point of temperament and as this or that of the usual concomitants of it is more powerful than the rest so must the Effects thereof upon the body be likewise various And from this variety men have taken notice chiefly of two sorts of Anger One that is quickly kindled violent at first and discovers it self visibly by outward signs but performs little and may be easily composed And to this they are most obnoxious who are good-natur'd i.e. who are inclined to goodness and love For it ariseth not from profound Hatred but from a sudden Aversion surprising them because being propens to conceive that all things ought to proceed in that manner which they judge to be the best whenever they see others to act otherwise first they admire and then are offended and so what would be to others matter only of Indignation to them proves cause of Anger But this commotion is soon calmed because the force of the sudain Aversion that raised it continues not long and so soon as they perceive that the thing for which they were offended ought not to have commoved them to passion they suppress their displeasure and repent of it The Other that wherein Hatred and Grief are predominant and which though at first it hardly betray it self by external signs unless by the suddain paleness of the countenance and trembling is notwithstanding more impetuous within secretly gnaws the very heart and produceth dangerous effects And to this pernicious sort of Anger they are most subject who have prouâ— cowardly and weak Souls For so much the greater doe injuries appear by how much the better opinion pride makes Men to have of themselves yea and by how much greater value is put upon the things which the injuries take away and these things are alwaies so much the more valued by how much the more weak and abject the Soul is because they depend upon others but the Generous put little value upon any thing that is not dependent upon themselves When we consider what opinion other Men have of Us the Good which we believe to be in us disposeth us to Glory which seems to be composed of Self-estimation and Ioy for to see ourselves well esteemed by others gives us cause to have a good esteem for ourselves and on the contrary the Evil we are conscious of forceth us to Shame which is a sort of Modesty or Humility and Self-diffidence for as we have formerly observed who thinks himself above Contempt will hardly be humbled to shame These two Passions Glory and Shame tho directly opposite each to other doe yet agree in their End which is to incite us to Virtue the first by hope the other by fear and that we may make a right use of them both we are to have our judgment well instructed what actions are truely worthy praise or dispraise lest otherwise we be ashamed of virtuous actions or affect glory from vices as it happeneth to too great a part of mankind Thus have we at length recounted all the Passions of this our fifth division and deduced them successively from their several causes or occasions in that order wherein their most remarkable diversity seemd to us most easily distinguishable But now because some of these passions are simple others Composed and that to our more clear understanding of the nature of both sorts it is necessary to enquire more profoundly into the Motions of the Sensitive Soul and spirits that constitute their Essential Differences it remains that we yeeld obedience to that necessity so far forth at least as to explain the Motions proper to that couplet of more simple affections Ioy and Grief the two points in which all human actions end and to that most violent one Anger In Ioy therefore which is a delightful commotion of the Sensitive Soul as it were triumphing in her fruition of good or pleasure I conceive that the Animal spirits being in great abundance but with a placid and equal motion sent by the nerves to the heart cause the orifices thereof to be opened and dilated more than at other times and so the blood to be imported and exported more copiously and freely and that by this means from the blood are brought into the brain a plentious supply of new spirits which extracted out of the purest and most refined parts of the blood are most fit to confirm the idea formed of the present good in the imagination and so to continue the Soul in her pleasant Emotion Hence probably it is that in this most agreeable passion both the pulse is alwaies made equal and more frequent tho not so intense and strong as in Love and a certain gratefull heat is felt not only through the Lungs and all the breast but through all outward parts of the body from the diffusion of the blood in full streams into them which is discernible even by the florid purple colour wherewith they are suddainly tinged and by the inflation or plumpness of all the muscles of the face which is thereby rendered more serene sweet and cheerful Easy therefore it is to infer that as this passion is most congruous to the nature of the Corporeal Soul so are the corporeal motions that accompany and characterize it most profitable to health provided they be moderare For this Commotion and Effusion may be so vehement and suddain that the Soul may become weak and unable to rule the body or to actuate the organs of speech yea swooning and death itself somtimes follow profuse and insolent Joy So Lacon Chilo an eminent Philosopher suddainly expired in excessive joy beholding his Sonne a Victor in the Olympic games So Sophocles the Tragedian also and Dionysius the Tyrant died of a surfet of suddain Joy The reason whereof seems to consist not in a vehement effusion and dissipation of the vital spirits and a destitution of the Heart consequent thereunto as Fernelius would have it because the faster the blood is effused through the arteries from the heart the swifter must it return to the heart through the veines so that the heart cannot be totaly exhausted and left destitute of blood but rather in a surcharge and suffocation of the heart by too redundant an afflux of blood For upon extraordinary dilatation of the floud-gates of the heart by immoderate joy the current of blood both out of the Vena cava and from the arteria venosa may pour itself with so much violence and in so great a quantity into the ventricles thereof that the heart unable to discharge itself soon enough of that oppressing deluge by retruding its valves may be suffocated its motions stopped and the Vital Flame in a moment extinguished For certain it is that in the state of health the blood is not admitted into the heart beyond a certain proportion nor can that proportion be much exceeded whatever the cause be that maketh an apertio portarum there without manifest danger of life Among the Signs of this delightful passion
is a Devotion also to ones Prince or Country or City or to any private person whom we esteem above ourselves And the difference betwixt these three sorts of Love is chiefly manifest from their divers Effects For when in each of them the person loving considers himself as joyned and united to the thing loved he is always ready to quit or leave the least part of the whole that he makes with the same to preserve the rest Whence it comes that in simple Benevolence the Lover always prefer's himself to the thing loved but on the contrary in Devotion he always prefers the thing loved so far above himself that he fears not to dye for the conversation thereof of which noble Love there have been glorious Examples in men who have voluntarily exposed themselves to certain death for defence of their Prince or of their City yea sometimes also for private persons to whom they had particularly devoted themselves This Distinction being admitted as in my opinion it well deserves to be there will remain no necessity of constituting so many distinct sorts of Love as they are various objects to excite it seeing there are many Passions very different among themselves and in respect of their several objects which yet agree in this that they all participate of Love For Example the Passion by which the Ambitious is carried on to Glory the Avaricious to riches the Drunkard to wine the Libidinous to women the Honest to his friend the Vxorious to his wife the good Father to his Children c. differ very much among themselves and yet so far resemble each other that they all participate of Love But the love of the first four aimeth at nothing but the possession of their peculiar objects nor have they indeed any thing of love for those objects but only Desire mixt with some other special passions Whereas the love of a Parent to his Children is so pure that he desires to obtain nothing at all from them nor to possess them in any other manner than he doth already or to bring them to a neerer conjunction with himself but considering them as parts of himself seeks their good as his own yea with greater care than his own as not fearing to purchase their felicity at the rate of his own undoing And the Love of an honest man to his Friends is also of the same perfection But the Love of a man to his Mistress commonly distinguished by the name of the Erotic passion is alwaies mixed with desire of Fruition And as for Hatred though that be directly opposed to Love yet cannot it be distinguished into as many different kinds because the difference betwixt Evils from which we are by our will separated cannot be so well observed as that which is betwixt the Goods to which we are by by our will joyned From what hath here been said concerning Love as distinguishable chiefly by the several degrees of Estimation conceived for the thing loved it may easily be collected that from Love ariseth Cupidity or Desire whereby the Soul is disposed to covet for the time to come those things which she represent's to herself as convenient and likely to afford her pleasure Thus we desire not onely the presence of an absent good but also the conservation of the good that is present yea we desire likewise the absence of Evil aswell that which is already incumbent as that which we believe possible to come upon us in the future For in Cupidity or Desire of any thing whatsoever which the Soul judges to be wanting to herself she alwaies looketh foreward to the time to come It may be collected also that though Desire cannot be without Love yet Love may be without Desire of possessing or enjoying the object otherwise than by the pure embraces of the will alone And this may be confirmed by observations of the different Motions of the Soul and Spirits raised in these two Passions and the divers symptoms consequent thereunto For In Love when it is not accompanyed either with Cupidity or with vehement Ioy or with Sadness but continues pure and simple the Soul being incited to conjoyn herself in will to objects that appear good and convenient to her and instantly dilated the Animal Spirits are like lightning dispatched from the brain by the nerves instantly into the Heart and by their influx render the pulse thereof more strong and vigorous than is usual and consequently the circulation of the blood more nimble and expedite Whereupon the blood being more copiously diffused by the arteries and more particularly those ascending to the brain carries with it a recruit of vital spirits newly enkindled which being there further sublimed or refined and corroborating the idea or image that the first cogitation hath formed of the thing loved oblige and in some sort compell the the Soul to continue fixed upon that cogitation and continually to indulge the same And herein if I am not much mistaken doth the passion of Love principally consist For they who are affected therewith have their pulse equal the Spirits that cause it being immitted into the Cardiac nerves with an equal and placid motion but stronger and more frequent then ordinary they feel a certain agreable heat diffused in their breast they find their brain invigorated by abundance of Spirits and thereby grow more ingenuous and in fine they digest their meat quickly and perform all actions of life readily and with alacrity All which may be ascribed to the free and expedite but equal Circulution of the blood caused by a copious influx of Animal Spirits into the Heart Whence we may safely conclude that this grateful passion is highly beneficial to all parts of the body and conduceth much to the conservation of health provided it continue within the bounds of moderation But if it exceed them and break forth into a wild and furious desire then on the contrary by degrees enervating the members it at length induceth very great weakness and decay upon the whole body For Love accompanied with vehement desire doth so intirely imploy the Soul in the consideration of the object desired that she retains in the brain the greatest part of the Spirits there to represent to her the image thereof so that the whole stock of nerves and all the Muscles are defrauded of the influx of Spirits from the brain with which they ought to be continualy inspired or invigorated Whence in process of time the whole Oeconomy of nature is perverted and an universal languor ensueth And in Cupidity whereby the Soul is so effused towards good or pleasure represented to her as certainly to come as that she is suddainly checked and contracted again by reflection upon the delay of the same there occurs this Singular that it agitateth the heart more violently and crouds the brain with more legions of spirits than any other of all the passions For out of Desire to obtain what we ardently pursue the Spirits are
of the left into the Aorta or grand Artery the Diaphragm being by abundance of Animal spirits immitted through so many nerves proceeding from the aforesaid Plexus briskly agitated is by nimble contraction drawn upwards and so making many vibrations doth at once raise up the Lungs and force them to expell the blood out of their vessels into the arteria venosa and to explode the aire out of their pipes into the windpipe and this by frequent contractions of their lax and spongy substance answerable in time and quickness to the vibrations of the Midriff And then because the same Intercostal nerve which communicateth with the nerve of the Diaphragm below is conjoyned above also with the nerves of the jaws and muscles of the face thence it is that the motions of Laughter being once begun in the brest the face also is distorted into gestures or grimasces patheticaly correspondent thereunto And this is the most probable account I am able at present to give of the occasions and motions of passionate Laughter in general nor can I at present think of any more plausible conjecture concerning the reason of the admirable laughter of Ludovicus Vives than this that in him the nerves inservient to the motion of the Midriff might be after such a peculiar manner contrived and framed as easily to cause quick and short reciprocations thereof upon the pleasant affection of his Imagination by the grateful relish of his meat after long abstinence which doth alwaies highten the pleasure of refection But we have insisted too long upon the motions of Ioy. In the contrary whereof viz. Grief or Sorrow which we have above described to be an ingrateful languor of the Soul from a conception of evil present moving her to contract herself that she may avoid it the Animal Spirits are indeed recalled inward but slowly and without violence so that the blood being by degrees destitute of a sufficient influx of them is trasmitted through the heart with too slow a motion Whence the pulse is rendered little slow rare and weak and there is felt about the heart a certain oppressive strictness as if the orifices of it were drawn together with a manifest chilness congealing the blood and communicating itself to the rest of the body From which dejecting symptoms it is easy to collect that this dolefull affection especialy if it be vehement and of long continuance cannot but infer many and grievous incommodities to the whole body For besides this that it darkneth the spirits and so dulls the wit obscures the judgment blunts the memory and in a word beclouds the Lucid part of the Soul it doth moreover incrassate the blood by refrigeration and by that reason immoderately constringe the heart cause the lamp of life to burn weakly and dimly induce want of sleep by drying the brain corrupt the nutritive juice and convert it into that Devil of a humor Melancholy No wonder then if in men overcome with this so dismal passion the countenance appears pale wan and liveless the limbs grow heavy and indisposed to motion the flesh decays and consumes through want of nourishment and the whole body be precipated into imbecillity Cachexy or an evil habit languishing and other cold and chronic diseases All which the wisest of Men King Salomon hath summ'd up in few words in 17 Chap. of his Proverbs where he advertiseth that a sorrowful spirit drieth up the very bones And yet notwithstanding it is very rarely found that from Grief either long and obstinate or violent and suddainly invading any man hath fallen into a swoon or been suddenly extinguished Which I am apt to refer to this that in the ventricles of the heart tho but very slowly commoved there can hardly be so smale a quantity of blood but it may suffice to keep alive the vital flame burning therein when the orifices of them are almost closed as commonly they are by immoderate grief Somtimes this bitter passion is signified by a certain uncomely distortion of the face somwhat different from that of Laughter and acompanied with Tears somtimes only by Sighs by Sighs when the Grief is extreme by Tears when it is but moderate For as Laughter never proceeds from great and profound Joy so neither doe Tears flow from profound sorrow according to that of the Tragedian leves curae loquuntur ingentes stupent Nor is weeping the pathognomonic or infallible sign of Grief For all tears are not voluntary every light hurt or pain of the Eyes causing them to distill against our will nor all voluntary ones the effect of Grief Some weep for sudden joy joyned with Love especialy old men some when their Revenge is suddainly frustrated by the repentance and submission of the offender and such are the tears of Reconciliation Some again weep out of Anger when they meet with a repulse or check of their desires which causing them with regret to reflect upon their own weakness and insufficiency to compass their wills affects them with displeasure and dissolves them into tears as if they fell out with themselves upon a sudden sense of their own defect and this kind of weeping is most familiar to Children and Women when they are crossed in their wills and expectation as also to Revengefull Men upon their beholding of those whom they commisserate and their want of power to help them Notwithstanding the Occasions of weeping be thus various yet since Tears are frequently both an effect and testimony of sorrow the nature and motions whereof we have now attempted to explain it can be no impertinent Digression to inquire further into their original or sours and the manner how they are made to flow when we are willing to signify our present sorrow by shedding them As for the Fountain therefore whence all our Tears flow and the Matter whereof they consist the succesful industry of Modern Anatomists hath discovered that in the Glandules placed at each corner of the Eyes there is either from the blood brought thither by the arteries as the vulgar doctrine is or as I upon good reasons elswhere delivered conceive from the Nutritive juice brought by nerves separated and kept in store a certain thin clear and watery humor partly saline partly subacid in tast the use whereof is aswell to keep the globes of the eyes moist and slippery for their more easy motion as to serve for Tears when we have occasion to shed them And to this some have added that because there are certain branches of nerves like the tendrels of a vine incircling the vessells leading to and from those Glandules and by their tension somtimes constringing them therefore it is probable that when the serous humor is too abundant in the blood brought into the brain the same is by the arteries whose pulse is quickned somwhat by the pressure of these nerves brought more copiously than at other times into those Glandules and after its separation there detained from returning by the veins that
some have given the upper hand to that distortion of the countenance accompanied with a loud but inarticulate voice which we call Laughter but this being neither proper to nor inseparable from Ioy cannot therefore belong to it essentialy That it is frequently a concomitant of Mirth or Hilarity is not to be disputed but Mirth is the lowest degree of Joy a light and superficial emotion of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits a kind of short tickling of the Imagination usualy expressed by Laughter whereas Ioy is serious profound and grave according to that memorable Sentence of Seneca epist. 23. res severa est verum gaudium Laughter then as I said is not proper to all Joy because common to some other affections for some are observed to laugh out of Indignation others out of Contempt and disdain neither of which belong to any kind of Joy Nor is it inseparable from Joy because in truth Joy cannot produce Laughter unless when it is very moderate and hath somthing of Admiration or Hate mixt with it For we have it from the oracle of Experience that in great and profound Joy the cause of it whatsoever it be doth never force us to break forth into laughter nay more that we are most easily provoked to laugh when we are sad Whereof the reason seems to be either because in solid Joy the Sensitive Soul is so deeply commoved so intirely taken up with the delight of fruition that she cannot attend to shake the Midriff Lungs and Muscles of the breast nimbly and strongly enough to create laughter or because at that time the Lungs are so distended with blood that they cannot by repeted concussions or alternate contractions and relaxations be further inflated with air whereof no little quantity is required to produce that loud sound emitted in Laughter That we may understand this matter more fully let us examine the cause or occasion and the Motions of Laughter As for the First viz. the Occasion or Motive whatsoever it be there must concur therein these three Conditions following 1. it must be new and surprising because whatsoever is ridiculous at first ceaseth to be so when grown stale 2. it must be such a novelty as may suggest to us a conception of some eminency or advantage in our selves above another whom the occasion chiefly concerns for why are we naturally prone to laugh at either a jest which is nothing but a witty or elegant discovery and representation of some absurdity or indecency of another abstracted from his person or at the mischances and infirmities of others unless from hence that thereby our own abilities are the more set off and illustrated and recommended to us by way of comparison 3. It must not touch our own or our friends honour for in that point we are too tender to tolerate much less to laugh at a jest broken upon our selves or friends of whose dishonour we participate These requisites in a ridiculous cause considered we may adventure to conclude that Laughter is an effect of sudden but light Joy arising from the unexpected discovery of some infirmity in another not our friend and from imagination of our own eminency and exemption from the like Here then you see is something of Admiration from the Novelty something of Aversion from the Infirmity something of Ioy or triumph from our opinion of some eminency in our selves And as for that Laughter which is sometimes joyned with Indignation it is most commonly fictitious or artificial and then it depends intirely upon our will as a voluntary action but when 't is true or Natural it seems likewise to arise from Ioy conceived from hence that we see our selves to be above offence by that evil which is the cause or subject of our indignation and that we feel our selves surprised by the unexpected novelty of the same So that to the production of this Laughter also is required a concurs of Ioy Aversion and Admiration but all moderate If this be so what then shall we think of that odd example of Laughter in Ludovicus vives who writes of himself lib. 3. de Anima cap. de Risu that usually when he began to eat after long fasting he could not forbear to break forth into a fit of loud laughter This doubtless was not voluntary because he strove to suppress it nor could it be Convulsive such as Physicians call Risus Sardonius because he was in perfect health sensible of no pain therein nor incommodity thereupon It must therefore be Natural though not Passionate proceeding from some cause very obscure and idiosyncritical that is peculiar to his constitution perhaps this that in this Learned man either the Lungs were more apt to be distended with blood or the Midriff more easily put into the motions that produce laughter than commonly they are in most other men The First because in general whatsoever causeth the Lungs to be suddenly puffed up and distended with blood causeth also the external action of Laughter unless where sorrow changeth that action into groaning and weeping the other because all Laughter is made chiefly by quick and short vibrations of the Midriff But this rare Phenomenon we shall perhaps be better able to solve when we have considered how the action of Laughter is performed in all other men Concerning this Problem therefore it is observable that in Man there seems to be a greater consent or sympathy or rather commerce of motions betwixt the Midriff and the Heart yea and the Imagination also than in Brutes of what order or tribe soever and that the Reason given hereof by the most accurate of our Modern Anatomists is this that the principal Nerve of the Midriff is rooted in the same Nerve of the Spine named Nervus vertebralis from whence there comes a conspicuous branch into the grand plexus of the Intercostal nerve and that commonly two sometimes three other branches more are derived from that same notable plexus into the very trunk of the Nerve of the Diaphragm as you may see most elegantly represented by Dr. Willis in the 9 th Table of his most elaborate Book de Anatomia Cerebri which are not found in Beasts For from this plenty and singular contexture of nerves it may be conjectured not only why the Diaphragm doth so readily conform its motions to those of the Praecordia and of the Animal Spirits excited in passions of the Mind and cooperate with them but also why Risibility is an affection proper only to Man For as the same most curious Dr. Willis reasoneth in his chapter of the functions and uses of the Intercostal pair of nerves when the Imagination is affected with some pleasant and new conceipt instantly there is caused a brisk and placid motion of the heart as if it sprung up with joy to be alleviated or eased of its burden Wherefore that the blood may be the more speedily discharged out of the right Ventricle of the heart into the Lungs and out