but also as we have already shewed in our discourse of Love that this complacency is no true pleasure and that the Daemons which are capable of that acceptableness cannot be touched with Joy which yet they ought most perfectly to have if it come from knowledge alone we must then stick to the common opinion and with it say that Pleasure is a motion of the appetite since its good which moves that part of the minde and that pleasure hath no other object but the same good Yet this raiseth another difficulty for if it be true that the soul ceaseth to move when it arives at the end whereto it tended moving to possess a good the possession ought to be the end and term of its motion So that the pleasure which comes alwayes after the possession is rather a rest then a motion of the appetite and yet if we were agreed that possession is the aim and end of the motions of the minde we would say that that onely ought to be understood of those which it employs to arrive thereunto for although it bear it self not towards the good it possesseth it hinders it not from agitating to taste it again and from being ravished in the enjoyment it hath had but to speak more exactly possession is not the last end which the soul proposeth it is the enjoyment which is the perfection and accomplishment of the possession For it is certain we possess things which we enjoy not and we may say that the good renders it self master of the Soul when it presents and unites it self unto it but that she becomes mistris of it when she enjoys it After all this we can never say that rest is the end which the soul proposeth to it self since the end is the perfection of things and that there are some which must be always in action to be perfect Now the soul is of this kinde she never tends to rest unless out of weakness and it is therefore necessary that Joy and Enjoyment be in motion let us then see what an one it is To discover it we must observe that Pleasure and Joy are never formed in the soul till after the good hath inspired Love therein for as the first motion of the appetite towards good is to unite it self thereunto and Love consists in this union it is impossible that any man should fancy any other motion which could be posterior to that and therefore if Pleasure be a motion of the soul towards good it ought to presuppose love always come after it Now as this Love always precedes it follows not that it must always accompany it there may be obstacles which may hinder the appetite from moving to form this Passion and grief perhaps may be so great that it may employ the whole soul that it will not admit the least ray of Joy but it s also certain that if there be nothing which retains the appetite it always goes from Love to Pleasure because the soul unites it self to good but to enjoy it and it is impossible it should enjoy it but by Pleasure and to speak truth enjoyment is nothing but pleasure which we finde in the possession of good and according as enjoyment is more perfect it is also the greater and the more excellent What motion can the appetite then suffer in pleasure and enjoyment beyond that of Love whereby it unites it self to what is good certainly it is a thing very difficult to conceive how these actions should pass into a power which is quite blinde and hid in the bottome of the soul they must be extreamly obscure and what light soever the minde can bring they suffer themselves to be seen not without a great deal of trouble yet since we have engaged our selves to shew the difference of the Passions by the difference of corporal motions we must necessarily to know what Joy is finde in sensible things a kinde of motion which may resemble the agitation which the Minde suffers in this encounter As it happens then in the Passion of Love that the Appetite carries it self towards the beloved object that it runs thither and unites it self thereunto we may say that this motion is like to that of fluid bodies which run toward their centre and think to finde their rest there but because when they are there they for all that stop not they return and scatter themselves on themselves they swell and consequently over-flow So after that the Appetite is united to its good its motion ends not there it returns the same way scatters it self on it self and over-flows those powers which are neerest to it By this effusion the soul doubles on the image of the good it hath received mixeth and confoundeth it self with it and so thinks to possess it the more by doubly uniting it self thereunto Nay even as the Appetite swells and thicks by this reflux it cannot contain it self within its bounds and is constrained to distil it self into that faculty which acquainted it with the knowledge of the object sharing with it the good it hath received and by that means making all the parts of the soul concur to the possession thereof wherein perfect enjoyment consists For since the soul hath no other end but perfectly to possess the good and that perfectly to possess it it must have the knowledge of that possession the Appetite having no knowledge cannot alone make it enjoy what it loves the Imagination and the Understanding must contribute and then after they have proposed the good to the Appetite and that the Appetite is united thereunto it returns to the one and to the other and gives them an account of what it hath done to the end that by uniting their functions the soul may unite it self to its good in all its parts and that it may make for it that circular motion which is natural to it and wherein the accomplishment and perfection of its operations consists as the Platonick Philosophy teacheth After all if it be true that the Soul and the Spirits work in the same manner in the Passions we may not doubt but that the motion which the soul suffers in Joy is such as we have said since that of the spirits is altogether like it For after Love hath carried them to good they scatter and over-flow themselves on the organs of the Senses as we are about to make known So that we cannot miss in saying That Joy is an effusion of the Appetite whereby the Soul spreads it self on what is good to possess it the more perfectly I know that the definition of Aristotle is quite different from this for he says that it is a motion of the Soul which suddenly and sensibly puts it in a state agreeable to Nature But the place where he proposeth it shews sufficiently that he had no intention to render it very exact treating in that place but with Orators and not with Philosophers And truely whoever will neerly examine it will finde nothing less
life of men since thereby we become liberal courteous and generous it teacheth us to be discreet obedient and faithful it renders us abundant eloquent and ingenious and for that same cause the wisest man among the ancients formerly said that he was ignorant in all things but in the art of love forasmuch as he esteem'd that love is the school of honor and vertue and that wheresoever it reigns it brings peace abundance and Felicity And indeed had it not been altered by men it had never produced any othereffects but those and we had not been obliged to have added to its Elogies the crimes of which it is accused and the ills which at all times it hath done through the whole world but as the fire how pure soever it be raiseth stinking and dangerous fumes if it take in a corrupted matter you are not to wonder if this divine flame being bred amongst those vices wherewith the nature of man is infected produceth only filthy desires forms only evil designs and if instead of the good things it ought to bring mankinde it cause only troubles anxiety and misfortunes We have not undertaken here to give an account of all its disorders neither will we stain this discourse with the blood and the infamy it hath brought into Families and States nor with the sacriledges wherewith it hath violated the most sacred things it will be sufficient to say that its the most dangerous enemie wisedom can have For as much as of all those passions which may disturb her there is only love against whom she hath no defence those which enter nimbly and impetuously into the minde are but almost of a moments continuance and reason finds its excuse in their precipitation those others which move slowly by little and little she perceives them coming and can either stop their passage or in that weak condition drive them away But love slides in so secretly that its impossible to observe its entry or its progresse like a maskt enemy it advanceth and seazeth on all the principal parts of the soul before it is discovered when there is no means to be found to get him out then he triumphs and wisedom and reason must become his slaves and 't is what in my opinion the ancients would have said when they fained Love sometimes to be the Father of the gods and sometimes that he was a Demon which causeth them to descend from Heaven to Earth Because its certain that this passion hath mastered the wisest men in the world and that it was not without cause that Lais once vaunted to have seen more Philosophers with her then of any other kinde of men But let us leave these subjects for lovers to entertain their complaints withall and without interessing our selves either in the praise or dispraise of love le ts consider from the Port where we are the stormes it raiseth in the soul and in the body The first wound that beauty gives the soul is almost insensible and although the poyson of love be already in her and that it s even disperst through all her parts yet doth she not beleeve herself sick or at least thinks not her mischief so great For as we doe not give to Bees the name they bear but only when they have a sting and wings so neither is love called love but when he hath his arrows and can flye that 's to say when he is pungent and unquiet At first we take it for a simple likeing or a complacency we bear to so lovely a Person with whose presence we are pleased of whom we delight to discourse whose remembrance is sweet and the desires we have to see and entertain her are so calm that wisedom with all its severity cannot condemn them even she approves them and passeth them for civilities and necessary duties but they are not long at a stand they by little and little encrease and at last by the frequent agitatiou of the Soul they kindle that fire which was there hid and cause that flame to encrease which burns and devours it then this pleasing image which never presented it self to the minde but with sweetness and respect becomes insolent and imperious it enters every moment or more fully to express it it never leaves it it mixeth with its most serious thoughts it troubles the most pleasing and profanes the most sacred it even slides into our dreams and by an insufferable perfidiousness it shews it self in them severe and cruel when there is nothing to be fear'd or abuseth us with a vain hope when we ought truly to dispair then love who before was but a child becomes the Father of all the passions but a cruel Father who hath no sooner produced one but he stiffles it to make room for an other which he spares no less then the former at once he causeth a hundred kinds of desires and designes to live and dye and to see Hope and Dispair Boldness and Fear joy and grief which he causeth continually to succeed one another Despight and Anger which he makes to flash out every moment the mixture of all these passions its impossible but you must fancie some great tempest where the fury of the wind raiseth throws down and confounds the waves where lightning and thunder breaks the clouds where light and darkness heaven and earth seem to return to their first confusion But as there are times when storms are more violent and more common there are also encounters wherein this tempest of Love is stronger and more frequent The chief in my opinion are the presence and the absence of the beloved person her love and her hate and the concurrence of a rival and we may say that these are the five acts wherein all the accidents and all the intricacies of this Passion are represented at least if there are others they pass behind the curtain and out of the spectators sight If it happen then that a lover be absent from his beloved object disquiet and fretting pursue him everywhere he hath no friends but are importunate the divertisements which were most pleasing to him are troublesome in short there is nothing in his life which displeaseth him not but silence and solitude as if he were possest with those strange diseases which makes us hate the light and men he loves nothing but darkness and deserts there he entertaines the woods the brooks the winds and the stars they have nothing as he fancies but what is conformable to the humour of her he loves and to the pains he suffers he calls them insensible as she is and finds them like him in perpetual agitation and after having a long time tormented his spirit with such like Chimeras he begins to think of those happy moments when he shall again see that desirable object that he may speak to her and give her an account of his sighs and of the tears he shed in her absence sometimes he meditates the complaints wherewith he must soften her rigor the
thanks with which he will receive her favours and the vows wherewith he will confirm his servitude sometimes he puts pen to paper he writes blots out tears and if he have any thoughts which may securely stay on the paper they are those only which witness the excess of his love and fidelity and then what artifices doth he not imploy to procure the delivery of his letters what extravagances doth he not commit when he receives any or even when any thing that hath but touched the person he loves comes to his hands he keeps them always joyned to his eyes or to his lips he makes them his idols and would not change them for Scepters and Diadems to conclude we may say that absence is the true night of lovers not onely because their Sun as they say illuminates them no more but also because that all their pleasures are but as in a dream and at that time all their ills are irritated and augmented But le ts consider the day which followes this night 't is infallibly the presence of the person beloved indeed a lover calls it no other who beleeves that when he comes neer it all the beauty in the world is discovered to his eyes he finds a new heat disperst through his soul and a certain mixture of joy astonishment causeth him so pleasant a trouble that he is ravisht therewith and as it were out of himself then how proud bold or eloquent soever he be he must humble himself be afraid and lose his speech it avails him nothing to have prepared his courage and his discourse they prove but so many dreams and fantasies which vanish at the sight of this light nothing but his eyes can speak for him which witness by their looks what an excess of pleasure and respect this meeting affords him but what ever is said that this is the particular language of Love there is yet another which is much more proper and which is also far stranger then this for although there are passions as violent as this yet is there none which inspires like this such extravagant and such ridiculous words for a lover scarce utters one probable word what care and what interest soever he employs to make himself beleeved all his discourses and writings are perpetual hyperboles he burns he languisheth he dyes he speaks of nothing but of prisons of chains and of torments he calls her he loves his sun his heart his soul and his life he swears that he alone hath more love then all men besides that his passion is infinite and shall be eternal In breif all his words are beyond the truth his designes and his promises beyond his power and all his actions beneath his courage for there is no so base submission which he will not make there is no service so low or vile which he will not render there is no subjection amongst slaves so diligent so careful and so express as his he often adores a person that disdains him courts a confident that betrays him cherisheth servants that mock him he must use his enemies with respect his friends with indifferency and all the rest of the world with scorn he must suffer without complaining he must fear all desire much hope for little in a word he must love his ill and hate himself I omitt the profuse expence he makes the dangers he runs through to gain only a word or a favourable look the transports of joy which a good reception yeelds him the excess of grief and despair which a disdain causeth and the furies which jealousie inspires when a rival traverseth his pursuit When we shall speak of those passions in particular then also will we shew the rest of the extravagancies which love causeth although indeed they cannot be all discovered For besides that there are no disorders in the other passions which are not to be found in this that its capable of all the follies which can possesse a distracted mind it hath so many faces and several countenances that its impossible to take their picture sometimes it s violent and impetuous sometimes sweet and peaceable in some pleasant and toying in others peevish and severe in other bold and insolent in other timerous and modest it appears ingenious and stupid fantastical light furious and in a hundred other fashions which in my opinion was the cause that some fained Love to be the son of the wind and of Iris to shew the wonder and the variety which there was in this passion and to teach us that his original is as much hid as that of those two kinds of Meteors But before we undertake to discover it le ts see what change it causeth in the face I do not beleeve that he who first painted Love with a vail before his eyes intended thereby to shew the blindness which is in that passion but either through the debility or by the priviledge of his art he was obliged to hide what he could not express In effect what colour nay even what words can express all the changes which Love causeth in our eyes how can that resplendent humidity be represented which we see shine in them that modest disquiet that laughing grief and that amorous anger which is to be perceived in them now you shall see them turn this way and now that now sweetly lift themselves up by little and little fall down again and pittifully turn towards the beloved object Sometimes they dwel on it as if they were fix'd sometimes they turn from it as if they dazled sometimes their looks are quick sometimes sweet and languishing now they fly out with liberty and now they steal and escape from between the lids which seem as if they would shut upon them In a word all the motions wherewith the eyes in other passions are agitated are to be observ'd in this you shall always finde laughter or tears which somtimes agree mingle together although they are sunk and hollow they do not therefore drie up or lessen on the contrary they seem bigger and more humid then they were before unless it be after a tedious grief or an extream despair for then they become dry dimm cast down and set The forehead in this passion seldom gathers it self on the contrary it seems as if it were extended and if sorrow sometimes casts it down the wrinkels do scarce so much as break its evenness 't is there where the redness begins to appear which Love often raiseth in the face and even then when the other parts are pale this always retains something of its first colour sometimes the lips are red and moist sometimes pale and dry and they never almost move without forming a pleasing smile sometimes the undermost is seen to tremble and to whiten with a subtil froth sometimes the tongue passeth over them and by a light touch and trembling which it gives it flatters and tickles them when it would form words it lispes and the humidity which the desire raiseth in the
mouth stiffles and drowns them Even the ears are of no use to a lover he hears not half what you say to him if he answers 't is with confusion and his discourse is every moment interrupted by deep and long sights which his heart and his lungs incessantly exhale If he speak of his passion 't is with a trembling and softned voice which he lets fall at every stroke by those passionate accents which desire grief admiration usually form he grows pale lean he loseth his appetite he cannot sleep and if somtimes grief and weariness overtake him his slumbers are continually interrupted by dreams which do often more afflict his minde then the true ills which he suffers When the beloved person presents herself to his eyes when she is but named or when any thing awakens his remembrance of her at the same instant his heart riseth and is agitated his pulse becomes unequal and irregular and he grows so unquiet that he cannot stay in one place sometimes chilness seiseth him somtimes heat fires all his blood sometimes he feels himself animated with an extraordinary force and courage sometimes he is cast down and languisheth and even sometimes he faints lastly he feels himself strucken with a sickness which laughs at the Physitians skill and which findes no remedy but in death or in love it self But let 's no farther let us finish this discourse with the artifice of the Painter as it begun let 's hide what we cannot describe be content to enquire the causes of those effects which we have now observed in the essence and Nature of this Passion PART 2. Of the Nature of LOVE ONe of the greatest wonders in Love is that this Passion being so general and so common and wherewith we may say all knowing men have been touched there hitherto hath none been found who hath clearly discovered its nature and origine for after having seen all what hath been written thereof we may affirm that the love of Phiâ—osophers was as well blind as that of Poets and that he who said it was I know not what which came I know not whence and went away I know not how made not one of the worst encounters Now although I will not examine all the definitions which are given it the bounds which I have prescribed being too narrow to permit so long a discourse yet there are some which are esteem'd the most reasonable whose defects I must observe that I may well establish that which I mean to propose and you may wonder that I approve not that of Socrates who was more knowing in Love then all the Philosophers in Antiquity nor that of S. Thomas who understood Morality better then any man after him So that I am oblig'd to tell you the reasons which make me dissent from their opinions And which make me steer another course then they have done For the first who defin'd Love to be a desire of Beauty he confounds two Passions in one nay even he destroys them both since desire moves only towards those things which we have not and is quenched when we possesse them although Love continue in its possession and even sometimes therein renders it self more violent and then if love be a desire it would be no more Love since we cannot desire what we enjoy and by the same reason desire would no longer be desire I know well you will say that there is no possession so entire and full where desire may not finde its place and were it but the continuation of the good we enjoy 't were sufficient to employ it and to render it inseparable from Love but this escape is unprofitable for if the possession be not entire it supposeth a part which yet we have not enjoyed and who wisheth the continuation of a good considers it not as present but as a thing to come and therefore he forms a new Idea of the good he possesseth and hath a different motive from that which its presence gives and this is enough to cause two several passions otherwise we should confound Love with Hope and even with all the other motions of the soul which are often found by one only object according as we consider it several ways For S. Thomas who says that Love is a complacency of the appetite in the thing which is lovely either he takes the word complacency for the sutableness which the appetite finds in the object which the imagination proposeth or else for the pleasure and the joy which the object yeelds it if it be that sutableness it is formed before Love if it be the pleasure it follows it For its certain that when the imagination or the understanding have judged a thing to be good the first thing the appetite doth is to agree consent to the judgment which they made of it and although this more clearly appears in the will then in the sensitive appetite because the will is free to consent or refuse what is proposed to it and that consent seems to be an act particular to it yet there is in the appetite a certain image of that action and its likely it approves what the imagination presents before it carries or moves it self towards it and this approbation and agreement is the complacency of which we speak which is nothing else but the satisfaction and the quiet the appetite takes at sight of the objects which are conformable to it So light rejoyceth the eyes even before it move the appetite and the pleasure they receive in this encounter is not a Passion nor a Motion but a certain calm which coms from the conformity of the object with that power The same happens to the appetite when the imagination proposeth any thing that is lovely it afterwards likes and moves to possess it so that this agreement precedes Love and Joy follows it as you shall perceive by the sequel To form then a definition of Love without these difficulties and defects we are first to suppose the difference betwixt that Love which is a habit and that which is a Passion for being a Motion when that Motion ceaseth the Passion also is at an end and we may say that there is no more Love but the habit forbears not to be there still which is nothing else but the impression of the beloved object which remains in the Mind and which causeth that at all times when the thought proposeth it to the appetite it moves and forms the passion of which we speak the Passion of Love is then a Motion and because Motions draw their differences from the end whereto they tend we are to observe what its end is Now as the appetite stirs not but to possess good and fly from ill we cannot doubt but the possession of good is the end of Love but as we cannot possess a thing without in some manner uniting our selves therunto it necessarily follows that Love is a Motion of the appetite by which the Minde unites it self to that
which seems good unto it It s true that at first this will not seem true because that most commonly in Love the beloved object is absent with whom it is not likely the soul should unite it self but if you consider that objects may be united to the powers by their species and by their images or by their true beings and that consequently there is a real union and another that is not which the schools call intentional and which we may name Ideal you may observe that the union which the appetite makes with the object which the imagination proposeth is of the latter rank because the true being of things enters not into the imagination it s their Idea and their image only and this union is that alone which naturally belongs to the appetite for that it can no otherwise for its part unite it self to the good which is presented unto it if it move towards any other union 't is not for it self that it seeks it but for other powers which may really unite themselves to their objects for the the appetite is a politick faculty which works not only for it self but for all others which are beneath it and as the imagination is the Center of all the sences the appetite is it also of all the inclinations which are in the parts so that the imagination or the understanding proposing to it what is fit it seeks it for them and endevors to procure them the enjoyment thereof and then if they are capable really to unite themselves with their objects it covets their union but this hinders not but that it unites it self before with them by a union proper to it and which is as the principle and spring of all other unions belonging to the soul Perhaps you will say that the understanding and the imagination in the same manner unite themselves to what is fit for them and that therefore Love may be aswel formed there as in the appetite but the difference is great because that the objects come and go in the understanding and in the imagination and the knowledge they have of them is rather gained by rest then by motion as Avistotle says quite contrary to the appetite which moves it self towards its object and goes out as it were of it self to unite it self thereto so that the union which is made in the understanding and in the imagination is purely passive without any motion of its faculties but that of the appetite is active and performed with agitation considering also that the union made by the appetite is more perfect then that which is made by knowledge for as much as the minde may have an aversion from some thing which it hath conceived which is a kind of separation and therefore the union thereof is not so perfect as that of the appetite which cannot endure this division and which consequently is the most accomplished which can be found in the actions of life But if Love be a motion of the Soul to unite it self to what is lovely it seems as if when it is united thereunto there then should be no more motion and consequently no more Love and as this union may be made in a moment for that there is nothing can hinder it it seems as if this motion also were made in an instant and that therefore Love should not last any longer which would be a very strange proposition and contrary to the truth To answer this objection you must observe that there are things which move themselves to attain to some end separate from their motion and that there are others which finde in the motion it self the end they seek the first cease to move when they have attain'd their end But those who have no other end but motion or at least none that is separated from their motion never pretend to rest and as rest is a perfection in those so 't is an imperfection in these now the appetite is of this latter kinde which truly moves to unite it self to what is good but the union it seeks cannot be effected but in motion and when that ceaseth it vanisheth so that whilest the beloved object is present it must incessantly agitate it self to obtain the end it desires which is to unite it self thereunto and if it chance to rest it proceeds from that the object is no longer present with it or at least that it is no more offered unto it as good Love then is a motion and a union of the appetite to what is lovely whether absent or present because its absence hinders not the imagination from proposing the Idea thereof to the appetite which is the only one with which it naturally can unite its true that working for other powers as we have said it stops not at this simple union it seeks what is fit also for them it desires for the seeing and hearing that their objects may be at a reasonable distance for touching and tasting that theirs may be immediatly united to their organs In fine as many ways as things can be united the appetite and the will wish a fit union for them and you must confess that the concourse of all those motions makes the Passion of Love compleat and entire and the first of which we have spoken although it contains all its essence and its form yet hath it not all its extent we may say it is the source and that the others are the brooks which encrease it Le ts now see what this particular agitation is which the appetite causeth to make this union and in what its different from that which is to be found in Joy in Desire and in Hope by which as wel as by love it seems that the soul would unite it self to the good which is presented to it For t is not sufficient for the perfect knowledge of the Passions to say that they are motions unless you observe the differences of these motions and unless you make known the different impressions and the diverss progress which the diversity of these objects cause in the appetite You must then suppose there is some relation between the motions of the Soul and those of the body and that the differences which are found in these in some manner happen in the others For since the effects are like their causes the motions of the body which are the effects of the Soul ought to be the images of that agitation which it gives it self In effect they say that the understanding moves directly towards its object that it reflects and redoubles it self on it that it reenters it self that it wanders and confounds it self which are all phrases drawn from sensible motions and which ought to make us beleeve that somewhat like it is done in the soul and chiefly in its appetitive part because it is by it that in effect it moves and agitates it self neither is it to any purpose to say that they are not true motions but that they only are Metaphorical for besides that
sometimes retire towards its Center in a word make all the motions which are to be observed in the Passions It is not then necessary that the will be separate from the understanding and that there be a space betwixt the two to cause the motion of which we speak agitating it self in it self and driveing its parts towards the Idea of good which is represented it by the understanding it unites it self to it as much as it can and so canseth the Passion of Love it is just so with the sensitive appetite for although its principal organ be far from that of the imagination we must not beleeve that these two faculties are quite shut up in these parts they disperse themselves through the whole body and are alwayes joyned together as we will more at large shew in the discourse of Joy So that the motion which is there made is like that of the will and in the one and the other Love is but a motion of the appetite which directly carries it self towards the Idea of good and unites it thereunto which is not effected in the rest of the Passions as we will make it appear You have now seen what Love is in general whence its easie to observe its differences by the differences of those objects which may move it for as there are goods of the minde of the body and of fortune and as every of them is honest useful or delightful its certain that although the motions whereby we Love all these things are of the same nature and that in general they have the same end which is to unite the appetite to what is good yet are they different between themselves because these goods are different so there is a Love of Riches Pleasures Honours and Vertues in a word as many as there are kinds of false or true goods so many sorts of Love there are of which we have here no intention to speak because the greatest part of those kinds are comprehended in the vertues and the vices of which we shall treat hereafter And because we have restrained our selves to that Love which beauty breeds in the appetite This Love may be defined a Motion of the appetite by which the soul unites it self to what seems fair unto it So that all the diversity that there is betwixt this definition and that of Love in general consists in beauty wherefore we have two things to examine First what beauty is in the second place why it causeth Love but because this search is extreamly high and difficult and that it may break the connexion of this discourse we have remitted it to the end of this Chapter to speak of the effects which Love causeth in the humors and in the spirits PART 3. What that Motion is which Love causeth in the Spirits and in the Humors SInce that the motions of the spirits and of the blood are in the Passions conformable with those which the Soul feels in it self There is no doubt but that Love uniting the appetite to the Idea of the good which is represented to it produceth also in the spirits a certain motion which seconds its design and renders this union the more forcible but as the sences serves us but little to know the difference of these motions the understanding must supply their defect and must by discourse shew us what this motion of the spirits is which is the most uniting since 't is that which ought to accompany this Passion to which end you must suppose two things to be most true The first that the Heart is the chief organ of the sensitive appetite The second that the Brain is that of the imagination now as the Idea of good is formed in the imagination and the motion of the spirits begins at the Heart the soul must of necessity having a design to unite them to the good it hath conceived transport them from the place where they begin to move towards that where they are to meet this object And because this first birth of Love is from the inward union of the appetite whereof we have spoken the first motion which the spirits also suffer must drive them to the brain where it seems this union ought to be for the Idea goes not out of the Faculty which produceth it as hath been showen and forasmuch as the spirits carry with them heat and blood from thence it comes that the imagination of Lovers is heated and afterwards brings forth so many fair productions and sometimes too extravagancies if the motion and heat be too violent we may say besides that the paleness which is so common to them partly comes from the transport of the spirits which are within the brain which forsaking the face leave it without heat or splendor but if the beloved object be presented to the sences then do the greatest part of these spirits run to the outward parts colouring them with the blood they draw along with them and which is the purest of the veines as we will shew you anon It s true there are Passions which mingle with this and often cause a contrary motion to that whereof we have spoken in the humors But we shall consider here only the effects proper to Love and not those he borrows from others so that we may conclude that the first effect of Love upon the spirits is to send them out of the heart and to transport them to the brain and to the exterior parts But this is not enough we ought to observe whether in this motion they move either with liberty or with constraint that 's to say whether they dilate or restrain themselves For these seem to be the two first differences of local motion now as there are but two encounters which may oblige the soul to restrain the spirits in their Motion to wit when either she repels or flyes from what 's ill because in the one she hath a care of fortifying her self and to that end to gather and reunite the spirits and in the other the flight is not made without a compression which precipitates and confounds them together its evident that there are none of these motions in this Passion which considering nothing but the goodness of its object it sees no enemy which it would assault or that it ought to fear so that it agitates the spirits with liberty it dilates them and seems to open them the better to receive the pretended good and so the more perfectly to unite it thereunto Let 's go on and see whether this motion be unequal and whether it be made with that vehemency which happens in impetuous Passions It s certain that anger moves the spirits and the humors with more confusion and disorder then Love by reason of divers and often endeavours which the minde is forced to make to drive out the ill and that it is like those Torrents whose waves precipitate themselves one upon the other and make a stream full of boylings and foamings but that Love makes
in old men and women and that the joy which moved them was caused either by the gain of some unhoped for victory or by the encounter of some very ridiculous object or by the discovery of some great secret in learning which are joyes which only belong to the minde In effect as spiritual things have that beyond corporal that they are more noble and that they enter into the soul wholly without separating themselves the possession ought also to be more perfect and the joy the more ravishing so that it is likely that the syncopes which are the effects of all violent Passions follow those spiritual joyes as the greatest and most powerful and that they rather happen to weak natures then to those which are stronger and more capable of resistance the soul then finding herself surprised at first sight with these objects and agitating with precipitation to unite her self to them the spirits which follow those motions issue from the heart and dart themselves with so much violence to the superior parts that they lose the union they had with their principle in the same manner as water divides it self being driven with too much impetuosity and because the heat ought continually to inspire the parts with its vertue and that the spirits only can communicate it when they come to disunite themselves from it these influences must then stop and the sensitive and vital actions which depend upon them must also cease till their reunion And because the soul is then quite ravished in the injoyment of that good which she esteems so excellent she cannot minde to remedy that interruption which is made in the spirits nor to bring back those which are scattered or to send others to fill those empty places they left So that these faintings often last long and sometimes cause death heat being quite perished and nature not having strength enough to repair its loss nor to recover its first estate But this disorder cannot happen in the Love whereof we speak for that corporal beauty is never wholly possest and that there is still somewhat which entertaines Desire Hope and Fear So that the soul dividing it self to several designs and suffering it self not to be so powerfully transported as she doth in the enjoyment of spiritual goods the spirits throw themselves not with so much precipitation nor impetuosity and are not so subject to the division which they sometimes suffer in Joy and which is the cause of those syncopes of which we have spoken We shall touch upon this matter again in other places let 's now consider what heat it is which this Passion raiseth and what humors it particularly moves It s certain that Love Joy and Desire disperse through all the body a moist and pleasing heat for as much as the spirits in those Passions stir the most temperate humors whose vapors are sweet and humid but these humors are sooner mov'd then others because that the spirits which have a great likeness with the purest and most subtil parts of the blood as being those whence they draw their origine ought to mingle and unite with them more easily then with those which are grosser and farther from its nature therefore we must not doubt but when they are agitated they first of al draw along with them those parts of the blood whereto they are more strongly tyed which being the most subtil are also the more easie to be moved Besides that the soul to whom the humors serve as instruments to arrive at the end she proposeth employs both the one the other according as they have qualities sit to execute what she wills whence it is that amongst venemous beasts it moves the venome in anger and in all the rest it moves flegme and melancholy because they are the malignant humors which may destroy the ill she assaults so that there being no enemies to combat in the Passion of which we speak it ought not to move any other humors but those which are conformable to the good she would enjoy So that there is only the sweetest and purest blood which commonly moves in Love and causeth that sweet and vaporous heat which disperseth it self through the whole body PART 4. What the causes are of the Characters of LOVE BUt its time to come to the point we proposed from these principles we have established we must draw the causes of the Characters of this Passion let 's first therefore examine moral actions There being no Passion which produceth so many different actions or causeth so many extravagancies as this it would prove a troublesome thing to enquire into them all and besides unprofitable since the greatest part of them proceed from other Passions which accompany it of which we are particularly to speak for which cause we will only touch here the principal which in my opinion are The continual thought a Lover hath of the beloved Object The high esteem he values it at The means he imploys to possesse it And the extravagancy of the words he makes use of to discover his passion for there are few actions in Love which may not be reduced to some of these four For the first although it be a thing common to all the Passions powerfully to possesse the minde and to keep it fix'd on the object which entertains them yet there are none who do it more powerfully or longer then Love For either they are impetuous or turbulent or else they are pliable and docile the first are presently dissipated and the others are to be appeased or diverted by the power of discourse nay even by other Passions So the angry ones sweeten themselves by pleasure and the delightful diminish by affliction and all of them may change into others more strong if more powerful objects then those which have raised them present themselves for a great grief makes us forget a less and an excess of joy takes away a mean one But with Love it is nothing so it hath the propriety to be vehement and long lasting not to hearken to reason and can seldom be changed or diminished by the force of what Passion soever forasmuch as the imagination is so wounded that it fancies there is no greater good to be possest and which can affoord it more contentment then its beloved object so that there is no other how excellent so ever it be that can divert its inclination and draw it to it because the soul never leaves a greater good to seek a less 't is in the same manner with displeasure for if we are beloved there is no pain nor grief which vanisheth not by the contentment which we receive thereby and if we are not as the soul knows no greater ill then that all others are too weak to dispossess that thought for which cause it continually considers the good whereof it s deprived it uncessantly desires it and seeks in the possession thereof the only remedy which may cure all its displeasures But the first origine
of all its effects is the powerful impression which beauty makes in the minde so that in making it appear how the objects of other Passions cannot make it so strong and deep it will also be manifest why it s of a longer continuance and why it keeps the minde more intent then any of the rest It s a certain truth that there is a secret knowledge in us of those things which serve for our preservation and its likely that this knowledge is gotten by means of some Idea's which nature hath imprinted in the bottom of the Soul which being as it were hid and buried in its abysses excite and stir up themselves at the coming of those which the sences present and so beget in the appetite Love or Hate Desire or Aversion Now as there are but two things which serve to preserve us the seeking of good and the flying from evil its evident nature inclines rather to seek good then to shun ill and as there are also goods which are more excellent profitable then others she hath a greater care of those of higher then of these of a lower value she forms a more exact Idea and makes a stronger and more profoud impression of them which being granted you cannot doubt the preservation of the species being a more general and more excellent good then all others which respect only a particular good but that it hath oblig'd nature to give the soul a more efficacious knowledge a more ardent desire of that then of any other thing whatsoever and but that consequently she hath powerfully imprinted the Idea of beauty since its the mark which makes that good known and that charme which excites the soul to its possession so that exterior beauty entring the imagination and meeting that general Idea which nature hath graven therein unites it self therewith awakens and excites that secret and powerful desire which accompanies it and applyes it to the object it represents unto it thence is that strong attention which fixeth a Lovers minde on the person of the beloved and which causeth in him after the Love of silence and solitude the disgust of all other divertisements which were most delightful to him and all those visions which a solitary life inspires in a soul agitated with Hope and Fear in a word wounded by the cruellest of all the Passions We are now to enquire the source of that high esteem which we make of the beloved object for from thence issue all the respects the submissions the services and the greatest part of the dialect which Lovers use and truly its a strange thing and almost incredible were it not dayly observed to see Kings submit their crowns and their power to the beauty of a slave the wisest men to adore a vitious person and the most couragious to subject themselves to base and feeble mindes worthy of nothing but contempt whence can that powerful spell proceed which makes us lose the knowledge of what we are and of what we love and makes us have so ill an opinion of our selves and so advantagious a thought of what we love we need not doubt but the imagination is the chief cause of this error As it hath the power to enlarge the images it receives and to cloath them in the new fantasmes which disguise the things and make them appear quite otherwise then they are it sets on the image of that beauty which is represented unto it what it useth to do in dreams or on a light Idea which it hath from the humor which is agitated it forms a hundred several Chimaera's which have a conformity with that humor for the imagination receiving the image of the beloved object forms it self on the model of that general Idea of beauty which nature hath imprinted in it adorning it with the same graces she confounds it therewith and so makes the beloved person appear more perfect then in effect it is and we may further say that herein it happens as in the sickness of the minde where the particular error which disorders it changeth and corrupts all the thoughts which have any relation to it those who are at distance from it remaining still enough reasonable forasmuch as a Lover may preserve his judgement free in those things which do not concern the person beloved but as soon as that is interested he becomes a slave to his passion and judgeth of things according to that pleasing error which it hath inspired into him in effect it s a wonder that a deformed face and which we should have judged such should presently appear full of attractives as if the imagination had painted it or at least had blotted out all its defects But the paint or the perfection it gives comes from that Idea wherewith it s filled and which nature hath affoorded to oblige it to enquire the greatest good which can happen to it However it be the soul being abused in the judgement it made of beauty and taking it for a most excellent good whose possession ought to render it more perfect wholly submits to it and considers it no otherwise then as a Queen who is to command it For good hath that property that it communicates it self with Empire and renders it self master of those that receive it forasmuch as it is a perfection which is in stead of act and form as the thing which receives it is in stead of power and matter Now it s a certain maxime that the form renders it self master of the matter otherwise it could not receive perfection And consequently beauty must have that predominant quality that the soul which is touched with it must subject herself to its Empire thence followes all those submissions and respects all those termes of servitude and of captivity which are so common with Lovers whence its easie to draw the reasons of the principle we have established let 's now examine the means Love hath invented to possess the good it tends to Although Love may subsist in the only union which the appetite makes with the Idea of the beloved object we may further say that this union and this Love are not perfect Love stayes not there but always seeks really to unite it self but by the communication of thoughts and by the actual presence which the sences require the soul in a manner going out of her self by speech and the sences serving for channels by which the objects flow into the imagination so that the soul beleeves that by means of discourse she strongly unites her self to the beloved person and that it unites it self to the soul by means of the sences Whence it comes that Lovers wish they may continually see hear and entertain those they love even the kiss wherein they place their highest felicities hath no other end but to unite their soul to the beloved object So that only those parts by which it seems most to communicate it self give and receive it as the mouth because its the door of the thoughts
first there are some who beleeve that amorous eyes are those whose looks are quick and nimble and which in a moment are cast about on every side forasmuch as Aristotle speaking of lascivious eyes which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Translators have rendred Insanos which are properly those wild eyes which are in perpetual motion But besides that they have not met with the sence of Aristotle and that he would have intimated those which he calls Devorantes of which we are going to speak its certain that those wild eyes do not become Love and are more proper for Anger Disquiet and the Lightness of the minde then for this Passion Others think them to be those whose balls lift up themselves up on high and half hide themselves under their lids which are the dying eyes because those who die commonly have them so as Aristotle has observed in his Problems where he adds that it also happens in some actions of Love But at that time the soul hath no designe to cause that motion and 't is purely a natural effect which followes the excess of pleasure as we will say in its due place for otherwise those kinde of looks are marks of Grief and Langour we might even also say that they are those urgent looks by which the eyes seem to throw themselves on their objects and as if they would as they say devour them which the Latins so happily name Instantes Procaces Devorantes but we have already said that they were bred from desire and not from Love For my part I beleeve that the eyes in question are those which the Latins call Paetos and which for the same reason they have given to Venus for they are smiling and send forth their looks as it were by stealth the lids sweetly inclining and half shutting themselves In effect there are none which have so much correspondency with the nature of Love as these have forasmuch as in one look they make known all the principal motions which are to be found in this Passion for we have made it appear that Love chiefly consisted in the interior union of the appetite with the beloved object That pleasure always accompanied it That Beauty inspired submission and respect That to Love was nothing but to dye and that if a Lover possess not the beloved person Desire incessantly solicited him Now the look whereof we have spoken makes all these motions appear for laughter is an effect of joy respect and submission inclines the lids the ball which sweetly turns towards the beloved object is a signe of that amorous languor whereof the soul is sensible and the looks it darts on it witness the Desire which provokes it In fine although the eyes half shut themselves laughter contracting the muscles of the lids yet we may say that they shut themselves so as if the soul would retain the image it newly received the more attentively to consider it and even that it would quite shut them up had it not a new one which every moment presented it self and which it would not lose but which obligeth it so to divide its cares as it often doth between Fear and Anger where it seems as if at the same time it would see and not see the ill which it either flees or disdains The Forehead in love is always clear and laughing and seems as if it opened and extended it self which is a mark of Flattery so that the Dog which is a flattering creature hath his always so when he caresseth any one as Aristotle will have it Now the word Flattery signifies nothing else here but complacencie and dearness and not that vice which is the pest of the Court and of Friendship You need not then wonder if Love being complacent and flattering disposeth thus the forehead But the first cause of this effect is the Joy which accompanieth all these Passions whose property it is to render the countenance open calm and smiling as in its place we will declare Let us pass to another effect the cause whereof is extremely hid 't is the Motion of the Tongue which often trembles between the lips and seems even to tickle them Now this happens in a great excess of Love whether it be that the ardor which this Passion kindles dries the lips and obligeth the Soul to moisten them or that the Spirits which sparkle everywhere cause the same agitation in that part which appears in all the rest of those which are very moveable or lastly whether it comes from the vehemency of the Desire for the same effect often happens to those who see another eat what they ardently desire And it seems also more befitting the appetite for meat then any other desire whatsoever as well as that humidity which comes in ones mouth as shall be said because the motion of the tongue and the humour in which it moistens it self serves to raste the aliments and to convey them into the stomack But as the Soul hath no distinct knowledge of what it doth and the violence of Passion troubles and distracts it it also happens that it employs the means necessary for one designe in another where they are useless and so doth in the desire of Beauty what it ought onely to do in that of Aliments The sweetning of the voice signifies the respect and submission of a Lover and although it be a necessary effect of Fear which straitning the passages and rendering the motion of the Lungs more loose makes the voice soft sweet and languishing even very often without any such necessity the soul hath a designe to form it so to witness its modestie and respect knowing that a strong and vehement voice is an effect of Boldness and that that which is rude and sharp follows a harsh humour which are qualities incompatible with Love and which a Lover must hide if Nature or Custom have given him them As for what concerns all the inflexions of the voice they proceed from the several motions which agitate the Soul whether it be that admiration ravish it or grief oppress it whether desire transport it or that some difficulties oppose its contentment forasmuch as in all these encounters it burdens the voice with particular accents sometimes raising it with exclamations sometimes letting it fall with languishings sometimes cutting it short and sometimes drawing it out according to the nature of the Passions it suffers Laughter being an effect of Joy is to be examined in that Passion where we will at large speak of its nature and of its causes So that we have nothing but the Gesture and the Behaviour which seem to detain us But if you observe it there is none particular to love and that which is there observable and is so changeable follows the several Passions which accompany this for sometimes Respect renders him modest Joy and Fear disquiet him and Sorrow casts him down and makes him languish sometimes a Lover is in the posture of a suppliant or a contented or of
a desperate man sometimes he walks fast slowe or stands still according as Desire Astonishment or Grief possess him So that all his motions going with the spring of other Passions we are not here obliged to their examen but we must remit it to the discourse we will make of every one in particular Now let us to that of those Characters which are purely natural and necessary and wherein it seems the Soul hath no share The eyes are sparkling in Love by reason of the quantity of spirits which flie thither for it is not to be doubted but that from them it is that that resplendent vivacity comes which is so visible in them since they lose it when they retire or disperse themselves as it happens to those who are possest with fear or who die But what addes to augment this lustre w eh appears in the eyes 't is that the Membrane which in virons them being swelled and extended by the confluence of those vapours and spirits becomes more smoothe and consequently more shining and that there is still over it a certain humidity where light resplends and sparkles But whence proceeds this Humidity Is it not that the heat and agitation which the spirits cause in the brain liquifies and makes the humours flow over the eyes for even Tears are so caused in Joy Or rather that those subtil vapours of blood which the Soul drives with impetuosity flie out and presently thicken by reason of the coldness of the air and of the Membranes And indeed here the eyes are hollow and sunk though they still seem great and humid which would not be if this humidity came from the humours which fall from the brain for they would fill the parts which are all about the eye and would keep it lifted up And therefore this humidity must come from within and the muscles and fleshie parts which inviron it must shrink for as their substance is soft and is made of a very subtil blood it falls and dissolves presently whence it happens that the eye sinks but its body remains still full moist and sparkling by reason of the vapours and spirits which incessantly gather there Unless it be at last when the long continuance of the Malady Grief and Despair have quenched the natural heat which makes the eyes lose their splendor and vivacity and become obscure dry and set as we will shew in the Chapter of Grief where we will also give a reason for Tears which are so common to Lovers The redness which love so often makes appear on the forehead hath a cause to be discovered of no small difficulty For although it be easie to say that the blood riseth into the face in all those Passions wherein the soul drives out the spirits yet there are those which carry it rather to one place then to another The redness which Choler excites begins by the eyes that of Shame by the extremities of the cheeks and ears and that of Love by the forehead And 't is from this diversity that the cause of this effect is most difficult to be found out Yet I think that we may say for what concerns Anger that the eyes being the first wherein the Passions appear are also the first sensible of the motions of the Spirits Now as the blood boils in Anger and as the Tempest which agitates it drives it with disorder and confusion to the exteriour parts thence it comes that the spirits which run to the eyes draw along with it the waves of this agitated blood which swells their veins and makes them appear red in stead that in other Passions they carry with them the purest and most subtil parts of the blood which cannot cause this effect And it is therefore true that Anger causeth redness to arise in the face sooner then any other Passion and that it begins to discover it in the eyes because the blood follows the spirits which gather in that place rather then in any other As for Shame you must know that the Soul which is moved therewith at the same time forms a designe both to resist and flee the ill and we may say that fleeing she assaults it for which cause it forceth the blood to the face to drive it away but Fear at the same time makes it retire back whence it happens that the extremities of the cheeks and ears grow red as in its place shall be more amply discoursed Let us now examine the redness which Love brings into the Forehead Should it not proceed from Joy wherein the spirits after having united themselves to the good which the soul conceives overflow the neighbouring parts For if it be so the forehead must first resent it Or else the Imagination being placed in the fore-part of the brain that part is heated by the continual agitation of the spirits and after its alteration communicates it to the forehead wherewith as Physick teacheth it hath a great sympathy And indeed since paleness which appears in the rest of the face happens often from the transport of spirits into the brain it s very likely either that there is a reflux made on the neerest parts or that they are sensible of the heat which they there cause whence it happens that they are less pale and wan then the rest Now although this redness be particular to Love that of other Passions forbears not to encounter therewith and it may happen that a Lover may blush for Shame for Anger for Joy or Desire according as those Passions mixe themselves with this but this is no place to speake of them The lips are often red and moyst by the arrival of the vaporous blood which sheds it self in the face and which so easily colours those parts by reason of their softness and the delicacy of their skin and this chiefly happens at the beginning of those motions which are so frequent in this passion for at last those parts grow dry and pale whether the heat consume the sweetest and most subtil parts of the blood or that the spirits in their retreat carry them back again inwardly and so leave paleness and driness on the lips But whence chanceth it that the under lip sometimes trembles you must not beleeve it an effect of Fear or of Anger since it happens in the highest heat of Love it s then very likely that the spirits which the Desire drives in a crowd sparkle in those places and cause that part which is very moveable and without that support which the rest have to shake and 't is in that encounter that it sometimes grows white with a subtil foam the humidity which riseth in the mouth and which sheds it self on the lips being agitated by these spirits The tongue faulters because that the soul which is distracted with Passion thinks not upon the words it is to form and retires the spirits which should serve for that action to those places where she is employed whence it happens that the tongue stops or loosly
a joyful man for you will finde therein I know not what kinde of a more pleasing vivacity a clearer and purer splendor and a sweeter heat then in all the Passions we have made mention of by reason that the purity of the spirits is not changed by those sharp and darksome fumes which are raised in the rest and that their motion is more free more equal and more conformable to their nature it might be asked whether this effusion of spirits be onely made in those places where Good is presented to the soul and truly it s there only necessary for it since they onely disperse themselves to possess this good and that good toucheth it nowhere but where it makes it self known yet it is true that it abundantly pours them into the intrails and that when Joy is high there is no part which it over-flowes not for which cause the heart and the lungs loosen themselves as Hippocrates says we are sensible of I know not what pleasing emotion which moves all the interior parts and a sweet heat and vapor which disperseth it self through the whole body Now this happens according to my opinion from that the sensitive soul hath not always a clear and certain knowledge of its object and being charmed by that of Joy she fancies that she ought everywhere to encounter it and that she ough also to send spirits every way to entertain it or rather the urgency which presseth her forwards to the quick enjoyment of the presented good is the reason she drives them on all sides without choice or order or so much as discerning the places whether they are to move This shall suffice for the knowledge of the Motion of the spirits in Joy in pursuit of the examen we have already made in the Treatise of Love But one difficulty remaines which the former discourse hath bred and whose resolution will give some light to the obscurity of this matter for we have said that the spirits are not agitated here with violence and that their motion is always sweet and calm although this seem not to agree with the transports the ravishments and the excesses which are so common in this Passion and which cannot be conceived without a violent agitation of the spirits And in effect when we compared this motion with that which is made in Love we were not afraid to say that they were driven in Joy as a great wave and that it seemed then as if the soul would cast it self wholly and all at once before its object So that it being not to be done without violence and having certified that there was none in the effusion of the spirits we cannot escape the reproach to have spoken contrary to Truth and against Our Selves Yet it is very easie to answer this Objection remembring that Joy and Love are inseparable and that these two Passions being for that cause often considered as if they were but one onely these Motions were also confounded with their effects so that Love drawing the spirits from the heart and driving them out we commonly say that Joy also transports them And as this motion is made with violence and causeth troublesome accidents the same thing may be said of Joy For thus we discoursed of it in the former Chapter where we did not absolutely compare Love with Joy but onely the love of Beauty with the love of other things wherein Joy causeth faintings and syncopes confounding as commonly they do these two Passions in one But here where we make an exact Anatomy of them we separate the motions of the one from the other and conclude that the transport of the spirits towards Good is a particular effect of Love and that the effusion which follows it is that of Joy So that if there be violence in the first motion it proceeds all from Love Pleasure hath no share in it and how impetuous soever it be it must break and soften it self when the spirits begin to disperse themselves otherwise Joy would destroy it self by that troublesome sensibleness which that impetuous and turbulent motion would excite in the parts Yet it follows not that because this effusion is not violent and impetuous it must be made slowly for the spirits are such stirring and subtil bodies that they without resistance penetrate everywhere and their motions are so quick that nothing in Nature could be found to compare them to but Light and it is by that also that we can make appear how they disperse themselves in Joy For it in a moment insinuates it self in Diaphanous bodies without violence and without confusion runs thorow all their parts without constraint dilates and extends it self and we might say that had these bodies any knowledge they would be sensible of an extreme pleasure in that sweet although sudden effusion of Light So is it with that which is made in Joy for after the soul hath carried the spirits towards its Good and that she believes she hath united them together she leaves that pressing that disquiet and precipitation which she caused before that she might arrive there and thinking she can then with security enjoy the good she possesseth she with liberty dilates her self without hinderance extends her self and in an instant penetrates all the parts of her object causing the spirits to move in the same manner which she findes always obedient to her command It is true that in pursuit thereof there is a great dissipation of them made which the soul takes no care to repair being wholly employed in the enjoyment of the good she pursued and being as it were charmed and ravished with her good fortune whence those weaknesses follow those faintings and those other actions of which we have already spoken PART 4. The causes of the Characters of Joy YOu have seen what we had to say of the nature of this Passion before we enquire the causes of those Characters which make it appear Let us then now examine first the Moral actions and enquire why Joy is so talkative so vain and so credulous why it confides so much in it self why it makes it self to be defired even when it is present and why it is so soon weary of the Good which begot it For these are the most observable effects which it produceth in the Minde and whence it seems the rest proceed Let us seek then the causes of its Prattle There are Passions which will always speak and others which love to be silent Silence commonly accompanies grief despair and fear Joy boldness and anger and generally all those which move towards Good or resist Ill are given to Talk but none so much as Joy all the rest seem to drive out their words and cast them forth with violence as if they were a burden which the soul would discharge this dispenseth them with liberty makes them flow with pleasure and we may say that it is rather abundance then constraint which sends them forth Indeed Joy is full of babble is pleased to
Body Those of the first order which accompany Boldness are truly very numerous as may be seen in the description we have made of a Bold man but we may reduce them to certain principal Heads the knowledge of which will easily bring us to that of the rest For he that shall know why a Bold man Hopes and why he is a lover of Glory will at the same instant know the cause of the greatest part of the other effects which Boldness produceth and which in some sort depend from those two Let 's then begin with Hope which ever precedes Boldness and never abandons it Hope always accompanies Boldness Certainly it 's nothing difficult to give the reason thereof for after having shewn that to form Boldness the Soul must know and measure its Forces that she must beleeve them greater and more powerful then those of the Enemy and afterwards she must employ them against him that she may vanquish him It 's impossible but she must hope for the Victory since she desires it and that in her judgment she hath all what is necessary for the obtaining thereof Perhaps some will say that there are many who fight without hope of conquest it 's true but also Boldness which is employed in such fights is not found in the sensitive Faculty nor is it of the common order of the Passions It 's particular to a man whose reason prepareth often other designs then those which Nature and the Sences are wont to inspire in Animals For its certain that they never assault any thing which they beleeve not they shall conquer and if sometimes they are forced to combate Enemies which they did not dare to assault or even before whom they had already been put to flight it 's the fear they have of falling into a greater danger which awakes their Courage reanimates their Force and so brings to life again the hope of overcoming those to whom they had yeelded before But it is not so with men who often engage themselves in Combates and cast themselves into dangers out of which they never hope to come with any advantage and even where they know their loss is certain because Reason proposeth them a more considerable end then the Victory would afford them and obligeth them to undertake impossible things to gain honor and other goods which always follow generous actions But if in these encounters they despair of over-coming the Enemy which assaults them they still hope to vanquish those difficulties which inviron the glory they aspire unto and we may say they yeeld a small Victory to gain a greater and hazard a little to gain much But in the following Chapter we shall again touch this subject It 's sufficient to have here shewn that in Boldness there is still Hope enough and that a Bold man is never without Hope Now the same principle from whence we have drawn this truth ought also to furnish us with the reason why a Bold man hath so much Confidence and Presumption in himself why he is not astonished at the sight of dangers that even he is pleased when he encounters them and that very often he despiseth them why he is not superstitious cholerick or dissembling In fine why he hates subjection and will always command For if Confidence be nothing but a consummated Hope fortified by the opinion we have that those things whose help we expect will not fail us at our need it 's certain that the Soul which knows its forces and beleeves them more powerful then the difficulties and employs them against them with Hope to overcome them must also be assured that they will not fail her in this occasion and that she hath cause to trust to the help which she promiseth herself from them As for Presumption which is an immoderate Hope and proceeds from the too great opinion we have of our Forces although it doth not always accompany Boldness yet it follows it because heat encreasing and kindling it self in this Passion it stirs up the Soul by its vivacity It troubles it by its agitation and afterwards easily perswades it that its forces are greater then indeed they are and that they are all in a condition to serve her although there often be but one part of them thus it is when Wine Fury and Love inspire the weakest and most timorous persons with a blind Confidence and a temerous Boldness which engageth them to undertake things above their power for the Judgement being weakened by the vapors of the Wine or by the violence of those Passions and heat being become stronger by the impression it made on the humors we need not wonder if the Soul finding it self upheld with the most powerful assistance which she can use in her functions be deceived in the opinion she hath of her strength and that she believes them greater then indeed they are These Reasons make it appear also A Bold man is not astonished at sight of dangers that a bold man ought not to be astonished at the sight of dangers because astonishment being ever accompanied with Fear and with some Despair cannot be susceptible of those Passions in the belief he is that his forces are greater then the difficulties and in the hope he hath to overcome them On the contrary as he flatters himself in this thought and placeth all his happiness in the Victory all these things which are to contribute thereunto are pleasing to him he takes a delight to handle Arms the found of Trumpets animates him he beholds the Enemies approach with joy and if there be any thing which disturbs his contentment it is the impatience he hath to be at him and to begin that Combate which is to crown his valor It 's the same with him who is bold to speak or to write or to undertake any other design whatsoever it be he pleaseth himself in the encounter of those difficulties which are to employ him and to make his courage appear the place the occasion the subject of his enterprise far from astonishing him do but the more assure him and he is never so content as when he sees himself ready to set his hand to the work But if it be true that he runs thus into danger that he assaults difficulties A Bold man despiseth dangers and that he will overcome them how can he despise dangers For it is not to slight an Enemy when we assault and seek to overcome him Certainly we must confess that he despiseth not all manner of dangers not all sorts of Enemies but onely those who are far beneath his strength and that therefore he judgeth it unworthy for him to exercise his care and Courage for since in Nature which gives Animals the knowledge of their strength and weakness and instructs them to flie when they are too weak and to assault when they are strong enough it s very likely that being so wise and so just as she is she would not engage them in a too
herself For in resistance she knows nothing but how to stiffen and streng then herself in herself to stop the effort of the Enemy But in assault she goes out of herself and casts herself on it to combate it here she darts and precipitates herself there she stays and remains stable here she boldly bestows the blow there she receives them with assurance In a word in the one she would overcome in the other she is content not to be overcome But if this Reason will not oblige us to distinguish these Passions which Philosophy hath always confounded let 's but follow the common opinion of men and the ordinary way of speaking in such like encounters For they never say That a man with Boldness bears his ill fortune nor that he suffers Infamy Grief or Death boldly but that he endures them that he suffers with Courage with Resolution with Constancy and with Patience If it be not Boldness therefore which produceth these effects and if amongst the Passions mentioned by the Schools there is none whereto we can refer them we are constrained to encrease the number of them and to add to the emotions of the Irascible Appetite that which serves to support ills and to resist them Now as those who discover a new Land commonly give it the name of those Countries which are best known unto them and which have some likeness together We have by their example taken the liberty to give this Passion the name of Constancy a vertue known to all the world and whereto it hath a great conformity And truly there are Passions which always carry the name of Vices because they always appear to be vitious as Envy and Impudence It must follow that those which always appear vertuous should also bear the name of Vertues Now this is of this kinde for in what condition soever we finde her what defects soever she hath we still see some image of Vertue in her And even when she is altogether irregular we are forced to admire her and to afford her those praises which are due to fair actions let 's boldly therefore give her the name of Constancy since she is not unworthy of those advantages which are due unto Vertue But if any man would object That what we call Passion is nothing but the action of that Vertue and therefore that it is nothing necessary to introduce a new Passion since the actions of Vertues are not properly Passions We must first say That all the actions of Constancy cannot be reckoned for actions of Vertue since some of them may be vicious as when we resist ills which necessarily we should flie or when we do not resist them as we ought nor when we ought nor for that end which Vertue hath proposed to it self Moreover an action of Constancy may be performed without possessing of the Vertue forasmuch as Vertue is a habit which is gotten by custom and that there is no habit acquired till we perform the first actions of Constancy Now if there are but three things in the Soul Power Habit and Passion this first action must be a Passion since it is neither a Power nor an Habit as it is easie to be judged In fine If Constancy is a Vertue it must needs have a Passion which serves for its subject and which makes if we may so speak the body and the substance of this action for Vertue to speak properly is but an order and a rule which Reason gives to the actions and motions of the Soul So that we must suppose motions before they can be regulated and these Motions are Passions which for that cause are called the substance of Vertues Constancy being then a Vertue ought to have a Passion to work upon which is no other but that which we have spoken of for the reasons already declared Now although we ought not to think it strange that both of them bear the same name since the word Boldness is common both to the Passion and to the Vertue yet if after all these reasons any shall think its to prophane the name of Constancy to assign it to a Passion I will not oppose him he may if he please chuse that of Strength of Courage because the Soul stiffens it self to resist the ill which assaults it as shall be seen in the following Discourse Let 's therefore no longer stop at words but examine the things in that order which we have proposed You must not think to meet here with an insolent and an ambitious Passion which like Love or Boldness would be Queen and Mistris of the rest The Elegy of Constancy She is too generous to use flatteries and baseness which the one employs to establish its power and she is too modest to subject her Companions by force and violence as Boldness doth what advantage soever she hath over them she yeelds them the precedence without pretending to command she contents her self not to obey them And without marching at the head of the Passions it 's sufficient for her to be a follower of the Vertues In effect it 's she which maintains and preserves them it 's she which makes them overcome and which crowns them and he who would more nearly examine what she doth for them might boldly say that if she brings them not forth yet at least she accomplisheth them and renders them worthy of the names they bear and of the recompence they expect and truly a vertue which yeelds and keeps not firm which gives up its arms after the first fight or flies after the victory is an imperfect Vertue And the perfection which it wants can be added unto it by nothing but Constancy which alone can consummate commenced vertues and make them deserve the glory they aspire unto But I say further that to examine them from their birth we may see that they wholly owe it unto her and that after reason hath conceived them it 's she that brings them forth which makes them operate and makes them subsist For it 's certain that what service soever Vertue draws from the Passions they are the onely enemies which resist her they alone form those difficulties which cross her and it 's none but they which are capable to stifle her when she comes to light and to destroy her when she is in her greatest strength Without doubt were there no Passions Vertue would appear in the Soul like a pure light which would have neither vapors nor clouds to overcome It would be a Star which would direct its course towards good without any let and which would conduct us to felicity without trouble or disquiet We should no longer speak of those vices and crimes but as of such monsters as were invented by Fables and all that great croud of ills which at every moment disturbs the tranquillity of life would be unknown or impotent at least if it yet caused any disorders we should not rescent them since it's Fear and Grief onely which render them sensible But as