Moral of which in their order 1. Passions meerly Physical or which properly belong to the Sensitive Soul alone are those natural and occult inclinations and aversations commonly call'd Sympathies and Antipathies whereby one Man more than another is not only disposed but even by secret impuls forced to affect or dislike such or such a person or thing without any manifest cause or inducement so to do Of Sympathies betwixt Persons there is great variety of Examples especialy in Lovers among whom many are not allured by that grand bait of the Sensitive Soul Beauty but strongly attracted and as it were fascinated by they know not what hidden Congruity or as the French call it agreeableness of Spirits which enchains them so firmly to the persons beloved that notwithstanding the deformities they see and acknowledge to be in them yea and the contempt they somtimes receive from them they still doat upon and with delightful submissions court and adore them And as for Antipathies as well toward Persons as things instances of them also are without number and many shew themselves at our very table Where one Man abhors a brest of Mutton yet loves the Shoulder cut from it a second swoons at the sight of Eels and yet will feast upon Lampreys or Congers a third abominates Chees but is pleased with Milk a fourth devests rosted Pigg yet can make a meal upon bacon This Man sweats at presence of a Cat that falls into an agony by casting his eye upon a Frogg or Toad an other can never be reconciled to Oysters Nay more there are who feel themselves ready to faint if a Cat be hidden in some secret place of the room wherein they are though they suspect no such encountre of their natural enemy till they are wounded with the invisible darts or emanations from her body And all these admirable Effects proceed not from any positive Evil or malignity in the things abhorred for what 's one Mans meat is an others poyson but only from their incongruity or occult Enmity to this or that particular Sensitive Soul For if at any time it happens that the consistence of Animal Spirits that constitute the lucid or Sensitive part of this Soul be by the encountre of any object put into great disorder she ever after abhors the approach or effâ—luvia of the same Whereas the Congruity of particles proceeding from an object to the contexture of the Soul is on the contrary the ground of all her secret Amities 2. Passions Metaphysical or which seem to have their first rise from and principaly to relate to the Rational Soul are those which Divines call devout and religious Affections directed to objects Supernatural and chiefly to God For when our nobler Soul reflecting upon the excellency and immortality of her nature aspires by sublime speculations toward her supreme felicity the contemplation and love of her Creator and determines her Will to persue that incomprehensible because infinite subject of all perfections which alone can satisfy her understanding with light or knowledge and her will with love she doth not only exercise herself in simple and abstracted conceptions such as are proper to her immaterial essence alone and conformable to the dignity of the thing she speculates but communicates her affects also to the Sensitive Soul by whose subordinate motions she is obliged to act respectively to her end And these motions or acts being thus traduced from the superiour to the inferior Soul and thence derived first to the brain and imagination then to the heart produce therein and so in the blood the various motions that constitute such Passions as we observe in our selves when we are most ardently urged to acts of devotion and piety toward the supream Being Whence it is doubtless that Divine love detestation of sin repentance hope of Salvation fear of incensing Divine justice and most if not all other acts or passions of devotion are commonly ascribed to the heart and that not without some reason For though I cannot admit the heart to be the Seat of the Passions as the Aristoteleans unanimously hold it to be only because of the sensible alterations therein produced in most passions since in truth those alterations are rather consequents than causes of Passions and since they are not felt by us as in the heart but only by means of the nerves descending thither from the brain as pain is not felt as in the foot but by intervention of nerves betwixt the foot and the brain and as the starrs appear to us as in heaven by mediation of their light affecting our Optick nerves So that it is no more necessary the Soul should exercise her functions or receive her passions immediately in the heart only because she feels her passions therein than it is she should be in heaven because she sees the starrs to be there or in the foot because pain appears to her to be there Notwithstanding this I say yet the adscription of these devout Passions to the heart is not altogether destitute of reason For for instance when the inferiour Soul is commanded by the Superior to humble and as it were to prostrate herself in adoration of the sacred Majesty of God instantly both parts thereof as well the Sensitive as the Vital are forced to repress and restrain their wonted emanations or effusions Whereupon the Animal Spirits being in whole legions withdrawn from minis tring to the Imagination and Senses are by the nerves transmitted in crowds to the heart which while they closely contract and shut they cause the blood to remain longer than is usual in the cavities thereof and by that means keep it both from being too much kindled in the Lungs and from being sent from the heart in too great abundance into the rest of the body and more especialy into the brain as if Nature itself had instituted that in sacred passions the blood or principal seat of life should be offered up to the Author of life upon the altar of the heart while the brain or seat of reason is kept serene and clear Nor is it difficult to a man praying to Almighty God with fervency of Spirit to observe in himself that his blood is more and more arrested and detained within his breast the while insomuch that his heart seems to swell his lungs to be opprest and he is forced frequently to interrupt his oraisons with profound sighs for attraction of fresh aer as if the reasonable Soul not content to devote herself alone and pour forth her holy desires to God laboured to make a libation also of the vital blood for a propitiatory oblation So that though the Soul cannot in strictness of truth be said to receive her passions in the heart yet since the alterations caused in us by them are greater and more sensible in the heart and consequently in the blood than in any other part of the whole body beside I am not so addicted to vitilitigation as to contend about
of the left into the Aorta or grand Artery the Diaphragm being by abundance of Animal spirits immitted through so many nerves proceeding from the aforesaid Plexus briskly agitated is by nimble contraction drawn upwards and so making many vibrations doth at once raise up the Lungs and force them to expell the blood out of their vessels into the arteria venosa and to explode the aire out of their pipes into the windpipe and this by frequent contractions of their lax and spongy substance answerable in time and quickness to the vibrations of the Midriff And then because the same Intercostal nerve which communicateth with the nerve of the Diaphragm below is conjoyned above also with the nerves of the jaws and muscles of the face thence it is that the motions of Laughter being once begun in the brest the face also is distorted into gestures or grimasces patheticaly correspondent thereunto And this is the most probable account I am able at present to give of the occasions and motions of passionate Laughter in general nor can I at present think of any more plausible conjecture concerning the reason of the admirable laughter of Ludovicus Vives than this that in him the nerves inservient to the motion of the Midriff might be after such a peculiar manner contrived and framed as easily to cause quick and short reciprocations thereof upon the pleasant affection of his Imagination by the grateful relish of his meat after long abstinence which doth alwaies highten the pleasure of refection But we have insisted too long upon the motions of Ioy. In the contrary whereof viz. Grief or Sorrow which we have above described to be an ingrateful languor of the Soul from a conception of evil present moving her to contract herself that she may avoid it the Animal Spirits are indeed recalled inward but slowly and without violence so that the blood being by degrees destitute of a sufficient influx of them is trasmitted through the heart with too slow a motion Whence the pulse is rendered little slow rare and weak and there is felt about the heart a certain oppressive strictness as if the orifices of it were drawn together with a manifest chilness congealing the blood and communicating itself to the rest of the body From which dejecting symptoms it is easy to collect that this dolefull affection especialy if it be vehement and of long continuance cannot but infer many and grievous incommodities to the whole body For besides this that it darkneth the spirits and so dulls the wit obscures the judgment blunts the memory and in a word beclouds the Lucid part of the Soul it doth moreover incrassate the blood by refrigeration and by that reason immoderately constringe the heart cause the lamp of life to burn weakly and dimly induce want of sleep by drying the brain corrupt the nutritive juice and convert it into that Devil of a humor Melancholy No wonder then if in men overcome with this so dismal passion the countenance appears pale wan and liveless the limbs grow heavy and indisposed to motion the flesh decays and consumes through want of nourishment and the whole body be precipated into imbecillity Cachexy or an evil habit languishing and other cold and chronic diseases All which the wisest of Men King Salomon hath summ'd up in few words in 17 Chap. of his Proverbs where he advertiseth that a sorrowful spirit drieth up the very bones And yet notwithstanding it is very rarely found that from Grief either long and obstinate or violent and suddainly invading any man hath fallen into a swoon or been suddenly extinguished Which I am apt to refer to this that in the ventricles of the heart tho but very slowly commoved there can hardly be so smale a quantity of blood but it may suffice to keep alive the vital flame burning therein when the orifices of them are almost closed as commonly they are by immoderate grief Somtimes this bitter passion is signified by a certain uncomely distortion of the face somwhat different from that of Laughter and acompanied with Tears somtimes only by Sighs by Sighs when the Grief is extreme by Tears when it is but moderate For as Laughter never proceeds from great and profound Joy so neither doe Tears flow from profound sorrow according to that of the Tragedian leves curae loquuntur ingentes stupent Nor is weeping the pathognomonic or infallible sign of Grief For all tears are not voluntary every light hurt or pain of the Eyes causing them to distill against our will nor all voluntary ones the effect of Grief Some weep for sudden joy joyned with Love especialy old men some when their Revenge is suddainly frustrated by the repentance and submission of the offender and such are the tears of Reconciliation Some again weep out of Anger when they meet with a repulse or check of their desires which causing them with regret to reflect upon their own weakness and insufficiency to compass their wills affects them with displeasure and dissolves them into tears as if they fell out with themselves upon a sudden sense of their own defect and this kind of weeping is most familiar to Children and Women when they are crossed in their wills and expectation as also to Revengefull Men upon their beholding of those whom they commisserate and their want of power to help them Notwithstanding the Occasions of weeping be thus various yet since Tears are frequently both an effect and testimony of sorrow the nature and motions whereof we have now attempted to explain it can be no impertinent Digression to inquire further into their original or sours and the manner how they are made to flow when we are willing to signify our present sorrow by shedding them As for the Fountain therefore whence all our Tears flow and the Matter whereof they consist the succesful industry of Modern Anatomists hath discovered that in the Glandules placed at each corner of the Eyes there is either from the blood brought thither by the arteries as the vulgar doctrine is or as I upon good reasons elswhere delivered conceive from the Nutritive juice brought by nerves separated and kept in store a certain thin clear and watery humor partly saline partly subacid in tast the use whereof is aswell to keep the globes of the eyes moist and slippery for their more easy motion as to serve for Tears when we have occasion to shed them And to this some have added that because there are certain branches of nerves like the tendrels of a vine incircling the vessells leading to and from those Glandules and by their tension somtimes constringing them therefore it is probable that when the serous humor is too abundant in the blood brought into the brain the same is by the arteries whose pulse is quickned somwhat by the pressure of these nerves brought more copiously than at other times into those Glandules and after its separation there detained from returning by the veins that
the propriety of those expressions in scripture which seem to ascribe all our sacred passions principaly to the heart 3. And as for Passions Moral I refer to their classis all those that are excited in the Sensitive Soul upon her perception of such good or evil objects as concern her confederate the Body with which she is most intimately conjoynd and upon whose welfare her safety doth necessarily depend Concerning these in general it is remarkable that though the Sensitive Soul hath secret loves and aversations of her own commonly called as we have already said Sympathies and Antipathies and though she owes obedience to the commands and dictates of her superior the Rational Soul yet being by so strict a ligue and as it were a conjugal union affianced to the body she is strongly inclined to prefer the conservation of that her favorite to all other relations and accordingly to gratify and indulge it even in those things that are prohibited by religion and reason So that no wonder if she be affected with pleasure or pain and with all other passions referible to them for the prosperous or adverse state of the body To make this our entrance into the spring-head of all Passions somwhat more lightsome we are here to recount two fundamental verities both of so conspicuous evidence I do not remember I ever heard them contradicted One is that all Affects which external objects can possibly excite in us in respect of the various modes or manners by which they fall under our notice may be commodiously referred to two general heads namely Pleasure and Pain For whatever is perceived by the Senses appears to the Soul to be Good or Evil gratefull or offensive and whatever is offered to her under the apparence of Good or Gratefull instantly causeth some certain Pleasure in her as on the contrary whatever is represented to her as Evil or offensive as quickly raiseth in her some kind of Pain or trouble provided as was before advertised she apprehend herself to be any way concerned in such good or evil So that we cannot but applaud the judgment of Epicurus and Aristotle in constituting but two kinds of Passions namely Pleasure and Pain the one calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluptatem dolorem the other naming them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluptatem molestiam The other is that all the various motions of the spirits and blood or of the Sensitive Soul excited in the various Passions may likewise be conveniently reduced to two general heads namely Contractions and Effusions which our Master Galen I remember terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are referred to Pain and Pleasure Because in Pleasure the Soul dilateth herself as much as she can that is she diffuseth the spirits as her Emissaries to meet and receive the good represented to her and in Pain she on the contrary compresseth or withdraws herself inward that is she recalls the spirits toward herself in avoidance of the Evil apprehended Manifest it is therefore that all Corporeal Passions have their roots grounded in Sense whereof pleasure and pain â—re two opposite affects one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agreeable and familiar to nature â—he other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alien and offensive And that I may as far as I am able â—xplain wherein pleasure and displeasure of â—â—nce doth consist I take liberty to supâ—ose that at first when an object affects â—he Sensory with soft and smooth touâ—hes or motions such as are consentaâ—eous to the delicate contexture of the â—erves of which the sensory is chiefly composed or to the internal motions of the spirits therein residing it instantly causeth that gratefull sense called delight as on the contrary if the object invade the sensory with asperity or violence such as hurts the tender nerves thereof or hinders the natural motions of the spirits therein then it produceth that ingrateful sense call'd displeasure or pain The impression being thus made by the object upon the Organ of sense and thence by a certain motion of the spirits resembling the waving of water carried on to the brain if it be pleasant it immediately puts the spirits therein reserved into brisker but regular motions conformable to their nature and uses if displeasing it puts them into confusion If the impression be light the motion thereby caused in the brain soon decayeth and vanisheth of itself if strong the motion is continued from the brain down to the breast and the heart and blood participate thereof respectively and so passion instantly succeeds But whether this be the true manner of objects producing pleasure or displeasure of sense or not most evident it is that we have as no conceptions of things without us in the brain so no passions for them in the heart but what have their firsâ— original from Sense Now having in this manner shewn as plainly as I could 1 what Mutations are incident to the Sensitive Soul 2 what are the most considerable Causes of those Mutations 3 what the most remarkable Effects and consequents of them upon the body and mind of Man 4 the Differences of Passions respective to the various relations of the Sensitive Soul to the Rational and to the body 5 that all passions are referible to pleasure or pain 6 that all Motions of the Spirits and blood caused in passions belong to Contraction or Effusion and 7 wherein consist pleasure and displeasure of Sense our next work must be to speak SECT V. Of the Passions in particular NOt of all that are incident to the mind of Man which were extremely difficult if not altogether impossible for me to do For seeing the objects that raise pleasure and displeasure are innumerable and the various waies or manners by which they affect the sense and excite motions in the brain spirits and heart are equaly innumerable even those Philosophers themselves who have with all possible attention of mind laboured to search out the several sorts of Passions have not been able to take notice but of very few nor to give names to all those neither Besides considering of how subtil particles how fluid and easily moveable a substance and how delicate a contexture the Sensitive Soul seems to be composed we may soon conceive her to be subject to greater variety of impressions commotions fluctuations inclinations alterations and perturbations than can possibly be observed and distinguished even by the most curious It may well suffice then to enumerate and describe the most remarkable of her Passions such as like so many lesser streams flow from the two general fountains before mentioned Pleasure and Displeasure of sense or motions begun in the sensory traduced to the brain and continued to the heart and that are of a more simple nature Which that we may perform with more of order and less of obscurity we are to consider that the Passions receiving their most notable diversity from certain circumstances of Time may therefore be most
is a Devotion also to ones Prince or Country or City or to any private person whom we esteem above ourselves And the difference betwixt these three sorts of Love is chiefly manifest from their divers Effects For when in each of them the person loving considers himself as joyned and united to the thing loved he is always ready to quit or leave the least part of the whole that he makes with the same to preserve the rest Whence it comes that in simple Benevolence the Lover always prefer's himself to the thing loved but on the contrary in Devotion he always prefers the thing loved so far above himself that he fears not to dye for the conversation thereof of which noble Love there have been glorious Examples in men who have voluntarily exposed themselves to certain death for defence of their Prince or of their City yea sometimes also for private persons to whom they had particularly devoted themselves This Distinction being admitted as in my opinion it well deserves to be there will remain no necessity of constituting so many distinct sorts of Love as they are various objects to excite it seeing there are many Passions very different among themselves and in respect of their several objects which yet agree in this that they all participate of Love For Example the Passion by which the Ambitious is carried on to Glory the Avaricious to riches the Drunkard to wine the Libidinous to women the Honest to his friend the Vxorious to his wife the good Father to his Children c. differ very much among themselves and yet so far resemble each other that they all participate of Love But the love of the first four aimeth at nothing but the possession of their peculiar objects nor have they indeed any thing of love for those objects but only Desire mixt with some other special passions Whereas the love of a Parent to his Children is so pure that he desires to obtain nothing at all from them nor to possess them in any other manner than he doth already or to bring them to a neerer conjunction with himself but considering them as parts of himself seeks their good as his own yea with greater care than his own as not fearing to purchase their felicity at the rate of his own undoing And the Love of an honest man to his Friends is also of the same perfection But the Love of a man to his Mistress commonly distinguished by the name of the Erotic passion is alwaies mixed with desire of Fruition And as for Hatred though that be directly opposed to Love yet cannot it be distinguished into as many different kinds because the difference betwixt Evils from which we are by our will separated cannot be so well observed as that which is betwixt the Goods to which we are by by our will joyned From what hath here been said concerning Love as distinguishable chiefly by the several degrees of Estimation conceived for the thing loved it may easily be collected that from Love ariseth Cupidity or Desire whereby the Soul is disposed to covet for the time to come those things which she represent's to herself as convenient and likely to afford her pleasure Thus we desire not onely the presence of an absent good but also the conservation of the good that is present yea we desire likewise the absence of Evil aswell that which is already incumbent as that which we believe possible to come upon us in the future For in Cupidity or Desire of any thing whatsoever which the Soul judges to be wanting to herself she alwaies looketh foreward to the time to come It may be collected also that though Desire cannot be without Love yet Love may be without Desire of possessing or enjoying the object otherwise than by the pure embraces of the will alone And this may be confirmed by observations of the different Motions of the Soul and Spirits raised in these two Passions and the divers symptoms consequent thereunto For In Love when it is not accompanyed either with Cupidity or with vehement Ioy or with Sadness but continues pure and simple the Soul being incited to conjoyn herself in will to objects that appear good and convenient to her and instantly dilated the Animal Spirits are like lightning dispatched from the brain by the nerves instantly into the Heart and by their influx render the pulse thereof more strong and vigorous than is usual and consequently the circulation of the blood more nimble and expedite Whereupon the blood being more copiously diffused by the arteries and more particularly those ascending to the brain carries with it a recruit of vital spirits newly enkindled which being there further sublimed or refined and corroborating the idea or image that the first cogitation hath formed of the thing loved oblige and in some sort compell the the Soul to continue fixed upon that cogitation and continually to indulge the same And herein if I am not much mistaken doth the passion of Love principally consist For they who are affected therewith have their pulse equal the Spirits that cause it being immitted into the Cardiac nerves with an equal and placid motion but stronger and more frequent then ordinary they feel a certain agreable heat diffused in their breast they find their brain invigorated by abundance of Spirits and thereby grow more ingenuous and in fine they digest their meat quickly and perform all actions of life readily and with alacrity All which may be ascribed to the free and expedite but equal Circulution of the blood caused by a copious influx of Animal Spirits into the Heart Whence we may safely conclude that this grateful passion is highly beneficial to all parts of the body and conduceth much to the conservation of health provided it continue within the bounds of moderation But if it exceed them and break forth into a wild and furious desire then on the contrary by degrees enervating the members it at length induceth very great weakness and decay upon the whole body For Love accompanied with vehement desire doth so intirely imploy the Soul in the consideration of the object desired that she retains in the brain the greatest part of the Spirits there to represent to her the image thereof so that the whole stock of nerves and all the Muscles are defrauded of the influx of Spirits from the brain with which they ought to be continualy inspired or invigorated Whence in process of time the whole Oeconomy of nature is perverted and an universal languor ensueth And in Cupidity whereby the Soul is so effused towards good or pleasure represented to her as certainly to come as that she is suddainly checked and contracted again by reflection upon the delay of the same there occurs this Singular that it agitateth the heart more violently and crouds the brain with more legions of spirits than any other of all the passions For out of Desire to obtain what we ardently pursue the Spirits are
most swiftly transmitted from the brain into all parts of the body that may any way serve to do the actions requisite to that end but above all into the Heart which being thereby dilated and contracted both more strongly and more frequently than in the state of tranquility quickly forceth up a more abundant supply of Vital Spirits with the blood into the brain aswell that they may there conserve and corroborate the Idea of this Desire as that whole brigades of them may be from thence dispatched into the Organs of the Senses and into all Muscles whose motions may more especially conduce to obtain what is so vehemently desired And from the Souls reflexion upon the delay of her fruition which she at the same time makes there ariseth in her a sollicitude or trouble whereby she is checked and contracted again and the spirits are by intervals retracted toward the brain So that the more subtil and spiritual blood being with the spirits recalled from the outward parts the heart comes to be constringed and streightned the Circulation of the blood retarded and consequently the whole body left without spirits and vigor Let none therefore admire if many of those Men whom Lust or Concupiscence Ambition Avarice or any other more fervent desire hath long exercised and inslaved be by continual sollicitude of mind brought at length into an ill Habit of body to leanness a defect of Nutrition Melancholy the Scurvy Consumption and other incurable diseases Nor are you after this so clear manifestation of the great disparity betwixt the Motions and necessary Consequents of Love when pure and simple and those of Love commixt with Cupidity or ardent Desire of enjoyment longer to doubt but that Love and Desire are Passions essentially different notwithstanding it be true that the Later is alwaies dependent upon the Former And as for the Motions of the Spirits and blood in that anxious Affect of the mind Hatred which is directly opposed to Love evident it is that when the Soul is moved to withdraw herself from any object that appears to threaten Evil or pain instantly the Spirits are retracted inwards to the brain and principaly to that part of it which is the instrument or mint of Imagination there to corroborate the idea of Hatred which the first thought hath formed of the ungrateful object and to dispose the Soul to sentiments full of bitterness and detestation So that the while very few of them and those too inordinately and by unequal impulses are transmitted into the Heart by the Pathetic nerves And from this offensive Contraction of the whole Sensitive Soul and as it were compression of the Animal spirits and subsequent destitution of the Heart it comes that in this sowr passion alwaies the Pulse is made weak and unequal and oftentimes frequent and creeping that cold mixt with a certain pricking heat not easy to be described but sensibly injurious to the vital parts and repugnant to their regular motions is felt within the breast and that even the stomach itself diverted from its office of Concoction nauseateth the meats it had received and strives to reject them by vomit Which often happens upon sight of an odious and abominable object Now all these evil effects of Hate give indisputable evidence that it can never be either gratefull to the mind or beneficial to the motions of life upon which health so nearly depends and this because Hate always hath Sadness for its concomitant and because by diversion of the Animal spirits partly to assist the Imagination partly to move the members for avoidance of the hated object it defrauds the blood of its due supplies of spirits and fewel retards the motion and equal distribution of it and by that means destroies concoction incrassates the humors heaps up melancholy and by degrees brings the whole body to poverty and leanness Moreover sometimes this disagreeable Passion is exalted to Anger whereby the Soul offended with the Evil or wrong she hath suffered at first Contracts herself and by and by with vehemency springs back again to her natural posture of Coextension with the whole body as if the strove to break out into revenge and then it is that the spirits are in a tumultuous manner and impetuously hurried hither and thither now from the brain to the heart then back again from the heart to the brain and so there follow from these contrary motions alternately reciprocated aswell a violent agitation palpitation burning and anxiety of the heart as a diffusion of the blood distension of the veins redness of the face and sparkling of the eyes together with a distorsion of the mouth such as may be observed in great indignation and seems composed of laughter and weeping mixt together grinding of the teeth and other symptoms of Anger and fury It is not then without reason Physicians advise Men to decline this passion as a powerful enemy to health in all but such as are of a cold dull and phlegmatic temperament because it inflames first the spirits then the blood and when violent it puts us into fevers and other acute distempers by accension of choler and confusion of humors And I could furnish you with examples of some whom this short fury hath fired into perpetual madness of others whom it hath fell'd with Apoplexies others whom it hath thrown into Epilepsies rack'd with Convulsions unnerved with Palseys disjoynted with the Gout shook with tremblings and the like but that the books of Physicians are full of them Here before we proceed to other consequent Passions it is fit to make a short reflexion upon Hatred that I may verify what was only hinted in the precedent enumeration of the evil Effects thereof viz. that it is ever accompanied with Sadness Concerning this therefore I reason thus Forasmuch as Evil the proper object of Hate is nothing but a Privation and that we can have no conception thereof without some real Subject wherein we apprehend it to be and that there is in nature nothing real which hath not some goodness in it it follows of necessity that Hatred which withdraws us from some Evil doth at the same time remove us also from some Good to which the same is conjoyn'd And since the Privation of this Good is represented to the Soul as a Defect or want belonging to her it instantly affecteth her with sorrow For Example the Hate that alienateth us from the evil manners of a man with whom formerly we have been acquainted separateth us likewise from his Conversation wherein we might find somthing of Good and to be deprived of that Good is matter of regret and Sorrow So in all other Hatred we may soon observe some cause of Sorrow ¶ To the excitement of Desire in the Soul it is sufficient that she conceive the acquisition of the Good or avoidance of the Evil represented to her as to come to be possible but if she further consider whether it be Easy or Difficult for her to
obtain her end and there occur to her more reasons for the facility then there succeeds that gentle Effusion or Tendency of the Soul toward the good desired which is called Hope or Expectation of good to come Whereas on the contrary if the greater weight be found in the other Scale and she apprehend the thing desired to be Difficult she is immediately Contracted and coold with that ungrateful passion Fear which is expectation of Evil to come And as Hope exalted to the highest degree is changed into Trust Confidence or Security So on the contrary Fear in extremity becomes Desperation Again if this Contraction of the Soul by Fear be suddain and profound and the Evil expected very great then is the passion called Terror Dread and Consternation which sometimes is so violent as to cause Exanimation or suddain Death If the Soul upon apprehension that the Good desired is not indeed absolutely impossible but highly difficult for her to obtain or the Evil feared is not altogether impossible yet extremely hard to be avoided persist in her Contraction she is daunted or cowd into that ignoble weakness called Pusillanimity or Cowardise But if after her Contraction at first she exserting her strength spring forth as it were and with vehemency dilate herself to surmount her fear and overcome the difficulties apprehended then is she reanimated as it were or fortified with the noblest of all Passions Courage or Boldness or Bravery of Mind which makes her contemn all obstacles to her attainment of her end whether it be the acquisition of good or declination of Evil and which when it is not a habit or natural inclination seems to be an ardor or flashing of the Sensitive Soul disposing her to act vigorously and without fear toward the vanquishing of difficulties that stand betwixt her and the scope she aims at And of this Animosity Emulation is a species whereby the Soul is disposed to attempt or enetrprise difficult things which she hopes will succeed happily to her because she observes them to do so to others But then it is to be distinguished from simple Animosity by two proprieties Whereof One is that it hath not only an internal Cause viz. such a disposition of the spirits and body that Desire and Hope may have greater power in impelling the blood in abundance to the heart than Fear or Despair can have in hindering that motion but also an external Cause namely the Example of others who have been prosperous in the like attempts which creates a belief in us that we also shall be able to conquer the difficulties occurring afwell as those others have done The Other this that Emulation is ever accompanied with secret Grief which ariseth from seeing ourselves exceeded or excelled by our concurrents But simple Animosity wants both Example for incitement and Grief for alloy But both these passions equaly depend upon Hope of good success For Though the object of Audacity be difficulty yet to animate us to contend bravely with that difficulty we must be possessed with a strong hope or certain belief that we shall at length attain our end Yet this end is not the same thing with that object for there cannot be both Certitude and Despair of the same thing at the same time So when the Roman Decii rushed into the thickest troops of their enemies and ran to certain death the object of their daring was the difficulty of conserving their lives in that action for which difficulty they had nothing but Desperation being resolved certainly to dye but their End was either by their example to inspire courage into the Roman army and by them to obtain the victory they hoped or to acquire posthume Glory whereof they were certain If therefore even in this action that was in itself desperate Courage were grounded upon Hope we may well conclude that it is alwaies so From the reasons we have alleged of Hope and Fear it is evident that we may have those contrary passions excited in us though the Event of the thing expected no way depend upon our selves But when we proceed to consider the Event as altogether or for the most part depending upon our own counsel and perceive a difficulty to arise either in our election or execution of the means whereby to obtain our end then there immediately follows a Doubting or Fluctuation of the mind whereby we are disposed to deliberate and consult and which is indeed a species of Fear And this wavering while it retains the Soul as it were in a doubtful balance betwixt two actions which are offered to her election is the cause that she performs neither but takes time to consider before she determineth which to do for fear of erring in her choice Which Fear if moderate and under the command of Prudence is always of good use in that it serves to prevent Temerity or Rashness but in some over-cautious persons it is so vehement that though but one thing occurr to be done or omitted by them it holds them too long upon the rack of suspence and hinders them from proceeding to action And in this case the passion is Excess of Doubting arising from too ardent desire of good success and weakness of Vnderstanding which hath indeed many confused notions but none perspicuous and distinct concerning the means to effect its design If during this irresolution we have determined the liberty of our choice and fixed upon some one action in order to our end and the event be not answerable to our expectation presently we are affected with that disquiet of mind which is named by the Greeks Synteresis by the Latins Morsus Conscientiae and by the French Regret which yet doth not as the precedent passions respect the future but present or past time This Remorse of Conscience is no other but a kind of Sorrow arising from a scruple interposed whether what we are doing or have done be good or not And it necessarily presupposeth dubitation For if we were clearly convinced that the action we are doing is realy evil we should certainly abstain from doing it because the will is not carried to any thing but what hath some shew of goodness in it And if it were manifest that what we have done is realy evil we should presently be touched not with simple regret but with Repentance For as the Good we have done gives us that internal Acquiescence or satisfaction which is of all other Passions the sweetest so on the contrary the ill we have done punisheth us with Repentance which is of all passions the bitterest Having in this manner discovered the originals and distinct proprieties of these two opposite Passions Hope and Fear with their genuin dependents it may not a little conduce to the illustration of what hath here been briefly delivered concerning them if we more expresly describe the divers Motions of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits that constitute their formal reasons so far at least as those motions
point of temperament and as this or that of the usual concomitants of it is more powerful than the rest so must the Effects thereof upon the body be likewise various And from this variety men have taken notice chiefly of two sorts of Anger One that is quickly kindled violent at first and discovers it self visibly by outward signs but performs little and may be easily composed And to this they are most obnoxious who are good-natur'd i.e. who are inclined to goodness and love For it ariseth not from profound Hatred but from a sudden Aversion surprising them because being propens to conceive that all things ought to proceed in that manner which they judge to be the best whenever they see others to act otherwise first they admire and then are offended and so what would be to others matter only of Indignation to them proves cause of Anger But this commotion is soon calmed because the force of the sudain Aversion that raised it continues not long and so soon as they perceive that the thing for which they were offended ought not to have commoved them to passion they suppress their displeasure and repent of it The Other that wherein Hatred and Grief are predominant and which though at first it hardly betray it self by external signs unless by the suddain paleness of the countenance and trembling is notwithstanding more impetuous within secretly gnaws the very heart and produceth dangerous effects And to this pernicious sort of Anger they are most subject who have prouâ— cowardly and weak Souls For so much the greater doe injuries appear by how much the better opinion pride makes Men to have of themselves yea and by how much greater value is put upon the things which the injuries take away and these things are alwaies so much the more valued by how much the more weak and abject the Soul is because they depend upon others but the Generous put little value upon any thing that is not dependent upon themselves When we consider what opinion other Men have of Us the Good which we believe to be in us disposeth us to Glory which seems to be composed of Self-estimation and Ioy for to see ourselves well esteemed by others gives us cause to have a good esteem for ourselves and on the contrary the Evil we are conscious of forceth us to Shame which is a sort of Modesty or Humility and Self-diffidence for as we have formerly observed who thinks himself above Contempt will hardly be humbled to shame These two Passions Glory and Shame tho directly opposite each to other doe yet agree in their End which is to incite us to Virtue the first by hope the other by fear and that we may make a right use of them both we are to have our judgment well instructed what actions are truely worthy praise or dispraise lest otherwise we be ashamed of virtuous actions or affect glory from vices as it happeneth to too great a part of mankind Thus have we at length recounted all the Passions of this our fifth division and deduced them successively from their several causes or occasions in that order wherein their most remarkable diversity seemd to us most easily distinguishable But now because some of these passions are simple others Composed and that to our more clear understanding of the nature of both sorts it is necessary to enquire more profoundly into the Motions of the Sensitive Soul and spirits that constitute their Essential Differences it remains that we yeeld obedience to that necessity so far forth at least as to explain the Motions proper to that couplet of more simple affections Ioy and Grief the two points in which all human actions end and to that most violent one Anger In Ioy therefore which is a delightful commotion of the Sensitive Soul as it were triumphing in her fruition of good or pleasure I conceive that the Animal spirits being in great abundance but with a placid and equal motion sent by the nerves to the heart cause the orifices thereof to be opened and dilated more than at other times and so the blood to be imported and exported more copiously and freely and that by this means from the blood are brought into the brain a plentious supply of new spirits which extracted out of the purest and most refined parts of the blood are most fit to confirm the idea formed of the present good in the imagination and so to continue the Soul in her pleasant Emotion Hence probably it is that in this most agreeable passion both the pulse is alwaies made equal and more frequent tho not so intense and strong as in Love and a certain gratefull heat is felt not only through the Lungs and all the breast but through all outward parts of the body from the diffusion of the blood in full streams into them which is discernible even by the florid purple colour wherewith they are suddainly tinged and by the inflation or plumpness of all the muscles of the face which is thereby rendered more serene sweet and cheerful Easy therefore it is to infer that as this passion is most congruous to the nature of the Corporeal Soul so are the corporeal motions that accompany and characterize it most profitable to health provided they be moderare For this Commotion and Effusion may be so vehement and suddain that the Soul may become weak and unable to rule the body or to actuate the organs of speech yea swooning and death itself somtimes follow profuse and insolent Joy So Lacon Chilo an eminent Philosopher suddainly expired in excessive joy beholding his Sonne a Victor in the Olympic games So Sophocles the Tragedian also and Dionysius the Tyrant died of a surfet of suddain Joy The reason whereof seems to consist not in a vehement effusion and dissipation of the vital spirits and a destitution of the Heart consequent thereunto as Fernelius would have it because the faster the blood is effused through the arteries from the heart the swifter must it return to the heart through the veines so that the heart cannot be totaly exhausted and left destitute of blood but rather in a surcharge and suffocation of the heart by too redundant an afflux of blood For upon extraordinary dilatation of the floud-gates of the heart by immoderate joy the current of blood both out of the Vena cava and from the arteria venosa may pour itself with so much violence and in so great a quantity into the ventricles thereof that the heart unable to discharge itself soon enough of that oppressing deluge by retruding its valves may be suffocated its motions stopped and the Vital Flame in a moment extinguished For certain it is that in the state of health the blood is not admitted into the heart beyond a certain proportion nor can that proportion be much exceeded whatever the cause be that maketh an apertio portarum there without manifest danger of life Among the Signs of this delightful passion
Coextense to the whole Body of a Substance either Fiery or meerly resembling Fire of a consistence most thin and subtile not much unlike the flame of of pure spirit of Wine burning in a paper Lantern or other the like close place First I think it to be Corporeal Divisible and Coextense to the whole Body and that for two reasons among many others not the least considerable One is this that many and divers Animal actions are daily observed to be at one and the same time performed by divers Parts and Members of the Body for instance the Eye sees the Ear hears the Nostrils smell the Tongue tasteth and all exteriour Members exercise their Sense and Motion all at once For as much then as betwixt the Body and Soul of a Brute there is no Medium both being intimately connexed but the Members and Parts of the Body are Instruments fram'd for the use of the Soul what else can be imagined but that many and distinct portions of the Soul so extended do inform and actuate the distinct Organs and Members of the Body each in a peculiar manner respective to the peculiar Constitution Fabrique and Office thereof The Other this it is observed also that Vipers Eels Earthworms and most other Reptils being cut into many pieces all pieces for a good while after retain a manifest Motion and no obscure sense for being prick'd they contract and shrink up themselves as sensible of the Hurt and striving to avoid it And this probably from hence that these less perfect Animals having their liquors both Vital and Animal of a consistence viscous and not easily dissoluble or dissipable and having their Soul if not equally yet universally diffused and all its parts subsisting immediately in those liquors cannot suffer a division of their Body without division of their Soul also the parts whereof residing for some time after in the segments of the Body may perhaps for that time continue to actuate them to Motion and Sense It hath been more then once unhappily Experimented that the Head of a Viper hath bitten a Mans Finger and Poysoned him too above an hour after it had been cut off Not by involuntary convulsion of the Nerves and Muscles of the Vipers Jaws such as not rarely happen to Animals in the torments of Death for those probably could neither last so long nor so regularly open and shut the mouth and extend the two fang teeth by contraction of their erecting Muscles but certainly by an action voluntary regular and suggested by sense and perhaps revenge too Whence I am apt to suspect that not only part of the Vipers Soul but Anger and Revenge also survived in the divided head For it is well known the bite of a Viper is never Venomous but when he is enraged the Chrystalline liquor contained in the two little Glandules at the roots of his fang teeth being then by a copious afflux of Spirits from the Brain and other brisk motions thereupon impress'd in anger of all passions the most violent and impetuous so altered and exalted as to become highly active and venenate whereas at other times when a Viper is not offended and provok'd the same Liquor is found to be as harmless as the spittle of a Man in perfect health But whether from the dangerous effects of this biting the dire Symptoms that thereupon ensued it be inferrible or not that in the abscinded head of the beast there remained anything of Anger and Revenge in my poor judgment 't is very evident from the very act of biting there still remained somwhat of life sense and voluntary motion Which is sufficient to verify my present supposition that a Sensitive Soul is divisible and coextense to the whole body it animates Secondly I think the same Sensitive Soul to consist of Fire or some matter analogous to Fire and the Reasons inducing me to be of this opinion are many Some I have formerly alleadged where I discourse of the Flame of life perpetually arising from accension of the Sulphureous and inflammable parts of the blood while circulated through the heart and lungs which therefore I abstain from reciting in this place Others that have since occurr'd to my consideration I am obliged here to expose to yours That the Life or Soul of Brute Animals is seated principally in their Blood we are plainly taught even by the Oracle of truth itself the dictates of the Divine Wisdom that created them and that Blood and Fire subsist by the same principles viz. Aliment and Ventilation is evident from hence that a defect of either of these doth equally destroy both the one and the other Should you here exact from me some description of the Essence of Fire I should adventure to tell you that it seems to be only a multitude of most minute and subtile particles mutually touching each other put into a most rapid motion and by continual succession of some parts and decession of others renewed which conserves its motion and subsistence by preying upon and consuming the Sulphureous parts of its subject matter or fewel and the Nitrous parts of the ambient aer For even our sense bears witness that from the particles of this twofold aliment Sulphureous and Nitrous resolved to the last degree of smalness and by a most violent and rapid motion agitated the forms of Fire and Flame which differ only in degrees of density and velocity of motion do wholy result Nor doth the image I find drawn in my brain of the Soul of a Brute much differ from this description of the nature of Fire I conceive it to be no other than a certain congregation of most minute subtil and agile particles corpuscles or atoms call them what you please crowded together which being in the very first moment of life put into brisk and most rapid motion like that of the particles of Fire when first kindled do so long conserve that motion and their own subsistence as they have a continued supply of convenient nutriment sulphureous from the blood within Nitrous from the aer without and no longer For we cannot but observe that the Souls of all Brute Animals of what kind soever stand perpetually in need of a fresh supply of those two sorts of aliment insomuch that so soon as the recruit fails they languish and dye no otherwise than the flame of a lamp grows weak and dim and is extinguished for want of oyl or air But what is very remarkable besides fire and life there is not to be found in all nature any other thing whatsoever to whose act and subsistence such a supply of Sulphureous and Nitrous matter is necessary Nor is any other motion in the World whether it be of fermentation ebullition vegetation or other whatever besides that of Fire and Life subject to be arrested and suppressed immediately from defect of aer It was not then without very great reason that our Master Hippocrates affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Soul is
platform or model preordained and intimated by secret instinct in all parts sit and commodious for all uses necessary as well to the propagation of the Species for still Nature doth though the Soul it self may not aim at Eternity as to the conservation of the individual For which uses she is furnished with many and various Faculties or Powers all which she duly exerciseth according to the various instincts and intimate suggestions of her Governess Nature in acts of several sorts though all performed in almost one and the same manner and as it were by the conduct of Fate or eternal decree of Divinity congenial to her very Essence To enumerate and particularly recount all the natural Faculties with which the Souls of Brutes are endowed all the various Habits resulting from practise and long exercise of those Faculties is neither pertinent to my present institute nor easy to be done because of their almost infinite diversity respective to the immense diversity of kinds of sensitive creatures For as some Animals are of a more others of a less perfect order and as they are diversly configurated according to the several places in this great Theatre of the World in which they are consigned to live and act their several parts so we see their Souls are by the wise bounty of the Creator instructed with diverse inclinations faculties and appeties directive to the ends to which they were predestined In a word since there ought to be an exact proportion and congruity betwixt every organical Body and the Soul that informs and animates it and that for that reason Nature seems to have diversified and distinguished the various Kinds of Brute Animals by an equal diversity of their bodily structures and configurations easily discernable by the sight we may even from thence alone conclude that their Corporeal Souls likewise are no less various and endowed with Faculties and Proprieties answerably different Whoever then shall attempt to enrich Philosophy with a perfect Catalogue of these so different Faculties and Proprieties observable among Brutal Souls will find himself obliged first to compose a better Natural History of all sorts of Animals than any we yet have and then to deliver also a true and full account of the various Structures of their Bodies from a Comparative Anatome of them A work indeed most desirable and highly delightful but equally difficult and laborious nor to be performed I fear by any single hand But were it much less difficult sure I am you know my incapacity too well ever to expect it from mine and what hath been already said by me here in the general touching the nature of a Sensitive Soul is enough to render my First Preliminary probable For from thence it may without contradiction to either reason or observations Anatomical be conceived 1 in what manner the Soul of a Brute may be at first produced by accension of the most spirituous particles of the Seminal humor in the womb of the Parent as one flame is kindled by another 2 how the same Soul then form's the Organical Body out of the grosser parts of the same seed after the figure or type predesign'd by the Divine Protoplast at the Creation whose wisdom directs and regulates it in that admirable work 3 How it afterwards comes to conserve expand and augment itself as the dimensions of the body are by degrees enlarged until it arrive at its perfection or standard of growth by accension of more and more of the inflammable parts of the Nourishment dayly renewed and converted into laudable blood as the flame of a lamp is kept alive by a perpetual accension of fresh parts of oyl 4 How the Duration of the Body depends intirely upon the subsistence or perpetual renovation or regeneration of the Soul and how immediately upon the Souls Extinction the body submits to corruption no otherwise than as Wine dyes and degenerates into a Vappa so soon as the spirit that preserv'd it in vigour and generosity is evaporated or suppress'd Now to the end this Corporeal Soul or invisible Flame may the better thus animate the Body and actuate it to sense and voluntary motion Nature hath most wisely instituted that her Organs and Faculties should all of them be reciprocaly inservient or official each to other in their acts and operations For as out of the grosser parts of the Nutritive juice prepared and elaborate in the Stomach and other instruments of concoction the decays of the solid parts of the Body are daily repaired so are the decays of the Soul itself likewise repaired out of the more subtile and spirituous particles of the same juice which continualy brought afresh to the blood as oyl to a Lamp and kindled therein restore both the Flame and Light of the Soul which would otherwise quickly be consumed and perish More expresly while the purer part of the Nutritive liquor feeds and renews the Lamp of life or flame of the blood the most active and most spirituous particles discharged from that flame are carried up and insinuated into the Brain and there recruite or regenerate the other part of the Soul viz. the Sensitive And so the conversion of Chyle into blood is an operation not only consequent to but in some sort also dependent upon the conversion of meat and drink into Chyle and on the other side the Animal faculty gratefully requites the good offices of the Vital and both as amply recompense the services of the faculty of Chylification in that the Animal spirit confers the pulsific power by which the heart and arteries drive the current of the blood in a perpetual round for the reaccension of its inflammable parts and the Bowels ordaind for concoction of the aliment at the same time borrow as their enlivening heat from the flame of the blood so their virtue both motive and sensitive from the constant afflux of Animal spirits without out which they cannot duely do their offices Thus you see the brain is beholden to the heart both to the stomach and reciprocally the stomach is assisted by them and all parts conspire by contributary helps to continue the Soul in its subsistence as that again acts perpetualy to the conversation of herself and them To this the Sensitive Soul or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle not improperly calls it is strictly obliged by a twofold inclination or desire innate or congenial to her One is that of self-preservation which she endeavours constantly to effect by being sollicitous for convenient food out of whose inflammable parts actually incensed she may every minute redintegrate her own flame The other that of Propagating her Species or producing by the same way of accension other Sensitive Souls of the same kind that so by an uninterrupted succession of her like she may attain to that perpetuity which is denied to her single or individual self And to this end she carefully selects out of her stock of aliment matter fit for generation stores it up
and confused with delusory whimzies as it too frequently happens to Men in Hypochondriacal Melancholy and madness and likewise in drunken fits And as for the various Gestures of the Soul by which respectively to the various impressions of sensible objects she expresseth one while Gladness and Pleasure another Aversion and Offence it is worthy our observation that sometimes she is allured outwardly into the organ of some one of the senses and that she occasionaly crowds herself into the Eye Ear Palate or other instrument of sense there more neerly to approach and entertain the pleasing object somtimes on the contrary to avoid an Evil she apprehends and decline an encontre with an ingratefull object she retreats inwardly and leaving her watches shrinks up herself as if she labourd to hide her head from the danger threatned So that we can scarcely perceive or imagine any thing without disquiet and commotion and at the apprehension of almost any object whatsoever the whole Soul is moved and put into a trembling and the substance of it variously agitated as a field of corn is waved to and fro by contrary gusts of winds Nor do these agitations especially if they be any whit violent stop at the Sensitive part of the Soul or spirits Animal which I imagine to make a kind of lucid Fluidum subject to Undulations or waving motions throughout upon either external or internal impulses but as waves rowl on till they arrive at the shore are carried on by an Undulating motion even to the Vital part glowing in the blood and impelling the flame thereof hither and thither make it to burn unequaly For so soon as an object is either by the sense or by the Memory represented to the Imagination under th' apparence of Good or Evil in the very same instant it affects and commoves the Animal Spirits destined to maintain the Pulse of the heart and by their influx causing the heart to be variously contracted or dilated consequently renders the motion and accension of the blood variously irregular and unequal And thus you see in what manner the two parts of the Sensitive Soul the Vital flame and the Animal spirits reciprocally affect each other with their accidental alterations But this you may understand more clearly and fully from the following Theory of the Passions where we shall enquire into the reasons and motions of them more particularly Mean while I find my self in this place arrested by a certain mighty Difficulty which though perhaps I shall not be able to overcome ought nevertheless to be attempted not only for its own grand importance but because without some plausible Explication of it at least all our precedent speculations concerning the nature and proprieties of a Sensitive Soul will fall to the ground as an arch that wants a key or middle-stone to support all the rest It is concerning the Knowledge of Brutes by which they are directed in actions voluntary For supposing all we have hitherto been discoursing of the Origin Substance Subsistence Parts Faculties Inclinations Passions and Alterations of a Corporeal Soul to be true and evident which is more than I dare assume yet doth it not from thence appear what such a Soul can by her own proper virtue do more than a Machine artificialy fram'd and put into motion To speak more plainly tho it be granted that first th' impression made by an external object upon the instrument of sense doth by impelling the Animal Spirits inwards and by disposing them into a certain peculiar figure or mode as the Cartesians speak cause the act of Sensation or simple Perception and that then the same spirits rebounding as it were by a reflex undulation outward from the brain into the nerves and muscles produce local motions granting this I say yet still we are to seek How this Soul or any one part of it comes to be conscious of Sensation or how it can by a reflex act as the Schools phrase it perceive that it doth perceive and according to that perception is impell'd to diverse acts directed to an appetite of this or that good and somtimes in prosecution of the good desired to perform actions that seem to be the results of counsel and deliberation such as are daily observed to be done by several sorts of Beasts as well wild as domestic In Man indeed it seems not difficult to conceive that the Rational Soul as president of all thâ—inferiour faculties and constantly speculating the impressions or images represented to her by the Sensitive as by a mirrour doth first form to herself conceptions and notions correspondent to their nature and then proceed to acts of reason judgement and will But as for Brutes that are irrational in what manner the perception distinction appetite memory of objects and other acts resulting from an inferior kind of reason are in them performd this I confess is more than I can yet understand Some there are I know who rather then acknowledge their insufficiency to solve this Problem have attributed to Brutes also Souls immaterial and subsistent after separation from their bodies But these considered not that the Soul of a Brute however docil and apprehensive and using organs in their structure very little if at all different from those in the head of Man can yet have no capacity of Arts and Sciences nor raise it self up to any objects or acts but what are Material and that by consequence the same is different from and inferiour to the Rational Soul of Man and material So that instead of solving the Doubt by teaching us how from a certain Modification of subtil matter there may result such Power which residing in the brain of a Brute may there receive without confusion all impressions or images brought in by the Senses distinctly speculate judge and know them and then raise appetites and imploy the other faculties in acts respective to that knowledge and to those appetites instead of this I say they have entangled themselves in an absurd Error ascribing to a thing meerly material a capacity of knowing objects immaterial and performing actions proper only to immaterial Beings We are therefore to search for this Power of a Sensitive Soul by which she is conscious of her own perception only in Matter in a peculiar manner so or so disposed or modified But in what matter this of the Soul or that of the Body Truely if you shall distinctly examine either the Soul or the Body of a Brute as not conjoyned and united into one Compositum you will have a hard task of it to find in either of them or indeed in any other material subject whatever any thing to which you may reasonably attribute such an Energetic and self-moving Power But if you consider the whole Brute as a Body animated and by divine art of an infinite wisdom designed framed and qualified for certain ends and uses then you may safely conclude that a Brute is by the law of the Creation or institute of Almighty
are observable from their respective Characters or Effects In Hope therefore which we defined to be a gentle and sweet Effusion or Expansion of the Soul towards some good expected to come if we be possessed with an opinion that the thing desired will shortly come to pass I conceive that presently the Animal Spirits which before were imployed as Emissaries to contemplate the image of the object returning toward the Soul give notice of the approach of the guest expected and that thereupon the whole Soul composing herself by expansion to receive and welcome the same sets open all the doors of the Senses to admit more freely all the good belonging thereunto retains the imagination fixt and intent upon the gratefull idea thereof and by copious supplies of spirits dispatched into the nerves of the Heart so invigorates and quickens the pulse thereof that thereby the blood is more briskly sent forth into the outward parts of t he body as it were to meet the expected thing Whence it is that when we are full of Hope we feel a certain inflation both within and without in our whole body together with a glowing but pleasant heat from the blood and spirits universaly diffused But if during this comfortable emotion of the Soul there occurr any suddain cause of Doubt or fear she is instantly checked and coold into an anxious Retraction of herself and a sinking of the spirits so that the motion of the heart becomes weaker and slower and the external parts grow languid and pale For In Fear the Sensitive Soul which was before expansed being surprised with apprehension of approaching Evil and willing to decline it immediately withdraws herself into her retiring room and shrinks up herself into herself at the same time recalling her forces the spirits to her aid and compressing them If the Fear be exalted to the degree of Terror and the Evil seem impendent then at the same time the spirits are suddainly recall'd from the outguards the pores of the skin also are shut up by strong constriction as if the Soul would obstruct and barricado all avenues against her invading enemy whereby the hairs are raised an end and the whole body is put into a Horror or shaking After this if the passion continue the whole army of spirits being put into confusion so that they can not execute their offices the usual succors of Reason fail and the powers of voluntary motion become weak yea sometimes by reason of a resolution of the nerves and sphincters of the gutts and bladder the Excrements themselves are let forth involuntarily From this damp obscuring the Lucid part of the Sensitive Soul there quickly succeeds an Eclipse also of the Vital For the influx of the Animal spirits from the brain into the Cardiac nerves being intermitted the motions of the heart must of necessity be renderd weak and insufficient to maintain with due vigour and celerity the circulation of the blood which therefore stopping and stagnating in the ventricles of the heart causeth fainting and swooning by oppression and sometimes where the passion is hightned into Consternation also suddain death And from this arrest of the blood in the heart by strong constriction of the nerves thereunto belonging we may with reason derive that same anxious oppression and chilling weight which men commonly feel in their breast when they are invaded by violent Fear and upon which the most acute Monsieur Des Cartes seems to have reflected his thoughts when he defined Consternation to be not only a cold but also a perturbation and stupor of the Soul which takes from her the power of resisting evils that she apprehends to be neer This Fear when it excludes all hope of evasion degenerateth into the most cruel of all passions Desperation Which though by exhibiting the thing desired as impossible it wholy extinguish desire which is never carried but to things apprehended as possible yet it so afflicts the Soul that she persevering in her Constriction either through absolute despondency yeelds up herself as overcome and remains half-extinct and entombd in the body or driven into confusion and neglect of all things contracts a deep Melancholy or flyes out into a furious Madness in both cases seeking to put an end to her misery by destroying herself On the contrary when Fear gives place to Hope and that Hope is strong enough to produce Courage thereby to incense the Soul to encounter the difficulties that oppose her in the way to her end in this case she first dilates herself with great vigor and celerity breaking forth as it were into flashes of efforts then instantly diffuseth whole legions of spirits into the nerves and muscles to extend them in order to resistence or striking with all their forces and uniting all her powers into a brave devoir to overcome undauntedly pursues the the conflict Hence it comes that the breast being strongly dilated and contracted alternately the voice is sent forth more sounding and piercing than at other times as if to sound a defiance and charge at once the armes are raised up the hands constringed into fists the head advanced into a posture of daring and contempt of danger the brows contracted and the whole face distorted into an aspect full of terror and threatnings the neck swoln and most other parts distended beyond their usual dimensions All which symptoms evidently arise from a copious and impetuous effusion of Animal spirits from the brain and of blood from the heart into the outward parts ¶ From this concise explication of the motions of the Sensitive Soul the spirits and blood that constitute the passions of Hope and Fear with their dependents Animosity and Desperation the clue of our method leads us to the fifth classis of passions The consideration of good present and belonging to us in particular begets in the Soul that delight which we call Ioy wherein consisteth our possession of that good which the impressions of the brain represent to the Soul as her own First I say that in this delightful commotion doth consist the possession of good because in truth the Soul reaps no other fruit from all the goods she possesseth and when she takes no delight or joy in them it may justly be said she doth no more injoy them than if she did not at all possess them Then I add that the good is such as the impressions made upon the brain represent to the Soul as hers that I may not confound this Joy whereof I now speak and which is a Passion with Joy purely intellectual which enters into the Rational Soul by an action proper to her alone and which we may call a pleasant commotion raised by herself in herself wherein consisteth the possession of good that her intellect represents to her as her own Tho realy so long as the Rational Soul continues conjoyned with the Sensitive it can hardly be but that this intellectual joy will have the other that is a passion for its
many praiers wear short hair observe fasting-daies give alms and perform other the like external duties of Religion therefore think themselves to be arrived at the highest degree of purity and to be so far in the favor of Almighty God that they can do nothing that may displease him and that whatever their passion suggesteth to them is of holy zeal though it not seldome suggesteth the most detestable crimes that can enter into the heart of Man as the betraying of Cities assassination of Princes extermination of Nations only because they follow not their fanatique opinions And this Delusion seems to be the Daughter of internal Acquiescence grounded upon an unjust cause Again to excite this most comfortable passion it is requisite that the good act upon which we reflect be newly done by us because that constant satisfaction or self-acquiescence which alwaies is a concomitant and certain reward of Virtue is not a passion but a pacific Habit in the Rational Soul and is therefore call'd Tranquility and Quiet of Conscience On the contrary from our remembrance of an Evil act by us committed ariseth Repentance which is a branch of Grief alwaies most bitter because the cause of it is only from ourselves but then this Grief is allayed by expectation of amendment or returning into the right way to good which is referrible to Ioy. Nor doth the bitterness of this passion hinder it from being of excellent use in our life when the action whereof we repent is realy Evil and we certainly know it to be so because in such cases it strongly inciteth us to doe better in the future But it is not universaly profitable For it is no rarity for men of weak and timorous minds to be touchd with Repentance of actions they have done tho they do not certainly know those actions to be realy evil but only believe them to be so because they fear lest they be so and if they had done the contrary they would have been equally disquieted with repentance Which is an imperfection in them well worthy Commiseration and they ought to repent of such their Repentance When we observe or recall to mind good performed by an other tho not to ourselves we are thereby moved to Favour the doer because we are by nature inclined to like and love those who doe actions that we think good althouh from thence nothing of good redounds to us in particular Favour therefore is a species of Love accompanied with desire of seeing good to happen to the person whom we favour and somtimes with Commiseration because the adversity that falls upon those whom we think to be good makes us the more to reflect upon their merits But if the good done by another upon which we reflect our cogitations hath been done to Vs then to favor is adjoined Gratitude which likewise is a kind of Love excited in us by some action of another whereby we believe that eitheâ—â—he hath realy benefited noâ— at least intended to benefit us in particularâ— and accompanied with Desire to shew ourselves thankful to 〈…〉 therefore this passion of Gratitude 〈…〉 excells simple Favour in this that it is grounded upon an action which concerns Vs so hath it far greater force upon the mind especialy in men of noble and generous natures The Contrary hereunto is Ingratitude which notwithstanding is no Passion for Nature as if she abhorr'd it hath ordained in us no motion of the Spirits whereby it might be excited but a meer Vice proper to men who are either foolishly proud and therefore think all benefits due to them or fottishly stupid so as to make no reflexion upon good turns done them or of weak and abject minds who having been obliged by the bounty and charity of their Benefactors instead of being gratefull prosecute them with hatred and this because either wanting the will to requite or despairing of ability to make equal returns and falsely imagining that all are like themselves venal and mercenary and that none doth good offices but in hope of remuneration they think that their Benefactors have deceived them and so deprave the benefit itself into an injury Hatred then being an adjunct to Ingratitude it follows that Love must attend on Gratitude which is therefore alwaies honest and one of the principal bonds of human Society On the contrary when we consider Evil committed by an other tho not against us we are moved to Indignation which is a species of Hatred or Aversion raised in us against those who do any thing that we judge to be evil or unjust whatsoever it be somtimes commixed with Envy somtimes with Commiseration somtimes with Derision as having its object very much diversified For we conceive Indignation against those who doe good or evil to such who are unworthy thereof but we Envy those who receive that good and pity those who suffer that evil And yet in truth to obtain good whereof one is unworthy is in some degree to doe evil and to do Evil is in some sort to suffer evil Whence it comes that somtimes we conjoyn Pity somtimes Derision to our Indignation according as we stand well or ill affected toward them whom we observe to commit Errors And therefore the Laughter of Democritus who derided the folly and the Tears of Heraclitus who bewail'd the misery of mankind might both proceed from the same cause Indignation But when Evil is done to ourselves the passion thereby kindled in us is Anger which likewise is a species of Hatred or Aversation but different from Indignation in this that it is founded upon an action done by another with intention to hurt us in particular and in this that when it hath proceeded to a determination of hurting him who did it it passeth into Revenge whereas at first accension the Passion is no more but Excandescence or suddain Heat of blood The Desire of Revenge that for the most part accompanieth Anger whether it aim at the death or only at the subjection of our Enemy is indeed directly opposed to Gratitude for this is desire of returning good for good and that desire of requiting evil with evil as Indignation is to Favour but incomparably more vehement than either of those three affections because the desire of repelling harm and revenging our selves is a part of natural instinct necessary to self-preservation and so of all desires the strongest and most urgent And being consociated with Love of ourselves it affords to Anger all that impetuous agitation of the Spirits and blood that Animosity and Boldness or Courage can excite and its assistant Hatred promoting the accension of the Choleric or more Sulphureous parts of the blood as it passeth through the heart raiseth in the whole mass thereof a more pricking and fervent heat than that which is observed in the most ardent Love or most profuse Ioy. Now as men inflamed with this violent passion or as Seneca calls itâ— short fury of Anger differ in
some have given the upper hand to that distortion of the countenance accompanied with a loud but inarticulate voice which we call Laughter but this being neither proper to nor inseparable from Ioy cannot therefore belong to it essentialy That it is frequently a concomitant of Mirth or Hilarity is not to be disputed but Mirth is the lowest degree of Joy a light and superficial emotion of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits a kind of short tickling of the Imagination usualy expressed by Laughter whereas Ioy is serious profound and grave according to that memorable Sentence of Seneca epist. 23. res severa est verum gaudium Laughter then as I said is not proper to all Joy because common to some other affections for some are observed to laugh out of Indignation others out of Contempt and disdain neither of which belong to any kind of Joy Nor is it inseparable from Joy because in truth Joy cannot produce Laughter unless when it is very moderate and hath somthing of Admiration or Hate mixt with it For we have it from the oracle of Experience that in great and profound Joy the cause of it whatsoever it be doth never force us to break forth into laughter nay more that we are most easily provoked to laugh when we are sad Whereof the reason seems to be either because in solid Joy the Sensitive Soul is so deeply commoved so intirely taken up with the delight of fruition that she cannot attend to shake the Midriff Lungs and Muscles of the breast nimbly and strongly enough to create laughter or because at that time the Lungs are so distended with blood that they cannot by repeted concussions or alternate contractions and relaxations be further inflated with air whereof no little quantity is required to produce that loud sound emitted in Laughter That we may understand this matter more fully let us examine the cause or occasion and the Motions of Laughter As for the First viz. the Occasion or Motive whatsoever it be there must concur therein these three Conditions following 1. it must be new and surprising because whatsoever is ridiculous at first ceaseth to be so when grown stale 2. it must be such a novelty as may suggest to us a conception of some eminency or advantage in our selves above another whom the occasion chiefly concerns for why are we naturally prone to laugh at either a jest which is nothing but a witty or elegant discovery and representation of some absurdity or indecency of another abstracted from his person or at the mischances and infirmities of others unless from hence that thereby our own abilities are the more set off and illustrated and recommended to us by way of comparison 3. It must not touch our own or our friends honour for in that point we are too tender to tolerate much less to laugh at a jest broken upon our selves or friends of whose dishonour we participate These requisites in a ridiculous cause considered we may adventure to conclude that Laughter is an effect of sudden but light Joy arising from the unexpected discovery of some infirmity in another not our friend and from imagination of our own eminency and exemption from the like Here then you see is something of Admiration from the Novelty something of Aversion from the Infirmity something of Ioy or triumph from our opinion of some eminency in our selves And as for that Laughter which is sometimes joyned with Indignation it is most commonly fictitious or artificial and then it depends intirely upon our will as a voluntary action but when 't is true or Natural it seems likewise to arise from Ioy conceived from hence that we see our selves to be above offence by that evil which is the cause or subject of our indignation and that we feel our selves surprised by the unexpected novelty of the same So that to the production of this Laughter also is required a concurs of Ioy Aversion and Admiration but all moderate If this be so what then shall we think of that odd example of Laughter in Ludovicus vives who writes of himself lib. 3. de Anima cap. de Risu that usually when he began to eat after long fasting he could not forbear to break forth into a fit of loud laughter This doubtless was not voluntary because he strove to suppress it nor could it be Convulsive such as Physicians call Risus Sardonius because he was in perfect health sensible of no pain therein nor incommodity thereupon It must therefore be Natural though not Passionate proceeding from some cause very obscure and idiosyncritical that is peculiar to his constitution perhaps this that in this Learned man either the Lungs were more apt to be distended with blood or the Midriff more easily put into the motions that produce laughter than commonly they are in most other men The First because in general whatsoever causeth the Lungs to be suddenly puffed up and distended with blood causeth also the external action of Laughter unless where sorrow changeth that action into groaning and weeping the other because all Laughter is made chiefly by quick and short vibrations of the Midriff But this rare Phenomenon we shall perhaps be better able to solve when we have considered how the action of Laughter is performed in all other men Concerning this Problem therefore it is observable that in Man there seems to be a greater consent or sympathy or rather commerce of motions betwixt the Midriff and the Heart yea and the Imagination also than in Brutes of what order or tribe soever and that the Reason given hereof by the most accurate of our Modern Anatomists is this that the principal Nerve of the Midriff is rooted in the same Nerve of the Spine named Nervus vertebralis from whence there comes a conspicuous branch into the grand plexus of the Intercostal nerve and that commonly two sometimes three other branches more are derived from that same notable plexus into the very trunk of the Nerve of the Diaphragm as you may see most elegantly represented by Dr. Willis in the 9 th Table of his most elaborate Book de Anatomia Cerebri which are not found in Beasts For from this plenty and singular contexture of nerves it may be conjectured not only why the Diaphragm doth so readily conform its motions to those of the Praecordia and of the Animal Spirits excited in passions of the Mind and cooperate with them but also why Risibility is an affection proper only to Man For as the same most curious Dr. Willis reasoneth in his chapter of the functions and uses of the Intercostal pair of nerves when the Imagination is affected with some pleasant and new conceipt instantly there is caused a brisk and placid motion of the heart as if it sprung up with joy to be alleviated or eased of its burden Wherefore that the blood may be the more speedily discharged out of the right Ventricle of the heart into the Lungs and out
are likewise streightned by constriction of the same nerves Whether this ingenious conjecture be true or not certain it is that the Matter of Tears is the same with the liquor of the Lymphae-ducts and that they flow from the aforesaid Glandules which are therefore named Lacrymales And as for the manner of their Expression from thence in some passions of the Mind the most rational account I have hitherto met with concerning it is this When any occasion of weeping occurrs and affects the Sensitive Soul instantly the Ventricles of the heart with all the Praecordia are by the blood in abundance brought into them more than usualy crowded and distended and the Lungs also stuffed and inflated so that they cannot perform the action of respiration but by sobbs intermixed and the Midriff to give room to such distension of the heart and Lungs is pressed downward with a more intense contraction alternately succeeding which great depression and brisk contraction being repeted is the efficient cause of Sobbing and at the same time the air being with difficulty admitted into the lungs by reason they and the Midriff are so exceedingly distended and with no less difficulty exploded again by the windpipe thence comes that whining sound of crying and howling To this affection of the vitals the parts of the face also being distorted into a sad and mournfull aspect exactly correspond because the nerves which contract the Praecordia have a communion of continuity and cooperate with those which are inserted into the muscles of the face and which compose it into the postures of weeping and laughter in passion Nor doth the disorder cease here but extend itself to the upper region also to the brain where the Spirits being put into confusion and the arteries surcharged with too great an afflux of blood from the oppressed heart the palace of the Soul itself is brought into danger of a purple deluge For prevention whereof the nerves incircling and binding the trunks of the arteries in many places strongly constringe them so that the commotion of the blood is much repressed the liquor thereof in the beginning of the passion highly rarefied suddainly condensed and the serous part of it being put into a flux is transmitted into the above mentioned Glandules of the Eyes there placed and destined by nature to receive it And then because these Glandules are in like manner constringed and as it were squeez'd by certain nerves that are of the same original and community with the Pathetic nerves of the face and heart the serous liquor is expressed out of them through their excretory channels leading to the corners of the Eyes most accurrately described with their uses by that diligent Anatomist Nichol. Steno in a singular treatise and forced to distill in a shower of tears the strong Contraction of the membranes investing the whole brain concurring to that expression The same may be said likewise of the shedding tears for Ioy. For in suddain and great Ioy conjoyned with Admiration the Sensitive Soul very much expanding herself and diffusing the Animal Spirits the blood is sent from the heart in great abundance to the brain so as to distend the vessels that contain it which being soon after strongly contracted again by the same Soul withdrawing herself inward as if she feared a dissolution by so ample an Effusion the blood is in a sort put into a flux or melted and the serous part of it separated in the Glandules of the Eyes and thence by constriction of the nerves squeezed forth in tears This being supposed it will not be difficult for us thence to infer that Infants and Old Men are indeed more prone to weep than those of middle age but for divers reasons Old Men for the most part weep out of Love and Ioy together because both these affections causing a great Effusion of the Sensitive Soul and consequently a large apertion of the orifices or sluices of the heart must therefore especialy where they are conjoyned cause also a transmission of the blood from thence to the brain in great abundance and the blood being generaly more thin and diluted with serum in old men must yield more matter for their tears But Infants commonly weep out of mere Sorrow and vexation such as is not accompanied with the least of Love because the contraction of the Soul and nerves caused by sorrow expresseth out of the blood which is alwaies abundant in children brought by the arteries to the brain a sufficient quantity of serum to replenish the Glandulae Lachrymales and supply the sourse of their tears There remains yet that other Sign of Sorrow which doth usually accompany it when it is profound and extreme and that is Sighing the cause whereof is very much different from that of weeping though both proceed from Grief For the same occasion that moves us to shed tears when our Lungs are stuffed and distended with blood provokes us also to fetch deep sighs when they are almost empty and when some sudden imagination of Hope or comfort opens the sluice of the Arteria Venosa in the lungs which sorrow had lately contracted For then that little blood that remained in the lungs in a moment passing down through that pipe into the left ventricle of the heart the ambient aire instantly rusheth by the mouth into the lungs to replenish that place the blood had left free and this great and quick repletion of the lungs with aire is what we call Sighing You have now heard what Conjectures seem to me most consentaneous to reason and Anatomical observations concerning the Corporeal Motions excited in those two eminent passions Joy and Sorrow with their usual Adjuncts Laughter and weeping be pleas'd to hear also a few words touching the more violent motions proper to Anger which I have promised next to consider That the Effects of this most vehement Commotion of the Sensitive Soul are various not only as the occasion or injury is conceived to be greater or less but also according to the various temperaments of persons and to the diversity of other Passions conjoyned therewith is obvious to common observation and we have already hinted And from this variety it is that men have distinguished Anger into Harmless and Dangerous or simple heat of blood and thirst after Revenge assigning moreover to each sort its proper Signs or Characters observable in the outward parts of the body and especially in the face For some when they are angry look pale or tremble others grow red or weep and the vulgar judgeth the passion of the first sort to be much more dangerous than that of the other Whereof the reason may be this that when we either will not or cannot shew our resentments and revenge otherwise than by our change of countenance and by words we then put forth all our heat and exert all our force at the very beginning of the commotion so that the blood being in this sudden effort copiously effused
from the heart into the face and there detained a while by constriction of the veines by those Branches of the Fifth pair of nerves that are inserted into the muscles of that part we are forced to appear in the scarlet livery of shame that is to blush out of indignation and regret or grief at the unworthy affront And sometimes the first emotion of desire to vindicate our selves together with commiseration of our own want of power to revenge more effectually causeth us also to shed tears But they who on the contrary reserve themselves for and strongly resolve upon revenge in time to come grow deeply sad and pensive at the present as conceiving themselves thereunto obliged by the nature of the injury done to them and casting about in their thoughts how to accomplish their revenge and all this while the Sensitive Soul persisting in her Contraction and revocation of the Spirits inwards there is no extraordinary nay but little diffusion of the blood outwards And sometimes they also fear the evils that may ensue from the revenge they intend which strikes them into paleness shivering and trembling the Sensitive Soul being then distracted betwixt the contrary motions of desire of revenge and of fear of the ill consequents thereof like a Sea beaten by two contrary winds Yet after this first conflict is over when they come to execute their revenge then fear giving place to rage they soon grow the more inflamed and daring by how much the colder they were during their deliberation as in Fevers that invade with cold and shivering the following heats are alwayes most ardent and unquenchable You see then how the Motions and consequently the Efforts and Effects of this violent passion may be diversified even by diversity of other affections conjoyned therewith For in the Harmless and Blushing or Weeping anger there is alwayes a mixture of shame and self-pity which by allaying the desire of revenge helpeth much to check and moderate the commotion of the blood and therefore such anger seldom lasteth long and is more easily composed when on the other side in the Pale and Trembling but Dangerous anger there is first deep Indignation then Fear and at last Furious persuit of revenge by which the blood being most violently agitated and the sulphureous parts of it all kindled into a flame is not to be calmed and reduced to temper unless by the pleasure of revenge or by triumph in the submission of the Enemy or by the cold damp of repentance For prevention of which most bitter passion by moderating our Anger I think my self in Charity obliged to conclude this argument with an excellent Moral remark of Monsieur des Cartes Although the passion of Anger be in itself usefull in that it inspires us with vigour and courage necessary to repell injuries yet the Excesses of no other passion are with greater care and caution to be shunned Because by perturbing our judgment they often induce us into those errors whereof we ought afterward dearly to repent yea somtimes they hinder us from repelling injuries so safely and honourably as otherwise we might if we were less commoved But as nothing doth more increase the flame of Anger than Pride so I am perswaded nothing can more abate and restrain the Excesses of it than true Generosity Because while Generosity makes us to have but little value for all things that may be taken from us and on the other side to prize above all temporal things our Liberty and Empire over ourselves which is lost when we are capable to be hurt by an other it makes us with Contempt alone or at most with Indignation to revenge those injuries with which weaker minds are wont to be offended ¶ Being now at length arrived at the end of this my divertising Exercise wherein I proposed to my self to inquire into the Occasions Causes Differences Motions and Effects of the most powerfull and remarkable of all the Passions by which the Mind of Man is apt to be perturbed so far as my weak understanding assisted by reading and meditation would permit before I lay aside my pen I find it requisite to advertise you briefly of two things one whereof may conduce to your more easy comprehension of what I have hitherto delivered concerning the more general Differences of the Passions the other may serve to my exemption from the censure of the Illiterate The First is that of all the Passions recounted and described in this impolite discourse there are only six that seem to be Simple and Principal namely Admiration Love Hatred Desire Ioy and Grief which are therefore said to be Simple because they consist of only one single act or commotion of the Sensitive Soul disturbed with the apprehension of things whether real or imaginary For as to all the rest either they are but various species of those Simple ones or they result from divers mixtures and combinations of them being therefore named Mixt Passions because they consist of more than one act or Motion If therefore I have chiefly considered the Nature motions and principal Effects of the Six Simple or Primitive passions contenting myself only with a brief Genealogy of the Compound or Derivative as sufficient to direct your cogitations to the various Mixed commotions whence they result it was only lest I might abuse your patience by undecent repetitions or oppress your mind with too great multiplicity of particulars which is none of the least impediments of Science The Other is that notwithstanding the Excellency and singular Vtility of the Argument whereof I have treated in this Discourse yet seeing my design in composing it hath been partly to render my present solitude less tedious to my self and chiefly to give you some testimony that I convert not my leisure into idleness You ought not to frustrate my confidence of your secrecy or to expose my defects by communicating these papers to Others Not to Philosophers least they find nothing new in them but my Lapses Not to the Vnlearned because they are incompetent judges of truth or error especially in such Philosophical Enquiries more addicted to barbarous contempt of Knowledge in others than to confess ignorance in themselves To These therefore you may be most assured I am not ambitious you should recommend this Treatise wherein is contained nothing that can either please or reform them I know it is no less difficult to teach them the art of regulating their exorbitant Passions than it is to bring them to prefer the severe dictates of reason to the flattering suggestions of Sense or to convince them that realy nothing is pleasant but what is also honest nothing very desireable but the right use of their freedom of will nothing formidable but the evil they themselves commit I know that in the Vulgar Religion is fear constancy bruitish obstinacy zeal pride friendship interest and virtue itself but dissimulation I know also that the multitude is not led by merit but carried headlong