need of so much room so that retreating into the largest which are neerest the heart it deserts the remotest the most apparent whereof being those of the face that makes it look pale and wanne especially when the Sadness is great or comes upon one suddenly as is seen in Affrights whose surprizalls augment the action that obstructs the heart The 117th Article How a man looks red oft-times when he is Sad. BUt it oft-times befalls that a man does not wax pale when he is Sad but contrarily becomes red this ought to be atributed to other Passions joyned to sadness to wit Love Desire and sometimes even Hatred too for these passions heating or agitating the blood which comes from the liver entrailes and the rest of the interiour parts drive it to the heart and from thence through the great Artery to the veines of the face the Sadness which obstructs the Orifices of the heart on each side not being able to hinder it unless when it is mighty excessive but when it is only moderate it easily hinders the blood so come into the veines of the face from descending into the heart while Love Desire or Hatred drive other thither from the interiour parts Wherefore this blood being setled about the face makes it look red and indeed redder then in Joy because the colour of the blood appears so much the better as it flowes quicker and also because more blood can then get up into the veins of the face then when the Orifices of the heart are more open This is more palpable in shame which is compounded of self-Love and an earnest Desire to shunne present infamy which causeth the blood to come from the interiour parts to the heart from thence through the arteries into the face and withall of a moderate Sadness which hinders this blood from returning to the heart The same is also seen ordinarily when a man weeps for as I shall say hereafter it is Love joyned to Sadness which for the most part causes tears it appears also in Anger or oft-times an eager Desire of Revenge mixed with Love Hatred and Sadness The 118th Article Of Tremblings TRemblings have two severall causes one is that there come sometimes too few spirits from the brain into the nerves the other that there come sometimes too many so that the little passages of the muscles cannot be duly shut which as hath been said in the eleventh Article ought to be shut to determine the motion of the members the chiefe cause of it appears to be in Sadness and fearfulness as also when a man shakes with cold for these Passions as well as the cold of the aire may so thicken the blood that it may not furnish the brain with spirits enough to send any into the nerves the other cause appears often in those who ardently desire any thing and in those who are moved with wrath as also in those who are drunk for these two Passions as well as Wine sometimes make so many spirits go into the brain that they cannot regularly be conveyed from thence into the muscles The 119th Article Of Languishing LAnguishing is a disposition to ease ones selfe and be without motion which is felt in all the members it comes as trembling because there are not spirits enough in the nerves but in a different manner for the cause of trembling is that there are not enough in the brain to obey the determinations of the kernell when that drives them to any muscle whereas Languishing proceeds from hence that the kernell doth not determine them to goe to some muscles rathen others The 120th Article How it is caused by Love and by Desire ANd the Passion which most commonly causeth this effect is Love joyned to the Desire of a thing the acquisition whereof is not imagined possible for the present time for love so busies the Soul in considering the object beloved that it employes all the spirits which are in the brain to represent the image of it to her and stops all the motions of the kernell not subservient to this purpose And it is to be noted concerning Desire that the property which I ahve attributed to it of rendring the body more active agrees not to it but when a man imagines the object desired to be such that he may from that very time doe something which may serve to acquire it For if on the other side he imagines it is impossible for him at that time to doe any thing that may conduce thereunto all the agitation of Desire remaines in the brain not at all passing into the nerves and being wholly employed in fortifying the Idea of the object desired there leaves the rest of the body languishing The 121 Article That it may also be caused by other Passions ITis true that Hatred Sadness yes and Joy too may cause some kind of Languishing too when they are very violent because they wholly busie the Soul in considering their objects chiefly when the Desire of a thing to the acquisition whereof a man cannot contribute any thing for the present is joyned with them But because hee fixes more on the consideration of the objects which he hath joyned in Will to himself than those which he hath separated or any else and because Languishing depends not on a surprize but requires some time to be formed it is more frequently found in Love than any other Passion The 122 Article Of Swouning THere is not much difference betwixt Swounning and Death for a man dies when the fire in his heart is utterly extinguished and he falls in a Swoune only when it is smothered so that there remains only some residue of heat that may afterwards be kindled again Now there are divers indispositions of the body which may make a man fall to fainting thus but among the Passions none but extream joy is observed to have this power and the manner whereby I suppose it works its effect is thus opening extraordinarily the Orifices of the heart the blood of the veines doth so huddle in and in so abundant a quantity that it cannot there be rarified by the heat soon enough to lift up the little skins that shut the entries of those veines by which means it smothers the fire which it used to feed when it came into the heart in fit proportion The 123 Article Wherefore a man doth not swoun with Sadnesse ONe would think that a great Sadness unexpectedly falling might so shut the Orifices of the heart that it might extinguish the fire but yet that is not observed to happen or if it doe very rarely the reason whereof I believe is that there can scarce be so little blood in the heart but that it is sufficient to maintain the heat when the Orifices thereof are almost lockt up The 124th Article Of Laughter LAughter consists in this that the blood which comes from the right cavity of the heart by the arterious veine blowing up the lungs suddenly and at severall fits constrains the aire
equally distant the one from the other and so were separated They come to meet because the order of these pores is molested by which meanes they joyn together and so convertinto teares The 131. Article How one weepes for Sadnesse THe other cause is Sadnesse followed by Love or Joy or generally by any cause which makes the heart thrust much blood into the arteries Sadnesse is requisite thereunto because making the blood cold it contracts the pores of the eyes But because according as it contracts them it also decreases the quantity of vapours whereunto they should allow passage that is not yet sufficient to produce tears unlesse the quantity of vapours be at the same time augmented by some other cause And there is nothing that encreaseth it more then the blood sent from the heart in the Passion of Love We see also that they who are sad do not continually shed tears but onely by intervalls when they make any new reflexion on the objects they affect The 132. Article Of the groanes which accompany tears ANd then sometimes the lungs two are blown up all at once by the abundance of blood which gets into them and drives away the aire they contained which breaking forth through the gullet begets groanes and cryes which usually accompany tears And these cries are commonly more sharp than those which accompany Laughter though they be produced almost in the same manner the reason whereof is that the nerves which serve to enlarge or contract the organs of the voice to make it stronger or sharper being joyned to those which open the Orifices of the heart in Joy and contract them in Sadnesse cause these organs to be dilated or contracted at the same time The 133. Article Wherefore children and old men are aptest to Weep CHildren and old men are apter to Weep than they of a middle age but for severall reasons Old men Weep oft-times out of affection and for Joy for these two Passions joyned together send much blood to the heart and from thence many vapours to the eyes and the agitation of these vapours is so retarded by their natural coldnesse that they are apt to convert into tears although no sadnesse preceded But if some old men are apt to Weep for vexation too it is not so much the temper of their Body as that of their mind which disposeth them thereunto And this befals only those who are so weak that they suffer themselves to be absolutely overcome by small occasions of griefe fear or pitty the same happens to children who doe not Weep commonly for Joy but rather for sadnesse that unaccompanied with Love For they ever have blood enough to produce many vapours the motion of which being retarded by Sadnesse they convert into Tears The 134. Article Wherefore some children wax pale instead of Weeping YEt there are some who wax pale instead of Weepig when they are vexed which may denote an extraordinary judgement and courage in them that is when it proceeds from the consideration of the greatnesse of the evil they prepare themselves for a strong resistance as they doe who are elder But it is ordinarily a mark of an ill nature that is when it proceeds from their inclination to Hatred or Fear follow for they are Passions that diminish the matter of tears And on the contrary it is seen that those who are prone to Weep are inclined to Love and Pity The 135. Article Of Sighes THe cause of Sighes is very different from that of tears though it like them presupposes Sadnesse For whereas a man is excited to Weep when the lungs are ful of blood he is incited to sigh when they are almost empty and when some imagination of Hope or joy opens the Orifice of the venous artery which Sadnesse had contracted because then the smal remainder of blood in the lungs falling all together into the left side of the heart through this venous artery and driven on by a Desire to attain this Joy which at the same time agitates all the muscles of the Diaphragma and breast the air is suddenly blown through the mouth into the lungs to fill up the vacant place of the blood And this is called sighing The 136. Article From whence proceed the Passions which are peculiar to certain men FUrthermore that I may here in few words supply all that may be added hereunto concerning the several effectts or causes of the Passions I am content to repeatthe principle whereon all that I have written of them is grounded to wit that there is such a tye betwixt our Soul and Body that when we once have joyned any corporall Action with any thought one of them never presents it self to us without the other and that they are not alwayes the same Actions which are joyned to the same thoughts For this is sufficient to give a reason of all that any man can observe peculiar either in himself or others concerening this matter which hath not been here explained And for example it is easie to conceive that the strange Aversions of Some who cannot endure the smell of roses the sight of a Cat or the like come only from hence that when they were but newly alive they were displeased with some such like objects or else had a fellow-feeling of their mothers resentment who was so distasted when she was with child for it is ceertain there is an affinity between the motions of the mother and the child in her womb so that whatsoever is displeasing to one offends the other and the smell of Roses may have caused some great head-ach in the child when it was in the cradle or a Cat may have affrighted it and none took notice of it nor the Child so much as remembred it though the Idea of that Aversion he then had to Roses or a Cat remain imprinted in his brain to his lives end The 137th Article Of the use of the five precedent Passions as they relate to the body NOw the definitions of Love Hatred Desire Joy and Sadness are laid down and the corporall motions that cause them or accompany them treated of we have no further to doe but consider the use of them Concerning which it is to be observed that according to the institution of Nature they all relate to the body and are not given to the Soul but as joyned to it so that their naturall use is to incite the Soul to consent and contribute to the actions which may be useful to conserve the body or make it in some kind more perfect and in this sense Sadnesse and Joy are the two first that are set on work for the Soul is immediatly warned of those things that are hurtfull to the body by the feeling of pain whch first of all produces the Passion of Sadness in her then Hatred of that which causes this pain and in the third place the Desire to be rid of it as also the Soul is not immediatly advertised of things beneficiall to the body but
alone hath more heat and motion than any of our limbs we may be assured that heat and all the motions within us seeing they depend not on the mind belong onely to the body The fifth Article That it is an errour to believe the Soul gives motion and heat to the body WHereby we shall eschew a very considerable error which many have faln into so farre that I believe it the cause of hindering the Passions and other things which belong to the soul from being explained hitherto It is this that seeing all dead bodies are deprived of heat and consequently of motion people imagine the absence of the soul wrought this cessation of motion and heat and so erroniously conceive that our naturall heat and all the motions of our body depend on the soul whereas indeed the contrary should be supposed that the soul absents it self in death only because this naturall heat ceaseth and the organs which seem to move the body are corrupted The sixth Article What is the difference betwixt a living and a dead dody THat we may then avoid this errour Let us consider that death never comes by any defect of the soul but onely because some one of the principall parts of the body is corrupted and conceive that the body of a living man differs as much from that of a dead one as a watch or any other AUTOMA that is any kind of Machine that moves of it self wound up having in it self the corporeall principle of those motions for which it was instituted with all things requisite for its action and the same watch or other engine when it is broken and the principle of its motion ceases to act The seventh Article A brief explication of the parts of the body and of some of its functions TO make this more intelligible I will in few words display the pieces and lineaments whereof this Machine our body is composed There is none that doth not already know there is within us a heart a braine a stomach muscles sinews arteries veins and the like it is as commonly known that meats eaten descend into the stomack and bowells from whence the juice of them trickling into the liver and all the veines mixes it self with the blood in them and by this means augments the quantity thereof Those who have heard talk never so little of Physick know besides this how the Heart is composed and how all the blood of the veines may with facility drop into the hollow vein on the right side of it and from thence passe into the Liver by a vessell called the venous arterie then return from the liver into the left side of the heart through the Pipe called the arterious vein and at length passe from thence into the great arterie the branches whereof spread themselves all over the body Yea even all those whom the authority of the Ancients hath not totally blinded and who have vouchsafed to open their eyes to examine the opinion of Harvy concerning the circulation of the blood make no doubt but all the veins and arteries of the body are like channells through which the blood continually and easily glides taking its course from the right cavity of the heart through the arterious veine whereof the branches are dispersed into every part of the Liver and joyned to those of the venous arterie by which it passeth from the Liver into the left fide of the heart from thence going into the great arterie the branches whereof being scattered over all the rest of the body are joyned to the branches of the hollow vein which cary the same blood again into the right cavity of the heart so that the two cavities are as it were the sluces of it through each of which all the blood passes every round it walks about the body Moreover it is notorious that all the motions of the members depend upon the muscles and that these Muscles are opposite to one another in such a manner that when one of them shrinks up it drawes after it that part of the body whereto it is knit which causes the muscle opposite to it to stretch forth at the same time then again if at another time this last shrink up the first gives way suffering the other to attract that part it is joyned unto In fine it is knowne that all these motions of the muscles as also all the senses depend on the sinews which are as little strings or like small tonnells coming all from the braine and containing as that does a certain aire or exceeding subtle wind which is tearmed the Animall spirits The eighth Article What is the principle of all these functions BUt it is not commonly known in what manner these animall Spirits and nerves contribute to these motions and senses nor what is the corporeall principle that makes them act wherefore although I have already glanced upon it in former writings I will not here omit to say succinctly that while we live there is a continuall heat in our heart which is a kind of fire that the blood of the veines feeds and this fire is the corporeall principle of tall the motions of our members The ninth Article How the motion of the heart is wrought THe f irst effect of it is that it dilates the blood wherewith the cavities of the heart are fill'd which is the reason that this blood having need of a larger room passes impetuously from the right cavity into the arterious vein and from the left into the great arterie then this dilatation ceasing immediately new blood from the hollow vein enters into the right cavity of the heart and from the veinous arterie into the left for there are little skins at the entrance of these foure vessells so contrived that they will not let the blood get into the heart but by the two last nor come out but by the other two The new blood being gotten into the heart is there immediately rarified as the former was Hence onely is that pulse or palpitation of the heart and arteries for this beating is reiterated as often as any new blood gets into the heart It is also this alone which gives motion to the blood and causeth it uncessantly to run very swiftly in all the arteries and veines by means whereof it conveyes the heart acquired in the heart to all the other parts of the body and is their nutriment The tenth Article How the animall spirits are begotten in the braine BUt what here is most considerable is that all the most lively and subtle parts of the blood that heat hath rarified in the heart continually enter in abundandance into the cavities of the braine and the reason why they go thither rather than any where else is because all the blood that issues out of the heart by the great artery bends its course in a direct line thither ward and it not being possible for all to get in because there are none but very narrow passages those parts thereof that are the most
caten or at least corrupt them and convert them into ill humours The 99th Artick In Joy IN Joy that the pulse is even and quicker than ordinary but not so strong nor so great as in Love and that a man feels a pleasant heat which is not onely in the breast but spreads its self over all the exteriour parts of the body with the blood which is seen to flow abundantly thither and the mean while he sometimes loses his appetite because the digestion is lesse than usuall The 100th Article In Sadnesse IN Sadnesse that the pulse is weak and slow and that a man feels as it were strings about his heart which bind it close and Icycles that freez it and communicate their cold to the rest of the body yet in the mean while he hath sometimes a good appetite and feels his stomack not failing of its duty provided there be no Hatred mingled with the Sadnesse The 101 Article In Desire LAstly I observe this peculiar in Desire that it agitates the heart more violently than any of the other Passions and furnishes the brain with more spirits which passing from thence into the muscles make all the senses quicker and all parts of the body more agile The 102 Article The motion of the blood and spirits In Love THese observations and many more too long to insert gave me occasion to conceive that when the understanding represents to it self any object of Love the impression which this thought makes in the brain conveyes the animal spirits through the nerves of the sixth paire to the muscles about the intestines and the stomack in the manner requisite to make the juice of meats which convert into new blood passe suddenly to the heart without any demurre in the Liver and which being driven thither with greater force than that which is in the rest of the body it gets in thither in more abundance and excites a stronger heat by reason it is thicker than that which already hath been often rarified by passing and repassing through the heart which also causeth it to send spirits to the brain whose parts are grosser and more agitated than ordinary and these spirits fortifying the impression that the first thought of the object beloved stuck there bind the Soul to fix upon the thought and herein consists the Passion of Love The 103 Article In Hatred CContrarywise in Hatred the first thought of the object that breeds aversion so conveyes the spirits in the brain to the muscles of the stomack and intestines that they hinder the juyce of meats from mixing with the blood by contracting up all the passages through which it is used to runne and so conveyes it to the small nerves of the spleen and the lower part of the Liver where the receptacle of choler is that those parts of the blood which use to be cast out to those places get out and runne with that in the branches of the hollow vein to the heart which causeth much inequality in the heat of it seeing the blood that comes from the spleen is not heated nor rarified but with much difficulty and on the other side that which comes from the lower part of the Liver where the gall is inflamed and dilated suddenly by which consequence spirits that go to the brain have parts very unequall and motions very unusuall from whence it comes that they there fortifie the Id'aea of Hatred already imprinted and encline the souls to thoughts full of rancour and bitternesse The 104th Article In Joy IN Joy not onely the nerves of the spleen Liver stomack or intestines act but those in the rest of the body and particularly that about the Orifices of the heart which opening and dilating these Orifices enables the blood which the rest of the nerves have driven from the veins to the heart to get in there and issue forth in greater quantity then ordinary and because the blood which then gets into the heart hath often passed and repassed through it coming from the arteries into the veines it easily dilates and produces spirits whose parts being very equall and subtle are fit to form and fortifie the impressions of the brain which deal lively and quiet thoughts to the Soul The 105th Article In Sadnesse COntrariwise in Sadnesse the Orifices of the heart are hugely straitened by the small nerve that environs them and the blood of the veins is no whit agitated which causeth but very little to go to the heart and in the mean while the passages through which the juyce of meats glides from the stomack and entrailes to the Liver are open wherefore the appetite diminisheth not unlesse Hatred which is an ordinary companion of Sadnesse close them The 106th Article In Desire LAstly the Passion of Desire hath the peculiar property that the Will a man hath to attain any good or avoid any evill sends the Spirits of the brain immediately to all the parts of the body that may serve any wayes to actions requisire to that purpose and particularly to the heart and those parts which supply it with blood most that receiving it in greater abundance than ordinary it sends a great number of spirits to the brain as well to maintain and fortifie the Idaea of this Will as to passe from thence into all the organs of the senses and all the muscles which may be set on work to attaine what one desires The 107th Article What is the cause of these motions in Love ANd I deduce the reason of all this from what hath formerly been said that there is such a tye betwixt our soul and body that when we have joyned any corporall Action with any thought one of them never presents if selfe to us afterwards without the other As may be seen in such who with much aversnesse when they have been sick have taken some drink they can neither eat nor drink afterwards but they have the same aversion nay further they cannot think of their a version to medecines but the very same taste comes into their thought For met thinks the first passions our soul admitted when she was first joyned to our Body came from hence that sometimes the blood or some other juyce which got into the heart was an alimony more convenient than ordinary to maintain heat there which is the principle of life this caused the Soul to joyne in will to this alimony that is to love it and at the same time the spirits trickled from the braine into the muscles which might presse or agitate the parts from whence it came to the heart that they might send more of it thither and these parts were the Stomack and entrailes whose agiration augments the appetite or else the liver and lungs which the muscles of the Diaphragma may presse Wherefore the same motion of the spirits ever since accompanies the passion of Love The 108 Article In Hatred SOmetimes on the contrary some strange juyce came to the heart which was not good to cherish the heat
of it or which else might extinguish it wherefore the spirits which ascended from the heart to the braine excited in the Soul the passion of Hatred And at the same time also these spirits went from the braine to the nerves which might drive the blood from the spleene and the small veines of the liver to the heart to hinder this noxious juyce from getting in and more to those which might repell this juyce to the intrailes and the stomack or else sometimes to make the Stomack disgorge it From whence it comes that the same motions are used to accompany the Passion of Hatred And in the liver one may discern by the eye that there are inthe liver an abundance of veines or pipes indifferent broad through which the juyce of meates may passe from the Port-veine into the hollow-veine and from thence to the heart without stopping any whit at the liver but that there are also an infinite number of lesser ones where it may stop which alwayes contain a reserve of blood as the spleene doth too which blood being thicker then that which is in the other parts of the Body may better serve for nutriment to the fire in the heart when the Stomck and entrailes lack wherewithall to supply them The 109th Article In Joy IT hath also come to passe at the beginning of our life that the blood contained in the veines was an Alimony sufficiently convenient to maintain the heat of the heart and they contained so great an abundance of it that there was no need to exhaust nutriment elsewhere This hath excited in the Soul the Passion of Joy and at the same time hath caused the Orifices of the heart to be more open then ordinary and that the spirits trickling abundantly from the braine not onely into the nerves which serve to open these Orifices but also universally into all the rest which drive the blood of the veines to the heart hinder any from coming a fresh from the the liver splcen intrailes and Stomack Wherefore these very same motions accompany Joy The 110th Article In Sadnesse SOmetimes on the contrary it hath happened that the body hath wanted nutriment and this hath made the Soul feel her first Sadnesse at least that which hath not been joyned with Hatred this very thing hath also caused the Orifices of the heart to be contracted because they received but little blood and that a good quantity of this blood came from the spleen by reason that is as the last reserve which serves to supply the heart when there comes none to it from any where else Wherefore the same motions of the spirits and nerves which so serve to contract the Orifices of the heart and to convey the blood thither from the the spleen alwayes a company Sadnesse The 111th Article In Disire LAstly all the originall Desires which the Soul might have when it was newly joyned to the body were to admit things convenient for her and repell hurtfull and it was for the same purpose that from that instant the spirits began to move all the muscles and all the organs of the senses in all manners that they could move Which is the reason that now when the Soul desires any thing the whole body becomes more active and disposed to move than usually wichout it and then it fals out on the other side that the Body is so disposed then are the Desires of the Soul more strong and vehement The 112 Article What are the exteriour signes of these Passions WHat I have laid down here makes the differences of the pulse and all the other properties which I have here before attributed to these passions be fufficiently understood so that I need not stand any further to explaine them But because I have onely observed in each what may be remarkable onely when it is single and what shewes to know the motions of the blood and spirits that produce them it yet remaines that I should treat on divers exteriour signes which usually accompany them and which may be better noted when many of them are mixed together as ordinarily they are than when they are distinct The chief of these signes are the gestures of the eyes and face changes of colour tremblings languishing swouning laughter tears groanes and sighes The 113th Article Of the gestures of the eyes and face THere is no Passion but some particular gesture of the eyes declare it and it is so palpable in some that even the stupidst serving-men by the eye of their master observe whether he be angry with them or not But though a man may easily perceive these gestures of the eyes and know what they signifie yet it is not an easie matter to describe them because every one of them is composed of severall alterations which happen in the motion and figure of the eye which are so peculiar and so small that each of them cannot be discerned distinctly though the result of their conjunction be easily marked The same thing almost may be said of the gestures of the face which thus accompany the Passions for though they be greater then those of the eyes yet it is difficult to distinguish them they so little differ that there are men almost of the same aspect when they weep as others when they laugh It is true there are some very remarkable as the wrinkling of the forehead in wrath and certain motions of the nose and lips in indignation and derision but they seem rather to be voluntary then naturall And generally all the gestures as well of the face as eyes may be altered by the Soul when being willing to conceal her Passion she strongly imagines one contrary to it so that they may serve as well counterfeit as declare Passions The 114th Article Of changing Colour A Man cannot so easily refrain from blushing or looking pale when any Passion disposseth him thereunto because these changings depend not on the nerves and muscles as the former and because they come more immediately from the heart which may be called the source of the Passions seeing it prepares the blood and spirits to produce them Now it is certain that the colour of the face comes from nought but the blood which flowing continually from the heart through the arteries into all the veines and from all the veines into the heart colours the face more or lesse according as it more or lesse fills the little veines towards the superficies thereof The 115th Article How Joy causes blushing SO Joy renders the colour livelyer and more Vermillion because by opening the sluces of the heart it makes the blood flow quicker in all the veines and becomming hotter and more subtile it moderately raiseth up all parts of the face which makes the aspect of it more smiling and brisk The 116th Article How Sadnesse makes one look pale ON the contrary Sadness by contracting the Orifices of the heart makes the blood flow more slowly into the veins and that becomming colder and thicker hath not
they contain to break out impetuously through the gullet where it formes an inarticulate and clattering sound and as well the lungs by their blowing and this aire by breaking forth shove all the muscles of the Diaphragma breast and throat by which means they cause those of the face which have some connexion with them to move and it is only this gesture of the face with this inarticulate and clattering voyce that is called Laughter The 125th Article Wherefore it doth not accompany the greatest joyes NOw though laughter may seem to be one of the chiefe signes of Joy yet this cannot cause that but only when that is mean and that there be some little Admiration or Hatred mixed with it for it is found by experience that when a man is extraordinary Joyfull the occasion of this Joy never makes him break out into Laughter and besides he can never be so easily invited to it as when hee is Sad the reason whereof is that in the greatest Joyes the lungs are continually so full of blood that they cannot be blown up any more by fits The 126th Article What are the chiefe causes of it ANd I can mark but two causes which blow up the lungs thus suddenly the first is a surprizal of Admiration which being joyned to Joy may so quickly open the Orifices of the heart that a great abundance of blood getting in all together at the right side of it through the hollow veine is rarified there and passing from thence through the arterious veine blows up the lungs the other is the mixture of some liquour that augments the rarefaction of the blood and I find none fit for that purpose but the wheyest part of that which comes from the Spleen which part of the blood being driven to the heart by some light emotion of Hatred assisted by a surprize of Admiration and mixing there with the blood which comes from the other parts of the body which Joy causes to enter in thither abundantly may cause this blood to dilate much more then usual as we see many hquours swell up over the fire if one fling but a little vinegar into the vessel where they are for the wheyest part of the blood which comes from the spleene is of a nature like vinegar Experience also shews us that in all rencounters producing this lowd Laughter which-comes from the lungs there is still some little occasion of Hatred or at least of Admiration and those whose spleens are not sound are subject not only to be more sad but by intervalls more merry and disposed to laughter then others forasmuch as the spleene sends two sorts of blood to the heart one thick and grosse which causeth Sadnesse the other exceeding fluid and subtile which causeth Joy And oft-times after much Laughter a man feeles himselfe naturally enclined to sadnesse because the most fluid part of the blood of the spleene being exhausted the grosser followes it to the heart The 127th Article What is the cause thereof in Indignation FOr that kinde of Laughter which sometimes accompanies Indignation it is usually artificiall and seigned But when it is naturall it seemes to come from the Joy a man hath to see he cannot be hurt by the evil whereat he is offended and withall that he finds himselfe surprized by the novelty or the unexpected encounter of this evil So that Joy Hatred and Admiration contribute to it Yet I will suppose that it may be produced without any Joy by the meer motion of Adversion which sends the blood from the spleen to the heart where it is rarified and thrust from thence into the lungs which it easily blowes up when it findes them empty And generally whatsoever suddenly blowes up the lungs in this manner causeth the exteriour Action of Laughter except when Sadnesse alters it into groanes and shrickes that accompany tears Vives 3 de Anima cap de Risu Writes of himselfe which is very pertinent to this that when he had been a long time fasting the first bits he put in his mouth made him laugh which might come from hence his lungs empty of blood for want of nutriment was suddenly blowne up by the first juyce that passed from his Stomack to his heart or else the meer imagination of eating might convey it thither even before that of the meat might get thither The 128. Article Of the Originall of Teares AS Laughter is never caused by the greatest Joyes so Tears proceed not from an extream Sadnesse but an indifferent one and that accompanied with or followed by some resentment of Love or also of joy And to understand their originall well it must be noted that although abundance of vapours continually issue forth from all parts of our Body yet there is none from whence there come so much as from the eyes by reason of the greatnesse of the optick neerves and the multitude of little arteries through which they come and that as sweat is made of the vapours which issuing our of the other parts convert into water on the superficies of them so teares are made of vapours issuing from the eyes The 129. Article Of the manner how vapours turn into water NOw as I have written in the Meteors explaining after what manner the vapours of the aire convert into rain that is proceeds from their being lesse agitated or more abundant than ordinary so I beleeve that when those that issue from the Body are farre lesse agitated then usually although they are not so abundant yet they may convert to water which causeth the cold sweats that sometimes proceed of weaknesse when a man is sick And I beleeve that when they are more abundant provided they be not withall more agitated they also convert into water this causeth sweat when one useth exercise But then the eyes sweat not because while the Body is exerecised the greatest parts of the spirits going into the muscles which serve to move it there go lesse through the optick nerve to the eyes And it is but the same matter which compounds the blood in the veins or arteries and the spirits when it is in the brain nerves or muscles and vapours when it issues out in the likenesse of aire And lastly sweat tears when it thickens into water on the superficies of the Body or the eyes The 130. Article How that which hurts the eye excites it to weep ANd I can see but two causes that make the vapours issuing from the eyes to change into teares The first is when the figure of the pores through which they passe is changed by any accident whatsoever for that retarding the motion of these vapours and altering their order may cause them to convert into water So there needs only a straw in the eye to draw out some teares by reason that exciting paine in it it altars the disposition of the pores so that some becoming more narrow the small parts of the vapours passe lesse quickly through it and whereas formerly they issued out