alone hath more heat and motion than any of our limbs we may be assured that heat and all the motions within us seeing they depend not on the mind belong onely to the body The fifth Article That it is an errour to believe the Soul gives motion and heat to the body WHereby we shall eschew a very considerable error which many have faln into so farre that I believe it the cause of hindering the Passions and other things which belong to the soul from being explained hitherto It is this that seeing all dead bodies are deprived of heat and consequently of motion people imagine the absence of the soul wrought this cessation of motion and heat and so erroniously conceive that our naturall heat and all the motions of our body depend on the soul whereas indeed the contrary should be supposed that the soul absents it self in death only because this naturall heat ceaseth and the organs which seem to move the body are corrupted The sixth Article What is the difference betwixt a living and a dead dody THat we may then avoid this errour Let us consider that death never comes by any defect of the soul but onely because some one of the principall parts of the body is corrupted and conceive that the body of a living man differs as much from that of a dead one as a watch or any other AUTOMA that is any kind of Machine that moves of it self wound up having in it self the corporeall principle of those motions for which it was instituted with all things requisite for its action and the same watch or other engine when it is broken and the principle of its motion ceases to act The seventh Article A brief explication of the parts of the body and of some of its functions TO make this more intelligible I will in few words display the pieces and lineaments whereof this Machine our body is composed There is none that doth not already know there is within us a heart a braine a stomach muscles sinews arteries veins and the like it is as commonly known that meats eaten descend into the stomack and bowells from whence the juice of them trickling into the liver and all the veines mixes it self with the blood in them and by this means augments the quantity thereof Those who have heard talk never so little of Physick know besides this how the Heart is composed and how all the blood of the veines may with facility drop into the hollow vein on the right side of it and from thence passe into the Liver by a vessell called the venous arterie then return from the liver into the left side of the heart through the Pipe called the arterious vein and at length passe from thence into the great arterie the branches whereof spread themselves all over the body Yea even all those whom the authority of the Ancients hath not totally blinded and who have vouchsafed to open their eyes to examine the opinion of Harvy concerning the circulation of the blood make no doubt but all the veins and arteries of the body are like channells through which the blood continually and easily glides taking its course from the right cavity of the heart through the arterious veine whereof the branches are dispersed into every part of the Liver and joyned to those of the venous arterie by which it passeth from the Liver into the left fide of the heart from thence going into the great arterie the branches whereof being scattered over all the rest of the body are joyned to the branches of the hollow vein which cary the same blood again into the right cavity of the heart so that the two cavities are as it were the sluces of it through each of which all the blood passes every round it walks about the body Moreover it is notorious that all the motions of the members depend upon the muscles and that these Muscles are opposite to one another in such a manner that when one of them shrinks up it drawes after it that part of the body whereto it is knit which causes the muscle opposite to it to stretch forth at the same time then again if at another time this last shrink up the first gives way suffering the other to attract that part it is joyned unto In fine it is knowne that all these motions of the muscles as also all the senses depend on the sinews which are as little strings or like small tonnells coming all from the braine and containing as that does a certain aire or exceeding subtle wind which is tearmed the Animall spirits The eighth Article What is the principle of all these functions BUt it is not commonly known in what manner these animall Spirits and nerves contribute to these motions and senses nor what is the corporeall principle that makes them act wherefore although I have already glanced upon it in former writings I will not here omit to say succinctly that while we live there is a continuall heat in our heart which is a kind of fire that the blood of the veines feeds and this fire is the corporeall principle of tall the motions of our members The ninth Article How the motion of the heart is wrought THe f irst effect of it is that it dilates the blood wherewith the cavities of the heart are fill'd which is the reason that this blood having need of a larger room passes impetuously from the right cavity into the arterious vein and from the left into the great arterie then this dilatation ceasing immediately new blood from the hollow vein enters into the right cavity of the heart and from the veinous arterie into the left for there are little skins at the entrance of these foure vessells so contrived that they will not let the blood get into the heart but by the two last nor come out but by the other two The new blood being gotten into the heart is there immediately rarified as the former was Hence onely is that pulse or palpitation of the heart and arteries for this beating is reiterated as often as any new blood gets into the heart It is also this alone which gives motion to the blood and causeth it uncessantly to run very swiftly in all the arteries and veines by means whereof it conveyes the heart acquired in the heart to all the other parts of the body and is their nutriment The tenth Article How the animall spirits are begotten in the braine BUt what here is most considerable is that all the most lively and subtle parts of the blood that heat hath rarified in the heart continually enter in abundandance into the cavities of the braine and the reason why they go thither rather than any where else is because all the blood that issues out of the heart by the great artery bends its course in a direct line thither ward and it not being possible for all to get in because there are none but very narrow passages those parts thereof that are the most
agitated and subtlest only get in while the rest is dispersed into all the other parts of the body Now these very subtle parts of the blood make the animall spirits and they need not to this end undergoe any other change in the brain but only be separated from the other lesse subtle parts of the blood for what I here call spirits are but bodyes and have no other property unlesse tha they are bodies exceeding small which move very nimbly as the parts of a flame issuing from a torch so that they stay not in any one place but still as some get into the cavities of the brain some others get out through the pores in the substance of it which pores convey them into the nerves and from thence into the muscles by means whereof they mould the body into all the severall postures it can move The 11th Article How the muscles are moved FOR the only cause of the motion of all the members is that some Muscles shrink up and their opposites extend as hath been already said and the only cause why one muscle shrinkes rather than his opposite is that there come though never so little more spirits to the one than the other not that the spirits which flow immediatly from the brain are alone sufficient to move these Muscles but they dispose the other spirits which already are in these two Muscles of sally forth immediatly from one of them into the other by means whereof that from whence they came becomes longer and flaggier that wherein they are being suddenly swelled up by them shortens and attracts the member appendent to it which is easily conceived when it is known that there are but very few animal spirits which proceed continually from the brain to every Muscle but that there are abundance of others lockt in the same Muscle which move very swiftly in it sometimes in whirling round only in the places where they are this is when they find no passages open to get out at and sometimes by slipping into the opposite Muscle For there are little overtures in each of these Muscles through which hese spirits can slide from one to another which are so disposed too that when the spirits which come from the brain towards one of them are but never so little stronger than those going to theother they open all the entries through which the spirits of the other Muscle can fly into this and in the same instant bar up all those through which the spirits of this might get into that whereby all the spirits formerly contained in both Muscles crowd suddenly into one so swelling it up and shortning it while the other extends it self and gives The 12th Article How outward objects act contrary to the organs of the senses IT remains yet to know the causes why the spirits slide not from the brain into the Muscles always after one manner and wherefore they come sometimes more towards some than others For besides the action of the Soul which in truth is in us one of the causes as I shall shew hereafter there are yet two besides which depend not of any thing but the body which it is necessary to take notice of the first consists in the diversitie of motions excited in the organs of the senses by their objects which I have already amply enough explained in the Dioptricks but that those who see this may not need to have read ought else I will here repeat that there are three things to be considered in the sinews to wit their marrow or interiour substance which stretches it self out in the form of little threds from the brain the originall thereof to the extremities of the other members whereunto these threds are fastened next the skins wherein they are lapt which being continuous with those that invelope the brain make up litle pipes wherein these threds are enclosed lastly the animal spirits which being conveyed through these very pipes from the brain to the muscles are the cause that these thredd 's remain there entirely unmolested and extended in such a manner that the least thing that moves that part of the body whereunto the extremity of any one of them is fastened doth by the same reason move that part of the brain from whence it comes just as when a man pulls at one end of a string he causeth the other end to stirre The 13th Article That this Action of objects without may differently convey the spirits into the Muscles AND I have made it evident in the Diopticks how all the objects of the sight are not communicated to us any way but thus they move locally by mediation of transparent bodies between them and us those little thredd 's of the Optick nerves which are at the bottome of our eyes and after them the places of the brain from whence those nerves come they move them I say as many severall kinds of wayes as there are diversities of objects in things nor are they immediatly the motions made in the eye but in the brain that represent these objects to the Soul in imitation whereof it is easie to conceive that sounds odours heat pain hunger thirst and generally and objects as well of our other exteriour senses as our interiour appetites doe also excite some motion in our nerves which passes by means of them unto the brain and besides that these severall motions of the brain create in our soul different resentments it may so be that that without her the spirits direct their course rather towards some Muscles than others and so they may move our members which I will prove here only by one example If any one lift up his hand on a sudden towards our eyes as if he were about to strike although we know he is our friend that he does this only in jest and that he will be carefull enough not to doe us any hurt yet wee can scarce refrain from shutting them which shews it is not by the intermedling of our soul that they shut since it is against our will which is the only or at least the principall Action thereof but by reason this machine of our body is so composed that the moving of this hand up towards our eyes excites another motion in our brain which conveys the animal spirits into those muscles that close the eye-lids The 14th Article That the diversity of the spirits may diversifie their course THe other cause which serves to convey the animal spirits variously into the muscles is the unequal agitation of these spirits and the diversity of their parts for when any of their parts are more gross and agitated than the rest they passe forwards in a direct line into the cavities and pores of the brain and by this means are conveyed into toher muscles whereinto they should not had they been weaker The 15th Article What are the causes of their diversity ANd this inequality may proceed from the divers matters whereof they are composed as is seen in those who have
conceive the half or third part of a Soul nor what space it takes up and that it becomes not any whit less by cutting off any part of the body but absolutely withdraws when the Contexture of its organs is dissolved The 31th Article That there is a little kernell in the brain wherein the soul exercises her functions more peculiarly than in the other parts IT is also necessary to know that although the foul be joyned to all the body yet there is some part in that body wherein shee exercises her functions more peculiarly than all the rest and it s commonly believed that this part is the brain or it may bee the heart the brain because thither tend the organs of the senses and the heart because therein the Passions are felt but having searched this businesse carefully me thinks I have plainly found out that that part of the body wherein the soul immediatly exercises her functions is not a jot of the heart nor yet all the brain but only the most interiour part of it which is a certain very small kernell situated in the middle of the substance of it and so hung on the top of the conduit by which the spirits of its anteriour cavities have communication with those of the posteriour whose least motions in it cause the course of the spirits very much to change and reciprocally the least alterations befalling the course of the spirits cause the motions of the kernell very much to alter The 32th Article How this kernell is known to be the principall seat of the soul THe reason which perswades me that the soul can have no other place in the whole body but this kernell where shee immediatly exercises for functions is for that I see all the other parts of our brain are paired as also we have two eyes two hands two ears lastly all the organs of our exteriour senses are double and forasmuch as we have but one onely and single thought of one very thing at one and the same time it must necessarily be that there is some place where the two images that come from the two eyes or the two other impressions that come from any single object through the double organs of the other senses have some where to meet in one before they come to the soul that they may not represent two objects in stead of one and it may bee easily conceived that these images or other impressions joyn together in this kernell by intercourse of the spirits that fill the cavities of the brain but there is no other place in the body where they can be so united unlesse it be granted that they are in this kernell The 33th Article That the seat of the Passions is not in the heart FOr the opinion of those who think the soul receives her Passions in the heart it is not worth consideration for it is grounded upon this that the Passions make us feel some alteration there and it is easie to take notice that this alteration is only felt in the heart by the intercourse of a small nerve descending to it from the brain just as pain is felt in the feet by intercourse of the nerves of the foot and the starres are perceived as to be in the firmament by the intercourse of their light and the optick nerves so that it is no more necessary that our soul exercise her functions immediatly in the heart to make her Passions be felt there than it is necessary shee should be in the sky to see the stars there The 34th Article How the Soul and the Body act one against another LEt us then conceive that the Soul holds her principall seat in that little kernell in the midst of the brain from whence she diffuseth her becames into all the rest of the body by intercourse of the spirits nerves yea and the very blood which participating the Impressions of the spirits may convey them through the arteries into all the members and remembring what was formerly said concerning this machine our body to wit that the little strings of our nerves are so distributed into all parts of it that upon occasion of severall motions excited therein by sensible objects they variously open the pores of the braine which causeth the animall spirits contained in the cavities thereof to enter divers wayes into the muscles by whose means they can move the members all the severall wayes they are apt tomove and also that all the other causes which can differently move the spirits are enough to convey them into severall muscles let us here adde that the little kernell which is the chief feat of the soul hangs so between the cavities which contain these spirits that it may be moved by them as many severall fashions as there are sensible diversities in objects but withall that it may be moved severall wayes by the soul too which is of such a nature that she receives as many various impressions that is hath as many severall apprehensions as there come severall motions into this kernell As also on the other side the machine of the body is so composed that this kernel being only divers wayes moved by the soul or by any other cause whatsoever it drives the Spirits that environ it towards the pores of the brain which convey them by the nerves into the muscles by which means it causeth them to move the members The 35th Article An example of the manner how the impressions of objects unite in the kernell in the middle of the brain AS for example if we see any creature come toward us the light reflected from his body paints two images one in each eye and these two images beget two others by intercourse with the optick nerves in the interiour superficies of the brain that looks towards its concavities from thence by intercourse of the spirits wherewith these cavities are filled these images glance in such a manner on the little kennell that these spirits encompasse it and the motion which composes any point of one of these images tends to the same point of the kernell to which that motion tends that frames the point of the other image which represents too part of this creature by which meanes the two images in the brain make up but one single one upon the kernell which acting immediately against the Soul shews her the figure of that creature The 36 Article An example how the Passions are excited in the Soul FUrthermore if this figure be very strange and hideous that is if it have much similitude with such things as have formerly been offensive to the body it excites in the Soul the Passion of fear afterwards that of boldness or else an affright or scaring according to the various temper of the body or the force of the soul and according as a man hath formerly protected himself by defence or flight against noxious things whereunto the present impression hath some resemblance for this renders the braine so disposed in some men that the
speak we only think the sense of what we would say yet that makes us move our tongues and lips much better and farre readier than if wee thought to move them in all the manners requisite to pronounce the same words Forasmuch as the habit we have acquired in learning to speak hath taught us to joyn the action of the Soul which by the intercourse of the kernell can move the tongue and the lipps with the signification of the words which follow out of these motions rather than with the motions themselves The 45th Article What the power of the Soul is in respect of her Passions OUr Passions also cannot be directly excited or takenaway by the action of our Will but they may indirectly by the representation of things which use to be joyned with the Passions which we will have and which are contrary to those we will reject Thus to excite in ones selfe boldness and remove fear it is not enough to have a will to do so but reasons objects and examples are to be considered of that perswade the danger is not great that there is ever more security in defence than flight that there is glory and joy in vanquishing whereas there is nothing to be expected but griefe and dishonour in flying and the like The 46th Article What is the reason that hinders the Soul from disposing her Passions totally NOw there is a peculiar reason why the Soul cannot suddenly alter or stop her Passions which gave me occasion to put formerly in their definition that they are not only caused but somented and fortified by some peculiar motion of the spirits the reason is they are almost all coupled with some emotion made in the heart and consequently in all the blood and spirits too so that till this emotion cease they remain present in our thoughts just as sensible objects are present in them while they act against the organs of our senses and as the Soul being very sattentive on any other thing may choose whether shewill hear a little noise or feel a little pain or no but cannot keep her self from hearing thunder or feeling fire that burns the hand so shee may easily overcome the smaller Passions but not the violentest and strongest untill after the emotion of the blood and spirits is allayed The most the Will can doe while this emotion is in its full strength is not to consent to its effects and to restrain divers motions whereunto it disposes the body For example if wrath makes me lift up my hand to strike the Will can usually restrain it if fear incites my legs to fly the Will can stop them and so of the rest The 47th Article Wherein consist those contestations which use to be imagined between the superiour and inferiour part of the Soul ANd it is only in the repugnance of those motions which the body by its spirits and the Soul by her Wil endeavour to excite at the same time in the kernall that all the contestations which use to be imagined between the inferiour part of the Soul called sensitive and the superiour which is reasonable or else between the naturall appetites and the Will consist for there is in us but one Soul only and this Soul hath no diversity of parts in it the same which is sensible is rationall and all her appetites are her Wills The errour committed in making her act two severall parts which are usually contrary one to another proceeds meerly hence that her functions have not been distinguished from them of the body to which only all that can be observed in us repugnant to our reason ought to bee attributed so that there is here no other contestation unlesse that the little kernell in the middle of the brain being driven on one side by the soul and on the other by the animall spirits which are only bodies as I laid down before it happens oftentimes that these two impulsions are contrary and that the strongest hinders the operation of the other Now we may distiguish two sorts of motions excited by the spirits in the kernell some represent to the soul the objects which move the senses or the impressions found in the brain which use not any violence on the Will others doe use violence to wit such as cause the Passions or motions of the body concomitant with them And for the first though they often-times hinder the action of the soul or else be hindered by it yet by reason that they are not directly contrary there is not any contestation observed in them it is only taken notice of among the last and the Wills which resist them for example between that violence wherewith the spirits drive the kernell to cause in the soul a desire of any thing and that wherewith the Soul beats it back by the will she hath to avoid the same thing and what chiefly makes this contestation appear is that the Will having not the power to excite the Passions directly as hath been already said is constrained to use art and fall on considering successively divers things if but one wherof chance to be strong enough to alter the course of the spirits one moment it is possible that which follows is not and so the others many immediately resume it a-again because the disposition preceding in the nerves heart and blood is not changed which makes the soul feel her self instigated almost in the same instant to desire and not desire the very same thing From hence it was that occasion was taken to imagine two contesting powers in her Yet there may some kind of contestation be conceived herein that oft times the same cause which excites some Passion in the soul excites also certain motions in the body whereunto the soul contributes not and which she stops or strives to sto assoon as ever she perceives them as is then tried when that which excites fearfullnesse causeth also the Spirits to enter into the muscles that serve to stirre the legges to run away and the Will to be bold stops them The 48th Article Wherein the strength or weaknesse of souls are known and what is the misery of the weakest NOw it is by the successe of these contestations that every one may understand the strength or weaknesse of his soul For those in whom the Will can most easily conquer the Passions and stop the motions of the body that come along with them have without doubt the strongest souls But there are some who can never try their own strength because they never let the Will fight with her own weapons but onely with such as are borrowed from some Passions to resist others Those which I call her own weapons are firm and determinate judgements concerning the knowledge of good and evil according to which she hath resolved to steere the actions of her life and the weakest soul of all is such an one whose Will hath not at all determined to follow certaine judgements but suffers it self to be swayed with the present Passions
caten or at least corrupt them and convert them into ill humours The 99th Artick In Joy IN Joy that the pulse is even and quicker than ordinary but not so strong nor so great as in Love and that a man feels a pleasant heat which is not onely in the breast but spreads its self over all the exteriour parts of the body with the blood which is seen to flow abundantly thither and the mean while he sometimes loses his appetite because the digestion is lesse than usuall The 100th Article In Sadnesse IN Sadnesse that the pulse is weak and slow and that a man feels as it were strings about his heart which bind it close and Icycles that freez it and communicate their cold to the rest of the body yet in the mean while he hath sometimes a good appetite and feels his stomack not failing of its duty provided there be no Hatred mingled with the Sadnesse The 101 Article In Desire LAstly I observe this peculiar in Desire that it agitates the heart more violently than any of the other Passions and furnishes the brain with more spirits which passing from thence into the muscles make all the senses quicker and all parts of the body more agile The 102 Article The motion of the blood and spirits In Love THese observations and many more too long to insert gave me occasion to conceive that when the understanding represents to it self any object of Love the impression which this thought makes in the brain conveyes the animal spirits through the nerves of the sixth paire to the muscles about the intestines and the stomack in the manner requisite to make the juice of meats which convert into new blood passe suddenly to the heart without any demurre in the Liver and which being driven thither with greater force than that which is in the rest of the body it gets in thither in more abundance and excites a stronger heat by reason it is thicker than that which already hath been often rarified by passing and repassing through the heart which also causeth it to send spirits to the brain whose parts are grosser and more agitated than ordinary and these spirits fortifying the impression that the first thought of the object beloved stuck there bind the Soul to fix upon the thought and herein consists the Passion of Love The 103 Article In Hatred CContrarywise in Hatred the first thought of the object that breeds aversion so conveyes the spirits in the brain to the muscles of the stomack and intestines that they hinder the juyce of meats from mixing with the blood by contracting up all the passages through which it is used to runne and so conveyes it to the small nerves of the spleen and the lower part of the Liver where the receptacle of choler is that those parts of the blood which use to be cast out to those places get out and runne with that in the branches of the hollow vein to the heart which causeth much inequality in the heat of it seeing the blood that comes from the spleen is not heated nor rarified but with much difficulty and on the other side that which comes from the lower part of the Liver where the gall is inflamed and dilated suddenly by which consequence spirits that go to the brain have parts very unequall and motions very unusuall from whence it comes that they there fortifie the Id'aea of Hatred already imprinted and encline the souls to thoughts full of rancour and bitternesse The 104th Article In Joy IN Joy not onely the nerves of the spleen Liver stomack or intestines act but those in the rest of the body and particularly that about the Orifices of the heart which opening and dilating these Orifices enables the blood which the rest of the nerves have driven from the veins to the heart to get in there and issue forth in greater quantity then ordinary and because the blood which then gets into the heart hath often passed and repassed through it coming from the arteries into the veines it easily dilates and produces spirits whose parts being very equall and subtle are fit to form and fortifie the impressions of the brain which deal lively and quiet thoughts to the Soul The 105th Article In Sadnesse COntrariwise in Sadnesse the Orifices of the heart are hugely straitened by the small nerve that environs them and the blood of the veins is no whit agitated which causeth but very little to go to the heart and in the mean while the passages through which the juyce of meats glides from the stomack and entrailes to the Liver are open wherefore the appetite diminisheth not unlesse Hatred which is an ordinary companion of Sadnesse close them The 106th Article In Desire LAstly the Passion of Desire hath the peculiar property that the Will a man hath to attain any good or avoid any evill sends the Spirits of the brain immediately to all the parts of the body that may serve any wayes to actions requisire to that purpose and particularly to the heart and those parts which supply it with blood most that receiving it in greater abundance than ordinary it sends a great number of spirits to the brain as well to maintain and fortifie the Idaea of this Will as to passe from thence into all the organs of the senses and all the muscles which may be set on work to attaine what one desires The 107th Article What is the cause of these motions in Love ANd I deduce the reason of all this from what hath formerly been said that there is such a tye betwixt our soul and body that when we have joyned any corporall Action with any thought one of them never presents if selfe to us afterwards without the other As may be seen in such who with much aversnesse when they have been sick have taken some drink they can neither eat nor drink afterwards but they have the same aversion nay further they cannot think of their a version to medecines but the very same taste comes into their thought For met thinks the first passions our soul admitted when she was first joyned to our Body came from hence that sometimes the blood or some other juyce which got into the heart was an alimony more convenient than ordinary to maintain heat there which is the principle of life this caused the Soul to joyne in will to this alimony that is to love it and at the same time the spirits trickled from the braine into the muscles which might presse or agitate the parts from whence it came to the heart that they might send more of it thither and these parts were the Stomack and entrailes whose agiration augments the appetite or else the liver and lungs which the muscles of the Diaphragma may presse Wherefore the same motion of the spirits ever since accompanies the passion of Love The 108 Article In Hatred SOmetimes on the contrary some strange juyce came to the heart which was not good to cherish the heat
spirits reflected from the image so formed on the kernell go from thence to fall part into the nerves which serve to turn the back and stirre the legs to run away and part into those which as is spoken of before let out or draw upon together the orifices of the heart or which else so agitate the rest of the parts from whence the blood is sent that this blood not being rarified there in the usuall manner sends spirits to the braine that are fitting to maintain and confirm the passion of fear that is such as are proper to hold open or open again the pores of the brain that convey them into the very same nerves for the meere entry of these spirits into these pores excites in this kernell a particular motion instituted by nature to make the soul feel that passion and because these pores relate principally to the little nerves that serve to lock up or open wide the orifices of the heart this makes the soul feel it as if it were chiefly in the heart The 37th Article How it appears they are all caused by some motion of the spirits ANd because the like happens in all the other Passions to wit that they are principally caused by the spirits contained in the cavities of the brain seeing they direct their course towards the nerves which serve to enlarge or straiten the orifices of the heart either to thrust the blood in the other parts differently to it or whatsoever other way it be to feed the self same Passion it may be clearly understood by this wherefore I formerly inserted in my definition that they are caused by some peculiar motion of the Spirits The 38th Article An example of the motions of the Body that accompany the Passions and depend not of the Soul MOreover as the course which these spirits take towards the nerves of the heart is sufficient to give a motion to the kernell whereby fear is put into the soul even so by the meere going of the spirits at that time into those nerves which serve to stirre the legges to run away they cause another motion in the same kernell by meanes whereof the soul feels and perceives this flight which may in this manner be excited in the body by the meere disposition of the organs the soul not at all contributing to it The 39th Article How the same cause may excite divers Passions in divers men THe same impression that the presence of one formidable object workes upon the kernel and which causeth fear in some men may in others rouze up courage and boldnesse the reason whereof is that all braines are not alike disposed for the same motion of the Kernell which in some excites feare in others causeth the spirits to enter into the pores of the brain which convey them part into the nerves which serve to use the hands for defence and partly into those which agitate and drive the blood towards the heart in that manner as is requisite to produce spirits proper to continue this defence and retaine a will to it The 40th Article What the principall effect of the Passions is FOr it must be observed that the principall effect of all the Passions in men is they incite and dispose their Souls to will the things for which they prepare their Bodies so that the resentment of fear incites him to be willing to fly that of boldnesse to be willing to fight and so of the rest The 41th Article What is the power of the Soul in respect of the Body BUt the will is so free by nature that it can never be constrained and of two sorts of thoughts which I have distinguished in the Soul whereof some are her Actions to wit her Wils others her Passions taking that word in its generall signification which comprehends all sorts of apprehensions the first are absolutely in her owne power and cannot but indirectly be changed by the body as on the contrary the last depend absolutely upon the Actions which produce them and they cannot unlesse indirectly be changed by the Soul except then when her selfe is the cause of them And all the Action of the Soul consists in this that she meerely by willing any thing can make the little kernell whereunto she is strictly joyned move in the manner requisite to produce the effect relating to this Will The 42th Article How the things one would remember are found in the memory SO when the Soul would remember any thing this Will is the cause that the kernell nodding successively every way drives the spirits towards severall places of the braine untill they excounter that where the traces which were left there of the object one would remember are For these traces are nothing else but the pores of the braine through which the spirits formerly took their course by reason of the presence of that object have thereby accquired a greater facility to be open in the same manner again than the rest can have by the spirits that come to them so that these spirits meeting these pores enter into them easier than the others whereby they excite a peculiar motion in the kernell which represents the same object to the Soul and makes it know that is it she would remember The 43th Article How the Soul can imagine be attentive and move the Body SO when one would imagin any thing one hath never seen this Will hath the power to make the kernell move in the manner requisite to drive the spirits towards the pores of the braine by the opening of which this thing may be represented So when one would fix his attention some pretty while to consider or ruminate on one object this Will holds the kernell still at that time leaning ever to one side So in fine when one would walk or move his body any way this Will causes the kernell to drive the spirits towards the muscles which serve to that purpose The 44th Article That every Will is naturally joyned to some motion of the kernell but that by industry or habit itmay be annexed to another NOtwithstanding it is not alwayes the Will to excite in us any motion or other effect that can cause us to excite it but that changes according as nature or habit have differently joyned each motion of the kernell to each thought as for example if one would dispose his eyes to look on an object farr distant this Will causes the ball of them to dilate themselves and if one would prompt them to behold an object very neer this Will contracts them but if one thinks onely to dilate the ball he had as good doe nothing that dilates it not at all because nature hath not joyned the motion of the kernell which serves to drive the spirits to the optick nerve in that manner as is requisite to dilate or contract the ball of the eye with the will of dilating or contracting it but with the will of looking on objects remote or at hand and then when we
drunk much wine The vapours of this wine entering suddenly into the blood mount up from the hear to the brain where they convert into spirits which being stronger and more abundant than ordinary are apt to move the body after many strange fashions This inequality of the spirits may also proceed from the divers dispositions of the heart liver Stomacke spleene and all other parts contributing to their production For it is principally necessary here to observe certaine little nerves inserted in the basis of the heart which serve to lengthen and contract the entries of its concavities by meanes whereof the blood there dilating more or lesse strongly produces spirits diversly disposed It is also to be noted that although the blood which enters into the heart comes thither from all the other parts of the body yet it falls out often times that more is driven thither from some parts than others by reason the nerves or muscles which answer to those parts oppresse or agitate it more and for that according to the diversity of the parts from whence it comes most it dilates it selfe diverfly in the heart and at last produces spirits of different natures as for example that which comes from the lower part of the liver where the gall is dilates it selfe otherwise in the heart than that which comes from the spleene and this after another manner than that which comes from the veines of the leggs or armes and lastly this quite otherwise than the juyce of meats when being newly come out of the stomack and bowels it passes through the liver to the heart The 16th Article How all the members may be moved by the objects of the sences and by the spirits without the help of the Soul Lastly it is to be observed that the machine of our body is so composed that all the changes befalling the motion of the spirits may so worke as to open some pores of the braine more than others and reciprocally that when any one of these pores are never so little more or lesse open than usuall by the Action of those nerves subservient to the senses it changes somewhat in the motion of the spirits and causes them to be conveyed into the muscles which serve to move the body in that manner it ordinarily is upon occasion of such an Action So that all the motions we make our will not contributing to them as it often happens that we sigh walk eat and to be short doe all actions common to us and beasts depend onely on the conformity of our members and the streame which the spirits excited by the heat of the heart follow naturally into the braine nerves and muscles Just as the motion of a watch is produced meerely by the strength of the spring and the fashion of the wheeles The 17th Article What the functions of the Soul are HAving thus considered all the functions belonging to the body only it is easie to know there remaines nothing in us which we ought to attribute to our Soul unlesse our thoughts which are chiefly of two kinds to wit some Actions of the Soul others her Passions Those which I call her actions are all our wills because we experimentally find they come directly from our Soul and seem to depend on nought but it as on the contrary one may generally call her Passions all those sorts of apprehensions and understandings to be found within us because oftimes our Soul does not make them such as they are to us and she alwayes receives things as they are represented to her by them The 18th Article Of the Will Again our Wills are of two sorts For some are actions of the Soul which terminate in the Soul it selfe as when we will love God or generally apply our thought to any object which is not materiall The other are actions which terminate in our body as in this case that we have onely a will to walke it followes that our legges must stir and we goe The 19th Article Of the Apprehension OUr Appprehensions also are of two sorts the Soul is the cause of some the Body of the other Those whereof the Soul is the cause are the apprehensions of our wills and all the imaginations or others thoughts thereon depending For we cannot will any thing but we must at the same time perceive that we doe will it And although in respect of our Soul it be an Action to will any thing it may be said also a passion in her to apprehend that she wills Yet because this apprehension and this will are in effect but one and the same thing the denomination comes still from that which is most noble therefore it is not customary to call it a Passion but onely an Action The 20th Article Of Imaginations and other thoughts framed by the Soul WHen our Soul applies her elfe to fancy any thing which is not as to represent to it selfe an inchanted Palace or a Chimera and also when she bends her selfe to consider any thing that is only intelligible not imaginable for example to ruminate on ones owne nature the apprehension she hath of things depends ptincipally on the Will which causeth her to perceive them Wherefore it is usuall to consider them as Actions rather than Passions The 21 Article Of Imaginations caused onely by the body Among the apprehensions caused by the body the greatest part depend on the nerves But yet there are some that depend not at all on them which are called Imaginations too as well as those I lately spoke of from which neverthelesse they differ herein that our Will hath no hand in framing them which is the reason wherefore they cannot be numbred among the actions of the Soul and they proceed from nothing but this that the spirits being agitated severall wayes and meeting the traces of divers impressions preceding them in the brain they take their course at haphazzard through some certaine pores rather than others Such are the illusions of our dreames and those dotages we often are troubled with waking when our thought carelessely roames witout applying it self to any thing of its own Now though some of these imaginations be Passions of the Soul taking this word in the genuine and peculiar signification and though they may be all called so if it be taken in a more generall acception yet seeing they have not so notorious and determined a cause as those apprehensions which the Soul receives by mediation of the nerves and that they seem to be onely the shadow and representation of the others before we can well distinguish them it is necessary to examine the difference between them The 22 Article Of the difference betwixt them and the other apprehensions ALL the apprehensions which I have not yet explained come to the Soul by mediation of the nerves and there is this difference between them that we attribute some of them to the objects from without that beat upon our senses some to our body or some parts of it and lastly
the rest to our Soul The 23th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to objects from without us Those which we attribute to things without us to wit to the objects of our enses are caused at least if our opinion be not false by those objects which exciting some motions in the organs of the exteriour senses by intercourse with the nerves stir up some in the brain which make the soul perceive them So when we see the light of a torch and hear the sound of a bell this sound and this light are two everall actions who meerly in this regard that they excite two severall motions in some of our nerves and by meanes of them in the brain deliver the Soul two different Resentments which we so attribute to those Subjects which we suppose to be their causes that we think we see the very flame and hear the bell not onely feel certain motions proceeding from them The 24th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to our body THe apprehensions which we attribute to our body or any of the parts thereof are those we have concerning hunger thirst and other our naturall appetites whereunto may be added paine heat and the rest of the affections we feel as in our members and not in the objects without us So we may at at the same time by the intercourse of the same nerves feel the coldnesse of our hand and the heat of the flame it drawes neere to or contrarily the heat of the hand and the cold of the aire whereto it is exposed and yet there is no difference between the Actions that make us feel the heat or the cold in our hand and those which make us feel that which is without us unlesse that one of these Actions succeeding the other we conceive the first to be already in us and that which followes not to be yet in us but in the object that causeth it The 25th Article Of the apprehensions which we attribute to our Soul THe Apprehensions attributed only to the Soul are those whereof the effects are felt as in the Soul it selfe and whereof any neer cause whereunto it may be attributed is commonly unknown Such are the resentments of joy wrath and the like which are sometimes excited in us by the objects which move our nerves and sometimes too by other causes Now although all our Apprehensions as well those attributed to objects without us as those relating to divers affections of our body be in truth Passions in respect of our Soul when this word is taken in the more generall signification yet it is usuall to restrain it to signifie onely those attributed to the Soul it selfe And they are onely these latter which I here undertake to explaine under the notion of Passions of the Soul The 26th Article That the imaginations which depend onely on the accidentall motion of the spirits may be as reall Passions as the apprehensions depending on the nerves IT is here to be observed that all the same things which the Soul perceives by intercourse with the nerves may also be represented to it by the accidentall course of the spirits and no difference between them but this that the impressions which come from the brain by the nerves are usually more lively and manifest than those the spirits excite there which made me say in the one and twentieth Article that these are onely as the shadow and representation of those It is also to be noted that it sometimes fals out this picture is so like the thing it represents that it is possible to be deceived concerning the apprehensions attributed to those objects without us or those referred to any parts of our body but not to be srved so concerning the Passions forasmuch as they are so neer and interiour to our Soul that it is impossible she should feele them unlesse they were truely such as she doth feel them So oftentimes when one sleeps and sometimes too being awake a man fancies things so strongly that he thinkes he sees them before him or feels them in his body though there be no such thing but although a man be asleep and doate he cannot feel himselfe sad ormoved with any other Passion but it is most true that the Soul hath in it that passion The 27th Article The definition of the Passions of the Soul AFter we have thus considered wherein the passions of the Soul differ from all other thoughts me thinkes they may be generally defined thus Apprehensions resentments or emotions of the Soul attributed particularly to it and caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits The 28th Article An explication of the first part of the definition THey may be called Apprehensions when this word is used in a generall sense to signifie all thoughts that are not Actions of the Soul or the wills but not then when it onely signifies evident knowledges For experience shewes us that those who are most agitated by their Passions are not such as understand them best and that they are in the Catalogue of those apprehensions which the strict alliance between the soul and the body renders confused and obscure they may also be called resentments because they are received into the soul in the same manner as the objects of the exteriour senses and are not otherwise understood by her but they may justlier be stiled the emotions of the Soul not only because this name may be attributed to all the mutations befalling her that is all the various thoughts thereof but particularly because of all kinds of thoughts that she can have there are none that agitate and shake it so hard as these Passions doe The 29th Article An explication of the other part I Adde that they are attributed particularly to the Soul to distinguish them from other resentments relating some to exteriour objects as smells sounds colours the others to our body as hunger thirst pain I also subjoyn that they are caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits to distinguish them from our Wills which cannot be called emotions of the Soul attributed to her but caused by her self as also to unfold their last and immediate cause that distinguisheth them again from other resentments The 30th article That the Soul is united to all the parts of the body joyntly BUt to understand all these things more perfectly it is necessary to know that the Soul is really joyned to all the body but it cannot properly bee said to bee in any of the parts thereof excluding the rest because it is One and in some sort indivisible by reason of the disposition of the organs which do all so relate one to another that when any one of them is taken away it renders the whole body defective and because it is of a nature that hath no reference to extension dimensions or other properties of matter whereof the body is composed but only to the whole masse or Contexture of Organs as appears by this that you cannot
when we read strange adventures in a book or see them personated on a stage it sometimes excites Sadnesse in us sometimes Joy or Love or Hatred and generally all the Passions according to the diversity of objects that offer themselves to our imagination but withall we take a delight to feel them excited in us and this delight is an intellectuall Joy which may as well spring from Sadnesse as all the rest of the Passions The 148 Article That the exercise of Vertue is a Soveraigne remedy against the Passions NOw forasmuch as these interiour emotions doe touch us neerest to the quick and consequently have more power over us then the Passions they differ from which are met withall in them it is certain that provided our Soul have wherewithall to content her interiour part all the troubles that come from abroad are not able to hurt her but rather serve to augment her Joy in that seeing she cannot be injured by them it lets her understand her own perfection And that our Soul may be thus contented she need do nothing but exactly follow the track of Vertue For whosoever hath lived so that his Conscience cannot hit him in the teeth for failing to doe all things which he judged to be best which is the thing I mean here by following the track of Vertue he from thence receives a satisfaction so effectuall to make him happy that the most violent assaults of the Passions shall never be strong enough to trouble the tranquility his Soul The Passions of the Soul The third part Of Particular Passions The 149th Article Of Estimation and Contempt NOw the six Originall Passions are explained which are as the kinds or Genera whereof all the rest are but sorts or Species I will here succinctly observe what there is peculiar in every one of the rest and I will keep still the same order wherein I have formerly marshall'd them The two first are Estimation and contempt For though they commonly signifie onely the opinions a man hath without any Passion of the vallue of any thing yet because from these opinions doe often spring Passions which want peculiar names me thinkes these may be attributed to them And Estimation as it is a Passion is an inclination of the Soul to represent unto her selfe the vallue of the thing esteemed which inclination is caused by a peculiar motion of the spirits so conveyed into the braine that they there fortifie the impressions belonging to that purpose As on the contrary the Passion of contempt is an inclination of the Soul to consider the meannesse or smallnesse of what it contemnes caused by the motion of the spirits which fortifie the Idea of this smallnesse The 150 Article That these two Passions are but Sorts of Admiration SO both these Passions are but sorts of Admiration For when we neither admire the greatnesse nor smallnesse of an object we make neither more nor lesse account of it than reason dictates to us we ought to doe so that we then esteeme or contemne it without Passion And though oft-times Estimation be excited in us by Love and Contempt by Hatred that is not so alwayes and proceeds onely from this that a man is more or lesse inclined to consider the greatnesse or smallnesse of an object as he hath more or lesse affection to it The 151 Article That a man may esteem or contemne himselfe NOw these two Passions may generally relate to all sorts of objects but they are especially remarkable when we referre them to our selves that is when it is our own merit that we either esteem or contemne and the motion of the spirits which cause them is then so manifest that it even changes the countenance gesture gate and generally all the actions of those who conceive a better or worse opinion of themselves than ordinary The 152 Article For what cause a man may esteem himselfe ANd because one of the chiefe parts of Wisdome is to know in what manner for what cause every one ought to esteem or contemn himself I will here endeavour to give my opinion thereof I observe but one thing in us which may give us just cause to esteem our selves to wit the use of our free Disposition and our empire over our Wills For only the actions depending on this free Disposition are those for which wee may justly be praised or blamed and it makes us in some manner like unto God by making us masters of our selves provided wee doe not lose the priviledges it gives us by our unworthiness The 153 Article Wherein Generosity consists SO I believe true Generosity which causeth a man to set himself at the highest rate he justly may consists only partly in knowing there is nothing which truly he can call his own unlesse this free Disposition of his Wills nor wherefore he ought to be praised or blamed unlesse for using that well or ill and partly in feeling a constant and firme resolution in himselfe to use it well that is his Will shall never be wanting to undertake and execute such things as hee shall judge to be best which is to follow Vertue absolutely The 154th Article That it restraines a man from contemning others THose who have this knowledge and resentment of themselves are easily perswaded that every other man hath such of himselfe too because there is nothing in it that depends of any thing else Wherefore they never contemne any body and though they oft-times see other men commit errours that make their weaknesse appeare yet they are evermore enclined to excuse than blame them and to believe that they doe it rather for want of knowledge than good will And as they doe not think themselves much inferiour to those who have greater estates honours nor yet more wit knowledge beauty or generally that surpass them in any other perfections so they do not esteem themselves much above those whom they surpasse because all these things seem very little considerable to them in comparison of their good Will for which only they esteem themselves and which they suppose is or at least may be in every other man The 155th Article Wherein vertuous Humility consists SO the most generous use to be most humble and Vertuous Humility consists only in this that the reflexion wee make on the infirmity of our own nature and the faults we may have formerly committed or those we are like to commit which are no whit lesse than those committed by others is the reason why we do not preferre our selves before any body but think that others who have their free Disposition as well as we may use it as well The 156th Article What the properties of Genorosity are and how it serves for a remedy against all unruliness of the Passions THey who thus are generous are naturally addicted to doe great things and yet to undertake nothing they are not capable of and because they esteem nothing greater than to doe good to other men and to contemn their own
it in one that is worthy of it And when this comes unexpectedly the surprize of Admiration causeth him to breake out into laughter according to what hath formerly been said of the nature of Laughter But this evill must be a small one for if it be great it cannot be thought that he who hath it is worthy of it unlesse one be of a very ill nature or bear him a great deal of Hatred The 179 Article Why the most defective men are commonly the greatest Deriders ANd it is seen that they who have apparent defects for example who are lame one-eyed crook backed or have received some affront publickly are peculiarly enclined to derision For desiring to see all other men asmuch disgraced as themselves they rejoyce at the ills that befall them and think them worthy of it The 180 Article Of the use of Jeasting AS for modest Jeasting which wholsomely reprehends vices by making them appeare ridiculous so a man laugh not at them himself nor shew any hatred against persons it is not a Passion but a becoming quality in a man that makes the livelinesse of his disposition appeare and the tranquillity of his Soul which are markes of Vertue and oftimes the nimblenesse of his wit too in that he knowes how to set a handsome glosse on things he jeasts at The 181 Article Of the use of Laughter in Jeasting ANd it is not unhandsome to laugh at the hearing of another mans jeasts nay perchance they may be such that it were doltishness not to laugh at them But when a man jeasts himselfe it is more seemly to abstaine from it that he may not seeme to be surprized by the things he speakes nor admire the dexterity of their invention and that causeth those who hear them to be surprized so much the more The 182 Article Of Envy THat which commonly is called Envy is a vice that consists in a perversnesse of nature which causeth certaine men to fret at the good that they see befalls other men But I here use this word to signifie a Passion which is not alwayes vicious Envy then as it is a Passion is a sort of Sadnesse mixed with Hatred which comes from seeing good betide those we thinke unworthy of it Which cannot be thought with reason but of the goods of fortune For as for those of the Soul yea and the Body too seeing a man hath them by birth it is to be sufficiently worthy of them that he received them from God before he was capable to commit any evill The 183. Article How it may be just or unjust BUt when fortune sends goods to any one whereof he is truly unworthy and Envy is not excited in us but because naturally loving justice we are vext that it is not observed in the distribution of those goods it is a zeal that may be excusable especially when the good a man envyes others is of such a nature that it may turn to an evill in their hands as if it be some command or office in the exercising whereof they may misdemean themselves Yea even when he desires that good for himselfe and cannot get it because others lesse worthy possesse It. This makes this passion become the more violent and yet it may be excusible provided the Hatred in it relate only to the ill distribution of the thing envied and not to the persons that possesse or distribute it But there are few who are so just and generous as to bear no Hatred against those that prevent them in the acquisition of a good that is not communicable to many and that they desired it for themselves though they who acquired it are as much or more worthy of it And what is most usually envied is Glory For although that of others doth not hinder us from aspiring thereunto yet it makes the accesse to it more difficult and enhaunceth the price The 184 Article From whence it comes that envious men have sallow complexions BEsides there is no vice so banefull to the felicity of man as Envy For besides that those who are tainted with it afflict themselves they also to the utmost of their power trouble the delight of others And they have commonly sallow complexions that is a pale mingled with yellow and black and like blood in a bruise Whence Envy is called in Latine Livor which agrees very well with what hath been said here before of the motions of the blood in Sadnesse and hatred for this causeth the syellow choler comming from the lower part of the Liver and the black comming from the Spleen to spread from the heart through the Arteries into all the veines and that causeth the blood of the veines to have lesse heat and flow more slowly than ordinarily which is sufficient to make the complexion livid But because choler as well yellow as black may be also sent into the veines by many other causes and Envy may not drive enough into them to alter the colour of the complexion unlesse it be exceeding great and of long continuance it ought snot to be thought that all those of this complexion are thereunto enclined The 185 Article Of Pitty PItty is a sort of Sadness mingled with Love or good will towards those whom we see suffer any evill whereof we esteem them unworthy so it is contrary to Envy because of it object and Derision because it considers them in another manner The 186 Article Who are most Pittifull THose who feel themselves very weak and subject to the adversities of Fortune seem to be more enclined to this Passion than any else because they fancy the evill of another as possible to befall them and so they are moved to pitty rather out of the love they bear themselves than that they bear to others The 187 Article How the most generous men are sensible of this Passion BUt neverthelesse they who are most generous and have the greatest spirits so that they feare not any evill to themselves and hold themselves above the power of fortune are not exempted from Compassion when they see the infirmity of other men and hear their complaints for it is a part of Generosity to bear good will to every man but the Sadness of this Pitty is not bitter and like that which tragicall actions personated on the stage cause is more in the exteriours and the senses than the interiours of the Soul which in the mean while is satisfied to think she hath done her duty in that she hath a fellow feeling with the afflicted and there is this difference in it that whereas the vulgar pitty those who comlain because they think the ills they suffer are very grievous the principall object of great mens Pitty is the weaknesse of those that they see complain because they esteem not any accident that may befall to be so great an evill as is the Baseness of those who cannot suffer constantly and though they hate the vices yet they hate not those they see subject to them they only