who were of that temper walked after that manner this proposition would be somewhat probable But besides that all those who are robustious walk not so There are those which are not so to whom this gate is natural or at least who in some occasions use it as in Boldness in Pride and the like We must then refer this effect to a more general cause which must not be constant and unchangeable as the temperature is but changeth according to its encounters And truly if it be a Character proper to Boldness it must proceed from the agitation of the Soul whether it serve its design or be done out of necessity Now he that will consider that the Soul which will board the enemy stiffens herself to fortifie herself and begins to raise herself as to make trial of the assault she is going about will judge for the reasons which we have so often alleadged that she ought to inspire the same motions into the organs and consequently that she stiffens them and drives them vigorously So that the march and the other actions of the Body must suffer some change and must be performed after another manner then they were wont to be by reason of that new and extraordinary impression which they receive A man then which is animated with Boldness marcheth with a stiffer and more vigorous pace having a greater number of Muscles which stiffen it and that all his body weighs and rests it self on that foot which upholds it So that he the more strongly treads the ground when he walks wherein the stediness of the things supported consists and because he cannot so readily displace that foot which stands strong under so great a burthen of necessity his pace must be slow and he must go the more heavily But this slowness is recompenced by the greatness and largeness of his steps his strength seconding the desire he had to get to his Enemy mixing if we may so say haste with gravity In pursuit of those motions the Shoulders are moved and stirred as we have said Because all the Body stiffening it self and laying all the weight on the foot it must needs be that changing place and carrying the same burthen to the other the Shoulder must advance and weigh down it self on the same side and this being done with vigor the impetuosity of the motion causeth it to turn somewhat inwardly and passing so from the one to the other it ballanceth all the body in marching Thus then Boldness useth this kinde of gate so that if it be natural and ordinary in some it 's a sign of greatness of Courage because the Soul which hath a secret knowledge of the motions it ought to make by instinct bears it self to this kinde of pace which is proper to Boldness and to Generosity and marching without minding it as if she ought alwayes to affront the Enemy Furthermore Why he stoops his Head when he assaults when a Bold man is near danger and upon the point of assaulting his adversary he stooping his Head throws himself on him whether he thinks he should therewith knock against him or that his desire of fighting makes him advance that part as it doth the rest of them Or that stiffening the Arms to strike the Neck must stiffen it self to support the endeavor of that motion and in pursuit the Muscles shorten themselves and so cause the Head to stoop or in fine because it would cover it self and not give aim to the enemies blows for this reason it is that he bows all his Body that he gathers himself up that he contracts himself and puts himself on his guard to use the terms of Art In the heat of the Combate His Face is inflamed his Eyes become ardent and his sweat runs from all parts Forasmuch as the spirits and the humors cast themselves impetuously to the outward parts and that the heat which the Soul stirs up in this encounter expands it self every way dissolves the humors and causeth them to run through the pores which she keeps open It 's thus That in great endeavors we have often seen blood startle out of the Eyes Lips and other parts and sometimes even from all the Body in form of sweat But when this last happens the transport of the Soul must be excessive For she must be much urged and constrained to do a very extraordinary endeavor after this manner to drive out of the veins this treasure of life He beats the earth with his feet to make his Force and vigor appear and to astonish the enemy by the noise and tempest which at once his Foot his Voice and his blows make He darts himself forth and leaps lightly his forces being augmented by heat and by the motion of the spirits which render him lighter and better disposed His respiration is strong and impetuous because heat is encreased which augments the force of the vital parts and requires a greater refreshment for which cause the Breast and the Lungs extend and enlarge themselves the more to attract the greater quantity of fresh air and they fall with precipitation the more readily to drive away the fumes which the boiling of the spirits and the humor excite The Pulse is great high quick frequent and vehement for the same reasons for the Arteries open and extend themselves very much that they may receive the more air for the refreshing of the spirits and as this opening satisfies not yet the need which presseth the Heart the Soul adds to the greatness of its motion swiftness and frequency the more readily to attract refreshment and the oftner to discharge those fumes which heat raiseth up To conclude Because she gathers together her forces to assault and combate ill we need not doubt but the vital Faculty grows stronger but that she more powerfully moves her organs and that consequently she makes the Pulse more strong and vehement It 's true that all these divers beatings of it are also in Anger but when we speak of that Passion we will shew the difference she makes therein Let 's go to more pleasing subjects which hither to have been observed by no man or at least which our ordinary Philosophy hath not yet examined PART II. CHAP. I. The Characters of Constancy or of the strength of Courage IF it be true that Boldness hath no other function but to assault and combate Constancy is different from Boldness yet is the Soul often obliged to labour in its own defence and simply to resist those ills without daring to assault them there must necessarily therefore be a Passion which must serve it in this encounter and must be different from Boldness And truly fince Passions are motions there must be several Passions where there is a diversity of motion Now the motion which the Soul makes in resisting is altogether different from that which she makes in assaulting whether it be in the manner wherewith it 's agitated or in the end which she hath proposed to
a desperate man sometimes he walks fast slowe or stands still according as Desire Astonishment or Grief possess him So that all his motions going with the spring of other Passions we are not here obliged to their examen but we must remit it to the discourse we will make of every one in particular Now let us to that of those Characters which are purely natural and necessary and wherein it seems the Soul hath no share The eyes are sparkling in Love by reason of the quantity of spirits which flie thither for it is not to be doubted but that from them it is that that resplendent vivacity comes which is so visible in them since they lose it when they retire or disperse themselves as it happens to those who are possest with fear or who die But what addes to augment this lustre w eh appears in the eyes 't is that the Membrane which in virons them being swelled and extended by the confluence of those vapours and spirits becomes more smoothe and consequently more shining and that there is still over it a certain humidity where light resplends and sparkles But whence proceeds this Humidity Is it not that the heat and agitation which the spirits cause in the brain liquifies and makes the humours flow over the eyes for even Tears are so caused in Joy Or rather that those subtil vapours of blood which the Soul drives with impetuosity flie out and presently thicken by reason of the coldness of the air and of the Membranes And indeed here the eyes are hollow and sunk though they still seem great and humid which would not be if this humidity came from the humours which fall from the brain for they would fill the parts which are all about the eye and would keep it lifted up And therefore this humidity must come from within and the muscles and fleshie parts which inviron it must shrink for as their substance is soft and is made of a very subtil blood it falls and dissolves presently whence it happens that the eye sinks but its body remains still full moist and sparkling by reason of the vapours and spirits which incessantly gather there Unless it be at last when the long continuance of the Malady Grief and Despair have quenched the natural heat which makes the eyes lose their splendor and vivacity and become obscure dry and set as we will shew in the Chapter of Grief where we will also give a reason for Tears which are so common to Lovers The redness which love so often makes appear on the forehead hath a cause to be discovered of no small difficulty For although it be easie to say that the blood riseth into the face in all those Passions wherein the soul drives out the spirits yet there are those which carry it rather to one place then to another The redness which Choler excites begins by the eyes that of Shame by the extremities of the cheeks and ears and that of Love by the forehead And 't is from this diversity that the cause of this effect is most difficult to be found out Yet I think that we may say for what concerns Anger that the eyes being the first wherein the Passions appear are also the first sensible of the motions of the Spirits Now as the blood boils in Anger and as the Tempest which agitates it drives it with disorder and confusion to the exteriour parts thence it comes that the spirits which run to the eyes draw along with it the waves of this agitated blood which swells their veins and makes them appear red in stead that in other Passions they carry with them the purest and most subtil parts of the blood which cannot cause this effect And it is therefore true that Anger causeth redness to arise in the face sooner then any other Passion and that it begins to discover it in the eyes because the blood follows the spirits which gather in that place rather then in any other As for Shame you must know that the Soul which is moved therewith at the same time forms a designe both to resist and flee the ill and we may say that fleeing she assaults it for which cause it forceth the blood to the face to drive it away but Fear at the same time makes it retire back whence it happens that the extremities of the cheeks and ears grow red as in its place shall be more amply discoursed Let us now examine the redness which Love brings into the Forehead Should it not proceed from Joy wherein the spirits after having united themselves to the good which the soul conceives overflow the neighbouring parts For if it be so the forehead must first resent it Or else the Imagination being placed in the fore-part of the brain that part is heated by the continual agitation of the spirits and after its alteration communicates it to the forehead wherewith as Physick teacheth it hath a great sympathy And indeed since paleness which appears in the rest of the face happens often from the transport of spirits into the brain it s very likely either that there is a reflux made on the neerest parts or that they are sensible of the heat which they there cause whence it happens that they are less pale and wan then the rest Now although this redness be particular to Love that of other Passions forbears not to encounter therewith and it may happen that a Lover may blush for Shame for Anger for Joy or Desire according as those Passions mixe themselves with this but this is no place to speake of them The lips are often red and moyst by the arrival of the vaporous blood which sheds it self in the face and which so easily colours those parts by reason of their softness and the delicacy of their skin and this chiefly happens at the beginning of those motions which are so frequent in this passion for at last those parts grow dry and pale whether the heat consume the sweetest and most subtil parts of the blood or that the spirits in their retreat carry them back again inwardly and so leave paleness and driness on the lips But whence chanceth it that the under lip sometimes trembles you must not beleeve it an effect of Fear or of Anger since it happens in the highest heat of Love it s then very likely that the spirits which the Desire drives in a crowd sparkle in those places and cause that part which is very moveable and without that support which the rest have to shake and 't is in that encounter that it sometimes grows white with a subtil foam the humidity which riseth in the mouth and which sheds it self on the lips being agitated by these spirits The tongue faulters because that the soul which is distracted with Passion thinks not upon the words it is to form and retires the spirits which should serve for that action to those places where she is employed whence it happens that the tongue stops or loosly
moves it self and that infirmity looseth the speech or if we do speak it is with pain and stammering whereto the quantity of humors also contributes which through Desire fill the mouth for it hinders that the tongue cannot so easily turn it self and that it strikes not the voice clearly Besides the distraction we now speak of is also a cause that Lovers hear not half what others say and that their discourse is commonly confused extravagant Even the sighs wh ch every moment cut one another owe their first original to that great attention of spirit which diverts the soul and makes it lose the remembrance of the most necessary actions of life for sending not spirits enough to cause respiration the lungs beat but slowly and the heart draws not that help which is expected from their service forasmuch as they furnish not it sufficiently with air to temper that fire which this Passion kindles and that they discharge it not often enough of those fumes and vapors which the agitation of the humors raiseth there Now after this disorder hath continued some time and that at last it might ruine all the natural ceonomy the soul being urged by necessity awakes again and seeks to supply its defect by these great and extraordinary respirations and indeed sighs are principally begot at the issue out of some thought which hath forcibly detained the minde and not whilst it was employed therein The face grows pale whether it be that the spirits retire within the brain as we have already said or because that in the progress of this Passion the stomack grows weak and the blood changeth for since that the diversion of the spirits diverts also the heat vertue which ought to pass into the stomack to cause digestion you must not wonder if it become languishing if the aliments change into crudities and if the blood it makes be impure since that the last concoction corrects not the defects of the former But what helps forward this disorder is the continual ardor which this Passion kindles in the blood and the several agitations which Fear Grief and Anger at every moment excite for that dissipates the spirits and makes the faculties become languishing and the humors enflame and corrupt themselves which at last grows to that Erotick sickness which the Physitians place in the ranck of folly and fury The blood being then in this condition retains no more nether its vertue nor its natural colour It becomes useless to the nourishment of the parts and no longer communicates that pleasing vermillion which formerly it bestowed upon them and so they must needs become pale lean and withered By the same reason the appetite is lost because that the beloved object occupying all the thoughts of the Soul takes away its care of all the functions of Life the spirits being also diverted no longer bear into the stomack that sentiment which causeth the appetite In fine the disorder which is in the humors and in all the natural parts hinders this from performing its function Sleep being the rest of common sence of the spirits seldom happens in violent Passions detaining the Soul and the body in a continual agitation but Love endures it less then the rest because that besides the tempest it raiseth it at last corrupts the blood whose vapours are sharp and which consequently want that sweet humidity which Iulleth the Senses It s true that langour and weariness sometimes procure it because the soul knows that life cannot subsist without it and that after so great a dissipation of spirits its necessary to repair them to which end it gathers them together and stays them For although this moist vapor which commonly provokes sleep happen not here as we said but now yet must we not beleeve that sleep can come by no other means it hath two ordinary and natural causes the vapor which stops the passage of the spirits and the soul which binds and stays them now here being no vapor to produce this effect necessity obligeth the soul to labour it alone of her self But this sleep is interrupted with dreams which continually agitate the minde forasmuch as the imagination which in that condition loseth not the liberty of working and being full of those images which Passion suggests turns over continually confounds and augments them so that they always present to it things greater then in effect they are and afterwards form in the appetite more powerful motions then the true objects would do The remembrance or the unexpected arrival of the beloved party swels the heart and the pulse because the soul dilates the organs to receive the good and to send forth spirits to its encounter a great difficulty upon this occasion is proposed to wit whether Love have a kind of pulse proper to it alone for that some have vaunted the discovery of this Passion by the beating of the arteries But without stopping at the contests which are formed hereupon we will boldly say that there is no more reason to give one which is proper to Anger and to Grief then to Love That the heart can no less resent the motion which this Passion causeth in the appetite then it can that which the others excite and that the organs moving conformably to the intention of the minde this part must be otherwise agitated in Love then in other passions since it hath a diffent designe from what the others have It s true its hard exactly to discover this difference because men have made no just observation thereof and perhaps it is impossible to make it for that the heart is shut up in the Center of the Body and that it suffers motions which it communicates not with the arteries yet amongst such kinds of pulses as have been observed we may yet find some one which particularly belongs to Love To understand this you must know that the heart hath many motions which are common to several Passions for it dilates it self in Joy in Hope and in Anger and contracts it self in Grief and in Fear and in Despair in some it goes quick and with violence in others slow and languishing and its certain these general differences cannot all alone mark those which are proper to every Passion but as Physick teacheth us that there are twenty kinds of simple pulses and that they may diversly mix the one with the other every Passion may finde in this great variety that kind which is proper to it thus the pulse of Anger is not only great and lifted up or quick or frequent or vehement but it is composed of all these differences That of Fear is quick hard unequal and irregular That of Joy is great rare and slow That of Grief is weak little slow and rare and as they say these are the kindes of pulses which are proper to these Passions we may also observe in the same manner one proper to Love and indeed therein the beating of the arteries is great large unequal and irregular it
it self desirable so that it is never content and that it is rather weary of the good which entertains it then fully satisfied therewith But we have spoken enough of the trouble it moves in the Minde let us see what it causeth in the Face There are some pleasures of which we may say the Soul is jealous which it seems she would possess in secret and which she dares not communicate to the Senses But what care soever she takes to hide them she cannot do it so well but she must discover something her retreat renders her suspected and when she would hide 't is then she the more discovers her self For the looks become fixt and staid all the body is immoveable the Senses forget their functions in fine there is a general suspension made of all the animal vertues And although at first we might doubt whether it proceeds from astonishment or grief which often produce the same effects 't is afterwards discovered by a certain gloss which remains on the face and by I know not what sweetness which it leaves in the eyes and by a light image of smiling which appears on the lips that these troublesome Passions have no share in this transport and that it comes from that inward joy which ravisheth and as it were inebriates the soul But when Pleasure hath the liberty to disperse it self abroad and that the Senses bear a part and that the Minde and the Body seem to enter again into commerce and intelligence then it is easie to know the agitation which is made in the soul by what appears in the exteriour parts You see on the face a certain vivacity a pleasing disquiet and a laughing boldness Pleasure sparkles in the eyes sweetness accompanies all their motions and when they happen to weep or to cast forth some dying looks you would say Laughter confounded it self with Tears and that Jollity mixed it self with Languishings The Forehead is in this calm and serene the eye-brows are not lifted up with wrinkles nor with clouds and it seems as if it opened and every way extended it self The Lips are red and moist and are never forsaken by smiles and that light trembling which sometimes happens to them would make one think they danced for joy The Voice becomes greater then ordinary sometimes it is resounding and it never goes out but with earnestness for there is no Passion so talkative as Joy how barren soever the Minde be what heaviness soever there be on the tongue it makes one speak continually and nothing but its own violence sometimes stops the mouth and at once cuts short the speech To conclude all the face takes an extraordinary good plight and from pale melancholy and severe which it was before it becomes ruddy affable and pleased The rest of the body is also sensible of this alteration A sweet heat vapor sheds it self thorow all its parts which swells and gives them a lively colour even they become stronger and do their actions more perfectly then they did before In effect of all the motions of the Minde there is none more a friend to Health then this so as it be not extreme It drives away sickness it purifies the blood and the spirits and renders as the Wise man says our yeers flourishing As soon as it enters the heart it swells it with great beatings it lifts up the heart by long respirations In the Arteries it causeth a large and extended pulse And yet although all these motions are made slowly and without vehemency those of the other parts are made with precipitation and vigour The head and the eyes are in a continual agitation the hands move without ceasing we go we come we leap we cannot stay in one place But it sometimes also happens that the violence of this Passion takes quite away the use of Sense and Motion it quencheth natural heat it causeth syncopes and in a moment bereaves one of life Let us then examine how it can produce so many effects so contrary and so wonderful PART 2. Of the Nature of JOY SOme perhapes may think it strange that Joy which speaks so much of it self hath not as yet told what it was but you may much more wonder that Philosophy which promiseth us the knowledge of all things falls short in this although there be nothing which endeavours more to make it self known then Pleasure It penetrates to the bottome of our soul it environs it on all sides it sollicites it by all the wayes of its knowledge it is the end of all its desires the crown of all its actions and yet for all that its nature is unknown to it and the greatest understandings which have enquired it are not agreed under what kinde it ought to be placed For some have said that Pleasure was nothing but the rest and tranquillity of the minde others that it was a Passion in which the Soul operated not and amongst those who have ranked it amongst actions some did beleeve it proceeded not from appetite but from knowledge In fine there having been some who not daring to put it in the rank of other Passions have said it was the principle of them others that it was their gender or their first species Had we not banished from our designe the wrangling and the Criticisms of the Schools we should be obliged to examine all these opinions and to seek in their ruines foundations whereon we should build the definition and Idea of Pleasure But since we have not that liberty and that we should render delight importunate and unpleasing by the length of the discourses we should use without advising with any we will consult the thing it self and see whether it will discover it self to us after having hid it self to so many excellent spirits We say then that we need not doubt but that Pleasure is a motion of the mind and that its impossible to conceive a calm and rest in the tempest which it raiseth in our thoughts in our spirits and in our humors as those things doe not move of themselves it must be the minde which agitates them and she gives her self the same shake which she imprints in them For it is evident that effects being like their causes the motions of the body which are the effects of the minde ought also to be the images of the agitation she gives her self I know well that the Schooles will not call these agitations true motions but that stops us not it will suffice that they are such as the soul can have that pleasure is one of that order But yet as she hath two parts which may be moved we might doubt to which of the two Pleasure belongs for although all the world confess it is a Passion and consequently a motion of the appetite yet it seems that there are some which are proper to knowledge since the Senses and the understanding finde a complacency in the objects which are conformable to them even before that the appetite is moved
a joyful man for you will finde therein I know not what kinde of a more pleasing vivacity a clearer and purer splendor and a sweeter heat then in all the Passions we have made mention of by reason that the purity of the spirits is not changed by those sharp and darksome fumes which are raised in the rest and that their motion is more free more equal and more conformable to their nature it might be asked whether this effusion of spirits be onely made in those places where Good is presented to the soul and truly it s there only necessary for it since they onely disperse themselves to possess this good and that good toucheth it nowhere but where it makes it self known yet it is true that it abundantly pours them into the intrails and that when Joy is high there is no part which it over-flowes not for which cause the heart and the lungs loosen themselves as Hippocrates says we are sensible of I know not what pleasing emotion which moves all the interior parts and a sweet heat and vapor which disperseth it self through the whole body Now this happens according to my opinion from that the sensitive soul hath not always a clear and certain knowledge of its object and being charmed by that of Joy she fancies that she ought everywhere to encounter it and that she ough also to send spirits every way to entertain it or rather the urgency which presseth her forwards to the quick enjoyment of the presented good is the reason she drives them on all sides without choice or order or so much as discerning the places whether they are to move This shall suffice for the knowledge of the Motion of the spirits in Joy in pursuit of the examen we have already made in the Treatise of Love But one difficulty remaines which the former discourse hath bred and whose resolution will give some light to the obscurity of this matter for we have said that the spirits are not agitated here with violence and that their motion is always sweet and calm although this seem not to agree with the transports the ravishments and the excesses which are so common in this Passion and which cannot be conceived without a violent agitation of the spirits And in effect when we compared this motion with that which is made in Love we were not afraid to say that they were driven in Joy as a great wave and that it seemed then as if the soul would cast it self wholly and all at once before its object So that it being not to be done without violence and having certified that there was none in the effusion of the spirits we cannot escape the reproach to have spoken contrary to Truth and against Our Selves Yet it is very easie to answer this Objection remembring that Joy and Love are inseparable and that these two Passions being for that cause often considered as if they were but one onely these Motions were also confounded with their effects so that Love drawing the spirits from the heart and driving them out we commonly say that Joy also transports them And as this motion is made with violence and causeth troublesome accidents the same thing may be said of Joy For thus we discoursed of it in the former Chapter where we did not absolutely compare Love with Joy but onely the love of Beauty with the love of other things wherein Joy causeth faintings and syncopes confounding as commonly they do these two Passions in one But here where we make an exact Anatomy of them we separate the motions of the one from the other and conclude that the transport of the spirits towards Good is a particular effect of Love and that the effusion which follows it is that of Joy So that if there be violence in the first motion it proceeds all from Love Pleasure hath no share in it and how impetuous soever it be it must break and soften it self when the spirits begin to disperse themselves otherwise Joy would destroy it self by that troublesome sensibleness which that impetuous and turbulent motion would excite in the parts Yet it follows not that because this effusion is not violent and impetuous it must be made slowly for the spirits are such stirring and subtil bodies that they without resistance penetrate everywhere and their motions are so quick that nothing in Nature could be found to compare them to but Light and it is by that also that we can make appear how they disperse themselves in Joy For it in a moment insinuates it self in Diaphanous bodies without violence and without confusion runs thorow all their parts without constraint dilates and extends it self and we might say that had these bodies any knowledge they would be sensible of an extreme pleasure in that sweet although sudden effusion of Light So is it with that which is made in Joy for after the soul hath carried the spirits towards its Good and that she believes she hath united them together she leaves that pressing that disquiet and precipitation which she caused before that she might arrive there and thinking she can then with security enjoy the good she possesseth she with liberty dilates her self without hinderance extends her self and in an instant penetrates all the parts of her object causing the spirits to move in the same manner which she findes always obedient to her command It is true that in pursuit thereof there is a great dissipation of them made which the soul takes no care to repair being wholly employed in the enjoyment of the good she pursued and being as it were charmed and ravished with her good fortune whence those weaknesses follow those faintings and those other actions of which we have already spoken PART 4. The causes of the Characters of Joy YOu have seen what we had to say of the nature of this Passion before we enquire the causes of those Characters which make it appear Let us then now examine first the Moral actions and enquire why Joy is so talkative so vain and so credulous why it confides so much in it self why it makes it self to be defired even when it is present and why it is so soon weary of the Good which begot it For these are the most observable effects which it produceth in the Minde and whence it seems the rest proceed Let us seek then the causes of its Prattle There are Passions which will always speak and others which love to be silent Silence commonly accompanies grief despair and fear Joy boldness and anger and generally all those which move towards Good or resist Ill are given to Talk but none so much as Joy all the rest seem to drive out their words and cast them forth with violence as if they were a burden which the soul would discharge this dispenseth them with liberty makes them flow with pleasure and we may say that it is rather abundance then constraint which sends them forth Indeed Joy is full of babble is pleased to
talk and always findes wherewith to entertain its chat The reason hereof is easie enough to be discovered if you consider that words being the images of the thoughts to say many things divers thoughts must form themselves in the Minde that they must have liberty to issue that the organs must be disposed to express them Now as Imagination is the source of the thoughts and that it is more or less fruitful according as it is more or less active and that all its vivacity depends from that of the spirits which serve it in its operations it is necessary for great talkers that the spirits should be extremely active and that the organs of the speech should be very moveable And therefore since it is heat which renders the spirits active and that humidity renders the body supple and pliable these two qualities must be found in those who speak much And besides the Judgement must not be so strong as the Imagination that it may not severely examine the thoughts that it may not withhold them but that they may all freely vent themselves This is the reason why young folks and women the sanguine and the flegmatick talk more then others why wine good chear and folly provoke talk so much and why birds most commonly sing when they wooe because being naturally provoked to get their young ones their blood works and becomes fumy their spirits increase and kindle and afterwards agitate the Imagination and the organs of the voice Which being supposed it is easie to know why these Passions which move towards Good or resist Ill cause us to speak more then the others do Because in the designe they have to go out the Spirits must carry themselves to the Brain and to the exteriour parts which augments the heat and disperseth the humors in pursuit moves the Imagination and makes the organs beoom more moveable So that all these dispositions meeting with the weakness of the Judgement which accompanies all the Passions a great flood of words must necessarily follow there And chiefly in Joy since by it the Soul dilates and diffuseth it self and that there is nothing whereby it can more disperse it then by speech which is the true flowing of the thoughts besides that the Imagination is freer in this Passion then in the rest in which either the absence of the good or the presence of the ill constrain it and involve it in cares which it hath not in Joy possessing its good with security and confidence without distraction and without finding any obstacle to stop its conceptions or hinder the issue of them For what concerns Confidence as 't is a Passion which perswades us that ill is far from us and that although it should present it self we have power enough to overcome it we need not doubt but those who are joyful and content are of the same belief being in possession of Good For Good hath that property that by its presence it estrangeth ill and fortifies the soul in the enjoyment thereof because that in perfecting of it it in some manner increaseth it makes it appeare greater more vigorous then it was Considering that being wholly occupied and ravished in the enjoyment of Good and not minding those difficulties which may traverse its designes it trusts that it can have no ill success and filling it self thus with good hopes it believes and undertakes all and nothing seems difficult unto it But what foments its audacity the more 't is the heat it stirs up in all the parts For as this quality is the principle of all the vigour they have the Soul which perceives how she hath enlarged her self perswades her self that her strength is also increased and consequently imagines that she is the more secure having so much affistance both to assault and resist Ill. Now because this vain Confidence is a kinde of Pride which lifts up the Minde above it self and flatters it with an imaginary excellency thence it happens that the Joy thereof is commonly Insolent and Presumptuous that it loves to be flattered and easily falls into the praises of it self being as it is so babling and so greedy to express it self Yet this presumption hinders it not from being Complacent Facile and Credulous although pride render men opinionate and untractable because that entertaining it self but with the vain hopes it conceives and justling onely those which oppose them it willingly hears those which favour them and is easily perswaded by their flattery its confidence making it fancy all things possible besides the possession it hath of good is that which produceth and foments it it follows the qualities of good which is to communicate it self and so consequently renders it self sociable easie and complacent But how can joy leave in the soul a desire of it self seeing it is there present and that it seems it is a thing incompatible with that satiety which we said it brought To resolve this difficulty we must suppose that pleasure may be present two manner of ways when it actually toucheth the soul or when memory calls it back to the thoughts necessarily begetting desire forasmuch as it s conceived as a thing which is no more and which yet leaves in the memory all those allurements which render it desireable the other being actually present cannot in that respect be wished for for that desire moves only towards those things which we have not but onely then what we conceive something which we do not yet possess as when we desire the continuation of it or that the delightful object doth not wholly or all at once present it self to our knowledge and then what remains to be possest entertains and enflames the desire Now the object presents it self not all at once either by its own defect or by that of the power which receives it for there are things which we cannot enjoy but by a succession of time and which must be several times retaken to get an entire and perfect possession of them Thus an excellent discourse a sweet musick lecture the delight of eating and drinking require time and several repetitions to be throughly possest But there are others also which depend not on time and yet wherein the soul must employ it to have a perfect enjoyment of them whether it be by reason of the difficulties it meets as in the enquiry of Sciences or by reason of their excellency that they cannot all at once be comprehended and wherein it always findes new subjects of admiration Such is the knowledge which we have here below of Divine things which cause that torrent of delight to flow into the will which never quencheth its drought and always leaves it an ardent thirst which even Eternity it self cannot quench Thus see you have how Pleasure can beget desire let us now see how it can cause Satiety It is evident that things may satisfie two wayes either when they no longer flatter the Senses with pleasure or when they disgust them False
In fine it is from thence that all natural vertues draw their force and vigour for as they do not work but by the assistance of the spirits when they come and shed themselves on the organs they must necessarily grow stronger and their functions must be done more perfectly so there are no ill humours which may corrupt the purity of the blood seeing the vertue which concocts them is always mistris of them and that which expels them findes them obedient for the spirits melt them and send them to the surface and open the passages to let them out So that it is true there is no Passion which is so great friend to health as Joy so as it be moderate for if it be excessive it changeth all natural oeconomy it quencheth the heat of the intrails and at last by Mortal Syncopes or by incurable languors it causes even the loss of our lives We have already touched the Reasons in the former Discourse where we shewed that Love and Joy carried the spirits abroad with precipitation it often happens that in the violence of that transport they lose the union which they should have with their principle whence follow Faintings and Syncopes For I doe not esteem that the dissipation of the Spirits as is commonly said is the principal cause of those actions since so many watchings so many toyles so many sicknesses which dissipate them more then any Passion whatsoever cause not these sad Symptomes but according to my opinion it comes from that they disunite and separate themselves from the heart and that the Soul being unable to animate the separated parts or communicate any vertue to them the actions which they ought to do must cease by this separation which the vehemency of their motion caused This is the cause why water cast on the face oft-times puts away those faintings and sends back the straggling spirits to the heart which would not be were they quite lost It is not but that here they make a great dissipation as they abundantly disperse themselves on all the parts and principally on the outward and the soul which is wholly occupied in the enjoyment of good takes no care to continue the course and to produce new ones it must necessarily make a great loss of them and consequently natural heat must diminish whence comes weakness and the languishing of the parts the corruption of the humours corroding diseases and at last death It might be demanded why Joy causeth death rather then Love or Anger but we have shewed this in the particular discourse of the Passions There remains nothing now but the Motions of the Heart of the Arteries and of Respiration to be examined which are all alike in this that they are great rare slow and without vehemency unless this Passion be excessive for then they become little weak and frequent and even often they quite cease to be The hearts motion then is rare and flow because the heat is not vehement having sent it with the spirits towards the outward parts So that having no need of any great refreshing it hasts not so much to move considering that also the soul which is ravished in the enjoyment of good minds not the motion of the heart but as it is urged by necessity whence it comes that it moves slowly and with great intervalls But to supply its negligence it every time very much opens and extends it recompencing its neglect by the greatness of its motion Now because there must be always some vigour thus to open and extend that part when the violence of the Passion hath dissipated its forces the motion of the heart must become weak and little and the necessity it hath to move for the generation of spirits renders it quick and frequent because it cannot supply its slowness by the greatness of the motion So that if the weakness be extreme it loseth also its swiftness and so becomes slow and rare and at last quite ceaseth The same is done in the Pulse and in Respiration for they have the same customs and the same causes with the hearts motion as Physick teacheth us CHAP. IV. The Characters of Laughter I Know not why Socrates heretofore said that Man was a ridiculous creature But I know if any reason can make it credible we need go no further to seek it then in Laughter it self since there is nothing so ridiculous as to see him who undertakes to control all Nature and who believes himself to be her Confident to be ignorant of what is most proper and familiar to him To laugh at every moment without knowing wherefore and to know neither the subjects nor the motions which form this Passion For all the great men of the past ages which have enquired the causes thereof have freely confess'd that their mindes were incapable of that knowledge remitting us to that Philosopher who laughed continually and that it was hid in the same depth wherein he had enclosed the Truth Now although we do not think our selves clearer sighted then they yet our designe having obliged us to handle this Subject we are constrained to go beyond them and to undertake a thing wherein they lost their courage But what success soever we have the Discourse cannot but divert and please us for if it do not discover the nature of Laughter yet it will at least augment the number of ridiculous things To begin therefore according to the Order we have hitherto observed we must first draw the picture thereof and then enquire the causes which produce it Now as it may be weak mean or vehement it is certain that we are chiefly to observe the Characters of the later because that in all kinde of things the Greater is always to be the measure of the Lesser because its effects are more sensible then the others nay we may even say that there are no Passions how violent soever which cause such great alterations in the body as this doth For if you consider the Face The Forehead extends it self the Eye brows decline themselves the Lids contract themselves at the corners of the eyes and all the skin about them becomes uneven and wrinkles it self all over the Eyes extenuate and half shut themselves they grow sparkling and humid and even those from which Grief could never draw a tear are then obliged to weep the Nose crumples up and grows sharp the Lips retire and lengthen themselves the Teeth discover themselves the Cheeks lift themselves up grow more firm and sometimes the middle of them sweetly hollows it self and forms those delightful pits wherein the Poets lodg'd Laughter with the Graces the Mouth which is forced to open it self discovers the trembling and suspended Tongue and the Voice which issues is nothing but a piercing and interrupted sound which cannot be stopped which ends onely with the loss of our breath the Neck swells and shortens it self all the Veins are great and extended a certain sweet splendor disperseth it self over all the
have already spoken we shall without difficulty enquire the reasons and send back the Reader to the place whence we deduced them For sighs and extasies loss of speech sleep and appetite have herein no other causes but as in Love The face grows red and swell'd by the arrival of blood and spirits which cast themselves on the outward parts as is already said Tears proceed from grief which the privation of Good too attentively considered breeds in the Minde The motion of the heart and arteries is great because the soul endeavours to open them to send forth a quantity of spirits frequent because of the violence and haste it makes to get them out and unequal by the mixture of other Passions The body grows lean and dry because those parts which digest the humours and those which are to be nourished by them being weakned by the flight of the spirits perform it not as they ought and cannot convert them into their substance as was said in the Discourse of Love There remains nothing now but an effect of Desire which being extraordinary deserves a longer examen then the former It is that a too ardent Desire makes a man grow old in a day as Theorictus that is to say makes the hair gray in a short time according to the ordinary explication of that passage For my part I must confess that the observation is particular enough and I do not remember that I have seen it anywhere but in that Author But since the same thing happens in Fear and in Despair which in a night change the hair and that cares and displeasures make a man grow gray before his time it is impossible but Desire may sometimes cause the same effect all the difficulty is to know how it may be done You must then suppose with Aristotle that hair grows gray for want of heat fit and natural for it that it then suffers a kind of corruption and rottenness and that it happens as to all other things that in corrupting it turns white in effect we cannot deny but that it is the old age of the hair And since that of all the body happens from the diminution of natural heat it is likely it proceeds from the same cause when this heat then diminisheth it produceth two effects in the hair for the aliment which ought to nourish it digests not but flies into vapours and the air fills the place of the Spirits Now vapours contain much air and air is the first cause of whiteness as we see in scum and experience teacheth us that to make the hair white we must wet and expose it to the air And it is true that heat growing weak either by little and little or suddenly indigestion is the chief cause of whiteness of hair when the heat is consumed by dely grees but when it readily dissipates as it happens in sicknessess and vehement Passions it is chiefly the air which whitens it sliding into the pores and taking the place of the retired spirits Some will say If this be true the hair of dead men should be always white natural heat being extinct and the air environing them might easily insinuate it self into its pores To this it must be answered that after death there remains a natural heat in the hair as in the bones which are long preserved after the expiration of the creature whose parts they were But this heat is immoveable and incapable of any fruition of life being deprived of the souls influence which gave it efficacie and motion So there are no more crudities made because the aliments rise no more thither and the air cannot occupie the place of the spirits which are there fixt and stopt Certainly we cannot but confess that the soul inspires some vertue into those parts that she takes some care of them and that she governs them as she pleaseth otherwise what should cause that delightful and regular painting in the plumage of Birds what should so justly compass the eye-brows what should so carefully regulate the hair of the eye-lids lastly what should cause all that so wel measur'd a diversity which is to be observed in the hair of beasts As that commonly follows the species of every creature it must needs be that the soul wherein it is contained conduceth also to this work and that she at her pleasure disposeth of those parts wherein she causeth so many wonders This being granted it is not hard to say how Fear Desire and Cares may change the hair for in retiring the spirits they derive it of the influence it received from them they dry up that spring of life which did rise to its roots and draw away that vital heat which ran thorow its pores It is true this seldom happens and there must be a great violence and a great disposition to produce this effect For there are certain actions from which it is very difficult to withdraw Nature and what tempest soever happens to it she but seldome forsakes their rudder and conduct Such are the functions of the Vegetative soul which are principally made by the means of the fixt spirits and being not subject to the power of the Imagination or of the Appetite remain quiet whilst the others erre here and there and are agitated by the several motions which the Passions impress But yet it sometimes happens that by reason of the conjunction which there is between the parts of the soul the disorders of the one are communicated to the other and that the Natural faculty is carried away by the Sensitive principally in those whose spirits are more mobile and the substance of their parts more soft So that those persons whose imagination is very strong and who have the weakest brain more easily grow gray then other men by the violence of those Passions which we have spoken of CHAP. VI. The Characters of Hope HE who gave away all he had and reserved onely Hope made not so ill a bargain as it may be imagined He took for himself that which is the sweetest in life the most durable Good which can be found therein In a word we may say that he had for his share all what he had not and that he truely divided for himself like a King Indeed as there are no other Goods whereof we are sensible but those which we possess and those which we hope for it is certain that possession affords not a perfect contentment here belowe for that it cloys the Minde and takes away the knowledge of the good it possesseth that it even corrupts the Nature of it and straight begets a distaste But Hope which awakens the Minde and renders it clearer-sighted represents the Good as it is shews it in its purity and gives a far more delicious taste of it then Enjoyment can For it is so ingenious that it separates it self from all the Ills which are mixt with it it purifies it self from all the defects which accompany it and as we may say that it is then the
her self in her self and afterwards inspiring the same motion to the spirits and the rest of the organs which may be serviceable to her in this occasion in pursuit whereof it follows that a mans color changeth not that his looks are staid and that without growing pale or without any disturbance he looks on the most formidable things because the spirits which are mixt with the humors and which cause all the other parts to move stiffening themselves render them firm and settled and by that means hinder the blood from shedding it self abroad or from retiring inwardly not that those other motions of the Body either restrain or render themselves impetuous This then is the agitation which the spirits suffer in the beginnings of Boldness or to speak better in those preparatives which the Sonl makes for this Passion For Resolution Hope Confidence and Staiedness of Courage which are the fore-runners thereof require this kind of motion and without it can neither form themselves nor subsist But after the Enemies approach and that the Soul is risen up to assault and fight him she moves the Spirits in the same manner and all stiffened as they are she with impetuosity drives them forth to the exterior parts and so carries redness to the face ardor and vivacity to the eyes and violence to all the motions as we shall hereafter declare Now to explain how this darting forth is made we ought here to repeat all what hath been said in the Chapter of Desire for there is no difference in the motions of these two Passions as to the agitation since both in the one and the other the Soul issues as it were out of it self and casts it self towards the object which moves it They are onely unlike in the end she therein proposeth herself since in Desire she carries herself towards good that she may get near it and thereby afterwards enjoy it and in Boldness she darts herself towards ill that she may combate and overcome it It 's therefore here we must seek that satisfaction which this subject requires As also in the Discourse of Hope that which is necessary to make us understand how the spirits settle and dart forth themselves at the same time we are onely to observe that when we said that the motions of Desire and of Boldness were alike it ought to be understood in this darting forth For its certain that the Soul never stiffens it self in Desire unless it be accompanied with Hope with Boldness or with Anger forasmuch as she stiffens herself onely to fortifie herself and that she needs not employ her strength unless difficulties present themselves which are not in the Passions of the Concupiscible part as elsewhere hath been already said Now the first thing which follows this motion Whence the Heat comes that raiseth up it self in Boldness is the heat which sheds it self over all the Body and which by degrees augments it self and proportionably as the impetuosity grows greater For at first before the spirits darted themselves forth when they kept themselves onely firm this quality was very moderate as it is to be found in Hope but when they begin to make their fallies and dartings which drive and throw them forth it 's then that it becomes violent and that at last it inflames all the parts But the difficulty is to know whence this heat proceeds for although there be an appearance which the agitation of the heart and of the spirits causeth since it 's a Maxim received in the Schools That Motion hath the vertue to produce yet besides the experience which we learn that Air and Water cool themselves by agitation and that the shock and encounter of Bodies by which we say heat is engendred hath no place in those which are subtile and fluid it is certain that there are Passions where the heart and the Spirits have a very quick and impetuous motion as we see in Fear yet even in them heat augments not but even weakens it self For my part I beleeve that without sticking at common opinions we may say that the Heart being the source of heat hath also the vertue of producing it and that being to lose this quality as a general instrument of all the functions of life it must have the power to augment it according to the need we may have Why should we deny it this Faculty since there is no form which produceth not those qualities which are necessary unto it The Water of it self alone doth it not take back again the cold which was taken from it Doth not the Earth also recover the driness it lost but what is most considerable Doth not Heat augment it self in presence of its contrary And if it be true that that which inflames the Heart in violent passions proceeds not from motion as we have shewn even now what other source can it have but this secret vertue we speak of In fine since the Soul resides in this part as in its Throne and that she is therein stronger then in any other part what need we doubt but she helps this production She who in her self contains the vertue of all inferior things as we have shewed in the discourse of Light We must therefore beleeve that the Soul and the Heart augment the natural heat when it is necessary and that in performing their endeavor and stirring it self to produce it they cause it to issue out of those principles where she potentially was Besides Since the Soul hath Forces which she imploys when she will which she awakes and stirs up at her need she must needs have the same power over natural heat which is the most considerable part thereof and that she may raise it up and encrease it when its help is necessary And certainly as the motive Vertue contains in potentia the motion which it afterwards produceth when it hath received the orders of the Appetite So the Vital Faculty hath in it self a secret source of Heat which it stirs up and brings to light if we may so speak when the Soul commands and judgeth it necessary Now there is no occasion wherein this succour is more profitable for her then when she expects the ill either to resist or to combate it because she hath then need of its Forces which principally consists in heat as we have made it appear in the precedent Discourses But forasmuch as there needs more Forces to assault then to resist that is the cause that there is less heat in Hope and in Constancy where the Soul stands on the defensive then in Boldness and in Anger where she assaults and destroys ill As also that in these two latter the agitation of the spirits is greater for we do confess that their motion serves for something not of it self but by accident as we say in the Schools because they bring the heat which they have and that of the humors which they draw after them to those parts where they light and ever sollicite the fixed
to maintain the Muscles which in this occasion ought to be stiff for the Soul which knows that all motion is to be made on somewhat which is stable stiffens as much as it may the parts upon which those which are agitated are supported so that often she holds back the breath that that air which is stopped in the Lungs may serve to uphold the instruments of respiration which thereby the better support the rest as hath been elsewhere shewed She therefore affords this stiffening of the Spirits to uphold those vessels wherein they are inclosed and afterwards they support those parts which touch them and they again the rest to the very last which serves for a foundation and basis to the principal motion which is made for although it seems that such frail and moveable things are not very fit for that use yet as the number of the Wheels and Springs augments the force of the motions so the number of Butteresses and Upholders renders the resistance the stronger and sometimes for want of the least a whole Building falls to the ground It 's true that if all the stifness of the Body were onely grounded on the Spirits it would be very doubtful and suspitious But as all the rest of the parts also stiffen themselves of themselves or at least by the intermission of the Soul if the spirits contribute never so little it still helps to make the resistance stronger and this small succour being joyned with several others produceth at last a great effect Let us hereunto add that being in this condition those which carry with them natural heat wherein the force of the parts principally resides they retain and fix it if we may so speak in those places where such actions are to be performed and not suffering it to retire inwardly nor dissipating it outwardly they stop and preserve it in those organs which have need of its service These are the Reasons for which the spirits in Constancy stiffen themselves What change Constancy brings in natural heat but the last gives us occasion to examine what change this Passion brings to the natural heat for if the spirits stop as we have now said it seems as if it should be the more quiet and the more moderate yet this ought not to hinder us from following the general maxims which we established in the Discourse of Boldness and from saying that when the Soul hath need of its forces she raiseth them and renders them as vigorous as shee can that there is no occasion in which they can be more necessary unto her then when she assaults or defends herself And that heat being the most considerable part she must augment it and stir it up in those Passions which are to serve these designs and consequently she must render it greater and stronger in Constancy then it naturally ought to be This principally appears to be in those which are of a cold and dull complexion or which are moved by some timerous Passion for when this comes to animate them they feel themselves warmed with I know not what kinde of extraordinary flame their pulse and respiration encreaseth their face takes a more lively colour and all their parts become more agile and more robustious then they were before It 's true that heat is not so active nor pungent in this as in Boldness and Anger having not the liberty to diffuse it self through the organs being restrained by the spirits which are stiffened and because it is not necessary it should be so strong in a Passion which is not undertaking and which keeps it self onely upon the defensive We may perhaps say that if the Soul ought to augment its forces proportionable to the need she hath she ought herein to render the heat stronger then in any other occasion whatsoever having an enemy in front which appears invincible which also hath the advantage to be the Assailant under whose efforts she often believes she must succumb But we may answer that it 's true that she hath here need of all her forces that she raiseth them and employs them for her defence but it 's onely those which are fit for that purpose since she would in vain use others which are destined to assault being not in a condition to do so and having neither the Will nor the Courage now the violence of heat is onely proper the more strongly to work and to destroy the power of the enemy in which consists the end of the Combate and of Boldness and therefore it 's nothing necessary in Constancy which hath no such great pretentions and which hath nothing else to do but to keep the Soul stiff and to render the organs firm against those evils which assault it It 's certain that heat is encreased therein but it is but to a certain degree proportionable to the design and capable to give the organs that force which is necessary for them to execute it For it is not here as with those Passions which tend to good in which heat encreaseth without order and without conduct because it is not therein ordered by the Soul that is it is not called thither as a useful thing for her end and that it is but an effect which happens to the agitation of the spirits But in this and in all the rest which assault the Soul herself takes care to produce heat she proposeth to herself to use it profitably and she regulates it as she thinks fit So that we may say that in this occasion she doth like a subtil Artist who knows how to order his fire for his works for some he makes it slow and moderate for others strong and violent and sometimes he forceth it to the height the Soul doth the same she knows to what degree of heat she ought to rise in every of the Passions in Constancy she makes it moderate strong in Boldness but in Anger she drives it to all extremity This is what we had to say on the motion of the Spirits for to know how they can preserve their stifness when they are agitated by other Passions is what we have examined in the Discourse of Hope As for the motion of the Humors it necessarily follows that of the Spirits which are ever mixt with them and it 's impossible to fancy that they should stiffen themselves in Constancy but we must presently judge they also ought to suffer the same agitation CHAP. IV. The causes of the Characters of Constancy WE have said that Constancy and Boldness were Sisters whose features and lineaments were so like that a man might often take the one for the other and indeed they have many Characters which are common to either as Hope Confidence Assurance in dangers Presumption Temerity Desire of glory and the like but they also have some which are particular for Constancy is not as Boldness is Imperious neither is she subject to Anger to Insolency nor to Cruelty which the other is often carried away withal She hath this
that power so neither is there any man but hopes to be revenged And truly all those actions which proceed from this Passion how slight soever they be are punishments by which we pretend to chastise him who hath offended us since there is not any but affords him Grief or Fear for a bold and brasen-faced mind an action full of disdain and despight and injurious words are able to displease persons even that are of the highest condition and threats are for no other purpose but to fright those against whom we make them Now if Grief and Fear are ills and consequently punishments with which the Soul intends to chastise him who hath committed an injury that he may do so no more believing that they are able to change his mind and that it 's sufficient to witness our Courage and resentment to make him even lose the desire of continuing his ill design and that he may imagine that their little essays are but the beginnings of a greater vengeance It 's thus that the wilde Beasts commonly bound their anger with a slight snap or a weak blow and that they often content themselves by affronting those who pursue them looking through them shewing their teeth onely and putting themselves in posture of assaulting them And although the weakness the Soul is in checks her often from undertaking more she had rather act thus weakly then to take flight which would be far more disadvantagious and by these motions which seem bold and generous she would hide her impotency and her defects as in other occasions she useth to do How ever it be she never makes herself angry but she hopes to be revenged and to make him who hath offended her suffer some kinde of ill But it follows not that she ought always to hope for full satisfaction of the injury which she thinks she hath received because it commonly depends on the opinion of men and not in the intention of Nature in effect the means and the degrees of revenge are commonly different according to the humor and the condition of the persons and according to the customs of the Country A Prince or a Gentleman revengeth himself after another manner then doth a Clown a cruel and bloody minded Man is not so easily satisfied as another and there are places where we believe without a single Duel no satisfaction can be had for an offence and others where poison and assassination are commonly imployed Now as it often happens that a man hath not the power to use those means nor to pursue his vengeance to that height it 's most certain that then we despair to revenge it after that manner but not absolutely to be unrevenged for the reasons aforesaid and it 's therefore true that the hope of revenge always precedes Anger As for Despair What kind of Despair it is happens in Anger which sometimes happens and renders it more violent neither is that an absolute loss of hope nor doth conclude against the Doctrine already proposed For we shall shew in the Discourse destined for that Passion what the word Despair signifies in our Language as well as in the Greek and Latine two Passions altogether different to wit the common despair wherein we lose all hope and wherein the Soul gives back and loseth courage perceiving that she cannot obtain that good which she expected and that despair or desperateness which is particular to Anger and Boldness which instead of mollifying or abating the courage stiffens it against all difficulties with a greater impetuosity and transport then it had before For it 's certain that in this the Soul which findes obstacles which she never foresaw loseth the hope of effecting what she proposed but at the same time she conceives another and forms new designs which engage her in those transports and fougadoes which are commonly called actions of despair as shall more fully appear when we throughly discourse on that subject Let 's now take a view of the other Characters of this Passion and without stoping at Confidence and at Presumption which have been examined in the Discourse of Boldness and depend on the same causes which produce Hope let 's enquire the nature and source of Fury which so often mixeth it self with Anger for although they are often confounded together and that we commonly give the latter the name of Fury yet they are two very different things since there are Anger 's which are nothing furious and that Fury is to be found in other Passions and in other actions wherein there is no suspition of Anger There are indeed divers sorts of Furie What fury is some have been called Divine others Brutal and others have been placed in the rank of Diseases But all have this in common that they put the Soul out of its natural place and transport it as it were out of it self some making it perform actions beyond the ordinary strength of men and which for the same cause seem to have something that 's divine the other causing him to lose his Reason and embasing him to the nature of the wildest beasts It 's not a place here to examine by retail all these differences it shall be sufficient to say that this violent transport wherein the essence of this Fury in general consists may proceed either from the Soul which raiseth up and animates herself or from that heat which pricks her up and irritates her the fury of Love and the Poetick Fury are amongst those which are divine those which commonly acknowledge no other cause but the Soul alone which of herself raiseth herself up and makes those miraculous sallies which are as Enthusiasms and divine inspirations for having the power to move herself she in those encounters darts herself forth with so much ardor that she carries herself away and as he which runs with too much impetuosity cannot stop himself and often goes further then he willingly would she abandons herself to the loose which she giveth herself and so passeth beyond her ordinary limits But it 's not so in Martial and Bacchick Furies nor in those others which follow Anger or corporal sicknesses For it is not the Soul which begins this motion wherewith she is in these encounters carried away it 's the heat which the Wine Boldness or the distemper of the body imprints in the spirits which being agitated by this turbulent quality at every moment strikes against the seat of the Animal Faculties which drives them forth and casts them into these extraordinary motions This therefore is the general reason whereby Anger passeth into Fury for a man need not doubt but that this Passion kindles a great fire in the bowels but that it violently agitates in the spirits and that the quiet which those noble operations of the Soul require must needs be trouled by that tempest which she raiseth in their principal organs so that the Faculties which conduct the Animal act no longer conformably to the Laws of Nature or of Reason
and having no longer a bridle to restrain them are hurried away with the rapidity of the spirits and the Passion which drives them and so perform all their actions with disorder and temerity But what contributes much to this precipitation it is Grief which is the first cause of Anger and weakness which commonly accompanies it for both of them are naturally impatient and constrained and eagerly sollicite the Soul to provide for her security that by reason that the ill is present this because it wants forces to resist it and that there is no time to be lost in so dangerous and urgent an occasion and from thence it comes that Anger is most impetuous in the weakest Natures and that Fury kindles not it self so suddenly in all the rest of the Passions as in this for that they are commonly exempt from Grief and weakness and that consequently there can be no cause for the Soul to hasten its endeavors for her defence its true that although robust Natures are not so soon transported as the rest as well for the reasons already alleadged as for that they are of a stronger and more solid complexion wherein heat is not so easily catching yet when once Fury hath seized on them besides that it is more vehement and more dangerous it 's also of a longer continuance because the heat is stronger and is longer preserved in gross and massive subjects then in such as are subtile and moveable such as are women and Children and all those who are of such like a temperature Pride is so proper to Anger that there is no Passion it more often accompanies Anger is proud nor with which it 's so familiar and certainly it 's a strange thing that as soon as it 's conceived in the weakest and vilest Mind that may be it takes away from it the knowledge of its baseness and impotency making it lose all the respect it ought to others and perswading it neither to yield nor submit to whatsoever it be We need not go far for an example since at every moment we may see that from its counsels Servants dare confront their Masters Children their Parents Subjects their Lords and what is most frightful such vile creatures as men are spare not the most holy things but often wrack it on God himself and although this discord appear not so great in persons of a high condition when they grow angry with their inferiors yet they cannot forbear being guilty of a very and unjust and odious Pride when they will hear neither Reason nor defences when silence or excuses provoke them the more and when a discovered innocency is to them but as a new injury for all this proceeds from the haughty and proud Nature of this Passion which will always be in the right and have reason on its side which will never yield to any body and will never acknowledge him for innocent from whom it believes it hath received an offence without ever accusing it self of impudence or injustice But whence may this Pride come which is often so ill grounded and is commonly upheld neither by strength nor reason Certainly we must not seek the source elsewhere then in the motion of heat which troubles the judgment and drives the Soul out of her ordinary limits as is before said For Pride being nothing but a swelling and as it were an immoderate extention of the Soul whereby she raiseth herself up more then she ought to do and in pursuit esteems her self grearer then indeed she is it is impossible that heat should be provoked without giving her a very great confidence without transporting her out of herself and consequently without causing this excessive elevation wherein Pride Consists Moreover the secret sence which every man hath of the excellency of his being which awakens him by the despight he believes he suffers by having been offended for to repair this wrong which he thinks he hath received by being despised he would lift himself up above him who abased him and filling himself with a great opinion of himself finds himself thus puft up with Arrogance and Vanity Anger abounds in Words and in Threats Anger is talkative and railing because the Fancy which is heated by the ardor she kindles in the spirits and which is full of such thoughts as Pride and Vengeance inspire is forced to cast them out on the Tongue and in its words and truly we may say that it is in some manner like liquor which the heat of the fire causeth to rise up in great boilings for the fuller the vessel is of it the more easily it riseth above the brims and so the more and the more abundantly they issue out and shed themselves It 's true that Grief which is always to be found with this Passion very much helps this effect by that precipitation and by that impatience which it gives the Soul for which cause Boldness alone loves not to talk so much as Anger and we may see the same person who boldly without speaking one word will go to fight who having been offended cannot forbear to cry out and threaten because Grief at that time mixeth it self with Boldness which is as a spur unto it which stimulates it and affords it a useless Fury But if Weakness joyns also with them Anger becomes so highly brawling and riseth to such an excess of words and threats that we may say that it s at that time a torrent which it's impossible to stop as is to be observed in that of Women of Children and the like Now this happens from that the Soul which knows its defect hath a design to hide it by such actions as seem couragious and whereby she thinks she ought to fright her enemy or from that Grief and weakness which are as we have said naturally unquiet and urgent not giving her time to tempt more powerful means to revenge herself cause her to have recourse to these first arms of Nature and cause her to dissipate her courage in these vain assaults And without doubt he that will but consider that Beasts which are couragious and Men who are bold and generous use not to brawle or to talk much when they have been offended by any man and that they seek their revenge may well judge that cryings out reasons and threatnings are the natural defences of provoked weakness and that those who employ them mistrust their own forces and resemble those thunders which onely make a noise and are heard a long time after their lightnings vanish for when a Bolt falls the fire the noise and the blow are resented at once and such is that Anger which is kindled in great Courages and in strong and robustious Constitutions as hath been said in the Discourse of Boldness From the same source whence the abundance of words comes Anger is indiscreet this indiscreet Frankness proceeds which renders it so facile to discover its most secret thoughts for there is no Passion which is so ill
sometimes retire towards its Center in a word make all the motions which are to be observed in the Passions It is not then necessary that the will be separate from the understanding and that there be a space betwixt the two to cause the motion of which we speak agitating it self in it self and driveing its parts towards the Idea of good which is represented it by the understanding it unites it self to it as much as it can and so canseth the Passion of Love it is just so with the sensitive appetite for although its principal organ be far from that of the imagination we must not beleeve that these two faculties are quite shut up in these parts they disperse themselves through the whole body and are alwayes joyned together as we will more at large shew in the discourse of Joy So that the motion which is there made is like that of the will and in the one and the other Love is but a motion of the appetite which directly carries it self towards the Idea of good and unites it thereunto which is not effected in the rest of the Passions as we will make it appear You have now seen what Love is in general whence its easie to observe its differences by the differences of those objects which may move it for as there are goods of the minde of the body and of fortune and as every of them is honest useful or delightful its certain that although the motions whereby we Love all these things are of the same nature and that in general they have the same end which is to unite the appetite to what is good yet are they different between themselves because these goods are different so there is a Love of Riches Pleasures Honours and Vertues in a word as many as there are kinds of false or true goods so many sorts of Love there are of which we have here no intention to speak because the greatest part of those kinds are comprehended in the vertues and the vices of which we shall treat hereafter And because we have restrained our selves to that Love which beauty breeds in the appetite This Love may be defined a Motion of the appetite by which the soul unites it self to what seems fair unto it So that all the diversity that there is betwixt this definition and that of Love in general consists in beauty wherefore we have two things to examine First what beauty is in the second place why it causeth Love but because this search is extreamly high and difficult and that it may break the connexion of this discourse we have remitted it to the end of this Chapter to speak of the effects which Love causeth in the humors and in the spirits PART 3. What that Motion is which Love causeth in the Spirits and in the Humors SInce that the motions of the spirits and of the blood are in the Passions conformable with those which the Soul feels in it self There is no doubt but that Love uniting the appetite to the Idea of the good which is represented to it produceth also in the spirits a certain motion which seconds its design and renders this union the more forcible but as the sences serves us but little to know the difference of these motions the understanding must supply their defect and must by discourse shew us what this motion of the spirits is which is the most uniting since 't is that which ought to accompany this Passion to which end you must suppose two things to be most true The first that the Heart is the chief organ of the sensitive appetite The second that the Brain is that of the imagination now as the Idea of good is formed in the imagination and the motion of the spirits begins at the Heart the soul must of necessity having a design to unite them to the good it hath conceived transport them from the place where they begin to move towards that where they are to meet this object And because this first birth of Love is from the inward union of the appetite whereof we have spoken the first motion which the spirits also suffer must drive them to the brain where it seems this union ought to be for the Idea goes not out of the Faculty which produceth it as hath been showen and forasmuch as the spirits carry with them heat and blood from thence it comes that the imagination of Lovers is heated and afterwards brings forth so many fair productions and sometimes too extravagancies if the motion and heat be too violent we may say besides that the paleness which is so common to them partly comes from the transport of the spirits which are within the brain which forsaking the face leave it without heat or splendor but if the beloved object be presented to the sences then do the greatest part of these spirits run to the outward parts colouring them with the blood they draw along with them and which is the purest of the veines as we will shew you anon It s true there are Passions which mingle with this and often cause a contrary motion to that whereof we have spoken in the humors But we shall consider here only the effects proper to Love and not those he borrows from others so that we may conclude that the first effect of Love upon the spirits is to send them out of the heart and to transport them to the brain and to the exterior parts But this is not enough we ought to observe whether in this motion they move either with liberty or with constraint that 's to say whether they dilate or restrain themselves For these seem to be the two first differences of local motion now as there are but two encounters which may oblige the soul to restrain the spirits in their Motion to wit when either she repels or flyes from what 's ill because in the one she hath a care of fortifying her self and to that end to gather and reunite the spirits and in the other the flight is not made without a compression which precipitates and confounds them together its evident that there are none of these motions in this Passion which considering nothing but the goodness of its object it sees no enemy which it would assault or that it ought to fear so that it agitates the spirits with liberty it dilates them and seems to open them the better to receive the pretended good and so the more perfectly to unite it thereunto Let 's go on and see whether this motion be unequal and whether it be made with that vehemency which happens in impetuous Passions It s certain that anger moves the spirits and the humors with more confusion and disorder then Love by reason of divers and often endeavours which the minde is forced to make to drive out the ill and that it is like those Torrents whose waves precipitate themselves one upon the other and make a stream full of boylings and foamings but that Love makes
the spirits and the blood slide in the veins in the same manner as water runs in the Channels of Fountains or in Rivers whose beds are large and even for Love which dilates the spirits proportionably enlargeth the vessels and so giveth them the more liberty it renders their course less turbulent and confused But the chief reason of this equality is because Love hath commonly no other Passions following it which have contrary motions as anger which is always accompanied with grief and which retires the spirits towards the heart at the same time when it drives them forth For although Joy Desire and Hope which are almost always with Love diversly move the blood yet they doe not imprint motions quite opposite as we shall make it appear so that it is not subject to that tumult nor to that unequal agitation which the contrarities cause in fluid bodies but with what violence soever it be driven all its parts flow equally and without confusion and there is no doubt but that secret joy which Lovers feel without thinking even of the beloved object proceeds from some kinde of motion whose impression remains in the humors after the cessation of the minds agitation For as Nature loves order and equality in all her actions when she sees the motion of the blood conformable to her inclination she is sensible of a certain joy whose image or shaddow presents it self to our minds and disposeth us to mirth without knowing the cause and I beleeve for the same reason that if the humors were always agitated with this flux and reflux which the opposite Passions use to cause there would not be a moment in Love exempt from grief and perplexity and that those excesses of joy would never be felt which so often happen because that the soul cannot suffer contrary motions but that she must at the same time suffer some pain and some kinde of grief But what shall we say then when these turbulent Passions as Anger Fear and Despair mingle with Love ought it to give them place when they enter the minde and dye when they spring forth seeing its motion is contrary to theirs truly I beleeve that the habit of Love remains still but the Passion ceaseth when another destroys its motion and principally if it be violent and indeed a man in anger or possessed with fear thinks not on the beloved object and at the least the thoughts he hath of it are stiffled by those of revenge or of the danger he would shun It s true that as these Passions enter instantly into the minde they commonly go out as readily when at the same time the first returns the impression of the beloved object furnishing new Idea's which awaken the appetite and cause therein a new commotion which is nothing difficult to beleeve if we consider that the appetite and the spirits are agitated more easily then the air And that their motion is in some manner like that of lightning which pierceth the clouds in an instant which followes flash after flash and leaves no trace of the way they made And if these Passions are weak they may be well enough compatible with Love but they diminish its ardor because the soul dividing it self to several objects cannot wholly give it self to what is lovely and because the agitation which this causeth in the humors is hindred by the flood of those others which oppose its course Now let 's see what this vehemency is which accompanies this motion of the spirits and whether it be as great in this Passion as it is in anger in fear and in the rest For its certain there are some which naturally are not so violent as Hope and Compassion where there never is those extreme transports which are to be observed in the rest Now you must not think that Love is as the two latter and that it hath the moderation they have the sallies it makes and the tempests it raiseth are sometimes so great that it wracks the minde and the alteration which all the body suffers in those encounters is an evident witness that the humors are moved with a great impetuosity the beginnings truly are sweet and we may say they are like to those peaceable winds which a weak heat raiseth and which afterwards change into whirlwindes when it grows stronger for as at the birth of this Passion the Idea of the beloved object makes no great impression in the minde being if we may so speak but lightly and superficially printed so it also causeth in the appetite but a light emotion but when it hath insinuated it self into the bottom of the minde and hath rendered it self master of the imagination then it puissantly raiseth all the moving faculties and causeth those great storms which often make us lose both our reason and our health Yet will I not say when the soul is come to this excess but that the appetite and the spirits are continually agitated with this violence I confess the tempest is not always alike that it often abates and even dissipates it self whether it be that the divers designes this Passion inspires divert the Soul from its first and principal thoughts or that all things which are in nature cannot always last in one violent estate and that the minde is weary to be long stretched towards one object whence it happens that the strongest Passions at last become languishing and quiet themselves and indeed those great transports of which we speak are never but when the beloved object presents it self to the imagination with some powerful charmes as it happens in the first thoughts it hath of it or when unawares it presents it self to the sence or when the minde figures new perfections in it and forms new designs to compass the possession thereof for then the Soul being surprised with this lovely Novelty is shaken all at once and drives the Spirits like a great billow which ought to transport it to its offer'd good But what if Love moves the spirits thus it must needs produce the same effects as joy doth and that its violence must quench the heat of the entrails and cause fainting and syncopes as this doth it seems that even necessarily these accidents must be in it since these two passions have the same object that they are but little separate and that they have a growth alike for where Love is extreme joy ought also to be so and yet none of those symptomes whereof we have spoken have been observed to be in Love at least if any such like thing hath happened to Lovers the excess of those two Passions never was the cause but it must have been Grief Despair and the like how comes it to pass then that the Love of beauty produceth not the same effects as Joy doth or that Joy causeth not the same accidents in this Passion which it often causeth alone To discover this secret you must first suppose that these disorders seldom happen that they have been observeable only
in old men and women and that the joy which moved them was caused either by the gain of some unhoped for victory or by the encounter of some very ridiculous object or by the discovery of some great secret in learning which are joyes which only belong to the minde In effect as spiritual things have that beyond corporal that they are more noble and that they enter into the soul wholly without separating themselves the possession ought also to be more perfect and the joy the more ravishing so that it is likely that the syncopes which are the effects of all violent Passions follow those spiritual joyes as the greatest and most powerful and that they rather happen to weak natures then to those which are stronger and more capable of resistance the soul then finding herself surprised at first sight with these objects and agitating with precipitation to unite her self to them the spirits which follow those motions issue from the heart and dart themselves with so much violence to the superior parts that they lose the union they had with their principle in the same manner as water divides it self being driven with too much impetuosity and because the heat ought continually to inspire the parts with its vertue and that the spirits only can communicate it when they come to disunite themselves from it these influences must then stop and the sensitive and vital actions which depend upon them must also cease till their reunion And because the soul is then quite ravished in the injoyment of that good which she esteems so excellent she cannot minde to remedy that interruption which is made in the spirits nor to bring back those which are scattered or to send others to fill those empty places they left So that these faintings often last long and sometimes cause death heat being quite perished and nature not having strength enough to repair its loss nor to recover its first estate But this disorder cannot happen in the Love whereof we speak for that corporal beauty is never wholly possest and that there is still somewhat which entertaines Desire Hope and Fear So that the soul dividing it self to several designs and suffering it self not to be so powerfully transported as she doth in the enjoyment of spiritual goods the spirits throw themselves not with so much precipitation nor impetuosity and are not so subject to the division which they sometimes suffer in Joy and which is the cause of those syncopes of which we have spoken We shall touch upon this matter again in other places let 's now consider what heat it is which this Passion raiseth and what humors it particularly moves It s certain that Love Joy and Desire disperse through all the body a moist and pleasing heat for as much as the spirits in those Passions stir the most temperate humors whose vapors are sweet and humid but these humors are sooner mov'd then others because that the spirits which have a great likeness with the purest and most subtil parts of the blood as being those whence they draw their origine ought to mingle and unite with them more easily then with those which are grosser and farther from its nature therefore we must not doubt but when they are agitated they first of al draw along with them those parts of the blood whereto they are more strongly tyed which being the most subtil are also the more easie to be moved Besides that the soul to whom the humors serve as instruments to arrive at the end she proposeth employs both the one the other according as they have qualities sit to execute what she wills whence it is that amongst venemous beasts it moves the venome in anger and in all the rest it moves flegme and melancholy because they are the malignant humors which may destroy the ill she assaults so that there being no enemies to combat in the Passion of which we speak it ought not to move any other humors but those which are conformable to the good she would enjoy So that there is only the sweetest and purest blood which commonly moves in Love and causeth that sweet and vaporous heat which disperseth it self through the whole body PART 4. What the causes are of the Characters of LOVE BUt its time to come to the point we proposed from these principles we have established we must draw the causes of the Characters of this Passion let 's first therefore examine moral actions There being no Passion which produceth so many different actions or causeth so many extravagancies as this it would prove a troublesome thing to enquire into them all and besides unprofitable since the greatest part of them proceed from other Passions which accompany it of which we are particularly to speak for which cause we will only touch here the principal which in my opinion are The continual thought a Lover hath of the beloved Object The high esteem he values it at The means he imploys to possesse it And the extravagancy of the words he makes use of to discover his passion for there are few actions in Love which may not be reduced to some of these four For the first although it be a thing common to all the Passions powerfully to possesse the minde and to keep it fix'd on the object which entertains them yet there are none who do it more powerfully or longer then Love For either they are impetuous or turbulent or else they are pliable and docile the first are presently dissipated and the others are to be appeased or diverted by the power of discourse nay even by other Passions So the angry ones sweeten themselves by pleasure and the delightful diminish by affliction and all of them may change into others more strong if more powerful objects then those which have raised them present themselves for a great grief makes us forget a less and an excess of joy takes away a mean one But with Love it is nothing so it hath the propriety to be vehement and long lasting not to hearken to reason and can seldom be changed or diminished by the force of what Passion soever forasmuch as the imagination is so wounded that it fancies there is no greater good to be possest and which can affoord it more contentment then its beloved object so that there is no other how excellent so ever it be that can divert its inclination and draw it to it because the soul never leaves a greater good to seek a less 't is in the same manner with displeasure for if we are beloved there is no pain nor grief which vanisheth not by the contentment which we receive thereby and if we are not as the soul knows no greater ill then that all others are too weak to dispossess that thought for which cause it continually considers the good whereof it s deprived it uncessantly desires it and seeks in the possession thereof the only remedy which may cure all its displeasures But the first origine
them towards Good for when they can go no further they must either stop or return to their source or disperse themselves They cannot stop themselves since they follow the then-disturbed agitation of the soul they cannot return to the heart since nothing but the presence of Ill can constrain them thereunto They must then overflow and disperse themselves And the Soul which employs the same motives for the motion of the Spirits as for her own takes care to make them move so that they may be the more united to Good as we have before said For by this effusion they dilate themselves in their organs and occupying more room they think to touch the Good in more of its parts But where can they disperse themselves To understand this you must remember that Good toucheth not the soul but by its presence and that it is Knowledge onely which renders it present Now this Knowledge is made by the Understanding and by the Imagination or by the Senses And as the Imagination is seated in the brain and the Senses in their particular organs so Good must be in the one or the other of them and consequently Love must carry the Spirits to those places and Joy disperse them in the same precincts For if Good be onely in the Fancie and that it toucheth not the exteriour Senses all the Spirits arrive at the seat of the Imagination and disperse themselves in the brain But if any of the Senses possess this Good then the Spirits which ran thither disperse themselves also on their organs and carry thither heat redness and vivacity This effusion augments the Pleasure of the Minde by reason of that sweet and temperate heat which runs thorow the parts which flatters and tickles them So that those Pleasures which are accompanied with this corporal agitation are greater and more sensible then when they are without it Nay even after the emotion of the Appetite hath ceased the agitation of the Spirits continuing leaves the soul in a certain confused Joy which comes not from the object which at first touched it but from that tickling which the Senses made known unto it as a thing conformable and convenient for their nature And this makes me believe that all those secret Joys which we feel without knowing a reason of them come from the same cause and that there must necessarily be something which disperseth the Spirits and which inspires Pleasure in the soul whether it be the knowledge it hath of the tickling of those parts or whether that all the differences of the motions which it employs in every Passion being known unto her she sees this to be fit for Joy and at the same time forms a delightful object as we said it happened in that love which is out of inclination You will perhaps say that this effusion of Spirits may often be without Pleasure That Anger which casts them into the face that Grief which draws them to the diseased parts and that the Fever which drives them everywhere with impetuosity afterwards disperseth them and causeth the same alteration which Joy imprints on the body and yet that the Soul is then sensible of no pleasure But we may two ways answer this First it is true that the most delightful objects are often diverted by little griefs from making an impression in the soul This motion of the Spirits which is so secret and which the Senses can scarce discover ought to be far less powerful against great obstacles which cause these troublesome encounters But supposing they did cause pleasure it is so weak and so light that it is stifled by the least sensible inconvenience For it is an observable thing that although it seems that the Sensitive Appetite at the same time cannot suffer contrary Passions it is not absolutely true since we evidently know that the tongue is pleased with agreeable savours whilst the heart is full of bitterness and grief And the reason of this is that the Sensitive Appetite is not shut up in one part onely as the most part of the other faculties are it is dispersed thorow all the organs of the Senses and we may say that its stock and root are indeed in the heart but that its boughs and branches are extended thorow all the body For it s a general and necessary power to all the parts of the Creature and it must have been communicated to all that Motion might not be far off from knowledge and that the Soul might not languish in expectation to possess a good or flee from an ill when they were once come to her knowledge Nature having made for the appetite what she made for the pulse whose principal organ is the heart and yet which forms it self in all the arteries where even it is sometimes found different from that which agitates the heart Which being so Pleasure may be in one place and Grief in another although they are in one part incompatible But it is also true that when Passion is raised in the Centre and source of the appetite that which is in the little rivulets is very weak and seems to vanish although the Spirits cease not to agitate in those places where it was formed whence these secret feelings of Pleasure follow which often steal themselves from the knowledge of the understanding nay even of the imagination This is the first answer which may be made to the proposed objection now for another which pleaseth us more as being better fitted to our designe for we will show how every Passion hath a particular motion of the spirits and that then if the effusion be in others as well as Joy there must be some difference which renders it fit and particular and which is not to be found in the rest We must then confess that Anger Grief and Terrour and divers other exterior things may disperse the spirits but by violence and as a tempest which scatters the rain and transports it here and there with impetuosity in stead whereof Joy sweetly disperseth them and makes them distil on the parts as a sweet dew now this causeth many different impressions on the Senses For the spirits which are driven with force which precipitate themselves one on the other cause a troublesome sentiment to nature and rather provoke it then flatter it but those which disperse themselves as themselves and sweetly insinuate themselves into the parts tickle and content it Considering that in those Passions which have ill for their object the spirits keep themselves united contracted to assault or flee from it whence it is that they are piercing and offend the parts they light on but in Joy wherin they dilate themselves to embrace the good it must needs blunt their point and make them lose the impetuosity they had before So that what effusion soever there is in Anger and in Grief its never accompanied with pleasure because it is not like that which is with Joy to avow this we must onely consult the countenance of
Pleasures as those of the Senses become distastful and importunate because they are not absolutely convenient for nature they surpass the natural capacity of the powers and their use weakens and corrupts the organs but those which are pure and true do never disgust because they never exceed the natural reach of the Soul but they perfect it and instead of burthening and weaking they ease and fortifie it It is true they may give a little because the minde being a lover of novelty and finding it no longer in an object whereto it hath long applied it self it also findes not that satisfaction which it took at the begining and seeks by change to nourish its desire and inclination But we have spoken enough of these things wherewith Moral Philosophy is full let us examine the Characters which Joy imprints on the Body Of all the many Characters which Joy imprints on the body There are the looks onely the serenity of the forehead Laughter Caresses and disquiet which are caused by the Souls command all the rest happen without her thought and have no other cause but the agitation of the humors which necessarily produce those effects For the Looks there are three kindes common to this Passion for it renders them sweet dying and unquiet we will say what is the cause of these last when we speak of the disquiet and impatience which appears in all its other actions The Looks are sweet either because they are modest or because they are laughing and these are proper to Joy which causeth the lids to fall a little and contract themselves and which fills the eyes with a certain pleasant splendor Now this splendor comes from the spirits which arrive in those parts and the motion of the lids is effected by smiling and by the design which the soul hath to preserve the image of the desirable object as we shewed in seeking the causes of amorous Looks so that we have onely these which are called dying which require a long examen We have already said in the discourse of Love that they were called so because those which dye cast forth the like lifting up their eyes on high and half hiding them under their lids But that seems very difficult to conceive that Looks which accompany Languor Grief and Death should be found in the excess of Pleasure Yet as there are several things contrary which have common effects because they have common causes it may also be that this kinde of Look findes the same cause in Grief and in Joy in the pangs of Death as in the ravishment of Pleasure Let us then examine the reasons why they are to be found in these troublesome Passions that we may see whether there be any which may be accommodated to Joy First we need not doubt but Grief lifts up the eyes on high and looks up to heaven as the place whence it expects help to drive away the ill which afflicts it For Nature hath given that instinct and inclination to man to have recourse to superiour powers when he believes himself abandoned by the rest So that without minding it his mouth invokes them his eyes turn towards them and his arms are lifted up to crave their assistance It also happens that this Passion which would flee the ill which presents it self gathering up within it self draws along with it all the more moveable parts and so retires the eyes in as if it thought to hide it self by hiding those organs whence she seems most to shew her self Or rather it comes from that the parts being void of spirits which the force of Grief dissipated or transported elsewhere they of themselves repossess their natural situation which is to be a little lifted up For it is certain that the situation of the parts when they rest is more natural then that which they have in action wherein there is always some kinde of constraint And we must consequently believe that the eyes which take that site in sleeping seek it as the most calm and most natural for them So that it seems the looks become dying in Grief as they do in Sleep by the flight of the spirits which leave the eyes to their rest Death may also cause this effect by the convulsion which often accompanies it and which makes the nerves retire to their origine or by reason of weakness cannot retain the parts in that tension which their action requires so that the lids fall and the eyes are lifted up taking again as we have said their natural situation Of all these causes there is onely the gathering up of the Soul and the drawing back of the Spirits which are to be found in Joy and from whence these dying looks may take their birth for they have no assistance to implore nor convulsion to fear But in the transport which the enjoyment of Good gives the Soul it often quits the exteriour parts gathers the spirits inwardly together or carries them elsewhere and so forsaking the eyes leaves them the liberty to regain their natural situation which makes them appear languishing and dying The Forehead is serene when it is smoothe and without wrinkles and this smoothness comes from that all the muscles are extended and equally draw it out on every side or from that they are all at rest and leave it in its ordinary situation Now it seems that Joy causeth a serenity of the forehead in both manners For it is certain that as it hath the property to dilate and disperse the soul and the spirits it seeks to do the same in all the parts of the body So that because the muscles cannot move but by contracting themselves it never intends to move those of the forehead since it would cause a motion contrary to its designe chiefly their action being not necessary in this encounter as that of the eyes might be and of the tongue and of others which it agitates in this Passion for particular reasons The Forehead then remains calm and without contracting it self On the contrary it seems to open and on all sides to extend it self by reason of the spirits which rarifie the parts and makes them appear the larger Yet because that in Laughter the forehead becomes smoothe by the stretching of the muscles which equally draw it upwards and downwards it might seem that Joy which causeth Laughter caused also that tension and brought that serenity to the forehead as well by moving as by slacking the muscles But in the following Discourse we will shew that it is not Joy which produceth that effect but the Surprize which is the true cause of Laughter 'T is not but that the Soul without that Surprize may extend the forehead by contracting the muscles but then it is a feigned and forced serenity as that of Flatterers of which Aristotle says that the Forehead is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say stretched and not contracted as the Translators have explained it for it is the Muscles which are contracted but the Forehead
have spoken thereof have agreed in this point that this motion is made out of necessity and that the Soul is not mistress thereof But some have believed the Spirits were the cause others that it was the agitation of the heart The first say that Joy driving the Spirits to the outward parts it therewithal fills the muscles which are thereby constrained to shrink up and contract themselves as it happens in convulsionfits But if this were true all the Passions which carry the Spirits outwardly must move Laughter Shame Anger and Desire would never appear without it and a Fever and pain would cause a man to laugh continually seeing they fill the face with blood and spirits Others who believe the agitation of the heart is the source of all these motions say that Joy causing it to move the Diaphragma which is tied to it must necessarily do so following its motion and that after it moves the muscles of the brest and lips wherewith it hath communication and sympathy as it is easie to judge by the convulsion of the lips which always accompanies the hurts of the Diaphragma To confirm this they assure us that beasts laugh not because their Diaphragma is tyed to the heart with looser and weaker ligatures then it is to mans whence it is that the heart cannot shake it whatever commotion Joy make But this opinion is no less absurd then the former for then in all the Passions wherein the heart is extraordinarily agitated the Diaphragma must be shaken in the same manner and must move Laughter and even Laughter could never be without the agitation of the Diaphragma if it were true that its contraction causeth that of the lips which are all contrary to experience And therefore the observation they bring of the ligaments of the Diaphragma is inconsiderable and serves not at all to prove what they pretend For if that of men is more strongly tyed to the membrane that covers the heart then to that of beasts that comes from that it being inclined downwards and altogether hanging in the humane body by reason of its upright figure it is necessary it should be more strongly born up then that of beasts which hath not that situation As for the sympathy it hath with the lips I finde it somewhat doubtful because besides that it communicates not to them all the dispositions it hath we have often observed great hurts in that part which have not excited Laughter and if that have sometimes happened I beleeve not that it was an effect of the convulsion since Hippocrates says that who so receives a wound in that part laughs from the first of his hurt and feels no convulsion till the third day after so that it is likely it was not the convulsion but rather the raving whereinto he fell which caused that Laughter after the manner beforesaid It is then a most certain thing that the motion of the muscles which forms Laughter is a voluntary action made by the souls command and not by necessity as tears sweat the lustre and the redness of the face are so that they may be hindered and restrained at first when the humours and the spirits are not yet much shaken and thence it comes that oftentimes holding your mouth shut your breath and voice being constrained to pass through the nostrils cause an interrupted bellowing which is observed in laughing As for the luster of the eyes the colour and blthness which appears in the face for the voice which becomes grosser for sweat and tears we have already said they come from Joy which every way disperseth the spirits dissolves the humours and opens the passages But I would add for what concernes Tears that the motion of the muscles which causes the eyes and the lids to move is the principal cause thereof For when they come to close themselves they press and squeeze the humors and the spirits and constrain them to issue and indeed all those parts are soft and moist and the under-lid is situated so that it easily receives the humors which run from the neighbouring parts It seems even that Nature destined them to that end were it to entertain the freshness and natural humidity of the eye or to discharge it from that which might incommodate it And there is a great appearance that the little holes which appear on the side of that lid when it begins to quit the corner of the eye was onely made to void those humors when they are in too great a quantity which being so we need not doubt but when that part contracts it self the humour which is contained therein must be forced to issue at that little passage and must render the eyes moist And what confirms me in this opinion is that tears run not in Laughter as in Joy and in Grief it seems that they are forced and that they issue but by compulsion and it is easie to judge that their source comes not from so high a place as the others and that you need go no farther then the neighbourhood to seek it neither are they ever so abundant as in those Passions the eyes from whence they come being not capable to contain so much humor as the brain and even those whom sorrow hath never caused to weep by reason of their natural driness finde tears when they laugh because they come but from the neighbouring parts no more then those which sore eyes sometimes cause Let us then conclude that Joy carries the humors and the spirits to the outward parts and that the agitation of the muscles stirs them and sends them out whence comes teares in the eyes and sweat in the face and flanks Because that it is in that place where the Motion is most violent and the skin most delicate CHAP. V. The Characters of Desire IF the Soul according to Socrates hath wings they can onely be in the Desires it is they which move her wherever she will go they raise her up to heaven and make her descend into the abyss and by a strange and wonderful kinde of motion they cause her to go out of her self without dividing her and transport her everywhere without ever quitting the place wherein she is And we may say that Nature was never so wise or ingenious in any of her works as in this For having made the Soul void and unprovided of all things and having placed all necessary goods without her she was obliged to furnish her with a vertue which might carry her towards them and which might unite them together She must have afforded her in the prison wherein she hath enclosed her the use of that liberty which was born with her and without breaking her chains she must suffer her to go thorow the Universe which she hath submitted to her laws and judgements In fine after having been drawn from heaven and been banished from the place of her birth she must needs give way at least to her thoughts to return sometimes thither And that during
union nor enjoyment that being the Motive of Love and this of Pleasure as we have it elsewhere Wherefore the Appetite is agitated by several Motions in all these Passions for in this it Parts it self and gets out of itself in Love it binds it self to the Idea of Good and in pleasure pours it self on it PART 3. What the Motion of the Humours and of the Spirits is in Desire SInce the Motion of the Spirits is conformable to that of the Appetite we may without much difficulty say how they are agitated in this Passion after we have showed how the Appetite in some sort diverts it self from the Idea of good to move towards the absent Object For Love which always precedes Desire having drawn them from the heart and carried them to the imagination to unite them to the image of the good it fancied Desire follows which retires them and casts them forth to come neerer the good it thinks far of And thence it happens that the face swels and grows red that the eyes advance themselves and seem as if they would go out of their place the spirits which escape drawing with them the most noble parts and driving those which oppose their issue But it may be demanded if the Appetite effectually goes not out of it self is it therefore so with the Spirits is it sufficient they beat against their bounds and stop after that vain endeavour certainly the greatest part pass no farther as they are the first Organs of the Soul without which she can effect no perfect action she with-holds them to her power neither do they separate themselves from her but with great violence for if as it is likely they are animated or if they are of those instruments which will alwayes be united to their principle they cannot go far from the Soul without losing themselves and when that happens it must be against their intention since every thing endeavours its own preservation when therefore Desire drives them to the surface of the Body the Soul which is constrained to keep within its bounds keeps in also the Spirits but this hinders not a part of them from escaping and the impetuosity of their Motion from casting them beyond their prescribed limits They are fluid bodies they disperse and steal away with the least agitation they penetrate everywhere and no resistance can stop them and although as they are Organs of the Soul they love to be always with her yet as they are subtil and loose bodyes which have a great affinity with the air their first inclination is to deliver themselves from the prison wherein they are and to leave the mixture of those gross and impure things to unite themselves to their like But it is also true that they often issue by the Souls command which because it cannot leave the body it animates it sends them to execute its designes and causeth that transport and that influence of Spirits of which we have spoken in our Discourse of Love out of Inclination Yet we must observe that all desires drive not the Spirits into the outward parts there are those which move them not as those which are formed in the supream part of the Soul whose actions need no Organs It is true those desires cannot long stay without the Motion of the Spirits for the Imagination is so neer the Understanding that at last it always discovers a part of what it doth chuse and then working on the Idea's it hath received the Spirits run to its service and agitate the body in the most secret actions of the will so that in the most Spiritual Passions which should be hid from inferior powers we see they bear a part and sensibly alter the Body There are even of these desires which are formed in the sensitive Appetite some which crave no assistance from the outward Senses For when we desire a good which is no more or is far distant from us we know that neither the ears nor the eyes are employed in the inquiry of it The Soul alone operates and even then the Spirits it moves arrive not at these Organs They cast themselves onely on the substance of the brain and disperse themselves on this and on that side without causing a change in the outward parts In fine it is an undoubted thing that the Desire which accompanies Fear Aversness and the other Passions which flee what is harmful carries not the Spirits outwardly as those which purely seek the good or resist the ill On the contrary it retires them inwardly at least if it cause not this Motion it resists it not but follows the impetuosity wherewith the Spirits are carried away But it is also certain that when these cowardly Passions have brought them back again to the heart Desire again darts them further out as if they were to pass beyond it and that presently after these former recal them making thus a long combat of contrary Motions which cause this great trouble and violent agitation which is at that time felt in the entrails Now we should examine whether Desire dilate the Spirits whether it drives them with equality lastly whether it stirs onely the purest blood and the sweetest humours which are in the veins as we have discovered was done in Love But since we have observed that Desire mixeth it self with all the Passions that it is often with Grief and with Fear which contract the Spirits and often with Love and Joy which extend them that it always accompanies Anger how turbulent or impetuous soever it be and in which the most Malignant humours are agitated we must acknowledge that all these kinds of Motions are indifferent to it that it fits it self to them all That sometimes it dilates the Spirits sometimes it contracts them and at other times it drives them with confusion and vehemency otherwhiles with order and moderation according to the Nature of those Passions with which it allyes it self Yet this takes not of the difficulty for since Desire presupposeth Love it seems as if all the Motions which accompany this Passion are to be found in Desire and that consequently the Spirits are therein agitated in the same beforesaid manner But besides that we have not spoken in those places of Love in general but only of that which Beauty inspires it is evident that the greatest part of the Passions are formed and that after Love hath dilated the Spirits others may be raised which may contract them to which Desire may ally it self Otherwise as the emotion of the Soul precedes that of the Spirits it is often formed of those Passions in which the Spirits are not moved because the Appetite agitates with so much swiftness and so nimbly passeth from one Passion to another that they have not time to follow its Motions and so obey onely the last and most vehement Thus Love may mixe it self with Desire without giving to the Spirits the Motion it would have were it alone or that it longer or more forcibly
Neither must you believe they congeal here as they say it happens in some diseases or that they fix as those Metalick spirits do whereof Chymistry relates such miracles for besides that those we speak of are much finer and perhaps of another kinde then those are they must at that time become immoveable and consequently all the parts whereto they are to run must remain without action since they can work onely by their motion Which yet cannot be true Experience and Reason shew us that the organs move freely in this Passion and that Desire which often mixeth with it as we have shewn causeth the spirits to move without ruining the setledness and consistence which Hope gives them We might perhaps imagine that they contract and gather themselves together that by uniting and crowding their parts together they become stiffer and stronger and so put themselves in posture the better to resist the assaults might be made against them And certainly there is a great likelihood that some such thing is done in this encounter For the Soul which knows that what is united is stronger then what is divided never fails so to fortifie it self when ill appears Now the difficulties which are always found in Hope are taken for evils because they oppose themselves to the possession of good And it is therefore likely that the Soul contracts the Spirits the better to defend her self from that enemy which crosseth her designe Yet as in this Passion she is wont but by the way to consider of those difficulties which consequently seem not so great nor so uneasie to be overcome we must not doubt but that if she contract the spirits it is so little that it is neither considerable or powerful to confirm them in the manner they ought to be And indeed the Spirits cannot much contract themselves without retiring inwardly and consequently making the face look pale forasmuch as they draw the blood along with them and rob the complexion of the colour it had before So that Hope having the property to maintain the countenance equal and not to change its colour if it renders them so firm as we have said it must be by some other means then by contracting or reuniting them together To conceive then how this is done we must observe that the Soul can hope for nothing but what she first loved and desired it is necessary that the Spirits should move conformably to these two Passions before Hope can agitate them Now they dilate and open themselves in Love to embrace the good and in Desire they commonly recoil a little that they may the more easily dart themselves towards it Being in this state then if Hope intervene it changeth nothing in the situation of their parts it retains them onely in the proportion they had together and from free and wandering as they were they subject themselves to a certain order which they keep amongst themselves as long as Hope lasts which is made by the souls intermission which hath an absolute command over them placing them as she will stopping them as she pleaseth and holding them as it were by the hand in the rank she had placed them And for that time they remain firm and stable without confounding themselves with others or inwardly retreating or advancing outwardly which is the particular motion of the spirits in this Passion Some perhaps will say that if these parts remain firm and stable they will not move and consequently that the Spirits would have no motion in Hope But there are things which although they do not change place forbear not to move Thus Elementary bodies which are not in their centre although they are retained and seem immoveable yet they make a kinde of an endeavour to return to their natural place which makes them seem either light or heavie We may say the same of the Spirits which being retained by a strange violence are not truely at rest but suffer a secret agitation which holds them in continual suspence Now although the Spirits remain thus firm and stable in Hope it hinders not but that at the same time they may be agitated by other Passions which mix themselves with it So Desire and Boldness may cast them forth without mixing their stedfastness because it consists but in the order of their parts which this darting forth destroys not as we have said seeing we may move a thing from one place to another without disturbing the order and motion which those parts may have amongst themselves It is also true that as Desire grows weak when Hope is strong if the Spirits are very stable their darting forth cannot be so great because they are not so free nor so easie to move as they would be were they not restrained That if Passions rise whose motion quite destroys that of Hope as Joy and Despair then we may be sure that Hope ceaseth for a time to give place to those others and that the Spirits lose their firmness to disperse or slacken themselves afterwards resuming their first consistence if the Soul sees new subjects of Hope which sometimes happens so readiry that it seems as if it were done in an instant and that these motions confound themselves the one with the other I see nothing more here to stop us but that some may chance to imagine that if it were true that in Hope the soul and the spirits did bend themselves to resist difficulties somewhat must appear on the outward parts and they also must bend themselves for the same purpose since that in Laughter we see the muscles retire as the soul doth that in Desire and in Anger they cast themselves out as she doth that they slacken in Joy and that all other Passions make the same impression on the Body as the Objects do in the Appetite But we must consider that the organs of a voluntary motion move not in the Passions but through the strength and efficacie of the object which urgeth the soul and obligeth it to employ all the means she hath to attain the end she proposed her self as we see it happens in all violent Passions or else out of a particular designe she hath to shew outwardly what she inwardly resents as she doth in Laughter and in Caresses So that there being none of those motives in Hope she needs move none of those outward parts and contents her self with the agitation she gives the spirits not considering the ill but by the by she esteems it not so great as to employ all her endeavours against it so that she commonly agitates but the most mobile parts as are the spirits the eyes the brows and some other parts as it happens in all other Passions which are weak or moderate PART 4. The causes of the Characters of Hope BUt since we have spoken sufficiently of the secret tempests let us now see whence those come which appear outwardly and examine why Hope renders men bold presumptuous temerous insolent credulous negligent in their affairs and
his eyes for that having need of the help of others to acquire what he seeks it casts his eyes towards heaven as to the fountain of all good things and the common helper of all Nature and hath recourse to superiour causes being not always assured of the assistance it promised it self from others But when the looks are urgent and unquiet they are effects of Desire and Fear which mix with it in the same manner as Joy often causeth its transports sparklings and agitations To conclude the voice and the speech are firm that is to say strong without vehemency or inequality neither heightning nor talling neither trembling nor precipitated For the Soul which bends it self to resist difficulties is in no condition to fear but because also she will not assault them she makes no great endeavour Wherefore the voice falls not because there is no weakness in the Minde it riseth not also there being no violence therein neither is it trembling being without fear nor precipitate being without impetuosity but strong and equal the air being beaten strongly and equally by the Soul which hath assured and confirmed her self against difficulties There remains now onely the Necessary Characters which follow the agitation of the Humours and of the Spirits The first and that which seems the most proper for Hope is that the colour of the face changeth not the reason whereof we touched at the beginning of this Discourse For the Spirits which become stable stop also the blood and hinder it from retiring inwardly or dispersing it self outwardly So that if sometimes we grow pale it is an effect of Fear as blushing is of Love Desire Joy and the rest of the Passions which drive the blood into the outward parts Sighs follow Love and Desire also It is Fear that cools and makes us lose Courage it is Boldness heats and re-animates it Finally Disquiet chiefly comes from Desire and from Fear which are augmented by tediousness and delays which retard the possession of the desired Good But these Characters are strangers to Hope whose examen is not here to be made Let us onely consider those which seem fit and natural to it It renders the Pulse stedfast without being vehement for the heart and the arteries which confirm themselves as well as the spirits make the Pulse appear somewhat harder then it was and by the touch you may perceive a steadiness which it had not before But this is without vehemency forasmuch as the soul makes no great endeavour to assault as we said and the heat is temperate which require a moderate and equal motion It is true if Hope fall into some cold and weak nature it causeth a higher and greater Pulse then it had usually forasmuch as the Soul which knows her weakness and whose designe is to fortifie her self somewhat augments the heat which hath afterwards need of the greater refreshment But at that time the Pulse is nothing quicker the heat being not so increased that the Soul had need to trouble her self to temper the ardor it might cause she contents her self to enlarge the heart and the arteries to receive the greater quantity of air For it is the order which Nature holds when heat increaseth that first she makes the Pulse greater and higher after she makes it quick and at last renders it thick imitating herein what she makes beasts do who to go to a place begin to march with great paces which if urged they double and at last betake themselves to run Howsoever what we said of the Pulse happens in respiration excepting the hardness which the Sense therein cannot be sensible of although it be likely that the substance of the Lungs may therein harden as Hippocrates saith it happens in Anger because it is almost impossible that the Spirits which run thorow all the parts should not imprint the quality they have in those which are soft and obedient as the Lungs are In a word Hope fortifies all the parts because the spirits therein are more vigorous and as it stops and in a manner retains them that they cannot dissipate nor make any violent motion it is not to be disputed that of all the Passions it is the most advantageous for Health for Length of life for Vertue it self which with so great a care seeks Moderation which naturally is to be found with Hope I say again It is advantageous for the Length of life for what serves for a great Health is not always good to render Life long Active and vehement heat produceth strong actions but shortens our days because the Spirits easily dissipate and suddenly consume the natural moisture So that to live long heat should be moderate the spirits ought not to be violently agitated nor also should they be languishing Now if Nature give them not this justness then it seems there is onely Hope which can acquire it us being the onely one which retains it and secures it without suffering excessive heat or irregular motion And therefore we must not wonder if those who feed themselves with good hopes live longer then other Men And if death often follows high successes it is because it makes us lose Hope which is the true Anchor which holds fast our Soul our Lives and our Yeers FINIS THE Second Part OF THE PASSIONS Wherein is Treated of the Nature and of the effects of the COURAGEOUS PASSIONS English'd by R.W. Esq LONDON Printed by T. Newcomb for H. Herringman at the Anchor in the New-Exchange 1661. The Stationer to the READER A Gentleman of quality during these late unhappy times having betaken himself to a retired life made it his business to study this our Incomparable Author and that he might the better imprint him in his Mind aswell as render him beneficial to others who understand not his language made it his pastime to transscribe into the English the First and Second Part of the Characters of the Passions which having been formerly severally brought to light he easily perswaded us to reconcile them and obliged us upon a Review to present them this second time in one volume being confident that they cannot but begratefull to all learned Men no Man as yet having ever treated of the Passions in his inimitable way which hath truly gain'd him the reputation of one of the Chief Philosophers of our Age. Amongst the most eminent wits of his Nation who are his fittest Judges the One calls him The most splendent light of the time and one of the greatest Genius of learning But none flies higher then Mounsieur de Balsac who tells Mr. Chapelin in two of his Letters to him in the one What great matters he expects from the learning and judgment of Our Author and in another he breaks forth into these expressions Wishing his Book had been far greater that his pleasure might have been the more lasting that he never read any thing with more delight and that he was sensibly charm'd with the beauty of his Passions Others saies he have
first Powers move Or to speak out they are the same Powers which the disposition of Organs renders capable to perform their actions And as those dispositions are unequal in their particulars and that the one hath them more or less perfect then the other so are they more or less fit to perform those actions so that we use to say of him who hath them perfect and who is most proper to act that he hath the power and natural Faculty to do such a thing and of him who hath them imperfect that he naturally hath an impotency and incapacity of working Now Courage is undoubtedly of the number of those derived Powers because it requires certain dispositions in the Organs proper to elevate and stir up the Soul against difficulties and the principal of these dispositions is nothing but the natural heat of the heart capable to kindle and inflame this noble ardor which is necessary in these encounters But we must here consider two things What that Power is which makes Courage First What this radical vertue is which enters into the Courage since the natural and derived Powers are nothing else but the radical in that they are joyned with their dispositions certainly we must say that Nature which hath distributed to all Animals as much strength as was necessary for their preservation hath also given them the vertue to raise up and employ them when they have need of them And this vertue is nothing but the irascible Faculty which is the principle and as it were the form and substance of Courage Forasmuch as inflaming the Heart and lifting up the Soul it doth nothing else but move the natural forces of the Animal to oppose them against those difficulties which present themselves And indeed these differences and the effects of Courage are drawn from the quality of the forces for as there are some which are proper for the Soul and others which belong to the Body every one hath its particular Courage which stirs it up and sets it on work such a man will be couragious in the greatest dangers of War who dares not speak in publick or will suffer himself to be overcome by the least Passion On the contrary there are others who in such like occasions have courage who lose it at the sight of a weak Enemy or of the least little danger they encounter and this proceeds from that the Courage being a vertue which stirs up the forces when they fail it ought also to fail and therefore those who are deprived of corporal strength ought to be cowards in War and couragious in the actions of the Mind and Judgment if they have the forces which belong to those two Faculties Finally as the forces are destined to assault or to resist as we shall make it hereafter appear the Courage also employs them in both the one and the other of those actions and in pursuit brings forth two different Passions Boldness which assaults evils and Constancy or Strength of Courage which opposeth it self and resisteth their violence The second thing which we ought to know is Why beat is the principal dispositiâ—n of Courage why Heat is the principal disposition that creates Courage and what conditions are requisite for to produce it The first is easie to be decided because Heat is the most active of all the qualities that it stirs up all the other natural Vertues and makes the best part of the Bodies vigor neither need we to be astonished if the Soul being joyned to so powerful a quality and conscious of the help she can draw from thence have a good opinion of its forces and if she trust in them and if she readily oppose them to those difficulties which present themselves As for the conditions which this Heat requires to form Courage What that heat ought to be which forms Courage there must be three principal ones The first that it must be natural the Second that it must be great and strong the third that it must be proportionable to the greatness of the Heart In effect a strange Heat as that of a Feavor although it inflame the Heart and the Spirits yet it augments not the Courage on the contrary it abates it as not being conformable to Nature Now for it to be thus conformable it must have two things One that it must be born with the life and that it must be as it were a continuation of that first flame which was kindled at its first birth for if it be once extinguished there is no means left to reinflame it and how temperate soever that might be which may be substituted in its place yet would it be strange and useless The other is that it must remain within those limits which Nature hath prescribed forasmuch as every thing hath a certain measure beyond which it ought not pass without breaking that proportion which ought to be betwixt the organs and their principles to perform their Functions so that that heat which is more violent then the nature of every Animal can bear is not natural unto it But how conformable soever to Nature it may be unless it be great it never will be accompanied with Courage Wherefore those who are of a cold temperature as Flegmatick and Melancholy persons are those who are attenuated with long sickness with long griefs and who by other Passions quench natural heat are not couragious Yet it is to be observed that natural heat being not a simple quality as that of Fire is but a hot and moist substance which is commonly called Spirits composed of the Humidum Radicale and of this heat which Nature inspired with life it may be great two ways to wit in quantity and in quality that 's to say that there may be much of the Radical Humidity in it or many degrees of that heat So Children have more of that natural heat as to the quantity as those which are older have much more as to the quality So in the Winter and in cold Climates the substance of heat is augmented because not dissipated and exterior cold hinders it from issuing out although it be less burning then in Summer the coldness of the Air somewhat diminishing its vivacity On the contrary the ardor of the Climate or of the season draws forth a great part of the substance of Heat and imprints in what remains a certain acrimony which renders it more violent Now although all actions are performed by means of natural heat yet there are some which more depend on its substance as concoctions and digestions are being to be made by means of humidity so that those who have most radical moisture as Children perform these operations most perfectly although they have a very temperate heat such as it ought to be for such actions But there are also those which more depend on the quality of heat as are the actions of the Imagination and those which we call Vital for those who have the most ardent heat have
the strongest respiration the most vehement heart beatings and the most fertile Imagination Finally There are those which equally require both as those which employ motion and the forces of the Body and such Courage is For it is not sufficient to make a man couragious to have much radical moisture since Children which have much of it have but little Courage nor to have a more sharp and and vehement heat since in the Summer and in very hot Climates where the humors and spirits are inflamed by the heat of the Sun men are but little couragious but he must have both much humidity and much heat Since in effect we see that people which inhabit the most temperate Countries are more couragious then those of the South and North haveing more radical moisture then those and a heat more active then theirs Even amongst Beasts those which are of a hot temperature and whose blood is thick are most couragious for the same reason because they have much of the substance of Heat which is not easily dissipated being shut up and restrained by such humors as are gross and besides their heat is stronger as well by reason of the advantage which Nature hath afforded them as because she raiseth many vapors which render it more sharp and that she resides in a thicker subject which renders her more efficatious And truly according as humors are gross or subtile heat diversly operates and also forms several kinds of Courage for those which have them subtile and moveable as the Cholerick are ready to be inflamed but it 's a flame which lasts not but it s presently spent others which are grosser and moderately hot have a Courage which is not easily provoked but which being heated is with difficulty appeased To conclude those who are violently hot and whose humors are gross fall easily into fury and are of an undaunted Courage But that which makes the principal difficulty in all these things What the greatness of the Heart ought to be to make Courage is the greatness or littleness of Heart For it 's observed that all those Creatures which proportionably to their Bodies have a less Heart are couragious as the Dog and the Lion and that those which have a greater as Deer and Hares are timerous Yet there are other experiences which render these observations doubtful for even Man hath a Heart greater then all other Creatures in proportion to his Body although he be one of the most couragious It 's certain that large-Chested men have a great Heart and that the breadth of the Brest is an undoubted mark of the Hearts heat which causeth Boldness and Courage Considering also that those the temperature of whose Heart is cold and dry have commonly that part very smal and are the most timerous To answer to these Reasons which destroy the precedent Proposition there are some who say that it 's only true in the several kinds of Beasts comparing the one with the other and not in the individuals of the same Species So that the Lion compared with the Stag hath a less Heart and is more couragious but that amongst Lions he that hath the greatest Heart hath the greatest advantage over that which hath a less yet this voids not the difficulty For although it be true that amongst every kinde of Creatures which are naturally couragious the greatest Heart is accompanied with the greatest Courage It 's also certain that in those that are naturally timorous the greatest Heart denotes also the greatest Timidity We must then say that the greatness of the Hearts doth nothing of it self as to the Courage and that we must add thereunto the abundance of heat and spirits for if the Heart be great and that it hath much heat and many Spirits it will certainly produce a very great Courage But if the Heart be small and that it hath as much heat and as many Spirits as that which is great it will make a more boyling and a more impetuous Courage because the heat is more active when it 's shut up and restrained but that also is the cause that it is not so noble and generous forasmuch as that constraint makes it easily pass to fury and that the smalness of the parts is an effect of the weakness of the formative Vertue or a defect of the matter which in the principal parts is always vitious On the contrary if it have but few spirits and but little heat it makes Timidity and in proportion as it is either large or streight it will render it litile or great For even as a little fire warms a great Chamber less then the same would do a little one So likewise a little natural heat works less effect in a great and large Heart then in one that 's little and restrained Wherefore although Timidity be common to both it appears less in this and is greater in the greater We have now nothing to add to the understanding of this business but to resolve two very considerable Doubts which may arise from the former Discourse For if the Courage consists in the dispositions we have now spoken of two things will follow which seem to combate Reason and Experience 1. That Courage will onely be in the sensitive part because those dispositions are all material and sensible although it be true that there be many which out of meer Reason onely are valiant and couragious without having this heat in the Heart which we have observed 2. That that Animal which hath not these dispositions will never be moved by any Boldness seeing he will want the Courage which is a power whence this Passion proceeds and yet it 's certain that the most timorous in divers encounters perform actions of Boldness and of Courage and that the weakest are most susceptible of choler which is a kind of Boldness We must then say that there are two sorts of Courage There are two kinds of Boldness the one which belongs to the superior part and the other which is in the sensitive Appetite For since the Irascible Faculty is the principle and as it were the substance of Courage it must needs be that the Will which hath its irascible part must also have its particular Courage and must be as much different from that which is in the Appetite as the Will is from the Appetite it self It 's true that Courage consists not onely in the irascible vertue but that it supposeth also in it a certain disposition which makes it the more easily operate for an Animal is not couragious for having the irascible part but for having of it such that it easily may move it self against difficulties But this disposition ever follows the nature of the subject wherein it is and it must necessarily be that if it be in the Will it must be different from that which is in the Appetite and consequently that there must be two kinds of Courage Now as the presence of heat which makes the best and most
a violent and impetuous Minister which incessantly sollicites the Soul to follow its motions which abuseth it out of the ostentation it makes of its forces and perswades it that with them and without other help it can undertake all things It 's properly an ambitious Favorite which engageth his Master in a difficult War without considering the weakness of the State He hath Courage Arms and Men but the Nerves of War are wanting neither doth he see that his Allyes cannot favor him So when Force is alone in the Heart the irascible Appetite may well stir up those noble Passions and declare War against its Enemies but the Nerves and Muscles not seconding its Designs its Enterprises are vain and timorous On the contrary when the Heart is weak the Appetite is languishing and lazy and although the Members are robust it trusts not their Forces and thinks it a succor too far off to make use of in such urgent occasions Let 's then conclude That that Force which is necessary to assault and to resist principally consists in the hot and dry temperature of the Heart and that that may be perfect and accomplished it must be accompanied with that of the Nerves and Muscles But there are still two great difficulties to be decided The first is The Forces belong to the Irascible Appetite That all those Dispositions of the irascible Appetite serve also the concupiscible for besides that Heat and Spirits are necessary for all the Faculties of Life and that Love and Desire are ardent and impetuous Passions it must needs be that those Creatures which are to go flie or swim and which are often obliged to run after good should have dispositions necessary to perform these great motions to wit Heat and Firmness thus Force will not be particularly affected to the irascible part but it will be always in common to the concupiscible which yet is contrary to our ordinary Philosophy which will have that different Vertues must have different Dispositions To answer these Reasons We shall first say That it 's true all different Faculties require different dispositions For if they are with things which serve to many Vertues and Actions there must needs be some diversity which makes this difference which every particular action requires So natural heat which serves as the universal Instrument to all the functions of life is diversified according to those operations necessary thereunto it must for some be moist or dry for others great little or temperate and every one hath its portion and measure different from all the rest We then confess that the Concupiscible and Irascible Appetite both employ Heat and Spirits and that there must be firmness in the motions of either of them But there is this difference that the one requires a sweet heat moist and pleasant and that the other will have one that is lively dry and pungent for the Reasons we shall hereafter deduce And that that firmness which appears in the motions of the Concupiscible part is outwards and purely accidental not being to be found in the Soul and happening to the parts out of necessity instead that in others it 's first found in the irascible Appetite which afterwards communicates it to the organs for this Appetite onely can stablish it self and when the Soul suffers this kind of motion it even forms some Passion of the irascible Appetite Indeed this establishment of the Soul seems to be the proper agitation of the irascible Appetite because there is no motion more efficacious to resist and assault then that which reunites the Vertue which hinders it to yeeld and which renders the assault the more strong she also makes use of it in all generous Passions and if she casts herself into Boldness and into Anger it 's certain she first settles herself And the onely difference which there is betwixt the motion of Desire and that of Boldness is that at first the Soul darts it self forth without settling it self and that in the other it performs both together as hath been said The other difficulty is How Force is different from Courage That if Force consist in the heat of the Heart where we also have placed Courage it must follow that Force and Courage are the same thing What ever is said that a man hath Courage but wants Force and that Force and Courage must be joyned for the execution of great Designs We therefore say that heat alone may make Courage all entire but that it makes but a part of Force Besides Courage is the power it self and Force is to be considered as the instrument of this power For heat is not Courage but it produceth in the Faculty this disposition and capacity of operating which we call Courage instead whereof we may say that Heat is Force or at least that it is a part of Force yet must we not from thence conclude that Force doth not belong properly and in the first place to Power because the nature and essence of the Instrument depends wholly from the relation which it hath to its Cause and were there no Cause there would be no Instrument So Strength being the Instrument of Power it properly and primarily belongs to it and by its means to those actions and subjects wherein it is But it 's to go too far into the subtilties of the Schools Let 's return to our Discourse of Boldness and see what effect it produceth in the Spirits and in the Humors CHAP. IV. What the motion of the Spirits and of the Humors is in Boldness HAving shewn you that the Appetite stiffens and darts it self forth in Boldness The spirits stiffen and dart forth themselves in Boldness we need not doubt but the same motions are made in the Spirits since they usually follow the agitations of the Soul and that they are the first organs which she employs to execute her designs they do therefore stiffen and stablish themselves and then they rise up and dart themselves out just as doth the Appetite Indeed he that will consider the countenance of a man before he assaults ill but who onely sees it coming will perceive no sign of this sally of the spirits forasmuch as he changeth not colour and that fire which we see afterwards glitter in his eyes appears not for it 's certain that if these spirits cast themselves on those parts they would carry thither redness and splendor and would not leave them that coldness and equality with which he looks upon and considers dangers And truly since we must grapple with the Enemy to assault him and that the endeavors we should make against him would be vain and useless were he out of reach the Soul would never rise up nor dart it self forth against it did she fancy it to be still far off and not near enough to prove her force and resent the effects of her power All what she doth in this encounter is to fortifie and prepare herself for the combate First stiffening
gather it self betwixt the eyes and then certainly if the skin be fleshy it makes as it were a great cloud in the midst of the Forehead which Aristotle calls for the same reason Nebulous which is proper and natural to Lions and to Bulls and which is one of the principal signs of the natural disposition a man hath for Boldness as elsewhere shall be said When the hair stands on end Why the hair stands on end it is because the skin it s rooted in is moved but this motion may be made two ways for those creatures which have a moveable and musculous skin make it move when they please and when they will assault or defend themselves they shrink it up that they may render it stiffer and stronger and then necessarily those plights and wrinkles which are formed must make the hair or feathers stare with which it 's covered It is not so with men their skin being not musculous they cannot voluntarily move it but onely out of necessity and that happens when the spirits with precipitation quit the outward parts of the Head and flye away elsewhere For the skin which is then forced to restrain and shut up it self makes the roots of the hair retire which are commonly obliquely laid in the thickness of the skin and in reverting of it it makes the hairs rise and stand on end Commonly fear and astonishment cause this flight of the spirits and which calling them back again to the Heart render the Face pale and makes the hair stand But this is sometimes also done by a great endeavor of the Courage For the Soul seeing it self pressed by a puissant Enemy gathers the spirits from all parts in which its principal strength consists and sends them to the Arms and so those other parts which are appointed to assault and combate so that those which are abandoned of them grow pale and the skin shrivels and the hair stands on end even as they do in fear Now as Boldness and Anger onely can cause this endeavor its onely they which are capable to produce this effect in the manner spoken of But when that happens it 's a sign that those Passions will rise either to fury or despair for which cause we commonly say that a Man that looks pale with Anger is terrible because the Soul never useth these extraordinary means but when she is extreamly prest and when she carries her self away to her last violences To conclude therefore this Discourse a Bold mans hair may stand upright from the fear and from the astonishment which may sometimes surprise him at the sight of danger or by the last effort of Courage as hath been said The Nostrils open and widen themselves because the heat growing stronger requires a greater respiration and obligeth the soul therefore to enlarge the passages by reason whereof those who naturally have those parts wide and open are commonly bold and cholerick The Smile comes from the indignation a man hath to see himself assaulted by a temerous or insolent enemy or from our despising of his weak endeavors But if we would know why these Passions cause these effects we must see what hath been said in the Discourse of Laughter Silence is proper to true Boldness Why he is silent chiefly when it s going into danger either because it is then entirely gathered up in it self to consider the greatness thereof or because it disdains to speak to any body with whom it denies society either because it hates or scorns them or last of all because it knows Words are arms of weakness and with them Combates are not to be decided And certainly Boldness abounds not in words unless in such who have their weaknesses for the Soul which knows its defect useth all those means which may releive her and employs besides those endeavors which she makes threatnings cryings out and reasons to fright the enemy and hide her own imbecillity such is the Boldness of Women and Children such is that of Bragadocio's And this Maxime is so general that even amongst Beasts we see that little Dogs continually bark when Mastiffs and great ones which are bigger and taller seldom bark and are readier to fall on then we are awares A man that is truly Bold doth the like he is silent when he sees the enemy he goes towards him and assaults him without speaking a word but it 's a threatning Silence and which better expresseth his desire he hath to fight and the confidence he hath in his forces then even words themselves Yet this hinders not What the voice of a Bold man is but that in the heat of the Combate from time to time some flashes of his Voice short and piercing may escape him which commonly accompany the blows he gives or the steps he takes and this in my opinion is to astonish the enemy by those exclamations which remark Ardor and Courage or to animate and provoke himself his cryings out producing the same effect with that of the sound of Trumpets Or rather this comes from the endeavors and struggles which the parts make within which with impetuosity driving the air to the Lungs force it at its issuing out to resound again and to form a strong and penetrating sound because it s driven out with violence Great because the passages are inlarged by heat and short because it 's made by sallies and shocks it seems even as if it issued not with liberty and as if the lips and the teeth stopping it in its passage would force it to return and retort it on himself and to seek other passages in which it's inwardly heard to resound This appears in the howlings of Mastiffs and Blood-Hounds in the roaring of Lions for all of these cast onely forth a great sound of a short and resounding voice which loseth it self in the hollow of the Throat and Breast and which they do not redouble but by long intervals by reason that the Soul which trusts its strengths thinks not it ought to double its shocks with that eagerness which always accompanies weakness The voice of a Bold man is then constrained disturbed and as it were entangled in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle calls it which the Commentators understood not when they said it signified words which precipitated themselves the one or the other and enterfer'd by the swiftness of the pronuntiation For this indeed may happen in Anger for these reasons we shall note but not in Boldness which is neither loud nor talkative which shortens as much as possibly not onely its voice but even its discourse for besides that it never useth any long threats it cuts them short at first and leaves always more to be thought then is said Quos ego Somtimes he blows with impetuosity whether the pantings and shocks he gives his Breast cause the air violently to issue or that from time to time keeping in his breath he is afterwards constrained to use more blowing to drive out the fumes
traverses which they meet with in the way to Glory and that Martyrs have always had contentment in their Souls and vigor in their Looks in the greatest of their torments and sufferings Yet this difficulty is easily resolved if we do but remember that there are two Appetites in Man which at the same time may be moved with two contrary Passions and that in the Will it self there are as it were two parts which may be agitated with several motions for these truths being supposed it 's easie to conceive how Grief assaults the Sences whilst Joy sheds it self abroad in the Mind and how Sadness disturbs the lower region of the Will whilst the higher is quiet as ravished with those pleasures which Love Ambition or some other noble Desire proposeth unto it Yet I will not say that Joy and Grief move to that height in Constancy No it is impossible that either of them can be very great by reason of the stiffening of the Soul which hinders their motion but this signifies that if when strong they are compatible together they may more easily be so when they are weakened and consequently Frowardness which commonly accompanies Constancy and is but the commencement of Sadness may subsist with that gayity which is often observed in this Passion not but that transports and ravishments of Joy may cause soundings and faintings of Grief neither is there then any Constancy left and in that very moment the Appetite must release it self to follow the violence of those Passions It 's true that she afterwards stiffens herself but yet it would be but an interrupted Constancy and which continues but by several efforts which are sometimes so quick that the Passions which interrupted them confounded themselves with this as we have said it often happens in all the rest of them For the rest from the insensibility which she hath for the ills of another She is indifferent to all and from the severity she takes in the use of goods an Indifferency springs which she is subject unto forasmuch as he who is not touched with those ills which he sees others suffer and resists all the pleasures of life is certainly free from all those things which may the most powerfully stop the Mind and engage it in the duties of civil society we are not from him to expect the sweets of friendship nor those succors which compassion promiseth to those that are miserable the good and ill of particulars and of the publick are indifferent to him so that rendring himself useless to all the world he becomes rude austere and savage These indeed are those vices which have been observed in the Sect of the Stoicks who studied nothing but to exercise Constancy since all their Philosophy consisted to abstain and to sustain which are the two employments this Passion is destinated unto so that it is no wonder if they fell into those defects which usually follow her when we use her not as we ought Yet we must observe that the indifferency we speak of respects not those things which Constancy is not tied unto for if she oppose a difficulty she hath no indifferency for it On the contrary she stiffens herself opinionates and obstinates herself against it but beyond that all is indifferent to her and she cares neither what may happen nor what concerns the rest And again She is equal and content it 's for the same reason that she always appear Equal and Content forasmuch as that indifferency which she hath for all things she hath no desires nor apprehensions for them and is exempt from those cares and disquiets which those Passions breed add hereunto that equally stiffening herself at the encounter of goods and of ills good and ill fortune finde her always in the same plight and without being carried away by that or being cast down by this she always remains in one posture and ever appears like herself But we have strayed too long to finde Reasons which are easie to be drawn from the principles we have established and which present themselves unto the Mind as soon as a man would but know them Let 's turn to those Characters which this Passion imprints on the Body We shall not be much troubled in this enquiry there being but few whereof we have not spoken in the former Discourse since in the Chapter of Boldness we have examined the causes of an assured Look of the motion of the Lids and Brows of silence of coldness of the face and of the retention of the breath as in the Chapter of Hope we have observed whence was the strength of the Voice and of the Pulse why the Face changed not its colour why the Head and Stature were streight for Constancy hath these effects common with them and useth the same motives and the same means which they employ to produce them we shall only remark some little differences which are to be encountred in them For it 's certain What the Looks are in Constancy that this Assured Look is here formed with a large opening of the Lids a firm Sight and with vivacity But its vivacity is not so great as in Boldness because that in the design which this hath to assault ill she drives the Spirits out and so abundantly fills the Eyes with them that they become altogether sparkling instead of which Constancy which stands upon the defensive stiffens them only without driving them forth with impetuosity so that she renders the Eyes quick because she stops the Spirits which give them force and vigor but they glister not because they come not thither in any quantity and that they want that active motion which makes them glister and sparkle On the other side this firmness of sight is accompanied with a certain severity which is not to be found in Hope because the Soul considers here onely the Ill the presence whereof makes her peevish and that even there she looks on the Good the expectation whereof sweetens the pain which springs from the difficulties which she encounters When the Brows are lifted up What kinde of motion the Brows have it 's onely the better to behold the Enemy and not to help the rasing up of the Soul as it happens in Boldness For which cause they lift not themselves up so much nor so often as in that Passion because the Soul keeping herself firm and stiff to defend herself sollicites not the organs to make those great and frequent sallyes which follow that impetuosity which she suffers herself to be carried away withall in assaulting So that she lifts up the Brows no more then the necessity of the sight requires and not to serve the motion wherewith she is agitated She also represseth them for the same reason as in Boldness For she thinks herself fortified when she hath provided for the securing of her Eyes as hath been shewed in the former Chapter But it sometimes happens that in the strongest assaults of Ills she keeps them unmovable
and that a Constant Man will see the greatest dangers and suffer most cruel pains without bending his Brow Now this comes either from his great attention in considering the ill for it makes him the more to open his eyes and consequently to lift up his Brows which then cannot be restrained or from the confidence he hath of his forces which defends him from thinking on such small precautions or from the design he hath by this outward immobility to make it appear that his Courage is not to be shaken What his Silence is Silence is not here fierce and disdainful as it is in Boldness because fierceness and disdain are effects of Pride which are seldom to be found in true Constancy But it 's modest and serious and proceeds meerly from the attention the Soul is in for to defend herself and from the confidence she hath of her own strength for that makes her forget words and this defends them since as we have already said they are arms of weakness As for the rest of the Characters which we have now spoken of such as are the coldness of the Face the strength of the Voice and Pulse holding the Breath having the Head and Stature erect there is no difference neither in their effect nor in their cause from those which accompany Hope and Boldness for which cause we send back the Reader to those places where we have carefully observed them and where it doth appear that if they follow those two Passions it 's because they are always upheld by Constancy and strength of Courage But if she hath such a contexture and conformity with them Why Constancy hath not the rest of the Characters of Hope why hath she not also all their other Characters Certainly it 's because besides the stifness which they give the Soul they inspire also other motions which are not to be found in Constancy for Hope indeed stiffens it self against difficulties but at the same time she aspires to the good which she seeks and still expects some help which may deliver her up the possession which makes her unquiet and impatient she sighs and casts up her eyes which happens not in Constancy because she hath no other design but to resist Ill. The same happens in Boldness which stiffens it self also to strengthen it self but besides that darts it self forth and throws it self on the Enemy So that all what follows this darting forth belongs not to Constancy which when she is alone never suffers this agitation so the thorow Looks the widening of the Nostrils the thunder of the Voyce the fierceness of the Countenance a vehement respiration the redness and heat of the parts and the like which proceed from the raising up of the Soul and from the violence wherewith it is agitated are not to be met withal in all in that Constancy which is exempt from those great storms It 's true that its Pace is like that of Boldness because that in stiffening herself she makes the Body weighty and march the more heavily But she balanceth it not as that doth forasmuch as she hath not that impetuosity which causeth the shoulders to turn inwardly in which this ballancing of the body chiefly consists and this bold Gate We may say as much of the Post which is Noble without Pride for the Head is lifted up without any fierceness the Stature is streight without lifting up the Shoulders and the motion of all the parts without constraint or violence is equal and modest Now all this is conformable to that condition which the Soul is in in this Passion for that in stiffening herself she stiffens the parts also which consequently become streight and that this posture is most safe and least exposed to injuries seeing she can the better see the enemy and is every way the readier to resist him But the fierceness of the Countenance the lifting up of the Shoulders which are principal marks of Pride as shall be shewn in its place they are to be found therein because the Soul nor ought nor can extend or lift it self up nor make any violent motion being stiffened as she is The stifness of the Body and parts is a proper and particular effect of this Passion When comâ—â—â— stiffness of the Body for if it be in some other of them we may say that it 's by her means and because that she accompanies them but she employs it not when she is to resist any thing which is corporeal otherwise she abuseth herself and makes a useless endeavor as hath been said Now to know wherein this stifness consists and how it 's made we must observe besides what hath been said hereupon in general That a thing may be two ways stiff either because it resists the touch or that it cannot be staggered now it may resist the touch by being hard and it 's hard either because it 's dry and solid as a stone or because it 's extended as a Baloon or because its parts are shut up and gathered together as those are which are prest and crowded neither can it be shaken either because its weighty or because it hath a motion contrary to that which would overturn it Thus a Column stands firm on its own weight a building supports it self by its props and butteresses the Members stiffen themselves being equally drawn by the opposing muscles which being supposed it 's certain that Constancy useth all these means to stiffen the parts if we except that hardness onely which comes from driness forasmuch as there needs a long time to produce that quality Yet must we make some distinction for that some stiffen themselves in one way others in another the Spirits and the Members which move voluntarily become firm by the opposition of their motions the Muscles by compression the Body by its weight and props which we must particularly examine We have shewn how the Spirits stiffen themselves and how they communicate their stifness to the parts but there is this difference That the stiffening of the Spirits comes from the contrariety of motions and that which is communicated is performed by their upholding of them for being stiffened it must necessarily be that they support the parts which touch them especially if they be fluid as the Humors are Those Members which are destined for voluntary motion as the Head the Eyes the Arms and the Legs render themselves also stiff by the contrariety of motions for being composed of several Muscles some of which cause them to move upwards and others downwards some to the right hand some to the left when they are all agitated at once they must needs remain firm and stiff and without going either way and then they must suffer that motion which is called Tonick which is the most violent of all and which makes us most weary For which cause we are more weary standing upright then walking up and down and it 's more troublesom to look long upon a fixed and settled look
violent agitation all the functions of Sence and principally those of Judgment being not to be performed but when the Soul enjoys a great Tranquillity as Aristotle says Whence it also happens that Nature hath placed the brain so far from the principle of heat that its quiet might not be disturbed by the neighborhood of that active and turbulent quality as we shall more amply hereafter declare CHAP. III. Of the Motion of the Spirits and of the Humors in Anger AS Rivers which run into the Sea are sensible of those storms wherewith it is agitated The spirits in Anger have contrary motions those spirits which like Rivers take their source from the Soul and discharge themselves there also must needs suffer part of that great tempest which Anger raiseth therein And they must be shaken with the same violence and agitation which she resents in herself If it be therefore true that she is then moved with two contrary motions and that at the same time when Grief makes her retire Boldness raiseth her up and drives her forth it 's necessary that the spirits to whom she communicates all her commotions must be agitated after the same manner and that as she doth they must restrain and retreat themselves at the same instant when she raiseth and darts herself forth against ill And certainly did not Reason force the mind to confess this Truth the effects which Anger produces would sufficiently prove it For besides that a man often grows pale when he is carried away with this Passion that his voice is vehement and sharp and that commonly we see in his Face sadness mix and confound it self with fury which can proceed from nothing but this contrariety of motions it 's impossible to doubt it if we consider the different pulse which is proper for Anger and the consistence which the Heart and the Lungs have when it 's kindled in those parts for it hath this in particular That it makes the pulse higher and more elevated then large and extended And that it retires the Heart and Lungs in themselves although it then swells them and raiseth them up now this can be but from these two opposite motions we have spoken of as we shall more fully declare when we enquire into the causes of those effects But although this be most certain yet we must confess that it 's harder to conceive how such bodies as the spirits are can at the same time suffer motions which seem incompatible for although there are many examples in Nature which make it appear that a body may be moved in such a manner that Fish which swims against the course of the water are insensibly carried away with the force of the stream that a man may walk in a ship contrary to the course he shapes and that the heavens themselves are as they say carried towards the West by the Primum mobile whilst by their natural inclination they tend towards the East Yet this clears not the difficulty but leaves still a great difference betwixt these motions and those wherewith the spirits are agitated in this Passion for that there is but one motion in the former proper to the body moved the other is as a stranger and as the School says happens by accident but here these two motions which the spirits suffer are proper unto them it 's the same mover which produceth them it 's the same subject which receives them and it seems a contradiction that at the same time a thing should advance it self and go backwards that it should tend to two opposite places In a word that it should be and not be in the place where it is We must therefore fay that there are two ways whereby the spirits may receive these contrary motions How the spirits suffer contrary motions The first supposing them to have divers parts some of which are agitated after one manner and others after another just as it happens in the Streights where contrary Currents and Seas meet for as there are some waves which enter into one another some which justle and cause the beatings they give one another to boil exceedingly the same thing certainly is here done where one part of the Spirits which follows the motion of Grief and another which is carried away with that of Boldness and which meeting on the way causeth this turbulent and unequal agitation which is observable in this Passion the same way is like that which is performed in Boldness wherein the spirits stiffen themselves in themselves and yet forbear not to dart themselves forth For seeing the parts of a body may amongst themselves suffer a motion which may be different from that wherewith the whole body is agitated as it happens to the Arm when at the same time we stiffen and stretch it forth So it may also be that the spirits may retire in themselves and at the same time be violently driven into the exterior parts And truly as Grief makes its impression before Boldness because we must resent an injury before we will our revenge it 's certain that at that instant the spirits restrain themselves so that Boldness coming after and not driving Grief away it must raise the Spirits restrained as they are and without making them lose the disposition it finds them in drive them to those places where they are necessary Now although in little Anger 's it may happen that the Spirits will be moved onely after the latter manner yet commonly they are by both sorts at once and it must necessarily be The better to conceive this great storm which they raise in the veins we must fancy to our selves that they do not onely restrain themselves as we have said but that there are some which run and flie to the heart and others which issue out and impetuously cast themselves forth and that in this encounter which is thereby made they embroyl and confound themselves they justle and raise themselves up and so they make a current full of boilings and of foam it 's true that according as Grief or Boldness predominates in this Passion the ebbing and flowing of the spirits is stronger or weaker for when Grief is greater which is properly what we say is to be vexed there are more spirits which retire to the heart then there are which are darted forth On the contrary when Boldness is greater as when Anger is violent and turns even into Fury there are more spirits which dart themselves forth then retire and then although the shock which they give themselves cannot be so great and seems to be unable to cause this agitation which is when they are of equal force yet this hinders not that trouble and tempest to be therein formed with the same violence which the excess of this Passion requires forasmuch as if the shock is not then performed by the encounter of these opposite motions yet it 's made by the frequent arrival of the spirits which like impetuous floods precipitate themselves on
a Guardian of a secret as Anger and although Love and Joy also are alike unfaithful as that is yet they commit not the same violence on the Heart they rather open it then cast it forth and if they shed it abroad it 's rather because they fill it then that they empty it but Anger suffers nothing there which she drives not out with force it exhausts it by breaking it and as a fire kindled in a Mine it tears up and discovers all what is hid therein In effect it 's impossible to conceive the impetuosity with which heat and the spirits issue out of the heart and the violence with which the Soul throws herself forth for her revenge but we must also fancy we see an effusion and scattering abroad of all her thoughts and of all her designs and chiefly of those which have conformity or alliance with Anger as conspiracies made with or against an Enemy those secret good offices which have been done and the like which to satisfie its revenge this Passion discovers For when a man in anger reveals a conspiracy in which his enemy was one of the complices it 's to bring him in danger when he publisheth an enterprise which he had formed against him it 's a threat and when he reproacheth him it 's to convince him of wrong and render him odious They also are commonly the weakest which fall in this default whether it be because they speak more and that it 's hard but that in many words much folly must needs be or whether they would hide their weakness by the liberty they take to speak all they know and all what they have a mind to do Yet there are some Anger 's which are Dumb Some Anger 's are dumb and yet forbear not to be violent although they make no noise often even those which are lowdest stop on the sudden and fall into a silence wherein Fury appears as high as in threatnings Now this silence happens either from the confidence we have in our own strength which seeks a more noble and a more solid revenge then that of words as we have said in the Discourse of Boldness or from the despight we have of seeing our selves offended by persons from whom we expected not we could have received an injury or from the scorn wherewith we pretend to chastise their insolency or from that strong intention which the Soul gives herself to find out means of revenge to discover the motive of the wrong done her or for such other like designs which Passion casts into the thoughts It 's impatient and constrained Anger is impatient not onely by reason of the Grief it resents and of the desire it hath of Revenge which are two Passions naturally very unquiet but also because of the heat and of the agitation which it causeth in the spirits for it 's impossble that these organs which serve the motions of the Soul and of the Body should suffer this great ebullition without powerfully agitating both of them and in pursuit without causing trouble or precipitation in the thoughts strugling in the discourse or in the looks and a continual change of posture and place which is observed in anger All Passions are credulous in those things which favor their design Anger is opinionated and opinionated in those which resist them because it 's easie to drive the Soul whether she would go and dfficult to make her take a new course But as there is none so impetuous nor so rapid as Anger there is none also in which perswasions are more easily received to hasten its course or wherein such as would oppose it are more strongly reputed Indeed we can propose nothing to a man agitated with this Passion which may render the injury which he hath received greater or more sensible which may advance or encrease his revenge and which flatters his design and proceedings but he greedily receives it and affords it a ready approbation On the contrary he stiffens himself against all those reasons which endeavor to sweeten his resentment and his fury and although he acknowledg the truth and justice of them yet he is obstinate to combate them and believes that his opinionacy is able to justifie his Anger Yet he that would near-hand but consider all their actions will perceive that Pride bears a great part in them and that besides this general cause which we have now observed this also particularly contributes thereunto For Pride loves to be flattered will always be in the right and never yields to whomsoever it be So that we need not wonder if Anger which is naturally proud easily hearkens to those who approve and favor its designs if it repulse those who condemn it and if it continue sledfast in its resolutions when even it acknowledgeth them unjust Cowardliness Anger is cowardly insolent and cruel Insolency and Cruelty seldom abandon this Passion whether it be that the impetuosity and blindness it is in cause it always to pass beyond those bounds which Nature and Reason have assigned unto Revenge Or because that Pride causeth it to abuse those advantages which it hath over an enemy Or lastly for that weakness which often accompanies it gives it such counsel and perswades it that to secure it self against all those accidents which it may fear it 's obliged to use the height of the victory and to carry it to extreme violence as hath been said in the Discourse of Boldness For which cause Women and those who are naturally weak and timerous are more insolent cruel in their Anger then others are and when those who have offended them fall under their power they suffer all the indignities all the outrage and all the excess which rage and cruelty can inflict Indignation Disdain and Despight are not properly effects of this Passion they are rather kindes and differences of it for they are light Anger 's which seem to keep themselves almost quite shut up in the Soul and which never fall into those extravagancies and violences which are observeable in the others All three have this in common That Grief is always mixt with them and that they stir up the Soul against those things which give them any displeasure But there is this difference that Disdain is never without Scorn although we have a despight and an indignation against such things as we esteem On the other side Indignation never is but in Men although the other two are also to be found in Beasts To conclude it 's certain that there are persons whom we despise without having any disdain or indignation against them And certainly the word Indignation means What indignation is that to raise this motion in the Soul something must happen to a man which he deserves not and which he is unworthy of now as we may grieve for the good or ill which so happens the difficulty will be to know whether either of them be capable to raise it or whether it be good
Anger mark out also the same mixture of those two Passions of which we have shewn they were composed For we cannot doubt but a sad and crabbed mind which it sheds over the face sighs and crys which at every moment it casts forth and those tears which it so often vents proceed from Grief and that the ardor which appears in the Eyes in the voice and in all its motions proceeds from Boldness it 's true that this commonly produceth those which are most sensible and more in number then the other because it causeth the Soul to issue out and to discover it self instead whereof Grief making her retire within herself causeth also the greater parts of its effects to remain hid and not to appear as the others do And certainly in that number of corporal Characters which are observed in Anger there are but three or four which depend on Grief all the rest comming from Boldness and from Fury But from what source soever they deduce their origine we must not forget that some are made by the order and command of the Soul and that the rest happen out of a meer necessity she having no design nor intention to produce them as is the paleness and redness of the Face the wrinckles of the Forehead the swelling of the parts stammering c. For they serve for no other purpose in the design of Anger and they are onely formed in pursuit of the motion of the spirits and of the rest of the parts Now as there being many of both of these which have been examined in the foregoing Discourses which we intend not to touch any more It shall suffice to let the Reader know that in the Chapter of Boldness he may finde the causes of that through-look the motion of the Lids Brows and Forehead the widening of the Nostrils the standing of the Hair and that paleness which sometimes happens in the beginning of Anger That in the Chapter of Love he may see whence sighs spring and why the ruddiness which that Passion raiseth begins at the Eyes He shall in that of Constancy know whence the firmness of the parts proceeds As for Tears and other effects of Grief we shall speak of them in the Discourse which we have destined for that Passion Besides the Through-look there are two others which are familiar to Anger to wit a Fierce Look and a Furious Look Both of which have that in common that they are made with force and vivacity But the Fierce one hath somewhat that is sad and severe which is not always to be encountred in the Furious adding also that it is not so ardent and wandering as is this To render the Look Fierce Whence the fierce look comes the Brows must lowre and gather themselves together the Eye must be quick and piercing and the Sight firm and assured Such is that of Lions of Leopards and of Mastiffs for they naturally have their Eye-brows cast down and restrained which makes as it were a great cloud in the Forehead and their Eyes have a certain ardor which seem to breath forth blood and slaughter And certainly there needs no less then these three conditions to compose such a kinde of Look forasmuch as an Impudent man may well have firmness and vivacity in his looks but because he archeth up his Brows and that rude and severe air which proceeds from the contraction of the Brows and Forehead is wanting to him he therefore cannot have a fierce look On the other side Frowardness and a strong attention of mind may cause this severity to appear in the Face but because they take away vivacity from the Eyes they never render the Look fierce That piercing splendor indeed which appears in the Eyes and chiefly in those which are blew which the Latins call Caesios inspires somewhat of cruel and frightful in the look for which cause Tacitus calls the Germans eyes Truces and we are taught that Panthers and Leopards have I know not what kind of fierceness in theirs which the Lyons have not by reason that they have that colour and that the Eyes of these are altogether red which colour is more obscure and less splendent However it be Anger casts down and bonds the Brows to fortifie it self against the Grief it resents and against the Enemy which assaults it as hath been said elsewhere It 's Look is quick and assured by reason of that splendor and strength which it casts into the eyes by the quantity of spirits which it sends thither For we cannot doubt but that the firmness of the sight must be an effect of the strength of the parts and that the spirits must make the greatest part of their strength since they become languishing when they receive them no more To know wherein this firmness of sight consists we must consider what hath been said concerning it in the Chapter of Boldness Although the Furious Look is often taken for the fierce What a furious Look is yet is it not the same for there is a great difference betwixt the ordinary looks of a Lyon and those which he hath when he is provoked Betwixt the look of a man who is yet Master of his Anger and that he hath when madded and enraged that is fierce but this is furious and witnesseth an extream transport and a very straggling away of the Soul it 's made also with red and sparkling eyes which shout forth and seem to go out of the Head and which rowling from the one side to the other cause a wilde and wandering sight and as in the other the brows are bent downwards in this they are commonly lifted up and drawing their lids after them they make the opening of the eyes to be wider and rounder and so discover almost all the white of the eye Now all these Characters are so proper to Fury that even Physitians make use of them to know when the sick person will fall into such a fit and that it 's impossible to consider the state wherein the soul then is without perceiving that necessarily she must produce an effect For as the blood boils in the vessels Red Eys and impetuously casts it self on all the exterior parts all the veins of the Eyes are filled therewith and consequently become thicker and redder for which cause Aristotle says that those who naturally have theirs so are subject to that kind of furious Anger whereof we speak and that this relates to the proper character of this Passion but you must observe that this redness ought principally to be understood of the Eye and not of the Lids that the veins which are dispersed in the blew of the Eye are those which are swelled and which cause that redness which also is a sign of raving in sickness when it proceeds not from any particular vice of those organs The Eyes are sparkling Sparkling Eyes not onely by reason of that splendor which the spirits bring with them but also by reason of the
approach of those vapors which the Humors casts on those organs which extending the Membrane which environs them render it more united more polished and more fit to reverberate the light which they receive Add also that the continual motion wherewith they are agitated makes them sparkle and glister the more to which we may also add that their Driness renders their brightness more quick and peircing it being certain that humidity dims the light and that the refraction it makes there weakens the rayes instead that on dry and polished bodies it 's reflected and reverberated all whole and pure for which cause in Love and in Joy how sparkling soever the eyes be by reason of their humidity yet they have not so strong and so penetrating a splendor as these have But whence doth this driness proceed Is it not from the vehemency of the heat which consumes all the humour which runs over the Eyes or rather sharp and drying vapors which rise from that cholerick humour which is agitated for where-ever they arrive they render the skin dry and parched as is observable in burning Feavors and in cholerick constitutions Besides this Fiery Eyes the splendor we have spoken of mixing it self with that colour which the blood brought to those parts produceth an enflamed redness which renders the Eyes fiery even like unto coals of fire They cast themselves forth The Eyes advance outwards whether because they receive a great quantity of spirits of vapor and of blood they swell and so are constrained to occupy the greater room or because the spirits which issue out with impetuosity drive those parts out of their natural scituation or finally because the Soul which is carried out of her self draws them along with her and causeth them to make a sally like her own Wandering Eyes The Eyes are wandering which continually move their sight here and there without fixing on any object make a part of this furious look and it 's principally what renders them frightful and formidable for which cause those who have treated of the Nature of Beasts say that the Panther which after this manner always rowls its Eyes hath a more terrible and frightful look then any other and that there is no Beast how fierce or bold soever it be which it doth not fright and terrifie therewithal However when the sight becomes thus wandering in sickness it 's a certain sign that the party is falling into fury Yet we must observe that fear also produceth the same effect and often renders the looks wilde and inconstant but besides that the air of the Face which accompanies those Passions may alone observe a great difference betwixt those looks it 's most certain that they are effectually different from one the other neither are they made in the same manner For fear causeth us to cast our eyes on this and on that side but how light or quick soever the motion it affords them is it for a while stops them on those objects which present themselves and it appears clearly that it seeks them to consider them and to see whether it be from them the ill must happen which she fears But fury without design carries the sight here and there and without heeding what it encounters casts the eyes on things without seeing them and all its looks are lost looks and truly wandering Now these motions partly come from heat which is a moving quality and when it 's provoked it puts all in disorder partly from that agitation which the spirits suffer which easily communicates it self to the Eyes being as they are moving partly from the Souls transport which abandons the conduct of those organs and suffers them to move at the pleasure of the tempest which she raised The Brows are not knit And according to my opinion it s also the reason why the Brows are not shrunk up as in the fierce look for since their contraction is an effect of that care which the Soul takes to fortifie herself which she always also preserves so long as she is herself when she is once carried away with fury and that she is as it were out of herself she then loseth the remembrance of her preservation and hath no other motions but those which the blindness and madness of the Passion gives For which cause when she darts impetuously casts herself out of her natural situation she draws with her the most movable parts and so causeth the Brows and Lids to lift themselves up in pursuit wherof the openings of the eyes must not onely be greater but they must also-become rounder because the Lid cannot open much but its angles must be widened which must also be drawn the nearer to one another to facilitate this extention which is made in the circumference Now besides that this causeth a round figure a greater part of the white of the Eye must also appear which renders the look more strange and dreadful Tears which are sometimes shed in Anger may come from the Grief which we suffer by reason of an injury Whence Tears in Anger yet commonly they have no other source but the despight we have for not being revenged for which cause Women and Children are more subject to weep in the strength of this Passion then Men because they then acknowledge their weakness and are forced to suffer the wrong which was done them without seeking satisfaction To know now how these tears are formed and what the motive of the Soul is when upon these occasions she sheds them its what in its place must be examined and to which we have destined a particular Discourse which shall follow that of Grief But we have sufficiently spoken of the Charactâ—â—â— which Anger imprints on the Eyes 〈◊〉 now consider those which she forms on the other parts of the Face The Lips grow thick by reason their substance is soft and spungy The Lips grows thick which easily imbibes the blood which runs thither And being filled therewith they overturn themselves their bounds being free and being not restrained by the neighboring parts But whence comes their trembling The Lips tremble and principally that of the lower Lip Is it not that the spirits crackle in those parts and cause that part which is extreamly movable to tremble or that the Choler which is moved pricks the stomack which hath a great sympathy with the neather Lip whence it is that in sickness the trembling of that part is a sign of vomiting The Lips press one another Sometimes they joyn and press one the other to retain breath and thereby to render the motion the more strong or to fortifie those parts which grow hard and stiff by the contraction of the Muscles as hath been said in the Chapter of Boldness They also sometimes retire themselves The Lips retire themselves and discover the teeth which most part of Beasts usually do when they are angry because those are their natural Arms which they discover to fright
good action or when we consent to the will or advice of another to signifie by this casting down that she submits herself to the good which by reason of its excellency and because it always communicates it self with some empire can never be but with some submission and allowance it must needs be I say by the reason of contraries that when she perceives any ill she who hath a natural aversion from it which in its presence always disquiets its self and with which she can never have any society or communication must also make some outward motion which represents her impatience and the endeavor she makes to estrange herself from it Now he that shall consider the shaking of the Head which we speak of will easily confess that there is none which can better express her averseness her disquiet and the care she takes not to unite herself with it for aversion causeth the turn away of the Head impatience makes the change of posture and those contrary and redoubled motions make it appear that she will not unite with it since union in natural things is always made by a simple and uniform motion if there be no obstacle which hinders it Besides this it will be nothing difficult to declare why Anger produceth the same effect since it hath the same object which the rest of the Passions have and that it cannot consider its enemy but as a vexatious ill for the which it hath an aversion and whereunto it will ever witness the hatred it bears and the impatience it hath to revenge it self In effect this shaking of the Head is a kind of threat whereby we intend to fright people and which is not made use of in fight or when we come to blows threatnings being then useless as hath been said As for the other motion of the Head upwards Why we lift up the Head it is but little observable in this Passion unless when it would witness the scorn which it conceives of advice given it or of the designs and threatnings of the enemy In effect it is a Character fit for Scorn for him to whom we propose a thing which he slights usually to lift up his Nose to witness thereby that he rejects and repels it as unworthy of his esteem and care Finally Why we turn the Head Anger often causeth a man to turn and lift his Head on one side chiefly when he cannot or will not be revenged For when we receive an injury from a powerful person and have not the power to demand satisfaction we cause our resentment to appear by that action which is familiar to children that have a courage after they have been ill used as also those who form a design to revenge themselves when their enemy is absent or far off Because those are not then in a capacity to execute their revenge by reason of their weakness nor these by reason of the absence or far distance of him who hath offended them On the other side when for some certain consideration a man will not revenge himself although he may as when we esteem the injury not very considerable or that those who have done it deserves a more severe chastisement we content our selves with this motion of the Head to cause some fear in them And certainly it is in the rank of those actions which serve for threatnings whereby the Soul intends a displeasure or an apprehension in those who have offended her making them believe that those slight punishments are but the beginnings of a greater vengeance as hath been said However it be she intends thereby to make known that the injury toucheth her and that she means to retort it but that she retains this Passion and gives it not the liberty to go further for it turns the head to witness aversion it lifts it up to signifie its endeavor and presently brings it into its first posture to shew that it hath no more to do and that its enough for it to have witnessed its courage and resentment Some perhaps may say That we often perform the same action when we finde a thing to be excellent as when we would declare that a thing is well done that a man hath some eminent vertue that Wine is extreamly good To which we must answer That there is a great deal of difference betwixt these two For besides that in this we never turn the Head it is not thrown but as we have said it is rather drawn and raised up neither falls it again so soon as in Anger because its admiration which causeth this motion which raising up the Soul and keeping it in suspence to consider the wonder she incounters disposeth of the organs conformable to the condition she is then in Whereunto must also be added that the subject of admiration which here occupies the Mind is but mean for when it s very great it not onely causeth a man to lift up the Head on one side but he lifts it up altogether he opens also his Eyes and his Mouth raiseth and extends his Arms and all his parts take such an extatick figure which usually accompanies those great transports and raptures of the Soul as shall be said elsewhere But let us conclude this enquiry which to many may seem of no use or too much scruple and let us see whether Anger may be lulled asleep and whether it affords any release to the Mind whilst the Body is at rest We cannot doubt but that if Sleep can hardly insinuate it self in those Passions which are least violent it is as it were impossible that it should ever surprise this which is altogether in excess and vehemency The calm it is accompanied withal cannot agree with the tempest it raiseth and whether it be formed by the intermission of the Soul which knits and stops the spirits or by means of those sweet vapors which digestion sends up which like pleasant clouds tempers the heat of the Brain and shuts the passage of the sences we ought not to expect that any of these causes should produce it here wherein there are none but sharp and burning vapors which heated Choler causeth to rise up in the Brain and wherein the Soul is so powerfully agitated that far from being able to stop the Spirits she cannot retain even herself Yet this ought to be understood of the time when this Passion is in its rage and in its greatest ardor for when it is a little appeased it suffers sleep to benum the sences to repair those losses which its watchings and labour hath caused But what rest soever it affords it forbears not to preserve in the Soul and in the Humors the remains of that storm which Anger had raised in them For it is commonly disturbed with a thousand kinde of Dreams which sometimes represent fires and burnings sometimes threatnings and Combates and Victories now the cause of all these Dreams comes either from the imagination which being still full of those species which Passion had
there left and feeling also if we may so speak the shake which the desire of Vengeance had given it it insensibly suffers it self to be carried away and so continues its first designs which it always causeth happily to succeed being no longer conducted by the Sences nor by Reason nor taking any other counsel but such as self-love and Pride which Anger brings along with it affords it For it is from thence these advantages come which a man who sleeps upon his wrath believes he receives in all his Dreams it seems to him that he is alwayes the stronger of the better address he never sees his Enemy but he represents him unto himself either weak or submitting and he in them undertakes no combate but he comes off with the Victory and in Triumph But it may also happen that the Soul may be altogether in a calm and that no remains of the trouble which the Passion had before brought may stay behind and yet all these illusions will not forbear to happen and then it is no longer a continuation of its first designs but a new motion which the Spirits and the Humors raise in the fancy for whether their agitation subsists after that of the Soul the impression of the motion preserving it self longer in these bodies then in the Appetite whether by reason Choler being separated from the mass of blood cannot so soon resume its just place both are able to form all these violent Dreams which we have spoken of The difficulty is to know how this may be done since these things touch not the sences which are benummed nor consequently the imagination which works onely on those images which it hath thence received And were they even at liberty there is no likelihood that they should know what passeth thus in the secret of the Veins What then is it which can raise in the Soul all these Chimera's and Phantasms which have so much relation with that Motion which the spirits then suffer and so much resemblance with that humor which is in disorder We must certainly confess that besides this exterior knowledge which the Sences afford her she hath another which is interior and secret which Nature hath inspired by means whereof she sees and knows all what is done in her organs and that with that light she who is present with all the parts easily observes what is done in them and afterwards communicates it to the imagination which is as it were the center of all her knowledge But forasmuch as this is obscure and confused she instructs not this Faculty clearly and affords it onely a general view of those objects which concern her it 's for the same reason also that she forms no perfect images which respect things as they are but which onely have some relation and agreement together So when choler is moved although the Soul distinctly knows not the nature nor the species yet she knows it to be a humor which is hot and ardent and upon the report which she hath made thereof to the imagination this fancies to it self sparkling colours flames and burnings which have a conformity with that general notion which she had received of them And because that she also knows that this Humor serves Anger and Boldness to destroy the Enemy which they assault seeing herself in such a condition as in these Passions she useth to be in she presently thereupon proposeth such objects and designes and so forms Enemies Assaults and Combates We may say as much of the agitation which remains in the Spirits after the esmotion of the Soul is at an end For observing it during sleep she who knows that it 's the motion which in Anger she makes use of reingageth herself afresh in this Passion and sleeping reassum the desires and designs of revenâ—â— which waking she had already given over She doth the like also proportionably when the other humors are irregular when the spirits finde themselves agitated with the motion of some other Passion in a word it is thus that she forms all Dreams which come from the good or ill disposition of the body as we have shewed in the Treatise of Love out of Inclination There remains two effects onely to be examined concerning which we must consult Physick for it is from her we must learn What Pulse there is in Anger and in what disposition the Heart and the Lungs are when it is kindled in those parts As for the first All Physicians are agreed That the Pulse herein is great high quick frequent and vehement and that the violence of the heat and force of the vital Faculty are the principal causes of all these differences But although all this be true yet we may say that this kinde of Pulse is not proper and particular to Anger since it is also to be found in Boldness as we declared treating of that Passion and that certainly there must be somewhat which hitherto hath not been observed which distinguisheth it from this there being no probability that these two Passions should diversly agitate the Soul and the Spirits without causing also in the Heart and in the Arteries different motions It is therefore certain that in both of them the pulse is great and high but in Boldness it is full and extented and we may feel the Artery under our fingers which swells every way instead that in Anger it puts all her endeavor forwards and without enlarging it self it darts it self outwardly making the pulse thereby high which seems rather streight then large And certainly as the Spirits follow the design of the Soul which throws herself out of herself to assault the Enemy their sally must needs be made as hers is from the center to the circumference and that if the Arteries are to be restrained as it is necessary and as we shall hereafter demonstrate it ought to be by the sides that the Spirits may be left at liberty to dart themselves forth but there is no question to be made of this effect nor of its cause if we remember that Grief and Boldness are here mingled together and that at the same time both of them agitate the Heart and the Arteries with a motion proper to them for if Grief ought to restrain it that Boldness at the same time might open it they must be streightned in some of the parts and enlarged in others in pursuit whereof the Pulse appears high without being extended as hath been said yet we must observe that it is principally so in the motions of Anger or that when it is in the ardor of Vengeance or that it turns into Fury this contraction is no more felt but it is found to be altogether large and full as it is in Boldness or whether the sence of Grief be stifled or its effect suspended by the violence of other Passions or whether the Soul which is then as it were out of herself minds no longer her preservation and without having a care of sheltering her self she blindly