction in its self we shall finde that as it is the property of winter and ill weather to kill flowers and to despoile the trees of the ornament of their foliage even so it blasts the beauties of the soul soures and debases it But above all we shall finde that in cooling and weakening the courage it greatly impaires that generosity from whence issues the pardon of injuries Philosophers say that Light doth naturally beget Heat although it be not a quality of the same species with it by reason of a certain affinity or correspondence of nature which is between them I suppose it is for the same reason that Joy may beget in the soul goodness and vertuous inclinations though its self be not a vertuous inclination since that being a good passion it must have some analogy with all the good passions as sadness must have also with all the bad ones But to come to the consideration of another cause of the same effect it seems also that as an injury made us not angry but out of an opinion we had that it had cast us down when any great prosperity comes to raise us up it must for this reason appease and sweeten the grief which this pretended dejectment hath caused in us since that it doth in some sort do us reason Or else perhaps the soul in a great prâ—â—perity looking on the present which smiles upon it and offers it nothing but matter of satisfaction and a most perfect rest doth equally take its eye off both from what is to come and what is past and therefore hates to remember passed injuries since that it cannot do it without looking off from the present which is so grateful to it and interrupting its delicious employment but that which still puts it more strongly upon the same resolution is that having all on a sudden received a great blessing it doth passionately desire to enjoy it fully and not corrupt the sweetness thereof and that there is nothing can so corrupt its sweetness as a motion of hatred and revenge For as the act of Loving is in its self naturally sweet because it is very much according to nature so the motions of Hatred are naturally painful and mingled with grief because they cross nature and because the soul doth as I may so say wrest and distort its self in receiving them into it and doth ill employ its faculties Now that all motion of revenge and hatred of another is naturally painfull and mixed with grief is a thing that may easily be proved For besides that our own sense
then he is and having something of generous in him he labours to refute by his actions this ill opinion which we have of him and desires to shew unto us that we were in an errour when we had such a conceit of him PROB. 20. Whence comes it that Beasts do naturally know how to swim and that Man hath need to learn THey answer commonly that Man doth not naturally know how to swim as Beasts do because that the first time he tryes to do it he is seized with a Fear which hinders him from making use of his legs and arms freely But I do not approve this answer for beasts have at least as much fear as man the first time one casts them into the water and I have seen some of them that would tremble for fear a long time after and remain astonisht and for all that ceased noâ— to swim very well Besides if it were only Fear that hindred man from knowing how to swim this would be nothing to them that are very bold and cast themselves without fear into great dangers and a man in this case would know at least how to swim in the water of a Bath in the midst of a company of his friends since that then he would have nothing to fear Or else he would know how to swim in a very narrow brook where the bottom may be seen all the way and can leave him no considerable fear Since therefore this answer doth not suffice and leaves the difficulty wholly untoucht I conceive rather that a man doth not naturally know how to swim because the first time he tries he cannot choose but mannage his legs and arms by Reason and that this hinders him from doing it right because it is an action that must be done by the imagination only after a brutish and blind manner We see clearly by experience that there are many things which we do worst when we would do them by Reason Besides I believe it is naught for a man the first time he tries to swim to be prepossest with this belief that he doth not know how to swim whereas beasts are exempt from all this preoccupation for to believe infallibly that one doth not know how to do any thing is a disposition to do it ill and to come scurvily off But besides these two reasons in my opinion it is very remarkable that when beasts swim they are in their natural posture because they have not an erect stature and do move according as they have an inclination to move naturally namely with all their feet at once and that on the contrary man lying at his length upon the water to swim is not in the posture in which he should naturally be and so hath the greater pains to move himself in this manner as even upon the earth it would be painful to him to march upon all four Or else I may say upon this subject that the difficulty is not so much to know why creatures that are much more light than man are more proper to swim but why he doth not know how to swim as well as Oxen horses and such other creatures that are heavier than he To which I answer that it is because Oxen and Horses and such other beasts have an inward capacity and cavity of their bodies much greater which is the cause that though their bodies sink deeper under water by reason of their weight there yet remains part thereof above and that it happens to them as it doth to vessels that are high built to wit that they continue above the water whilest others that are not so much laden but are much less do sink Or else too one may rationnlly say that beasts do naturally swim because they have for the most part a longer neck than man so that although all the rest of the body be heavy enough to sink under water yet in holdlng up their necks they take their breath at ease whereas mans body being ready naturally to sink under water as well as theirs he hath not a neck long enough to keep his head notwithstanding out of the water and by this means keep himself from being choaked So then Beasts have in this received from nature divers advantages above Man in which she hath not done him any wrong but on the contrary hath manifested the same wisdom which she shews in all other things that she is guided by a most admirable and penetrating judgement which fore-sees things that depend upon a long train of consequences For this wisdom foresaw that Man only among all other creatures should know how to make Boats and Bridges or to pass the rivers on Hors back PROB. 21. What is the reason that the fruits which grow at the tops of the boughs are the best IS it because that which is most earthy and gross in the nourishment cannot reach to the tops of the boughs so that they receive only that which is more subtile and doth easier find passage through the narrow streights of the wood Or else is it because that the tops of the branches are the newest and youngest parts of the tree and that for this reason they have the more vertue Or else is it for that the fruit which grows at the tops of the boughs are more exposed to the rayes of the Sun which ripens them better Or else because they are more exposed to the beating of the rain which serves to soften their hardness and to make them also sweeter as we see that fruit is sometimes softned between our hands and made sweeter according as we handle it Or else is it that when there is abundance of nourishment in a tree it passeth to the extremities after it hath provided for the necessities of all the other places but that being arrived at the extremities and not able to pass further it amuses it self and so feeds those fruits that grow there the better which consequently must have more of juice and of savour Methinks one may express the course of this nourishment by the example of a brook which runs as long as it finds any way but meeting at last some obstacle which is laid before it and hinders it from passing further it swells and gathers its waters into an heap Or else lastly is it that the nourishment according as it ascends from the root to the branches is still more and more concocted by the Natural heat of the tree so that for this cause it must needs be that which comes to the ends of the branches must be most concocted and most purified PROB. 22. Why do good men think they ought to speak in proper terms of other Passions and Vices but not of things that regard wantonness and corporal Love SOme antient Philosophers discoursing upon the same Question which we have here propounded have though that this modesty which hinders us from speaking plainly of things that belong to lasciviousness and the lower and more terrestrial part of Love was but an abuse and vain
have in them grave or sharpe sounds high or low slower or swifter ones whereas in noises that are uniform it is precisely the same object which is alwayes present to the faculty and that by this means it may after it hath effaced all other objects of our thoughts efface it self also and make it self imperceivable by the continuance of its action as we said and so beget sleep Or else is it that the pleasure which is given us by the noise of a brook or a fountain is a pleasure purely sensual and of the ear only but that the pleasure which the harmony of a musical instrument creates is not a pleasure of the ear only but also of the imagination and of the memory since that a man must compare in it one concord with another and consider the proportion of the sounds to one another to dislike or approve it and that seeing it exerciseth the fancy and the memory it is not to be wondred if it be not so proper to make a man sleep PROB. 27. What is the reason we aggravate our miseries and love to perswade others that we are very unfortunate IF we search why we aggravate our misfortunes we cannot deceive our selves in saying it is to perswade others that we are very unfortunate But it is a greater difficulty to know for what reason we desire they should believe so because oftentimes they are persons that we do not hope to receive any succour from and that our very misery rendring us lesse able to be useful to others may hinder many base and mercenary minds from doing us any good To enquire then the cause of this humour of the afflicted is it not in the first place that they are never assured that any man may not for the future be in a capacity to help him and therefore they tell their misfortunes to all they see and aggravate them to them to the end that if hereafter they should discover any means to succour them the pitty which they have raised in them may presently produce its effect Or else do they desire to have all that come near them know their evil and believe it to be very great thereby to incite them to give them some consolation Or do they not hope that he to whom they have aggravated their misery if he be not able to help them may at the least pray for them and that these prayers may prevail with the divine goodnesse Or else do they not desire that those very persons from whom they cannot hope for any succour should bemoane them for that they think that some body else that shall have the means to deliver them from their miseries will do it so much the more willingly if he sees that many persons do compassionate him and are affected therewith because the more general the good is which we are intreated to do and the more persons it regards the more ready are we to do it Or else is it that to be beloved being in it self a good we do therefore exaggerate our miseries thereby to raise pitty and by pitty love because we know naturally that pitty is so near to love that there is nothing more easie then to slip from one to the other Or else do we not desire that a man should believe that we suffer very much because we desire he should talk much and long of us both while we live and after our death and that we foresee that men will talk so much the more of us as they think that our miseries have been great Or is it not out of a vain affectation of glory which is annexed to constancy and to be in some sort admired by others that we paint forth as very excessive incomparable and in a word much greater then they are the evils which men see we suffer with so much patience our Vanity being so essential and united to our souls that Grief it self cannot expell it and that that accompanies it even in the midst of torments upon the Rack and at the Stake as the Stoicks said of their Wisemans Happinesse Or else do we aggravate our miseries because through humane weaknesse we do in our miseries many times think that the Providence which governs the Universe doth us some kind of wrong and that to prove it we dare not alledge our perfections and our innocence but we alledge only the evils which it sends us which we say are greater then all that ever man suffered Or else because we believe that all things have their course in the world and succeed one another do we not for this reason delight to perswade our selves that we have been for the time past very unhappy to the end that we may build upon this foundation hopes of being happy for the future and of seeing our felicity return in its course as the Day returns after Night Summer after Winter and Fair weather after a long Storm Or as Caesar very wisely painted forth to his Souldiers the enemies forces much greater then they were to the end that afterwards seeing them lesse they should lesse fear them and be provided of resolution and courage more then enough doth not our soul by a like artifice fain to its self its misfortunes greater then they are to the end that afterwards returning to consider the truth of the businesse it may receive some comfort in undeceiving its self and that when the violence of its evil shall return to oppresse it it may have laid in a large provision of courage and find its self provided of more constancy then is requisite for the undergoing of it Or else do we not aggravate our miseries to provoke our selves to weep more abundantly because we finde that tears are a refreshment to us and therefore also in Tragedies afflicted persons do commonly exhort one another to shed abundance of Tears Or else to conclude do we thus aggravate our evils because we think that great and excellent things having only great destinies either in good or evil it is some token of elevation and excellence to have been exercised by great evils If any man object to me that herein we should make but a simple consequence I do freely confesse it but I believe he will also grant me that the mind of man hath very many weaknesses and follies and especially that he is so passionate for his own excellence that he lets not slip by in vain the least shaddow of the least mark that he can give to himself of it And therefore we see many men blame themselves for having a bad memory that from thence they may draw some advantage for their judgement because though they see this consequence cannot but be very weak since that there are every-where thousands of blockheads that have neither memory nor judgement yet they think that this is some slight sign of it because of an opinion that is received by many to this purpose the truth whereof we do not here examine and that which is yet more you
which himself doth with abundance of affection and thinks he sees every-where else the same objects which his own mind is filled with and to which he is too much addicted PROB. 30. What is the reason that the lowest spirits are commonly most perswaded of the truth of their opinions IS it not because that as the earth and gross bodies have this advantage over the noblest and most subtile ones that they are more firm in their places and cannot so easily be removed so gross and dull souls have certain advantages over others amongst which this must be reckoned to be firm in their opinions Or should we not rather say that this is rather a disadvantage to them and that it is harder to take away their errours then to take from wise men their sound belief for the same reason that makes it harder to cure a man of a disease than to make him sick Or else is it not that as a man that stands on tiptoes cannot be so firm in this posture as he is in that lies along and keeps himself with all his weight on the ground So wise men cannot be so firm in their opinions to which they came only by forcing and straining themselves as fools are in theirs into which they suffered themselves to fall as it were with all their weight being far from striving to raise themselves up again Or else is it that base opinions are upheld by the suffrage of the multitude and that it is not to be wondered at if that makes us couragiously embrace an opinion since it makes us without fear to run upon death and assures us against the greatest dangers Or else lastly is it that fools for want of judgement do not for the most part understand the reason of the able and that on the contrary able men do by their vivacity conceive the reasons which fools object against them better then they do themselves and that this difference is alike proper to make those more resolute and to weaken something the assurance of these PROB. 31. Whence is it that in the greatest subjects of affliction we do many times take up more readily a constant resolution then in others that are much lighter IT is principally for two causes First that when we are much afraid of any misfortune and look upon it as the greatest that can happen to us this fear makes us very often to think of it so that when it befalls us we are already preparey for it and that for this reason manâ— times we are more easily resolutâ—… therein contrary to the expectation of all men The second is that a great misfortune disabuses us of the too great estem which we set on the things of the world and of the happiness which may be gotten in it and proves to us on the contrary by our own experience that all things are very fickle and inconstant Thus then it makes us contemn it and by that great blow which it gives us doth as it were cut the roots by which we were tyed unto it In a word by afflicting us on the one side it comforts us on the other and furnishes us with weapons against it self PROB. 32. Wherefore are old men great talkers OLd men have thoughts that vex and perplex them when they come once to be entertained with much leisure either because they have discovered vanity in all things or because old age in which they are sets before their eyes as soon as they entertain themselves in this manner many grand incommodities into which they are ready to fall and lastly the most inevitable of all evils which is Death They seek therefore to divert their minds from these vexatious thoughts by all means and hither tend their houshold cares to which for this reason they apply themselves very earnestly but when they have nothing to do they can only Hear or Talk or Read to hinder that melancholy which their mind would give to it self in too great a lesure But Hearing is not sufficient to divert their minds from thoughts that wound them because governing themselves wholly by their own judgement they give no great attention to the thoughts of others or contemn them as making account that they themselves have others taken up upon better grounds As for Reading it is an employment which besides that it is hurtful for them dulls their faculties which Age hath rendred less quick because it hath nothing that doth enough affect the senses and the mind It is then only when they Talk that their minds do in good earnest lose the image of those things that afflict and trouble them and diverts the sight from every thing that inspires it with melancholy It is not therefore to be wondered at if they are much delighted therewith Or else as Fruit falls more easily from the tree when it is ripe so our Conceits come more fluently from us how careful soever we be to keep them in when they are full ripe and that we have cleared and well digested them Now old mens are such because they are wise and have made many reflections which have disabused them of many errours Or else lastly they are Talkers for several particular reasons as for instance if they are present at any solemnity or great show they have then less curiosity then others because they have often seen the like therefore instead of being attentive to see they suffer themselves often to make large discourses which being then very offensive to those that are near them hath so much the more easily gotten them the name of great Talkers Just so also if they are at a Feast they have less appetite then others and are sooner satisfied And therefore were it only out of civility they are obliged to Talk which incommodating those that by this means see themselves bound to make long replyes makes them so much the more blame this vice Moreover after the repast they are also carried away with a desire to Talk much to keep themselves from sleeping because they know well it is a thing they are subject to These are then it seems the principal causes of the effect we speak of though there may be also many others PROB. 33. Whence comes it that in all kind of things those that do but meanly in them are more severe and rigid Judges of others then those that excell therein and hold the first rank DO not people very much deceive themselves when they think that to dislike all things is a token of delicacy of judgement whereas on the contrary they should say that a squeamishness both in body and mind is a sign of sickness and as an healthful man likes well brown bread and less delicate viands so a spirit of a strong and vigorous health ought to be pleased with all things wherein it sees shine never so little of perfection although it will perceive the difference that is betwixt them and others which being thus supposed our Problem remains without difficulty Or else shall we
wisdome and this ordinary virtue of men with a state of Perfection much greater which reason gives us the Idea of we finde our selves forced to name them Vice and Folly just as we call foul linnen black in comparing it with that which hath been new washed or with snow though it be white in it self and in comparison with Ink for every mean state is an evil in regard of an excellency which is much above it as truly as it is a good in regard of that which is beneath it Now our soul is so much the more apt to look upon the good that is in it with disdain because it finds it is born for a state of perfection much more eminent and thus though an Artisan be to be commended if he perfectly understand any mechanick art yet wheen we judge of a Prince we make no account of such an ability if he hath no other because we conceive he is born for much greater things Secondly our soul doth often attribute to it self more imperfection then it hath because the good already gotten slips out of our memory and doth not ordinarily present it self to our minds as that which is wanting doth the reason of it is because the soul alwayes withdraws its sight from the things about which it hath no more to do as on the contrary it fixeth it upon those that give it some occasion of desire and endeavour In the third place a man doth not think there is any need of aggravating the good that is in man and believes rather it would be a thing very hurtful but on the contrary he thinks it is very profitable to aggravate his Vice and Folly which is also very true but yet to some certain degrees only for to give to man too low conceptions of himself and such as are like him is an abating of his Courage and quenching of his Emulation But however hereby sometimes the imperfection of man seems to us to be greater then it is for to consider first that which regards his understanding oftentimes when we speak of many fools we say with a serious tone as if we desired to be believed and to have it pass for an Axiome that they have no more judgement then beasts nay in aggravating their folly we think sometimes that beasts have more though if we consider it aright and according to the truth of the business a man that is the most void of wit gives at but opening his eyes and by his first gestures and by his first looks tokens of a greater judgement then all beasts put together There are also Philosophers that have contributed to the making of the generality of men be so severely condemned for whether it were that herein they alwayes had for their end some profit that might be reaped by it or that at sometimes they might be put upon it for some other reasons they have one after another aggravated his folly in such a manner as if they had a minde to take from him even common sense In this there is too much severity and bitterness for we should not consider only the faults of people but also the good that is in them and then we shall finde that in many things they have the first notions most quick and most pure though they know not how to discourse of them exactly and after a subtile manner we should not also impute as so many faults of their understanding all the weaknesses of their imagination and take them in the worst sense that can be for all things appear bad to him that considers them not with candor and equity and he that is resolved never to see any thing but bad makes short work by casting himself into an excess of rigour and turning away his eyes from that which is laudable in them but by this means he depraves himself and not that which he considers after this manner the same also happens from the aggravating of mens vice But to discover yet another cause that makes us thus defame our nature many times beyond the truth it may further be said that every one thinks to gain something to his own advantage in vilifying mankind and the generality of men for if he hath any perfection he is more willing to perswade himself that it comes to him from what he hath particular and proper then to believe that it proceeds from what he hath in common with others the reason whereof is because what he hath in particular is more his own and on the contrary if he hath any imperfection he also findes some comfort in the displeasure it doth him by attributing it to the general nature of man rather then to the fault of his own individual nature But especially wicked men are put upon a like design by the like motive for that they may finde out some excuse they endeavour to include all others in the same fault which they themselves are guilty of they scrape together therefore what ever is most ugly in our life and make it much worse in expressing it and in giving ill interpretations of it and when we hear them thus aggravate much beyond the truth that which is ill in us we contradict them not as well because as I told you that we think it is profitable it should be so as also because it seems to be Humility to consent to an accusation in which we are comprized and on the contrary that it is arrogance and presumption to oppose it From hence then arise many sayings and expressions which import that reason can do nothing or very little on the mind of man that there is nothing but injustice and ingratitude to be seen in the world and such other like things which are contrary to other sayings that we have at other times which are as much beyond the truth for it is not more impossible that heaven should fall then it is impossible that Justice and Reason should cease to have very much power upon the minds of men and that they should not suffer themselves to be bent and affected with this same Reason as their particular interest Pirats robbers upon the high-way poysoners and the most detestable of men do not make any exception against this rule and though Choler be the most wild and savage of all our passions and though it stir whatsoever is most base and evil in us yet that which first kindles it is an indignity which is nothing else but injustice and therefore Poets that are the Painters of the ordinary motions of the soul when they bring upon the stage one that talking to himself alone labours to animate himself with a violent rage they make him insist longer upon reasons drawn from justice or injustice then upon others drawn from profit and not without cause for if a man do only conclude in himself that it is profitable for him to be angry there would be nothing more cold then such an inticement and he would not for this obtain of himself to be