case the window of Momus were very necessary for it How ever it be the soul is not content after this manner only to agitate the spirits and the humors in the passions she also causeth those parts to move which are capable of a voluntary motion as being those which are the most powerful to seek and imbrace good and to repel or flye evil and to speak truth this motion of the spirits is often a succour very useless to the soul and which serves rather to shew her precipitation and blindness then to obtain what she proposed to her self for when they cast themselves into the face she fancies to her self that it is she her self that runs thither and when they retire themselves to the heart it s she also who hides her self there although she be already at the place where she would arrive and that she abandons not that wheene she thinks to estrang herself and what benefit is it to a Creature for the spirits and the blood to goe to the encounter of an agreeable object since neither the soul nor the body come nearer to it nor are any more united to it and that the sences only are they which ought to make this union we may say the same of the resistance she would make to those ills which present themselves for what relation is there betwixt the spirits and an injury and what effect can they make to drive back an ill which most commonly is only in opinion which sometimes is no more or which even is not yet made But it is not thus with voluntary motion for indeed here the hands draw and take what 's useful the body is carryed towards what is lovely it truly keeps a distance from what 's ill and flyes or drives away what incommodates it It s true that there are some of these motions where the soul deceives it self aswel as in that of the spirits how many lost steps ridiculous postures and idle words are there in Passions to what use are these several motions of the head those different figures which the forehead the eyes the nose and the mouth form There may be some relation with the design which the soul proposed since its certain that in shame she casts down the eyes as if she would hide herself that she lifts them up in Anger as if that served to repel an injury and that in scorn she lifts up the nose as if she would drive away what she disdains But it s easie to perceive that herein also she deceives her self and that the blindness and trouble in which she is causeth her to use means which benefit her nothing to the obtaining of what she desires 'T is not that she is therefore to be condemned in all these motions there are many which happen without any design of hers which although they are not against her intention yet she is not the cause of them 't is but by a certain necessity that they follow those motions which the soul inwardly excites for we cannot with reason say that she proposeth in anger the hinderance of respiration and of speech the inflammation of the face and the sparkling of the eyes But these are effects which follow the agitation of the spirits which impetuously cast themselves on the exterior parts as we shall say hereafter By this discourse we may not only perceive what the causes of those motions which the Passions excite are but also which those are which make moral Characters and which make the corporal For those which the soul imploys by a clear and distinct knowledge to obtain the end she pretends in every Passion make the moral Characters and those which she useth by a pure instinct or which happen without any intention of hers form the corporal Characters For these latter are of two sorts the one are by the command of the soul the other are by necessity as you will see more particularly in the following discourses CHAP. II. The Characters of Love LOVE is not only the Spring of all the Passions but even of all the good and of all the ill which happens to men without it there would be no Sciences in the world Vertue would be without followers and Civill society would be but an imaginary good it is that which breeds in us the desire of fair things and makes us possesse them and by a wonderful incantation changeth and transformeth us into them to it we owe all the good things we possesse it may give us those which we want and if it drive not from us the ills which necessarily accompany this life at least it sweetens them nay and even renders them pleasing makes them the instruments of our felicity But this is it also that corrupts vertue ruins society and renders art despicable And if it hath truely brought into the world these excellent things it seems it is only to drive them out again That noble vigor which incites the minde to fair actions that divine fire wherewith they say the soul is clothed and which naturally raiseth it towards Heaven languisheth and dys under the weight of base and terrestrial things upon which this Passion fixeth it In short its this that forms all the tempests which agitate our life there would be no grief no fear nor no despair were there no love and who ever will neerly consider all the passions will easily beleeve that they are but several motions which it causeth and different figures which it assumes Now as there are but few objects which can reach the soul which are not able to move this passion And whereas Riches Honor Pleasure and in a word all Goods whether false or true may raise it we will not here disimbroile this Chaos and our design gives us not leave to speak of any other kind of love but that which beauty begets in the appetite Neither is it a slight enterprize notwith standing the helps those great men of the times past have given us and what endeavour soever we have already made to discover its origine yet are we constrained to confesse that there is somewhat in it which is divine whereto our spirit cannot attain and the same poverty which we finde as they say at its birth happens also in our thoughts when we would speak of it so that were it necessary to observe all the effects thereof we might sooner count the waves of the sea then the motions it causeth in the soul neither doth heat produce or corrupt more things in the world then love causeth both good and evil actions In effect its the instrument of that divine Art which Nature hath provided to preserve her most exellent works without it long since we had no more spoken of Families of Peoples or of Common-wealths and those which were esteem'd the most flourishing had been but the Assemblys of a sort of wild savage beasts had not love sweetned and civilz'd them for it s it that forms us to a civil life which is the true
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
is great and large because the heart opens to receive the good which presents it self as was before said it is unequal and irregular by reason of the several Passions with which this is continually traversed for as we do not here speak of that simple and imperfect Love which is yet but in the soul but of that which is compleat and finished and which hath already made impressions on the body it is impossible but Desire and Fear Joy and Grief should at every moment confound themselves with it whence consequently happens the unequal motion of the heart and of the arteries and this is chiefly to be observed at the remembrance or unexpected arrival of the beloved person For after this first elevation which is made at this encounter it changeth a hundred wayes it appears little and languishing and immediately returns to its first vehemency from swift and light it becomes slow and heavy and all at once it reassumes its first quickness which it loseth again in an instant and passeth thus from one difference to another without order and without proportion There are but very few Characters which remain to be examined whose causes are not very evident For the disquiet comes from the divers agitations which the soul feels the shiverings and the ardors follow the flowing and ebbing of the Spirits forasmuch as Fear and Grief which retire them within take away from the exterior parts the heat they had even as Joy and Hope restore and augment it and as Boldness and Anger gather the spirits together strength also encreaseth as it diminisheth when Joy dissipates or Grief stiffles them There remaines no more difficulties to be found but in the Syncopes and Extasies which sometimes happen to Lovers but we have already shewed that Love could not alone cause Syncopes nor faintings but that it must be Grief Despair or Joy For the Extasie its true it may proceed from Love yet we must observe that the word hath divers significations the Physitians often take it for an extreme alienation of the spirit such as those have who are frantick or mad sometimes for that strange disease which they call Catoche which all at once takes away the use of sence and motion and keeps the body stiffe in the same posture in which it surprised it there are some who beleeve that the true Extasie is made when the soul doth no action in the body whether it dwell there or that indeed it issue forth for a time as it happens in those which are possest and in those who are ravished by the spirit of God but that whereof we speak is nothing else but a certain ravishment of the soul which takes from the body the use of exterior sence and motion the imagination and the understanding not forbearing to operate which happens by a strong attention which binds the soul to the beloved object which makes it lose the care of all animal functions and which imploying all the spirits in that thought hinders them from flowing to the organs of sence and motion and this ravishment may sometimes Pass to such an excess that the vital faculties may receive no more influence from the soul so that respiration will cease and that there will be onley natural vertue to sustain life PART 5. Of the nature of Beauty in general and why it begets LOVE ALthough the Senses were given to the Minde to help it to know things yet it seems that those things which are the most sensible are the least known And I know not whether it be a grace or an artifice of Nature to bring those things neerest our Senses which ought to be furthest from our Mindes and by that exteriour knowledge to recompense the little progress we might make in that which was true and essential However it be it s most evident that we are sensible of nothing in the world more then of Beauty nor nothing is more difficult to be known the greatest men who have been most sensible of its effects were ignorant of the Causes thereof and we may say that it hath made them lose their Reason when they were but touched with it and would have discoursed of it For some have said that it was a just proportion of the parts others that it was the form of things in fine that it was the splendor and glittering of Goodness it self But this last definition is equivocal and metaphorical and the other cannot be applied but to the Divine beauty which is the source and model of all Beauties forasmuch as in the Unity and infinite Simplicity of God there can be no proportion or form That we may therefore steer a more certain course then what hitherto hath been followed and that we may not wander in so vast and difficult a matter we must consider that things are not esteemed fair but as they fall under a very distinct and exact knowledge So that there are only the objects of the Understanding and of Seeing and of Hearing to which we allow Beauty because that all the Knowing faculties are those which most perfectly judge of their objects and are the least mistaken in them And these same objects which we judge Fair are also esteemed Good for we do not onely say A fair minde a fair speech or a fair colour but they may be also called good But the objects of the other Senses and all the other powers may onely be stiled Good and can never deserve the title of Fair for it were a ridiculous thing to say that heat or humidity sweetness or bitterness were fair Whence we must necessarily conclude that all what is Good is not Fair but all that is Fair is good and therefore that Fair is a species of Good Now as Good is not good but as it is agreeable the Fair since it is good must be agreeable to something and therefore if what is fair serve but for an object onely to the knowing faculties we must necessarily conclude that Fair is that which is agreeable to the intelligent faculties as good is agreeable to what ever it be Now because Knowledge hath no other object but the essence and the truth of things Beauty must needs be of that kinde and the objects must be the fairer where the essence and the truth are best exprest for which cause Souls are fairer then Bodies and the Understanding which knows interiour things is more capable to judge of Beauty then the Senses which know onely the exteriour Whence it also happens that Beasts are seldom moved by Beauty because Sense onely works in them in stead that in Man the Understanding concurs to his action and penetrates further into the Nature and Essence of its objects And we experiment in our selves that those things which we do not greatly heed and whose nature we do not well know seem less fair unto us and that its onely for Masters in an Art to judge of the beauty of a work because they alone have the true knowledge thereof
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
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
which is extended and made smoothe by their contraction All Caresses are not properly effects of Joy Take but away the serenity of the countenance the smile and the sweetness of the eyes the rest proceed from the Passion of Love which subjects the soul to the good which it conceives and fills it with a desire to possess it For the offers of service respectful complements and civilities are so many marks of submission which it renders to the perfection and excellency of the person it loves and the embraces kisses and amorous looks are witnesses of its desire and of the care it takes to unite it self thereunto For Laughter although it seem to be a particular effect of Joy yet it is not always to be found with it And when it accompanies it it ows not its birth to it alone there are other causes which contribute thereunto and which excite an emotion in the Soul quite different from that of Pleasure So that we were not afraid to call it a Passion not considering the outward motion onely which appears on the face but that which the soul inwardly suffers the nature and effects whereof we will examine in the following Chapter There remains now the Disquiet and Impatience onely whose causes we are to enquire But we must first observe that they are not in all kinde of Joy there are calm Pleasures wherein the soul feels nothing of Impatience wherein we may say she rests in her motion Such are those which accompany the exercise of Vertue the knowledge of the Sciences and the possession of Supernatural good In a word pure and true Delights do never disquiet the soul they always leave a calm and a pleasing serenity And although they often moves desires which agitate it we may say they are little windes which purifie it without causing any storms or that they are like those sweet smoaks which the flame raiseth which nourish it in stead of dissipating it and which rather entertain the equality of its motion then disturb it But it is not so with false delights As by little and little they make themselves felt and seen as a remedy for grief there must until they are wholly possest always remain somewhat which is displeasing in the Minde And then you cannot wonder if Impatience accompany the desires it hath to be delivered from it and to see it self enjoying that perfect pleasure wherein the end of its grief consists But it foresees not that its contentment is to finish there also and that assoon as it hath an entire possession of the Good it seeks it will be disgusted So that being not to be satisfied it cannot but suffer perpetual disquiets seeking what it cannot finde and meeting what it never sought Besides all these vain hopes which Joy inspires breed divers designes and as it runs from one to another without stopping at any it is impossible in this agitation but that all its actions must appear uuquiet its discourse without order its looks inconstant all the body in a continual motion whereunto also the sparkling of the spirits contributes which tickles the nerves and sollicities the parts to move themselves considering also that those Pleasures cannot be had but by the action of the corporal powers which at last tire themselves disquiet must accompany them since its an effect of wearisomeness These are the Characters which Joy imprints in the body by the souls command Now let us see those which are caused without her ardors and which by a necessary consequence proceed from the agitation which is made in the humors and in the spirits The vivacity of the eyes comes from their splendor and motion which are the undoubted signes of life and vigour since death renders them obscure and fixt as the Spirits then disperse themselves in Joy and as they are luminous and active the eyes which abundantly receive them and which are transparent and easie to move become agile and resplendent besides that the humidity which is spred over them being agitated by the motion they make the light becomes more trembling and causeth a certain moving luster which strikes the sight with several rays and presents to the imagination the motion and noise which the sparkes of fire cause at their birth whence they are said to crackle Now this humidity may come from two causes either because the lids in shutting themselves crush the humors they contain and render the eyes moist as we will more particularly shew in the discourse of Laughter Or because that heat and the spirits open their passages and dissolve those humors which afterward runs on the parts and make them moist nay even if the brain be very moist thence they draw rivulets of tears which are as they say quite different from those which Grief useth to move not only in their cause but even in their quality for they are cold in Joy and hot in grief although it seems as if the contrary should happen since Joy heats and Grief cooles and that hath even obliged some to say that the teares of Joy were warm but it is easie to agree and give a reason for the difference by saying that the tears which Joy sheds are truely cold in comparison of others but that they seem colder because they run down a face which that Passion hath heated by the effusion of spirits On the contrary those of Grief are colder in effect but as they fall on the cheekes which the flight of spirits hath deprived of heat they seem to be hotter in the same manner as hot water affoords divers sentiments of hot and cold according as the hand is hotter or colder But of this more exactly hereafter in the discourse you have of Tears For that redness that good case and that vaporous heat which appears through the outward parts they also proceed from that effusion of spirits which draw along with them the blood and the sweetest vapours which raise themselves in the veins and swell the parts they arrive at colouring them vermillion and inspiring them with a sweet and moist heat The trembling of the lips comes also from the Spirits which abundantly flowing into those parts which are soft and suspended agitate them with the motion they have and make them appear trembling as it happens to leaves which are shaken with the winde or with rain The voice grows fuller because the muscles which serve to form it are loosned by heat and give it a greater and larger passage it is true that it sometimes becomes sharp and shrill but that is the effect of a vehement laughter which contracts the muscles streightens the conduit of the voice or else of impatience or some other impetuous Passions which mingle themselves with it and oblige the soul to drive it out with violence it often stops it self all at once by the souls ravishment which causeth it to forget the most part of its ordinary functions and leaves the organs of the voice without motion and without action
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
his liberty and his own proper excellency for being a creature naturally free and glorious he beleeves that difficulties reproach him his weakness and that prohibition wounds his liberty wherefore when either presents it self he raiseth himself against it and thinks that bearing himself towards the good against which they contest with him he presents those advantages which he received from Nature Thus far in relation to Moral actions let us now examine the Corporal Characters These are of two kindes as is beforesaid some by the command of the minde others purely natural and happen by necessity The first are swelling eyes and urgent looks the trembling of the tongue watry mouth several inflections of the voice talk and silence the agitation and motion of the Body The Eyes and Looks which are proper to desires are not onely fixed and setled on their objects for meditation and attention of the minde may procure that but there is also a certain ardor and vivacity which makes them come outwards and seems to throw them on the thing desired which happens not to those who meditate whose eyes sink and grow dim as Aristotle teacheth and as we shall say in its due place These Looks then which the Latins so happily call Instantes Procaces Devorantes that is to say Pressing Greedy and Devouring whence even that vulgar manner of speaking comes he feeds on him with his eyes that is to say he looks on him with ardor Those looks are the true images of Desire which being onely a transport and a sally which the Soul makes towards Good imprint the same darting in the eyes which are the most mobile and the most obedient parts of the body casting them out as much as she can and as much as they can suffer it Besides that the spirits which abundantly run thither and would go out drive them forward to make themselves way and fill them with the lustre and vivacity which we perceive in them The trembling of the tongue and a watry mouth are effects which serve for the appetite of Aliments for the Soul which hath a secret knowledge of what is useful for its designes knowing that tasting cannot be without humidity and that the motion of the tongue is necessary to send aliments down into the stomack brings this water into the mouth and stirs the tongue when we see the things we desire or hear them spoken of the Fancie in some manner rendring them present and causing the organs to do the same thing they would do if they were really on the tongue But whence comes this clear und subtil water Doth it not descend from those kirnels which are in the bottom of the mouth whose chief use is to receive the superfluous humours of the brain and to disperse them on the tongue to moisten it It is evident it commonly proves so and that the motion of the spirits which the Desire brings into those parts opens the passages and makes these waters run the more But it often also happens that they come from the stomack either by the means of those wandring spirits which run thither to cause digestion or by the contraction of its fibers which squeeze the humour wherewith they are watered and raise it up on high for in Desires they sometimes contract themselves so much that they even overthrow the stomack and principally in fish who naturally are all gluttonous and who pursuing their prey too ardently cause it to run out of its place and cast it sometimes even into their mouthes However it be we must believe that these two effects belong to the desire of Aliments and that the Soul hath some reason to employ them to that use But when she makes them serve other desires as it often happens it is an errour which comes from its blindness and precipitation and which perswades that that which is necessary for one designe may also be so for another although indeed it be quite useless The several inflexions of the voice which are observed in Desire do not all proceed from it As it mixeth it self with other Passions it borrows from them the sounds and the accents which are familiar to them Sometimes it lifts it up with Boldness and Anger sometimes it lets it fall with Fear and Languor sometimes it cuts it with grief and astonishment other times it draws it out with admiration and joy But the change which this alone seems to give is the precipitation of words and the long exclamations which commence its discourses For the force which follows this Passion causeth the words to go out in a croud and the darting forth of the Soul causeth a transport of the voice which is always made by the strongest vowels which most of all open the mouth as if she would make a freer passage that she might issue out the more readily In effect we never finde the I nor the U in the ordinary exclamations of Desire but onely A O and E which she also chargeth with vehement aspirations which shew the force she useth in issuing forth Silence and confusion of discourse are the effects of a great distraction of the Minde which is common to those who ardently desire a thing when we speak not to them of their Passion or when they are with persons which cannot serve them therein For the Soul quitting with regret the thought of the Good she wants and incessantly seeking the means to possess it flees the conversation which might trouble her pleasure and her designe and re-entring in her self or rather wandring in the pursuit she makes she hears not what others say she silenceth her self or makes disorderly answers And her transport riseth often to that excess that it takes away the use of the Senses and even ravisheth her into an extasie as we shewed in our Discourse of Love For what concerns the agitation of the body it follows the disquiet or the motion which the soul makes towards Good for when he who is troubled with this Passion changeth every moment his posture and his place casts about his eyes here and there turns now on one side now on the other now riseth now sits goes and stops ever and anon they are the effects of his irresolutions and the divers designes which his disquiet proposeth But if he reacheth out his head if he stretch out his arms towards the desired object if he goes and walks with large paces and runs towards it they are endeavours which the Soul causeth the parts to make to draw neer the good which is distant from it For although they are often useless in the errour she is she still believes she goes forward and that casting the eyes the head and hands towards what she desires it is as much ground gotten and that at last she shall arrive at the end she tends to We have nothing more here to examine but the necessary effects of Desire But as the most part of them are to be found in those Passions of which we
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
phrases in these Passions For when we say that the Desire is urgent ardent and violent that it moves it self towards Good that Hope is fixt and assured that it upholds those who hope that it expects the desired things we unawares manifest how the Soul darts her self out in Desire and retains her self in Hope So that these two motions being opposite it is impossible that they can be performed at the same time and that those two Passions should be there together but necessarily they must form themselves the one after the other as we said it must happen in those of which we have spoken in the foregoing Discourses Yet it is very true that this is not always so but that Hope mixeth it self most commonly with Desire Boldness and Anger in all which the Soul never fails to cast forth her self for the stedfastness she keeps in that is not contrary to the darting out of her self which she makes in this the first being a motion of the parts amongst themselves and the other a motion of the whole thing And as you see a body may keep it self stiff in it self and move it self from one place to another you must conceive the same in the Appetite and imagine that Hope remains stable whilst those other Passions transport it out of it self But neither doth it then stop as we have said the cause of these sallies being stronger then that of her restraint which to speak truth is not essential to Hope but a pure accident which never meets with it but when it is quite alone Let us now observe what moves the Appetite to stiffen thus for although it have the vertue to move it self as it pleaseth and that it bends it self to resist difficulties yet being a blinde power it knows not the difficulties and the Fancie must necessarily propose them to it and consequently it must be that which gives it the first shake and teacheth the motion which in this encounter it ought to employ After it hath then discovered the difficulties which might traverse its designes and that it believes it may overcome them it commands the Appetite to stand upon its guard and hold it self firm for to make resistance But whence comes the belief it hath to overcome them From the good opinion it hath of its own strength Whence it is that those who have many friends much wealth and honour those who have suffered no disgraces and to whom all hath happily succeeded those who are young and lusty in fine all those who think themselves potent in the goods of the Body of the Minde and of Fortune easily hope because they believe they have strength enough to oppose all obstacles and overcome all difficulties which can happen This good opinion is so necessary for Hope that it makes almost all its kindes and differences as it is greater or less it causeth the strength or weakness the excess or defect of that Passion It is that which produceth Presumption and Confidence which renders Hopes either doubtful or certain good or ill which augments or enfeebles them Indeed Presumption is nothing but an immoderate hope which proceeds from a too-great opinion we have of our own strength Confidence is an assurance we have of an expected help 'T is like the faith we give to promises which the things seem to make in these encounters for we say The season promiseth us fruit That we promise our selves such and such a success from our courage forces and friends Finally Hopes are either doubtful or certain great or little good or ill according as we conceive the difficulties strong or weak or as we suppose them to be more or less easie to be overcome Yet I think some distinction were here necessary for the most certain hope is not always the greatest and it is likely it is the greater the more the soul stiffens it self since it is the particular motion which forms this Passion Now she stiffens herself the more the greater the difficulties are she encounters But when the hinderances are light she moves not her self so carefully consequently Hope is less although it be more certain Our common phrase confounds these things for we say that we have great strong and good hopes when we would speak them assured and that they are small ill and weak when they are doubtful Yet for all this we ought to observe the distinctions we have made for it is evident that there are hopes which are weak and small not because they are uncertain but because the success is so sure and the difficulties so small that the Soul makes no motion at all for them And truely we can never call these hopes ill although vulgarly great and strong ones are esteemed good It may be demanded how there may be hopes which are certain since the belief we have of the event of the things we hope for is always doubtful Certainly we must confess that the certainty which is therein to be found is not infallible and of necessity it is onely likely and moral And we call those certain and sure hopes which are the less doubtful and in which there is the least to be feared But what it seems then as if Fear were always mixt with Hope although they are two contrary Passions It is true there is always some cause of Fear there being reason always to doubt But it follows not that Fear therefore forms it self and mingles it self with Hope although even the Soul were surprised therewith The Passions rise not always up in sight of their objects whether it be that there are stronger which restrain them and stifle them at their birth or whether the Minde considers not attentively enough the causes which ought to move it In Hope the Soul is more attentive to the Good then to the difficulties which besiege her She looks upon them but by the way and believes she can overcome them Even then also what subject soever there be of Fear without examination she in effect fears it not But if she consider the difficulties more then the good and if she take an opinion that she is unable to overcome them Hope gives place to Fear which flees in its turn out of other considerations causing a flood and ebbe which is often so swift and rapid that it seems as if these two Passions mixt and confounded themselves together But we must review these things in the Discourse of Fear Let us now consider what the motions of the Spirits and of the Humours are in Hope PART 3. What the motion of the Spirits is in Hope SInce the Spirits move in the Passions conformable to the emotion of the Soul they must when she stiffens and confirms her self in her self when she hopes in some manner suffer also the same agitation All the difficulty then is to know how it may be done for it is not easie to conceive how those fluid and subtil bodies can get a quality which belongs to those onely which are gross and solid
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
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
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
there happen some obstacle which hinders them Now there is nothing which can hinder them but a contrary motion because there is nothing common betwixt them but motion and consequently if there be no contrary motion in the parts of the Air it 's certain that the impression which the Angel will make on them will cause them to change situation If it happen that after having received it that they remain in the same condition they were they must have had a contrary motion which resists this impression and which being of equal force with it puts them in aequilibrio and keeps them as it were suspended without stiring from one side to the other wherein this firmness consists But what continuing thus firm and stable and not changing place can they be in motion Certainly We need not doubt it since it is by motion that they keep this situation and that we cannot deny but that the impression of the motion must be received therein but that it agitates on them and that she resists not the first motion which they made like as a great weight which we hold lifted up or high for although it still remain in the same place yet would it not forbear to have that motion which its weight gives it and we should be sensible of the effort it would make falling and returning to its centre Finally as it were nothing probable to say that a thing which were powerfully drawn on both sides by equal forces should suffer no motion because it would neither move on the one or on the other side nor that the arm we stiffen should be at rest because it still remains in the same place Philosophers and Physitians being all agreed that these are the most violent motions which bodies can suffer we must necessarily conclude that those parts of the Air which are stiffened by contrary motions are in motion although they remain stable and change not their situation Let us now apply this Doctrine to our subject and say that what the Angel doth in this encounter the Soul doth it on the spirits for although she be present to all their parts yet she renders them not stiff she must also move them and before that they also must be moved by a contrary motion so that being equally driven from one and another they can neither advance nor go back but remain immovable betwixt these endeavors and violences Now this firm motion which they ought to have may proceed from the Passions which agitate them Constancy seldom forming herself unless she be preceded by some other Passion or from the impetuosity they are driven unto in ships for being very moveable she easily makes them straggle from one the other as it happens to all fluid Bodies when they are agitated and then the Soul giving them a contrary motion proportionable to the first they had they retain it and stop them in a certain order which they change not unless one or the other cease But although in this condition they appear immoveable because they remain in the same situation they forbear not to be in motion as hath been already sufficiently demonstrated This is what the motion of the spirits is in Constancy Why the Spirits stiffen themselves Let 's now enquire the end and profit which the Soul proposeth it self in this firmness We must not doubt but she desires them for her defence and employs them to resist those ills which assault her but at first it seems as an unprofitable means for that design For if ills have no motion as Exile Infamy and Slavery this stifness were against them to no purpose for the reasons before alleadged and if they have any either they are Passions which are formed in the Appetite whose motions the spirits cannot hinder or they are Bodies whose violence they cannot stop In effect what can this stiffening do against the effort of Grief against the force of a blow against the weight of a burthen which falls on them No being so easily overcome as they are it seems that the Soul in vain useth them in these encounters and that in vain she opposeth herself against such powerful things against which she is not able to resist We must undoubtedly confess that she often abuseth herself in the motion which she gives those organs and that she doth not always get those succors which she ought to expect from them and that she even sometimes agitates them without any need For when she resists the Passions it 's certain that neither the stiffening of the Spirits nor any other motiâ— on of the Body whatsoever can be either necessary or useful unto her since they are actions proper unto her who never goes out of herself and so consequently is above all the efforts of the corporal organs Yet if she then ceaseth not to agitate them it is from that that the Appetite which stirs up these motions is a blind power which cannot judge when she ought to make use of those parts and they are destined to obey unto it it rather in this occasion commands them out of custom then out of design and they also are so obedient that we may say that at the least sollicitation it makes them that they put themselves in a readiness to assist it and that even they seem to prevent its orders and commands It is not so when the violence of corporal things is to be resisted the stifness of the spirits is therein so absolutely necessary not onely because they are bodies which may work powerfully on those things of the same Nature but also because they are the first which receives the Souls commands and carrieth them to all the rest of the parts for being employed in this commission they must needs take that esmotion which they ought to inspire in the rest of the organs and as an Ambassador ought to carry with him the sence of him who sent him and be throughly perswaded of what he is to make others beleeve they ought to be agitated with the same motions which the Appetite suffers and of those which they would imprint on the rest of the parts so that they stiffen not themselves immediately to resist the forces of the enemy but that they may stiffen the Muscles and the Nerves against them and so powerfully resist their violence And truly we may consider the body as a great Machine wherein are several Springs which move one another The first go slowly and seem almost not to move although it is they which make the great Wheels to turn and cause those great motions which are observeable in them The Spirits are the same thing we hardly feel their motion neither is it they which perform the last actions yet they lead the dance to all the rest of the organs and did that Spring but fail all the Machine would become immoveable neither could the Body act any more But the principal reason for the which in my opinion they thus move is that their stiffening contributes
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
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
all motion of the Appetite making a Passion this natural Appetite which hath its particular motions must also have its particular Passions It 's true they are not so perfect nor in so great a number as the others being led by a knowledge less exact and which discerns not the objects so well as the imagination for which cause there are few unless it be Pleasure Grief Boldness and Fear which are observed to be in this lower part of the Soul they are likewise so imperfect that we may see they are but gross unfinished images or the roughcasts of the rest for the pain which Nature suffers and I know not what kind of peevishness which follows the indispositions of the Body are to speak truly but feeble beginnings of true Grief like as those secret glimmerings and those pleasant resentments which accompany natural actions are but the shadows of Joy and of Pleasure And although Nature provokes and insensibly raiseth herself up against ill and that we also often see that she is astonished and loseth Courage in the conflict they are motions which indeed have relation to the Boldness and fear of this sensitive part but are very far from their perfection as it is very easie to judge All what can be said hereupon is that these motions deserve not the name of Passions being not conducted by any knowledge which is absolutely necessary to form the Passions but besides that there is a hidden knowledge in all the things of Nature it 's most certain that it 's more distinct and more apparent in some then in others and that this natural Appetite is more enlightned in Animals then in Plants for besides this obscure and secret knowledge which it hath for vegetative actions it 's also conducted by the vital faculty which acts with so much light and discerning that divers did believe it was the springe of the sensitive Soul Now although Philosophy hath restrained the name of Passions to such motions as are made by the direction of sence yet we may perceive that its a far fetched circumstance which comes not near the essence of the thing and that the motion of the Soul forbears not to be a true motion although it follows not the orders of the sensitive Soul so that if it hath not all the conditions of Passion exactly so taken yet at least it hath if we may so speak the body and substance thereof In a word it 's so like it that as the name of Passions hath been given to the esmotions of the Will by reason of the resemblance which they nave with those of the sensitive Appetite for want of terms more fit we may call the motions of the natural Appetite Passions although they are not so perfect and that even perhaps they are of another order and of another gender However it be these two Appetites which may sometimes move separately as we may experiment it in our selves when Nature combates sickness and we are nothing sensible of any of the sensitive Passions they commonly relieve one the other and communicate their motions when they are powerfully agitated whence it happens that violent Passions cause such great disorders in the body that the peevishness and secrer contentment which we have now spoken of ends at last in sadness or in real joyes and that Grief cannot be very strong in the sensitive part but that it must be sensible to the natural Faculties and particularly to the vital Now Nature hath this property when the ill is come to her knowledge to raise up herself against it and endeavor to overcome it stiring up the natural heat and with the spirits conveighing it into those parts where she thinks it is Thus inflammations happen to wounds thus pain encreaseth when the impostumes ripen and that a Feavor breeds in a corrupt body for all these accidents are effects of this Heat which Nature stirs up and renders stronger to combate the ills she resents This being true we need not doubt that when weak and timorous persons suffer a very sensible injury the grief it causeth in the sensitive Appetite can never descend to the natural Appetite And then this power following its inclination must needs rise up against the ill and according to its custom stir up natural heat to overcome it for its undoubtedly from thence the redness proceeds which appears in the countenance upon the arrival of a great grief and which commonly accompanies those first tears which grief makes us shed as in its place shall be more fitly exprest If it be therefore true that Heat awakens and augments it self in Grief she may form Hope for the Reasons already related so that we can no ways doubt but that Anger is ever devanced by this Passion even in the weakest and most timorous Natures Yet we must here remember what we said before That that disposition which was necessary to produce this effect is that we are very sensible of injuries and that heat is very agile as without doubt it is in the Temperature of Women and Children who are composed of an agile and subtile humidity wherein heat and the spirits are easily agitated without encountring any obstacle Because that in that weakness wherein the Soul perceives her self she hath no time to consider it so that she must needs be surprised and as it were drawn away by the precipitate motion of heat She would otherwise never engage herself in fight nor ever believe she could overcome her Enemy Thence it is that Natures in whom Melancholy and Phlegm are thick and gross are hardly made angry what ill soever you do them because the Spirits move themselves with pain under the weight of such heavy Humors and that the Soul hath time enough to consider its weakness before they can make their way or free themselves So that what endeavor soever the Natural Appetite can make afterwards it is not capable to make her change the resolution which she had taken to suffer the ill and without being touched with the least hope of being able to surmount it resolving herself to Patience or abandoning herself to Grief and to those Passions which follow it But it 's to stop too long on those Subjects which must be handled again in other places Let us onely clear two Doubts which may arise from the precedent proposition for if we often grow angry without Hope of ever getting satisfaction for the injury received And if even then when we are agitated with this Passion we grow furious when we despair of our revenge it must necessarily follow That Hope ought not alwayes to go before or accompany Anger as we have said To answer to the first of these Reasons Every man that is angry hopes to revenge himself we must remember that in the order of Nature Vengeance is a chastisement whereby we would take away from him who hath done us an injury the means to continue it Now as no body makes himself angry but he believes he hath
those who vvould offend them or to be the readier to make use of them This is also observed in some persons vvhen they fall into a rage and fasten on the flesh of any one whether it be that the Soul makes this endeavor thinking to fortifie herself as she doth by knitting the Brows or whether in effect she would with her teeth tear in peices and if she could even devour her enemy For there are men who grind their teeth who in their anger bite what they meet withal and who would eat the heart and bowels of those who have done them an injury The Voice is sharp and vehement because Anger being composed of Grief and Boldness What the Voice is in Anger this with impetuosity driving the air which is in the Lungs and Grief restraining the Muscles and streightning the passages so that the voice must needs become shrill passing through so streight a channel and being driven out with vehemency must needs also be strong But there are two Propositions which Aristotle hath made in his Physionomy which may make us doubt whether this voice be that which principally belongs to Anger The first is that which is gross at first and at last grows sharp is the sign of a cholerick person and this relates to Oxen and to the likeness of their voice Indeed when these Beasts bellow their voice at last grows sharp and hath somewhat in it which is sad and languishing and even in men affliction and grief in complaints form the same air and the same languor Now if this be so the voice of Anger is not as we said strong and vehement The second is That those who have a sharp and vehement Voice are cholerick and that this relates to Goats But besides that these creatures have not that kind of Voice they were never observed to be inclined to that Passion we must therefore say that there is an error in those two propositions by the fault of the Translators for in the first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not Anger as they have translated it but sad languishing cast down for matter of courage and in that sence it 's true that the Voice which is grosse at first and sharp at last is a sign of sadness as we shall shew in the Chapter of Grief In the last there is also the same fault in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies not Anger but rather Lasciviousness which is indeed a quality proper to Goats Add also that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not simply a strong and vehement Voice but a forced and constrained Voice such as is the bleating of Goats as shall be said in its place The Voice becomes hoarse by the inequality of its organs The Voice is hoarse for heat melting the humors and making them run on those parts it renders them moist and unequal and the voice which it utters is rude and sounds not and because that vehemency is joyned with this sharpness thence it is it becomes terrible and frightfull Lastly The Voice stops all at once Sometimes it stops all at once in despight of ones teeth whether it be that the violence wherewith it drives the breath quickly clears the Lungs and deprives the Heart of its refreshings and that in this necessity the Soul making haste to cause a new attraction of the air the Voice is constrained to stop to give it passage Or whether the Nerves which help to form it suffer a kind of convulsion being pricked by those Humors which heat agitates as it happens to children which cry whose voice and respiration leaps and so cut and suddenly stop themselves The Tongue faulters The Tongue faulters either by reason of the quantity of blood which thickens it or renders it heavy or by reason of driness which hinders its motion or by reason of the Souls transport which sends the Spirits elsewhere and hinders them from having recourse to those parts The Words interfare by the hast and impetuosity which the Soul causeth The Words imerfare which precipitates the words and thoughts one upon another The Discourse is entangled from the disorder of reason The Discourse is entangled and from the several designs it weaves and confounds together The Breathing is vehement Respiration is vehement and proceeds from the impetuous respiration which the heat of the Heart and the endeavor of the Soul causeth For the principal end of Respiration is to refresh the Heart and the Spirits wherefore when they are heated it is at the same time augmented But because also this action is partly voluntary since it will advance or retard even as the Soul desires it should thence it is that the endeavor she makes in all her actions appears in this rendring it violent and precipitate The same heat renders the Mouth dry The Mouth is dry and gives it an ardent Thirst which is not so easily satisfied as that which happens in Fear as shall be said elsewhere Those malignant humors which are moved and heated cause a Sticking Breath Laughter is often an effect of Indignation or of Scorn Laughter in Anger which are mixed with Anger as we said it happened to Boldness but commonly it comes from the malignant pleasure we have in Revenge yet the Temperature contributes much to this effect For Septentrional people have almost the same air in fight and we may see them assault their Enemies with a certain insolent Fierceness and with I know not what kind of scoffing Laughter instead whereof the Southern people carry on their Countenance a fierce Frowardness and a sharp and cruel Sadness the reasons whereof shall in its place be discovered The Redness which this Passion commonly raiseth up in the Face is not altogether like that which Joy The Face becomes red Shame and some other Passions shed abroad in it it is far more clear and less vermilion then in this for that it proceeds from a cholerick blood whose colour is more pale by reason the tincture of the Gall which weakens the splendor and Vermilion of the Blood and causeth this inflamed Redness which is visible in the Face and Breast of those who are angry It also sometimes happens that it becomes obscure and blackish and this chiefly is when Anger is turned into Fury for the agitation is then so great that the thickest blood is cast on the outward parts which affords it its natural colour and paints them of that black and livid colour which is to be observed on the Cheecks and on the Lips because they are the most sanguine parts of the Face As for that paleness which sometimes happens at the beginning of this Passion we have spoken of it in the Chapter of Boldness We must not stay long on the most part of the rest of the Characters which this Passion imprints on the body the reasons are easily found by those principles which we have established For we cannot remember
emotion of the soul by which it unites it self to that which is lovely Yet we doe not therein form its whole Idea we consider it as a Passion that hath beauty for its object and which to possesse it employs desire hope delight c. In the same manner Justice is a stedfast will to render to every one what belongs to him But to effect it she makes use of Prudence which makes her consider the quality of persons the time the place and all other circumstances She makes use of Temperance and of strength to moderate those passions which often traverse her design and although they are actions which precisely concern her not yet she forbears not to appropriate them because they conduce to her principal end Now all these borrowed and posterior actions are also a part of moral Characters because they design the passion or principal habit which is the spring and first cause whence they are derived It s far more difficult to say wherein the Corporal Characters consist and what intention nature hath in forming them We see that every passion carries I know not what air on the face that vertue sheds into its actions a certain grace and an agreeable aspect which is not to be found amongst the vitious but as we have always called it The I know not what it seems that we are thereby taught that it could not be said what it was For I suppose as it is true that the Characters we seek are nothing but the air of which we have but now spoken Now this is found in so many different things that it s almost impossible to observe what of common they have whereupon we may establish its essence for it most commonly happens in the motion of the parts and some have beleev'd that this air was nothing but that motion But it s certain there is a sixt and natural air wherein the parts move not and which is no effect of the souls emotions So that it would be more likely that this air were nothing but a certain relation of the parts amongst themselves which happens from the situation they take when they move or when they rest But nether is this sufficient since the colour which that relation compriseth not partly gives the air to the face and that ruddiness is one of the principal Characters of shame as paleness is of fear this ever encreaseth the difficulty since that in defining beauty we say that its a just proportion of the parts accompanied with a pleasing colour and with a grace and that colour and grace are esteem'd as two different things For grace is nothing but a pleasing air nay even custome often applyes it to what it is not when we say a man hath an ill grace and in this case grace is the same with air That we may know then what this marvelous air is where the serenity and the storms of the minde appear we are first to observe that the air of persons is discovered in their pictures that the grace of a fair face is exprest by colours and that consequently there must be somewhat of fixt and which flyes not away since there are none but stable and permanent things which painting hath power over and that of all visible objects there is only motion which subjects not it self to the pencil Now it is impossible to finde any thing stable common to living things and their pictures besides the figure and colour of the parts So that it seems this air is to be there placed But because there is yet another thing in the grace which the art of painting cannot attain to and that there is a certain vivacity which can never be fixt on the cloth we must with reason beleeve that motion serves also to this grace it s that which renders the beauty lively and piercing without which its sad dead and without attraction We cannot in effect doubt but that the motion of the parts gives something to this vivacity since 't is a part of its perfection But because that after it hath ceased there is yet I know not what which remains on the face and that we see a certain splendor shine in the eyes which depends neither upon their figure motion nor colour we must necessarily add to all this a certain secret influence which being sent into the eyes disperseth it self over the parts of the face and without doubt after having well enquired what it may be we shall finde it to be the spirits which the soul continually sends into those parts which leave there the brightness of the natural light they have and indeed there are faces which neer seem well and afar off appear very ill coloured because the spirits animate it not and that the splendor they give is so weak that the species of it cannot reach far and so they leave those of the colour more withered This grace then is in the colour in the figure in the motion of the parts and of the spirits And yet this doth not say that all these things are this grace For were they in other subjects then man they would not please and green which is the most perfect of all colours would cause a frightful deformity were it on a face It must then be that as sounds are not pleasing of themselves but as they are in a certain proportion so all these things are pleasing to the sight but only because they have a certain relation and a certain agreement which pleaseth the eyes and contents the minde To know this concordance you are to understand that there are two sorts of beauties in man The Intelligible and the Sensible The first is but the interiour perfection the just connexion of all faculties necessary for a man to perform the functions whereto he is designd and the sensible beauty consists in the disposition which the Organs ought to have to serve these faculties So that what renders the figure the colour and the motion agreeable is the fitness which those things have with the nature of man For how fair soever the colour be how perfect soever the figure of the parts are how regular soever the motions are if they are not conformable to his nature they produce neither a beauty nor a grace on the contrary they cause a deformity and render the body unseemly Now although there be but God alone who knows the principle of this conformity and why the forms have more inclination for one figure colour or some other accident then for another yet there are in our soul secret seeds of this knowledge which is the cause she pleaseth herself in these objects without knowing the reason in the same manner as she findes them displeasing when that conformity and proportion which they ought to have is wanting Some will perhaps say that I here confound grace with beauty placing grace in the proportion of the parts and in the colour which in the ordinary definition of beauty are separated from grace But I beleeve
sometimes retire towards its Center in a word make all the motions which are to be observed in the Passions It is not then necessary that the will be separate from the understanding and that there be a space betwixt the two to cause the motion of which we speak agitating it self in it self and driveing its parts towards the Idea of good which is represented it by the understanding it unites it self to it as much as it can and so canseth the Passion of Love it is just so with the sensitive appetite for although its principal organ be far from that of the imagination we must not beleeve that these two faculties are quite shut up in these parts they disperse themselves through the whole body and are alwayes joyned together as we will more at large shew in the discourse of Joy So that the motion which is there made is like that of the will and in the one and the other Love is but a motion of the appetite which directly carries it self towards the Idea of good and unites it thereunto which is not effected in the rest of the Passions as we will make it appear You have now seen what Love is in general whence its easie to observe its differences by the differences of those objects which may move it for as there are goods of the minde of the body and of fortune and as every of them is honest useful or delightful its certain that although the motions whereby we Love all these things are of the same nature and that in general they have the same end which is to unite the appetite to what is good yet are they different between themselves because these goods are different so there is a Love of Riches Pleasures Honours and Vertues in a word as many as there are kinds of false or true goods so many sorts of Love there are of which we have here no intention to speak because the greatest part of those kinds are comprehended in the vertues and the vices of which we shall treat hereafter And because we have restrained our selves to that Love which beauty breeds in the appetite This Love may be defined a Motion of the appetite by which the soul unites it self to what seems fair unto it So that all the diversity that there is betwixt this definition and that of Love in general consists in beauty wherefore we have two things to examine First what beauty is in the second place why it causeth Love but because this search is extreamly high and difficult and that it may break the connexion of this discourse we have remitted it to the end of this Chapter to speak of the effects which Love causeth in the humors and in the spirits PART 3. What that Motion is which Love causeth in the Spirits and in the Humors SInce that the motions of the spirits and of the blood are in the Passions conformable with those which the Soul feels in it self There is no doubt but that Love uniting the appetite to the Idea of the good which is represented to it produceth also in the spirits a certain motion which seconds its design and renders this union the more forcible but as the sences serves us but little to know the difference of these motions the understanding must supply their defect and must by discourse shew us what this motion of the spirits is which is the most uniting since 't is that which ought to accompany this Passion to which end you must suppose two things to be most true The first that the Heart is the chief organ of the sensitive appetite The second that the Brain is that of the imagination now as the Idea of good is formed in the imagination and the motion of the spirits begins at the Heart the soul must of necessity having a design to unite them to the good it hath conceived transport them from the place where they begin to move towards that where they are to meet this object And because this first birth of Love is from the inward union of the appetite whereof we have spoken the first motion which the spirits also suffer must drive them to the brain where it seems this union ought to be for the Idea goes not out of the Faculty which produceth it as hath been showen and forasmuch as the spirits carry with them heat and blood from thence it comes that the imagination of Lovers is heated and afterwards brings forth so many fair productions and sometimes too extravagancies if the motion and heat be too violent we may say besides that the paleness which is so common to them partly comes from the transport of the spirits which are within the brain which forsaking the face leave it without heat or splendor but if the beloved object be presented to the sences then do the greatest part of these spirits run to the outward parts colouring them with the blood they draw along with them and which is the purest of the veines as we will shew you anon It s true there are Passions which mingle with this and often cause a contrary motion to that whereof we have spoken in the humors But we shall consider here only the effects proper to Love and not those he borrows from others so that we may conclude that the first effect of Love upon the spirits is to send them out of the heart and to transport them to the brain and to the exterior parts But this is not enough we ought to observe whether in this motion they move either with liberty or with constraint that 's to say whether they dilate or restrain themselves For these seem to be the two first differences of local motion now as there are but two encounters which may oblige the soul to restrain the spirits in their Motion to wit when either she repels or flyes from what 's ill because in the one she hath a care of fortifying her self and to that end to gather and reunite the spirits and in the other the flight is not made without a compression which precipitates and confounds them together its evident that there are none of these motions in this Passion which considering nothing but the goodness of its object it sees no enemy which it would assault or that it ought to fear so that it agitates the spirits with liberty it dilates them and seems to open them the better to receive the pretended good and so the more perfectly to unite it thereunto Let 's go on and see whether this motion be unequal and whether it be made with that vehemency which happens in impetuous Passions It s certain that anger moves the spirits and the humors with more confusion and disorder then Love by reason of divers and often endeavours which the minde is forced to make to drive out the ill and that it is like those Torrents whose waves precipitate themselves one upon the other and make a stream full of boylings and foamings but that Love makes
in old men and women and that the joy which moved them was caused either by the gain of some unhoped for victory or by the encounter of some very ridiculous object or by the discovery of some great secret in learning which are joyes which only belong to the minde In effect as spiritual things have that beyond corporal that they are more noble and that they enter into the soul wholly without separating themselves the possession ought also to be more perfect and the joy the more ravishing so that it is likely that the syncopes which are the effects of all violent Passions follow those spiritual joyes as the greatest and most powerful and that they rather happen to weak natures then to those which are stronger and more capable of resistance the soul then finding herself surprised at first sight with these objects and agitating with precipitation to unite her self to them the spirits which follow those motions issue from the heart and dart themselves with so much violence to the superior parts that they lose the union they had with their principle in the same manner as water divides it self being driven with too much impetuosity and because the heat ought continually to inspire the parts with its vertue and that the spirits only can communicate it when they come to disunite themselves from it these influences must then stop and the sensitive and vital actions which depend upon them must also cease till their reunion And because the soul is then quite ravished in the injoyment of that good which she esteems so excellent she cannot minde to remedy that interruption which is made in the spirits nor to bring back those which are scattered or to send others to fill those empty places they left So that these faintings often last long and sometimes cause death heat being quite perished and nature not having strength enough to repair its loss nor to recover its first estate But this disorder cannot happen in the Love whereof we speak for that corporal beauty is never wholly possest and that there is still somewhat which entertaines Desire Hope and Fear So that the soul dividing it self to several designs and suffering it self not to be so powerfully transported as she doth in the enjoyment of spiritual goods the spirits throw themselves not with so much precipitation nor impetuosity and are not so subject to the division which they sometimes suffer in Joy and which is the cause of those syncopes of which we have spoken We shall touch upon this matter again in other places let 's now consider what heat it is which this Passion raiseth and what humors it particularly moves It s certain that Love Joy and Desire disperse through all the body a moist and pleasing heat for as much as the spirits in those Passions stir the most temperate humors whose vapors are sweet and humid but these humors are sooner mov'd then others because that the spirits which have a great likeness with the purest and most subtil parts of the blood as being those whence they draw their origine ought to mingle and unite with them more easily then with those which are grosser and farther from its nature therefore we must not doubt but when they are agitated they first of al draw along with them those parts of the blood whereto they are more strongly tyed which being the most subtil are also the more easie to be moved Besides that the soul to whom the humors serve as instruments to arrive at the end she proposeth employs both the one the other according as they have qualities sit to execute what she wills whence it is that amongst venemous beasts it moves the venome in anger and in all the rest it moves flegme and melancholy because they are the malignant humors which may destroy the ill she assaults so that there being no enemies to combat in the Passion of which we speak it ought not to move any other humors but those which are conformable to the good she would enjoy So that there is only the sweetest and purest blood which commonly moves in Love and causeth that sweet and vaporous heat which disperseth it self through the whole body PART 4. What the causes are of the Characters of LOVE BUt its time to come to the point we proposed from these principles we have established we must draw the causes of the Characters of this Passion let 's first therefore examine moral actions There being no Passion which produceth so many different actions or causeth so many extravagancies as this it would prove a troublesome thing to enquire into them all and besides unprofitable since the greatest part of them proceed from other Passions which accompany it of which we are particularly to speak for which cause we will only touch here the principal which in my opinion are The continual thought a Lover hath of the beloved Object The high esteem he values it at The means he imploys to possesse it And the extravagancy of the words he makes use of to discover his passion for there are few actions in Love which may not be reduced to some of these four For the first although it be a thing common to all the Passions powerfully to possesse the minde and to keep it fix'd on the object which entertains them yet there are none who do it more powerfully or longer then Love For either they are impetuous or turbulent or else they are pliable and docile the first are presently dissipated and the others are to be appeased or diverted by the power of discourse nay even by other Passions So the angry ones sweeten themselves by pleasure and the delightful diminish by affliction and all of them may change into others more strong if more powerful objects then those which have raised them present themselves for a great grief makes us forget a less and an excess of joy takes away a mean one But with Love it is nothing so it hath the propriety to be vehement and long lasting not to hearken to reason and can seldom be changed or diminished by the force of what Passion soever forasmuch as the imagination is so wounded that it fancies there is no greater good to be possest and which can affoord it more contentment then its beloved object so that there is no other how excellent so ever it be that can divert its inclination and draw it to it because the soul never leaves a greater good to seek a less 't is in the same manner with displeasure for if we are beloved there is no pain nor grief which vanisheth not by the contentment which we receive thereby and if we are not as the soul knows no greater ill then that all others are too weak to dispossess that thought for which cause it continually considers the good whereof it s deprived it uncessantly desires it and seeks in the possession thereof the only remedy which may cure all its displeasures But the first origine
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
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
the satisfaction it expects in Revenge and the principal end Nature hath assigned it is to hinder the thing which injures us from continuing to do so so that what can stop the course and continuance of the III appeaseth Anger and we are satisfied when he who hath offended us repents himself of it when he acknowledgeth that it was not his designe when he flees or when he hath been hurt for that then it appears that he wants either power or will to mischief us or else we suppose we have taken them from him This then is the satisfaction which Anger always promiseth it self and if it happen that we despair of obtaining it as when the things which offend us appear so powerful to us that they seem beyond our strength and endeavours and that we have no hope to be able to stop the malice they have to injure us we are then no longer capable of Anger having lost our hope to be avenged that is to say to beat back the ill on him who caused it that he may cease to do us more If there be then a satisfaction which Revenge is out of hope to obtain it is not natural to the Passion it must be a stranger as what comes from the custom of the Country from the humour of the person from the weakness of judgement and the like But this shall be in its place more carefully examined Let us betake our selves to our former Discourse The Soul then stiffens it self in Hope and in some sort suffers that Tonick motion which as we have shewn happens to the body But we may say that what image soever this example may give of the manner wherewith the appetite is moved it doth not fully satisfie the Mind and leaves always in it a difficulty to conceive how the Soul can move so For it is not as of Bodies which have nerves and muscles which stretch the parts and keep them extended drawing them equally on every side We can imagine nothing like it in the Soul which is wholly simple and which would rather suffer to be compared to subtil and fluid bodies which this effect cannot reach then to those who are massive and heavie where it is commonly performed Now although this be true yet it destroys not our proposition for it 's certain the Soul stiffens it self aswel as the Body but that the manner is quite different It is not always necessary that the same motions should be made in the same manner and we see that creatures bend and stretch out their bodies although by different means Amongst those which are perfect the muscles perform this effect by contracting and loosing themselves But there are divers in whom these parts are wanting as in those which are so little that we can scarce discern them and in which most likely it is the spirits and the nerves alone perform these actions without the use of other organs There are a thousand other examples in Nature which clearly manifest this truth but were there none the Schools teach us that spiritual substances carry themselves from one place to another that they may occupie more or less room that they drive and draw bodies that in sine they perform almost all the motions which we observe in animate bodies although the manner and the means be quite contrary Which being granted we ought not to doubt but that the Appetite can stiffen it self as well as living parts it being needless it should do it in the same manner or by the same means as they are usually accustomed to do But if it were enquired what this manner is and what particular means the Appetite useth in this motion we must confess it to be a bold enquiry to which it seems the minde of man is not able to give satisfaction For since its knowsedge how high soever it be draws its origine from that of the Senses how can it have any in those things when the Senses forsake it How can it discern the ways Nature takes in the motions of the Soul which are not sensible when it is ignorant of those it keeps in them of the body which touch the Senses and are visible to our eyes Indeed all our Philosophy must confess that it toucheth but the extremities of motions and that it almost never speaks of what passeth between both And we may say that Nature which so freely gives all things seems to be jealous of the art wherewith she doth them and is unwilling we should see the springs of her works However it be I believe more cannot be assured in this matter then that the soul stiffens it self in exciting and quickning its vigour and putting it as the School says out of the power into act And truely since Angelick natures can move and even transport bodies from one place to another it must be granted that they give to themselves to them also a certain impetuosity which changeth the situation and consistence they had some particular vertue must disperse it self wheresoever they extend which renders them stronger more agile and this vertue according to my opinion is nothing but their Will which moves it self or else their very motion for things get a force in motion which they have not in rest The same thing may proportionably be said of the Appetite which is the first moving power in creatures For by exciting it self it agitates corroborates it self and being agitated with an equal and uniform motion which holds it so suspended without advance or recess it remains stiff stedfast to oppose the difficulties which may present themselvs But without engaging our selves further in this enquiry which exceeds the limits of our designe it will be sufficient to take away a difficulty which springs from what we have already said For if this motion of the Appetite be onely an equal and uniform agitation whereby the soul remains fixt in it self without advancing or receding it must follow that Desire can never be with Hope since it darts out the soul and drives it out of it self and that this restrains it We must then say that it is true Desire is not always with Hope although it always precedes it And indeed when we desire any thing ardently we perceive that Hope slackens it self as Desire also diminisheth when Hope increaseth Certainly they destroy one the other when they meet Forasmuch as the Soul in Desire considers the Good but as absent and takes no other care but to draw neer unto it but in Hope she fancies it so neer not seeing any difficulties which it cannot overcome that she almost thinks it as if it were present whence it happens that Joy is greater in it then in Desire So that she makes not therein those sallies and dartings she doth in this unless she be by some other things forced to it On the contrary she stops to receive the Good which seems to be produced and advanced towards her This truth discovers it ' self in these ordinary
impatient in their actions although it be the most moderate and the calmest of all the Passions of the Minde It is easie to discover the cause of its moderation after having shewed how it moves the Soul and the Spirits for it is impossible it should keep them stiff and stable as it doth and that it should be subject to those agitations which are abservable in other Passions On the contrary those languishing and impetuous ones which mix with it assume a conformable mediocrity to that kinde of motion which suspends the soul between ardor and neglect as we have already said wherefore it enfeebles the Desire when it is too ardent and stirs it up when it is remiss it is a spur to Laziness and a bridle to Violence it hinders Boldness from being rash and takes off the transports of Joy and if it chance to be with Fear and with Grief it so moderates them that they fail not of their courage and refuse not to admit of the sweetest Passions But whence comes it then that it renders men rash vain and impatient How can Anger and Fury be compatible with it And if it excite and animate the Courage and the Desires how doth it beget Negligence and Idleness And yet we cannot doubt but that in some sort it is the cause of all these effects But they also who will consider the manner of their production will confess that it is neither the nearest nor even the true cause For Hope indeed begets Boldness but afterwards Boldness runs to Temerity it excites and awakens the Desires but these bring Disquiet and Impatience with them it brings Joy with it but aftewards Joy flees into raptures and extasies it inspires the Appetite with Revenge which is afterwards converted into Fury Finally it gives Confidence and that begets Presumption vanity and the scorn of all things which may traverse our designes whence after Negligence and Laziness are bred So that all these defects come not immediately from Hope but from the other Passions which accompany it And it is clear that when these are raised to this excess it quite vanisheth or becomes extremely weak For when we are sensible of a great Joy at that very moment we have no sense of Hope it scarce appears in violent Desires nor in the transports of Anger the soul suffering her self to be born away by the particular motions of those Passions And Presumption it self which seems nothing but an excess of Hope wholly ruines it imagining that there are no difficulties which can oppose its designes for where there is no more a difficulty there remains no Hope However it be Boldness is easily joyned with Hope because the Soul having confirmed her self by this to the resistance of difficulties is already in state to assault them if they appear very strong and if she betake her self to consider the danger wherein they may cast her for want of fighting and overcoming them Besides that the good opinion she hath of her strength heightens her Courage and perswades her that it is not enough to maintain the defensive part but we must pursue and assault our enemy If her forces are not proportionable to this good opinion and that she believes them greater then in effect they are thence ariseth Presumption which joyned with Boldness reacheth to Temerity and thence grows Insolence in the same manner as with Joy she begets Vanity Prattle and Importunity as in its place we shall further shew Impatience raigns powerfully in this Passion Forasmuch as it commonly accompanies Joy Desire and Fear there is always somewhat of these three mixt with Hope and even they are often found all together So that we must not wonder if we are unquiet when we hope whether it be from the apprehension we have that we shall not soon enough possess the good we expect or from the urgency of pressing desires or from the sparkling which accompanies pleasure There is no Passion so credulous as Hope for others give credence onely to the Good or Ill proposed but this equally gives in Both. Indeed pleasing things onely perswade Joy Love and Desire those which are troublesome make no impression on them without destroying them On the contrary Ill onely is resented by Grief Fear and Despair Good hath neither audience nor admittance among them But Hope hearkens to both of them forasmuch as being in the midst between both it easily inclines towards those extremities and she no sooner believes what favours her designes but she hearkens to what renders them impossible The Corporal characters which are found in this Passion are of two kindes as in all the rest The one by the command of the Soul the others by Necessity The motions of the head brows eyes and voice and of all the body are of the first rank The rest are in the form of ordinary effects The body sets it self upright the head is lifted up the brows are raised for the same intention For the Soul which would obtain the good and resist the difficulties which oppose it puts it self in posture to do both Now besides that this posture is advantagious for to see afar off what may happen it is so also in pursuance of Good or in defence of Ill if one be assaulted by it it is the most natural situation which bodies require for action it is the motion which begins all other actions of creatures whether to pursue pleasing things or to flee or assault ill ones the first thing they do is to lift up the head and the body The Soul now putting her self in posture of defence disposeth thus of those organs that she may not be surprised and raiseth them to make them the firmer as in Despair and in Fear where she slackens her self she bows the body hangs the head and casts down the eyes and brows An assured countenance is made by a wide opening of the eye-lids with vivacity A fixt and stedfast look it is common to Anger Impudence Boldness and Hope yet with this difference that in Anger the eyes are too ardent too open in Impudence and too rude in Boldness But in Hope they have none of these defaults all is therein moderate and it seems as if sweetness and severity were confounded together in all its motions The eyes then are more open then ordinary the better to see the good and the difficulties which present themselves The stedfastness of the looks is a signe that impediments astonish not the Minde and that it believes it shall overcome them The vivacity of the eyes comes from the Spirits which Desire hath driven to these parts or which Joy hath there dispersed In fine sweetness and severity are therein mixt together because that at the same time the soul sees the Good and the Ill and is touched both with the one and the other and is not so sure to obtain what she pretends to but that she still hath cause to doubt of it This Passion often also makes a man turn up
heat which is therein entertained to awake and to render it active As for those Passions which oblige the Soul to flight they make a quite contrary effect and because the Spirits retire unto the centre and the Soul also finding it self too weak to resist the Enemy loseth all its Courage nor cares it to repair its strength and so suffers the natural heat to be extinguished without endeavoring to rekindle it But that we may well conceive what the endeavor is she makes in other Passions Whâ—t the quality of heat is in Boldness we must not consider the quality of the heat which accompanies them and compare it with that which is observed in those Passions which seek good for in these it is sweet humid and graceful and in those it is sharp dry and pungent So that it 's very likely that in the first the Soul employs it and sheds it abroad without violence and in the other she raiseth it and drives it forth with impetuosity that in those it only needs its ordinary vertue and in these it must be greater and more active Finally we may say That in the one she useth it as a follower accompanying of her to her friends but in the other it 's an Assistant which she leads with her even against her Enemies In Love indeed in Desire and in Joy the outward parts receive not heat because it 's sent thither but because it flies from those spirits which are sent thither forasmuch as the Soul needs not that quality to approach or unite it self to good but only the Spirits which force it to the place where it is On the contrary when she is to fight she sends heat as a powerful instrument to act and to destroy what is contrary unto it as also in this design she renders it as strong as she can whether it be by degrees augmenting it or stirring up the Spirits by a continual agitation or in removing the humors when she is most active as cholerick are And certainly what the sensitive Faculty doth in these encounters the natural also doth it very often in those ordinary functions as is easily judged by the Feavor which is just like Boldness and Anger the same heat the same tempest of the Spirits and Humors and the same design which the Soul hath in those Passions it encounters in that disease For we must not think that the Feavor is kindled in the Heart by some stranger fire It 's the Soul its self or rather the Vital Faculty which reunites its force which stirs up natural heat and which lifts it self up to fight those causes which destroy the harmony and constitution of the Body This is readily proved by its crisis which are those fits of the Feavor which the endeavors of Nature and not the Disease stirs up by the inflammation which the coming of the spirits and of the blood causeth in the infested parts by the cessation of the Feavor in the heighth of the sickness when the Humors are so malignant that Nature is overcome with them and that she dares no longer assault them And by a thousand other Reasons which we might produce had we room for them by which we might evidently make it appear that the Feavor is nothing but an innitation and a rising up of natural heat to drive away the ill and that therefore it 's a motion like to that of Anger and that in the lowest part of the Soul as well as in the highest there is an Appetite which hath its irascible Faculty to raise it self up against those difficulties which present themselves However it be the Soul encreaseth Heat in Boldness and in Anger producing and adding new degrees to what it had and stirring it up by the continual agitation of the Spirits For although they stir themselves impetously in Love Boldness entertains the motions of the Spirits in Desire and in Joy yet their motion is not therein maintained and the Soul takes no care for their entertainment the transport and the ravishment which the approach or the possession of good affords her bereaving her of the remembrance of what she ought to do for which cause languors and soundings follow these Passions unless Hope Boldness or the like mix not with them and call back the Soul to her Duty as it often happens in Love and in Desire which being commonly accompanied with Fear and Hope suffers not such great and violent accidents as those in Joy are the Soul therefore is more careful to continue the motions of the Spirits in Boldness and in Anger then in the rest of those Passions because the danger she is threatned withal keeps her in breath and continually sollicites her to oppose new forces and to make new endeavors against the pressures of the Enemy which she cannot do but by producing every moment new Heat and new Spirits and sending them to relieve those which made the first assaults Nay often What humors are moved in Boldness as if she mistrusted her succors when the ill appears too powerful she raiseth up the most working and the most malignant Humors that thereby she might the more easily destroy them From thence it is that Choler is stirred up in the violence of those Passions and that in venimous Beasts that poison which is quiet and hid in the centre of the Body casts it self forth into the outward parts and chiefly into those which serve them for arms and defence which may oblige us to judge that it 's the Soul which brings it into those places to assault and destroy the ill and by a very probable consequence that she doth the like with those others which have any proper quality for that purpose To confirm this Truth we need onely to consider those dreams which are formed when choler predominates for they evidently make it appear that the Soul is accustomed to use this humor to assault evils and that presently as soon as she sees it in a condition to be thereby relieved she prepares herself for the Combate and during sleep she forgeth Enemies Battels and Victories At least its certain that Choler being agitated in these Passions renders the Heat the more strong and pungent Or because it 's naturally dry and that driness is a quality which gives most efficacy to Heat or because those sharp fumes which this humor exhales when it 's moved cast themselves on the parts prick them and give them that angry sentiment which the heat of those Passions useth to cause CHAP. V. The Causes of the Characters of Boldness TO follow the same method we have held in our former Discourses The morol characters of Boldness we must here examine two sorts of Characters the one immediately formed in the Soul which we call Moral because they consist in those actions which we call Moral or at least which respect Manners The other which are Corporal and which are remarked in the change and alteration which this Passion imprints on the
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
instead of it when it hath no cause to fight whether we despise the enemy or because its forces are not sufficient to assault it Wherefore the same causes and the same preparatives which serve the one do also serve the other And certainly after the Soul hath found its forces to be equal with those of the enemies which assaults her she assures herself that she shall not be conquered and consequently she hath no cause to be affraid In pursuit whereof she takes a Resolution to resist him and for that cause she raiseth her forces that she may stiffen and confirm herself in herself and if it be necessary she causeth the same motion to be made in the outward organs As for Courage it 's certain that it 's in common with Boldness and with Constancy for the Reasons alleadged in the former Chapter CHAP. III. What the motion of the Spirits and of the Humors is in Constancy SInce the spirits follow the motions of the Soul How the Spirits stiffen themselves and that they always move as she moves if it be true that she stiffens herself in Constancy they must needs also suffer the same agitation so that since we have treated of their stiffening in the Discourse of Hope it seems that we should have nothing more to say here unless we should repeat those things which we have there already examined Yet besides that the nature of this motion is extreamly hid neither is the repetition of these obscure and difficult things useless and that it would be troublesom to seek far off what ought to be here known it 's fit we should repeat a part of the things which we have said adding thereunto some new considerations for the better clearing of the Subject We must first therfore remember that the Spirits stiffen themselves not by congealing themselves as it happens in some diseases forasmuch as that would render them immoveable and that this Passion hinders them not from being carried to those places where they are necessary nor restraining and taking themselves up in themselves for that they cannot restrain themselves but they must retire inwardly and then it must needs be that contrary to the nature of Constancy the face must look pale and change colour the blood with which they are mixed being forced to follow them and as they do to abandon the exterior parts They therefore stiffen themselves by the intermission of the Soul which subjects their parts to a certain order under which it restrains them without being more free or Vagabonds as before they were But to conceive this kinde of motion which is extreamly hid and most difficult to be conceived we must make use of the same example which we formerly made use of and imagine that it herein happens near upon as water which settles and congeals For those parts which before were fluid being seised by the cold which is insinuated amongst them stop and become firm without confounding or mixing themselves together whilst all the body of the water so settled may be transported from one place to another and the current of Rivers often draws along with it great pieces which tear down those Bridges and Dams which they meet in their way But with what rapidity soever they are then carried away their parts change neither the position nor the order which they keep amongst themselves without penetrating they amongst one another maintain themselves and they remain firm without confounding themselves just as long time as the cold keeps them bound and captivated The Soul doth the same in the Spirits she sheds and slides herself into all their parts and being she may place them as she pleaseth she stops them in what order she will and lead them as it were by the hand to the place she assigns them so that how fluid soever they be the one cannot be mixed with the rest and what agitation soever they suffer they remain stable in that rank wherein they are placed Now although this comparison may give us some knowledge of the condition wherein the spirits are in this Passion yet it shews us not what is most difficult to be known for it supposeth and it 's true that the parts of congealed water are no longer in motion and we pretend that the spirits have one which entertains this stiffening We must therefore seek another example which may make this truth appear and have more relation to the Soul then cold hath or any other sensible quality Without doubt How the Angels stiffen Bodies this is to be found in the firmness which the Angels may give to the Air and to some other fluid bodies for besides that they are substances which have a great natural conformity with the Soul it 's certain that they agitate their Bodies after the same manner as she doth the spirits and that the stiffness which she imprints on them excludes not motion as it happens to congealed water Let 's then suppose with the consent of the Schools that a certain space of Air be occupied by an Angel and that the Wind or some other Body seeks to move or penetrate it it 's a certain thing that the Angel may so stiffen it that he may stop all its endeavors so that he cannot be shaken or penetrated by them To know now how he can impose this firmness we must believe with the common opinion of Philosophers that the Angels have a motive vertue by which they move themselves and may also remove bodies and transport them from one place to another as all prophane and sacred Histories teach us In effect it must needs be that those things which work the one on the other must have some proportion together and there must be amongst them some common nature which must serve for the foundation and principle of their action Now there is nothing which can be common betwixt spiritual and corporeal substances but the motive Vertue and the Motion and therefore if they work the one on the other it must be by that means which being so the Angel cannot stiffen the Air but by the motion which it imprints in all its parts since it 's that onely which gives him power over bodies And to shew that this is true it is that he is able to be present with all those parts without stiffening them so that it 's necessary that he should raise up his vigor and agitate them thereby to imprint on them this quality If any should say that being thus moved they must needs either be driven be drawn be born or be turned because these are the several ways by which one thing may be moved by another and howsoever it may be done they must necessarily change place so that herein not changing it and remaining still in the same situation there is no probability to beleeve that they suffer any motion We must answer that it 's true that when the Angel imprints any motion in the Bodies he necessarily makes them change place unless
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
that Passion which this motion had onely commenced And this is the more easie to be believed for that the motion of the spirits which makes no part of the Passion as that of the Appetite doth causeth the same effect For if it happen that the spirits are agitated with a motion proper to a Passion the Soul which sees what passeth in her organs and knows after what manner she is accustomed to stir them up presently fancies that object which ought to excite this motion and at last agitates it self conformably to that motive which this object inspires it withall and so that esmotion which it meets within the spirits It 's thus that Musick produceth Passion it 's thus that Love out of inclination is formed as we have shewed in the Treatise we have made thereof It 's then true that Anger is nothing else but Grief and Boldness united and confounded together and that the turbulent and unequal agitation which the Soul is constrained to suffer in the encounter and in the shock of these two opposite Passions makes that difference of motion which is proper unto it and which distinguisheth it from all the rest In effect we cannot conceive that the Appetite in Grief retires it self and that at the same time Boldness raiseth it up but we must fancy we see a Sea agitated with contrary winds and waves for the same combate which is made amongst the waves the same boylings which it raiseth up the same efforts with which it beats upon the shoar Finally the same trouble and confusion which this great Main suffers during the tempest are in the Soul when she is stirred up by these two violent Passions So that it is not without reason that we say the Sea grows angry and that Anger is a tempest since there is the same agitation in either of them and that both of them spring from the contrariety of motions which shake these two great depths But we may say That if Anger be a mixture of Grief and of Boldness it cannot be in the rank of simple Passions as we have hitherto conceived and as at the beginning of this work we our selves resolved Certainly there needs no contest hereupon and it were to fight against the truth to defend the common opinion for if there is a Passion which is mixt and composed it 's chiefly this where Grief and Boldness Desire and Hope are all met together That if we proposed it as a simple Passion besides that we did not then deduce those reasons which ought to oblige us to shun the errors of the School we may freely confess that upon the way we often discovered those things which at first we never thought to have met withal and that considering more nearly the nature of this Passion Reason and Truth have made it appear unto us to be altogether composed that is to say of Grief and Boldness as of its essential parts and of Desire and Hope as of inseparable accidents or necessary conditions which accompany it For it 's certain that he that is angry ought to desire and hope for revenge Yet the Mind may separate these two Passions from Anger without destroying its Nature forasmuch as without considering them it may conceive the Soul may be touched with Grief for the injury received and that she assaults the cause which caused it wherein all the Essence of Anger consists So that now we may define it to be A turbulent Agitation which Grief and Boldness move in the Appetite Definition of Anger whereby the Soul retires in herself to estrange herself from the injury received and at the same time raiseth herself up against the cause which caused it to be done for to revenge herself of it Whence we may judge that as this Passion is mixed its causes and effects are also of the same nature for it hath indeed two objects to wit the Injury and him who did it It hath two ends the one to estrange it self from ill and the other to revenge it self Lastly it 's composed of two motions which being united cause this turbulent agitation wherein we have said the principal difference of this Passion consists Yet we are to observe that as commonly Boldness vapors more in Anger then in Grief and yet that there are some Anger 's in which Grief appears stronger then Boldness It s certain that in these encounters the motions of these two Passions are proportionably stronger or weaker and that it often happens that its rising up is greater then its contraction and that sometimes also its contraction is more then its lifting up but if they are equal Boldness always appears more then Grief because in that the Soul produceth and casts it self forth and in Grief she hides and inwardly retires herself as we shall make it more particularly appear in the Chapter wherein we shall examine the nature of that Passion We must conclude this long Discourse with a resolution of an important difficulty which may here be made Who those are which are inclided to Anger For perhaps some will say that if Boldness makes a part of Anger it will follow that those who are naturally bold will also be most inclined to this Passion On the contrary those who are timorous should never be sensible of it Although experience teacheth us that those who are truly Bold are seldom provoked to Anger and that Children Women and sick persons which are weak and timorous are easily moved thereunto But this objection is easily answered if we remember that Boldness alone never produceth this Passion but that Grief must also meet with it that these mix and confound themselves together In a word that a man must be sensible of injuries and have a quick and agile Boldness to be susceptible of Anger Now those who have an heroick Boldness are not sensible of injuries unless they are very cousiderable because they despise most of those things which assault them and that that Melancholy which is in their temperature retains the fury of their spirits giving them time to examine the offences and to consider whether they deserve to be chastised On the contrary those who are weak of body or of mind and who have a very agile heat as Children and Women and those who have any remarkable defect finding themselves more exposed to injuries are easily born away with a desire of vengeance because their weakness makes them apprehend every thing and the subtile heat which they have is so quickly inflamed that they have not time enough to consider whether they are truly injured and whether they ought to revenge themselves or whether indeed they have the power and that is the reason why the Cholerick are the most angry of all because they have an ardent and active heat which renders all their actions precipitate and bereaves them of time and means to judge rightly of things For it 's certain that there is no quality so much an enemy to Reason as Heat and a
one another and making haste to follow the first finding them in their way dash against them and drive them as if they indeed opposed their course For it 's the property of Boldness and Anger to move the Soul and the Spirits by sallies and by swinges The Spirits move themselves by sallies forasmuch as the danger they are threatned withal continually sollicites them to make new endeavors to surmount them which commonly happens not to those Passions which tend to good where the Soul having nothing to fear abandons herself to every object which pleaseth and as if she would cast herself whole and all at once before it she drives the Spirits thereunto like a flood without minding to recreate them whence afterwards follow Languors Swoonings and other accidents which we have treated of in our Discourse of Joy But although these sallies are common to Boldness and Anger it 's certain that they are more frequent and more readily doubled in this then in the other because Grief which always accompanies it provokes and at every moment urgeth the Soul and that weakness often meets with it which renders it the more diligent and careful instead that in Boldness seeing onely the ill comes without resenting it and confiding in her own strength she believes that this crowding of them together is no ways necessary Let 's therefore conclude that Grief restrains the Spirits and makes them retreat to the Heart that Boldness stiffens and drives them forth that the forcings of the Soul cause them to make these sallies which at every moment precipitates them one on another and that from the combate of so many different motions this turbulent ebullition and agitation proceeds wherewith the Spirits are agitated in this Passion To seek now what the end of all these motions is and what the Souls motives is when she excites them were a useless thing at least in respect of the stiffening and darting forth of the Spirits which have been curiously examined in the precedent Chapters And as for those which Grief causeth we shall then propose them when we treat of that Passion for as concerning the shock the ebullition and the trouble which here happens they are effects which are done out of necessity without the Souls intention of producing them being altogether useless for her design Yet not to leave the Reader in doubt concerning those two kindes of motions which in Grief we assigned the spirits it shall suffice to say by way of advance that the soul is not at that time content to cause the Spirits to retire to the heart but that she also causeth them to shut themselves up in themselves and in the design which she hath to estrange herself from the ill which urgeth her she conceives slight is not able to save her from the danger unless she shut herself up in herself if she stop not the Enemies passage and if as much as she possibly can she hide not herself from him After this it will be nothing difficult to declare how Hope and Desire which are always with Anger may finde in the esmotion she causeth that which is proper for them and causeth their subsistence for since the spirits dart themselves forth in desire and stiffen themselves in hope Boldness which causeth both of these motions must needs favor the birth and preservation of these two Passions even so it is with Hate and Aversion which commonly accompany Anger forasmuch as their agitation being conformable to that Grief raiseth up as in its place we shall make known it 's nothing strange that they are found with it that they dwell together and maintain one the other What is most difficult herein How the motion of the spirits in Anger can suffer that of Joy is to explicate how all these motions may accommodate themselves with that of Joy for it 's certain that in the hight of danger the hope of revenge alone satisfies the Mind and even we have an extream pleasure to imagine we are revenged and that Vengeance executed is sweeter then hony as the Poet says Now if Joy dilates and sweetly disperseth the Spirits how is it possible it can subsist with Anger which restrains and drives them forth with impetuosity We may hereupon say that Joy may form it self in the superior part of the Soul whilst Anger agitater the inferior and that when the Spirits which serve these two Powers are moved with contrary motions without incompatibility because it 's performed in several places But if Joy descends into the inferior part we must necessarily believe that in the same instant she drives away Anger that the storm which this raised dissipates it self at the arrival of a Passion which always brings with it a calm and serenity In effect when a man flatters himself with the pleasure which he shall reap in his revenge he resents not the same agitation and those transports which possest him before his looks are more sweet his countenance is calm and all his actions are more modest I confess that this may be very suddenly changed but yet it 's still true that at that instant he resents it not and that Pleasure and Anger are two Passions which may succeed one another but yet are incompatible as well by reason of the contrary motions which they produce as of the opposite motives which they have This clearly appears when we have effectually revenged our selves for then Anger quite ceaseth and the Joy of the Victory we have obtained remains alone and those Passions which usually follow it as Vanity Insolency c. What kind of heat produceth Anger We should now speak of that Heat which accompanies these motions and the ardor which this Passion kindles in all the parts But this hath been amply done in the discourse of Boldness wherein we did shew that the Soul and the Heart have power to augment the natural heat when it 's necessary and that she hath no occasion wherein its assistance is more useful then in those Passions which are to assault ill For as this quality is the most agile of all and most fit to destroy what is hurtful it 's also the most powerful instrument which the Soul hath to employ in its combates wherein the first design she hath is to bereave the enemy of his power of doing ill For which reason in these encounters she raiseth it up she augments it and entertains it in the Heart which is its natural source and from thence by a particular priviledge which these two Passions have she sends it to those organs which she intends to employ If in effect there are others in which she is dispersed to the outward parts it is not that it is sent thither because it is useless it 's because it follows those Spirits which are sent thither but herein both of them are led by the Soul being necessary for the design which she proposeth herself the Spirits to conveigh strength to the parts and heat to destroy
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
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
the impetuosity and the boilings wherwith the blood and spirits are agited but we must presently judge that that is the cause which makes the Veins and Arteries swelled and extended and that all the rest of the parts are full and puffed up and whosoever shall represent to himself the impatience and the transport wherein the Soul is will nothing wonder at these motions which in this Passion the Body suffers The Head is lifted up and the Stature grows erect for as much as the Soul raiseth up herself to assault the Enemy And although he be absent she forbears not to put herself into this posture as if she were ready to throw herself on him for that the violence of those Passions which trouble her represent him to her thought as if he were truly present and as if he ought in effect to feel the blows she intends to inflict The frequent flinging out of the Arms The motion of the parts in Anger a light and quick pace a continual change of posture and place are effects which note the endeavors and sallies of the Soul the precipitation and impatience she hath to revenge herself But whence comes it that we set up our Hands by our sides when with anger and threatnings we quarrel with any man it is without doubt to confirm the parts that the Muscles of respiration which they uphold may the more powerfully operate and by that means the voice may have the more force and be the longer lasting For which cause we are never content to place our hands thus on our sides but that we also advance the Arms and the Elbows whereby enlarging and extending the Shoulders we render them for the same purpose more stiff As for those blows wherewith a man in Anger beats the ground and all what comes under his hands or under his feet it 's very likely that they are such means as the soul useth to give a repulse to those difficulties which traverse her designs and that the trouble and blindness she is in causing her to take all things for true obstacles which stop her she strikes against she drives and she beats them as it were to break them and to put them by or else they are the effects of a precipitated Vengeance which Anger doth discharge on the first Objects it meets having not either the patience or the power to make them be rescued by its real Enemy It 's thus that Dogs bite the stones which are thrown at them it is thus we break the Sword which wounded us in a word it is thus we revenge our selves on our selves and above all its what concerns those from whom we have received an injury But what reason can we give for all those shakings of the Head which are remarkable in this Passion Whence the shakings of the Head What can oblige the Soul to move it one while to the right and then to the left sometimes up and sometimes down and sometimes on one side onely And to what end doth she cause these so extravagant motions and so different the one from another For to conclude that they are signs and natural effects which Anger produceth in all men of what Nation or of what constitution soever they are So that if Nature doth nothing in vain she must herein have her causes and reasons as well as in her greatest and most considerable actions It is true in my judgement they are very hard to be known and it is with them as with most part of things which hide them selves so much the more unto the Mind the more they discover themselves unto the Sences and which are as difficult to be comprehended as they are easily remarkable And certainly as all natural things are made for some end or out of necessity we cannot say but that the alteration of the Body or the agitation of the Humors must cause these motions by a necessary consequence as it happens in the redness of the Face in the wrinckles of the Forehead in the splendor of the Eyes and the like which are formed by necessity without being destined for any use and if we would place them in the rank of actions which are performed for some end it is nothing easie to observe what motive the Soul therein proposeth it self no what service she pretends to draw from thence To give further light to these obscurities you must first know whether these motions are not in other Passions and afterwards seek those motives for the which they were therein formed and lastly to see whether they may be applied to Anger It is certain that we use to shake the Head and to give it readily two or three turns about when any thing displeaseth Why we toss the Head as especially when we refuse or disapprove of any thing when we are sensible of an ungrateful smel or when we tast ought that is disgustful For which cause the vulgar commonly call Wine when it is not good Wine with two ears because it makes those two parts move when we turn the Head from one side to the other and that by that motion we would signifie that we found it to be naught But what relation can this action have with these sentiments Is it not that the Soul would turn away the face where the organs of the sences are from those objects which are displeasing to it as she useth to fix them on those which please Or that she seeks by that endeavor to estrange from her what is troublesome At least it is thus that when any thing incommodates those parts we shake them about to drive them away for although this in these encounters we speak of be useless unto it yet are they nothing extraordinary since she often deceives herself in the same manner upon other occasions wherein she abuseth those means which Nature hath prescribed her to attain her ends employing them in others where they are of no use as hath been shewed speaking of that water which Desire causeth in the Mouth and of the motion of the Brows at the sight of distasteful things Or we may rather say that this shaking of the Head is a mark the Soul would make of the impression which some kind of objects make on her and that it is an outward image of that action which she performs in herself For it is her custom that when she would have that appear outwardly which is done within she causeth those motions of the organs which have some relation and resemblance with her own as we may judge by the laughter of the looks and by all those other effects whereof we have spoken in this Work And certainly since that at the encounter of pleasant things she makes particular signs which make known the sence she hath of them she must needs also have some for those which are displeasing So that if she sweetly casts down the Head when good presents it self unto her as it happens when we meet a friend when we approve a
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
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
them proportionably and cause also by their knowledge a greater satisfaction and a greater pleasure It is not but that often less perfect things do more content the Senses and the Understanding but this proceeds from the error which their ill inclinations give them which commonly come from the temper from custome and from weakness of spirit Now forasmuch as knowledge is a good which respects not onely the faculties which exercise it but also all others to which it may be profitable because that the Senses were not given to the creature for themselves but for the preservation thereof and that reason is a light which lights not it self alone but also all the other vertues which are in man hence it is that the knowledge which the Senses the understanding have of things which in som manner are useful to the creature perfects these faculties because that being destined to its service they at last attain the end whether they tend when they operate for it and in that respect they acquire a perfection which in some sort is more excellent then that which respects them onely being their last end and the mark nature proposed for them even thence it is that the eyes esteem fair all which makes the goodness of asiments known and the colour of the wine or even of the water is for the same reason more pleasing for a thirsty man to behold then the fairest green of the fields In a word all what the understanding and the imagination know of seeing and hearing being the observers of what is profitable or agreeable is esteemed fair and perfects these faculties forasmuch as their perfection consists to know what is for our use it is thus that corporal beauty ravisheth the soul and the Senses because it is the mark of that interior power which ought to render us more perfect and it s principally in this sence that we may truely say that beauty is the flower and splendor of goodness But before we shew how this power ought to render us more perfect we must observe what we have already said of these powers for there are those which respect the nature of man in general and others which are proper to the sexes These have their particular dispositions which make the male and female beauty and which being nothing but the instruments which they are to use in the performance of their functions are also the marks which make known whether they may be well or ill done for certainly a male beauty is nothing else to our Senses but the mark of a good constitution of the active power in generation in the same manner as a female beauty is the signe of a passive power to all that is necessary for the performance of that function Now as generation is the most natural and most excellent of all the operations which are common to creatures for that it in som manner renders them eternal it in som sort also approacheth the Divine perfection and renders them like their cause and principle we cannot doubt but nature hath imprinted in them a most powerful desire and also endued them with a knowledge which may serve to this inclination its true that this knowledge is obscure and hid and that it is to be found in our selves without the help of discourse and even without our thinking of it and indeed it is in the same rank with that which nature hath inspired in all the things of the world who know without understanding what is useful for them for even in the actions of the Senses and the Understanding we perceive that there are objects which are more pleasing to us then others the reason whereof is unknown to us and we have nothing to say but that there is in our souls a certain spring of Understanding or rather that it is the Spirit of God which hides it self in his works and drives things to that end which is fit for them For as an Artist manageth the action of natural things to the end he pretends as we must ascribe all that order which appears in the artifice to his knowledge and not to the things he useth which are incapable of that knowledge so in all the things of nature where we perceive so many marks of admirable wisedom we must not beleeve that it is from them that it proceeds but that it is the Spirit of God which flowes in their effects which gives the order and the motion and which guids them to the end which he hath prescribed for them However it be it is by this obscure and hid knowledge that corporal beauty presenting it self to our Senses the soul knows it for the mark of the natural power of that Sex wherein it is at the same time that secret and powerful desire which it hath to perpetuate its species awakens and forms in it that Love which afterwards agitates it with so much violence Yet do I know very well that an ill-favoured person may cause the same motion in the soul and that it is not always true that beauty is the certain mark of the perfect disposition of the powers which serve for generation and to conclude that it may affect those who are of the same sexe to whom this motive is useless But as for unhansomeness we have shewed in the Treatise of the Love out of inclination that although that this Passion seems not to draw its origine from Beauty yet there is in the soul a certain Idea of perfection contrary to that which the Senses represented which causeth this admirable charm For the two other Objections which remain we must confess that Nature suffers defects in particulars because she doth not always finde the matter obedient whence it happens that there are parts which remain imperfect and because we often abuse the gifts she bestows employing them in things contrary to the end which she proposed her self There is amongst men another kinde of Love which corporal beauty also may move but whose motive is different from that whereof we speak for it respects not the sexe but all the species which being to have its vertues and its powers ought also to have those corporal dispositions which are to serve it Now these dispositions are natural or acquired The natural are those which come from our births and which render men capable of the functions of the Understanding for as all what is in Man is destined for the service of that faculty which is mistress of all the rest since it cannot know things but by the intermission of the Senses and the Senses cannot operate if their organs are not well disposed of necessity the parts of the body must have some proportion and agreement with the Understanding and then the Soul which sees by this secret sentiment of which we have spoken that it is the mark of humane perfection pleaseth it self in this object and forms that love which unites it to the good it knows 'T is thus that well-form'd men are
confusion our life it would indeed rather be a continual flood of ills then of yeers the Senses would rather serve for gates of grief then of knowledge knowledge it self would pass for an affliction of spirit and vertue for a grievous servitude It s pleasure onely which sets a price on all things and which renders them delightful at least they appear not good but by so much as it is found mingled with them and did not the soul hope to encounter it in all it acts it would remain languishing and immoveable it would be without action and without vigor and we must speak no more of life of happiness or of felicity Certainly to see the effect it causeth as mistris and despencer of all good things calling back those which are past making us sensible of those which are not yet rendring even melancholy tears and dangers pleasing we must confess that with reason Nature is called the great Magician and that pleasure is the most powerful charme she useth to produce her miracles In effect it s a charm which makes all the ills which assault us vanish which lifts us up beyond our selves which changeth us into other men and from men transforms us into Demy-Gods but we often use it as a poyson which quencheth all that is Divine in our Souls which renders our mindes brutish and makes us like even inferiour to beasts For although the pleasures of the body are of themselves innocent and that they were given us for inticements to the most necessary and most noble actions of life yet when we pervert their use and when we do not render them obedient to reason they rebel against it pull it out of its throne precipitate it in dirt and mire and stifle all the seeds of vertue and understanding which are born with it Neither is there any thing wherein wisedom hath more been imployed then to seek the means whereby to shun so dangerous an enemy who flatters at its admittance and afterwards causeth every where trouble and confusion which fills the Soul with blood and flames the Body with grief and infirmity and leaves nothing behind it but repentance We will not propose the counsels and advice she hath given on this subject we should bring hither all those lawes which Physick Morality and Religion have prescribed at least there are but few which were not made either to prevent or correct the disorders which sensuality may cause yet we think to second its design by shewing the deformity which the excess of this Passion produceth in the Soul and in the Body The Picture of voluptuousness cannot be made without representing many figures besides that there are joys which have no commerce with the body and which are to be found in the highest part of the soul those of the Sense are so different amongst themselves that as many pleasing objects as there are which may move them we may say that there are also as many several sorts of Pleasures And truely whoever would designe the portraicture we undertake according to the order of the Senses and describe the pleasure which every of them may be sensible of the invention and the composure could not be ill but we may not use it without prejudice to other designes wherein we are to imploy the same touches and the same colours which this requires for if we stayed to express the Characters of Pleasure which is in tasting and touching we must necessarily also describe those of Gluttony Drunkenness Impudency and so of the rest whereof we should make particular Tables wherefore without parcelling these things we will chuse what is common to all Pleasures dividing this discourse into two parts the one of which shall treat of a serious Joy where laughter is not to be found and the other of a laughing puft up Joy which is nothing but the Passion of Laughter Joy is not amongst those Passions whose beginning is weak and whose progress is vehement it hath all its force and greatness from its birth and time serves for nothing but to weaken or diminish it as soon as it enters the Soul it transports it and carries it out of it self and the ravishment it causeth is sometimes so violent that it takes away the use of the Senses makes it forsake the cares of life and often lose it but although it come not to this excess yet it is alwayes known by that puft up impatience which appears in all its actions that it hardly can contain it self within its bounds that it makes escapes and endeavours to goe out For the thoughts and words of a contented man are not to be stopt he dreams onely of his good fortune he speaks continually of it and if he be not interrupted he hath nothing in his heart which he carries not on his tongue he discovers his most secret designes and so makes his joy an enemy to his rest and to his contentment If he is silent you must entertain him with discourses onely which favour his Passion how divertising soever others are to him they are importunate he breaks them at every moment and it brings in alwayes somewhat of his transport 〈◊〉 or at least his little minding of them seems a signe of his scorning them or a reproaching that they interrupt his Pleasure But if you speak of the subject which begot them if you admire his happiness if you witness a fellow-feeling with him then how angry or severe soever he be he becometh complacent he caresseth embraceth and often by ridiculous civilities and favours he forgeteth the respect he owes or loseth that which is due to him The first that comes to him is made his friend and his confident he takes counsel of him he follows his advice and it often happens to be a childe a servant or an enemy whom he trusts with his secret and with its conduct In this blindness he approves all what is proposed to him to the advantage of his Passion Whatever vanities he nourisheth whatever successes he flatters himself withal there is nothing in his opinion which he ought not to believe and may not hope as if all things were to respect his pleasures He believes that there are none which dare traverse them he sees the dangers which every way inviron them without startling at it and with a blinde confidence he believes himself secure when his loss is often most assured So that we may say that there is no man so credulous with so little appearance so bold with so much weakness nor so unhappie with so much good hap He would make us believe he were content he perswades it himself and in the mean time his desires betray his designe and his contentment for they are irritated by the enjoyment and carrying themselves onely towards those goods which he hath not they render those useless which he possesseth and even of his joy cause the subject of his disquiet Pleasure hath that property that although we enjoy it it forbears not to make
but also as we have already shewed in our discourse of Love that this complacency is no true pleasure and that the Daemons which are capable of that acceptableness cannot be touched with Joy which yet they ought most perfectly to have if it come from knowledge alone we must then stick to the common opinion and with it say that Pleasure is a motion of the appetite since its good which moves that part of the minde and that pleasure hath no other object but the same good Yet this raiseth another difficulty for if it be true that the soul ceaseth to move when it arives at the end whereto it tended moving to possess a good the possession ought to be the end and term of its motion So that the pleasure which comes alwayes after the possession is rather a rest then a motion of the appetite and yet if we were agreed that possession is the aim and end of the motions of the minde we would say that that onely ought to be understood of those which it employs to arrive thereunto for although it bear it self not towards the good it possesseth it hinders it not from agitating to taste it again and from being ravished in the enjoyment it hath had but to speak more exactly possession is not the last end which the soul proposeth it is the enjoyment which is the perfection and accomplishment of the possession For it is certain we possess things which we enjoy not and we may say that the good renders it self master of the Soul when it presents and unites it self unto it but that she becomes mistris of it when she enjoys it After all this we can never say that rest is the end which the soul proposeth to it self since the end is the perfection of things and that there are some which must be always in action to be perfect Now the soul is of this kinde she never tends to rest unless out of weakness and it is therefore necessary that Joy and Enjoyment be in motion let us then see what an one it is To discover it we must observe that Pleasure and Joy are never formed in the soul till after the good hath inspired Love therein for as the first motion of the appetite towards good is to unite it self thereunto and Love consists in this union it is impossible that any man should fancy any other motion which could be posterior to that and therefore if Pleasure be a motion of the soul towards good it ought to presuppose love always come after it Now as this Love always precedes it follows not that it must always accompany it there may be obstacles which may hinder the appetite from moving to form this Passion and grief perhaps may be so great that it may employ the whole soul that it will not admit the least ray of Joy but it s also certain that if there be nothing which retains the appetite it always goes from Love to Pleasure because the soul unites it self to good but to enjoy it and it is impossible it should enjoy it but by Pleasure and to speak truth enjoyment is nothing but pleasure which we finde in the possession of good and according as enjoyment is more perfect it is also the greater and the more excellent What motion can the appetite then suffer in pleasure and enjoyment beyond that of Love whereby it unites it self to what is good certainly it is a thing very difficult to conceive how these actions should pass into a power which is quite blinde and hid in the bottome of the soul they must be extreamly obscure and what light soever the minde can bring they suffer themselves to be seen not without a great deal of trouble yet since we have engaged our selves to shew the difference of the Passions by the difference of corporal motions we must necessarily to know what Joy is finde in sensible things a kinde of motion which may resemble the agitation which the Minde suffers in this encounter As it happens then in the Passion of Love that the Appetite carries it self towards the beloved object that it runs thither and unites it self thereunto we may say that this motion is like to that of fluid bodies which run toward their centre and think to finde their rest there but because when they are there they for all that stop not they return and scatter themselves on themselves they swell and consequently over-flow So after that the Appetite is united to its good its motion ends not there it returns the same way scatters it self on it self and over-flows those powers which are neerest to it By this effusion the soul doubles on the image of the good it hath received mixeth and confoundeth it self with it and so thinks to possess it the more by doubly uniting it self thereunto Nay even as the Appetite swells and thicks by this reflux it cannot contain it self within its bounds and is constrained to distil it self into that faculty which acquainted it with the knowledge of the object sharing with it the good it hath received and by that means making all the parts of the soul concur to the possession thereof wherein perfect enjoyment consists For since the soul hath no other end but perfectly to possess the good and that perfectly to possess it it must have the knowledge of that possession the Appetite having no knowledge cannot alone make it enjoy what it loves the Imagination and the Understanding must contribute and then after they have proposed the good to the Appetite and that the Appetite is united thereunto it returns to the one and to the other and gives them an account of what it hath done to the end that by uniting their functions the soul may unite it self to its good in all its parts and that it may make for it that circular motion which is natural to it and wherein the accomplishment and perfection of its operations consists as the Platonick Philosophy teacheth After all if it be true that the Soul and the Spirits work in the same manner in the Passions we may not doubt but that the motion which the soul suffers in Joy is such as we have said since that of the spirits is altogether like it For after Love hath carried them to good they scatter and over-flow themselves on the organs of the Senses as we are about to make known So that we cannot miss in saying That Joy is an effusion of the Appetite whereby the Soul spreads it self on what is good to possess it the more perfectly I know that the definition of Aristotle is quite different from this for he says that it is a motion of the Soul which suddenly and sensibly puts it in a state agreeable to Nature But the place where he proposeth it shews sufficiently that he had no intention to render it very exact treating in that place but with Orators and not with Philosophers And truely whoever will neerly examine it will finde nothing less
another condition to wit absence which never happens in Joy where the good must be alwayes present for when past things or those which are to come delight us it is an effect of the imagination which renders them present and makes them pass for such as they are in the thoughts For the rest by the word Good we must not onely conceive what is truely and apparently good but even also the ills which we have eschewed It is thus that the memory of the paines we have suffered and of the dangers we have escaped is pleasing forasmuch as it is good to have been delivered from them it is thus that vengeance is so sweet because that by overcoming the ill we no more fear the assaults thereof it is thus that tears are sometimes delightful because they discharge nature of an unprofitable burthen and that it even seems as if the grief which excited them runs and slides away with them You must besides observe that good being a thing agreeable to nature this is aswel to be understood of depraved nature as of that which is perfect for a sick man takes pleasure in things which are contrary to him and a vitious man finds contentment in his debauches because they are conformable to his corrupted and irregular nature Now after this to examine by retail all what may cause pleasure besides that it would wrong both our design and the Reader both which ask for brevity we may easily know it were but to lose time and words It will then suffice to say that since good is the source of all the sweets which this Passion causeth to flow into the soul and that it is nothing but what is fit for our nature and what perfects it it must be that the good which makes us the more perfect raises also the greater the more solid pleasures Now as we are composed of two parts of soul and body and as that is incomparably more excellent and therefore it follows that the perfection which it acquireth is also more excellent and that the goods which cause it are the most noble and the most delightful But because the goods of the body are for the preservation of the species or of the individuals and that that is more considerable to nature as being the most common or the most general good from thence it is that the pleasure which accompanies it is the sweetest and most sensible of all others and by the same reason the objects of Tasting and feeling delight most because they are the Senses most necessary for life and without which the creature cannot subsist It is true that the objects of Seeing and Hearing may contest the preheminency being more noble then those base and material qualities which respect the inferior Senses But if we consider that there are almost no creatures which delight themselves with the beauty of sounds and colours we may confess speaking generally that the objects of Tasting and Touching are the most delightful and yet that in Man those of Seeing and Hearing have the advantage because that those two Senses having a great affinity with the Understanding and being chiefly destined to its service their end is also more noble necessary then it is in beasts where they are for no other use but to preserve the animal life which they have From all these considerations it is easie to deduce the principal differences of Pleasure For it is either Intellectual or Sensible Pure or Impure True or False True Pleasures are those which are pure to wit which are not linked or mixed with Grief and they are those which are fit for Man in the most perfect condition that Nature could place him Such are the pleasures which are found in Contemplation and in the exercise of Vertue such are those which follow the actions of a secure Health and the functions of Senses perfectly disposed Now these Pleasures have this property that they are long lasting that they never tire that they may be relished at all times and that Grief never precedes nor follows them For a man who is in a state of Natural perfection is never weary of Meditation nor of performing good actions Life is always sweet and pleasing to him and the Senses are always disposed to receive their Objects with Delight Some may now say that Eating and Drinking and other natural actions are convenient for the perfect nature of Man which yet cause also disgust For Musick and the sight of the fairest things at last tires the ears and eyes and the sweetest flowers wherewith Venus was ever crowned as Pindarus says at last become importunate and displeasing It is true But we must also remember that all these things being sutable to Nature ought to have the conditions which perfection requires they must be moderate in quantity and quality the circumstance of time place and persons must meet Besides that the greatest part are not of themselves convenient for Nature but onely by accident that is to say they are onely convenient by reason of the irregularities which preceded them whose remedy they are So eating and drinking cure hunger and thirst so rest and sleep cause labour and weariness to cease In a word the greatest part of our actions afford pleasure onely because Nature empties or fills it self and corrects the one with the other wherefore the pleasure which follows them is not absolutely pure nor real but onely by accident whence it is that it tires that it lasts but little and that we are not at all times capable to taste it as those which are absolutely pure But let us leave these Moral Speculations and without staying any longer on things which are notorious to all the world let us seek new ones and see whether the Tempest which this Passion excites in us will not throw us into some unknown Land and make us know the motions of the Spirits which act as the wandering Stars whose courses and periods have not yet been observed PART 3. What the Motion of JOY is in the Spirits IN all kinde of Motion we must always fancie two terms The one where it is to begin the other where it ought to finish If the Spirits then move in Joy it seems they ought to come from the heart since it is their source and thence they move themselves towards what is Good wheresoever it presents it self to the soul Truely could Joy form it self all alone the motion of the Spirits must be so made and must by it be issued out of the heart to the meeting of what is good but because it never comes but with Love which ought always to precede it it is he who ought to cause that motion whereto Joy contributes nothing So that we must seek another for it conformable with that of the Appetite In a word we must discover how the Spirits in some manner disperse themselves even as that doth in this Passion This will not uneasily be conceived after having observed how Love carries
them for I cannot imagine that Nature who is so regular and so uniform in all its other actions should forget it self in this that she would give several causes to one effect and that it being true that all kinde of Laughter hath somewhat that is common the soul should have no general motive for so common and general an action We must then endeavour to discover it and if we do not succeed use the same excuses which the difficulty of the enquiry afforded those who made it before us since perhaps there is nothing in nature whose knowledge is more hid then that of this Whereunto that we may attain we must first consider that we never laugh but when the soul is in some manner deceived and surprised as may be seen in all the ridiculous actions which Aristotle calls deformities without grief since they are all against the custome against the expectation and against the sence of the Wise It is the same thing in the unexpected encounter of a pleasing thing and in an injury which we receive from a man we did beleeve ought not to offend us in the good or in the ill which happens to those who are worthy of it For there is therein every way somewhat which by its novelty surpriseth the minde which is to be found even in tickling whence it comes to pass that we laugh not when we tickle our selves because we are not new nor strange to our selves Yet this surprise must be light for if it be violent it astonisheth the minde and so powerfully averts it that it cannot go to the outward parts to make them move So that objects which are very wonderful and extremely pleasing move us not to laughter but to ravishment and extasies as terrible ones cause fear and astonishment 't is not that we say that the lightest surprise is that which moves laughter the more it is onely to be understood in comparison of that which astonisheth or ravisheth the minde for it is evident that the greater so as it do not disturb and carry away the spirit will cause the more vehement laughter making not only the muscles of the face move but even those of the flanks and brests as in its place hereafter This surprise must also be pleasing and those ridiculous objects must produce some kinde of Joy in the soul It is manifestly sensible in facetious things and in the encounter of friends and we never seek the occasions of laughing but for the pleasure we think to finde therein And although we may doubt of that Laughter which indignation scorn and anger sometimes move yet we will shew that nevertheless there is still somewhat which affords contentment either true or feigned for it is certain there is a lying and dissembled Laughter wherein effectually there is no sensible pleasure and in which we onely feign we receive some which is very common in flattery and complacency Often even although the object be pleasing the soul will finde in it more pleasure then it is capable to yeeld and so moves and as they say tickles it self into a Laughter But what I esteem most considerable to understand the nature of Laughter it is that we seldom use it alone and that the most part of those objects which powerfully excite it in company move it not at all in a solitude so that it seems company affords somewhat to its production that the soul will make it appear that she is surprised which would be needless were there no witness of what she would do so that she ought not to move Laughter when we are alone And if in company there happen a pleasant surprise which moves it not it is because she will not make it appear as when there is somwhat that displeaseth her or when prudence or dissimulation hinder it Yet must we not believe that she makes use of laughter as a mark taken at pleasure such as those are which proceed from our choice and invention but as a natural mark which hath a necessary connexion with the emotion she represents To know what this connexion is and the particular reason which obligeth the Soul to use this motion rather then another to mark the surprise she is in you must suppose that in all surprises the Soul retires and reenters her self the encounter of an unthought-of thing opposing it self to the liberty of her thoughts and forcing her to recollect her self the better to discern the presented Object and then if she intend to make her condition known she must according to the Law which proportions the organs and the effects to their causes stir up in the outward parts some motion like unto that which she suffers and consequently cause the muscles to retire towards their origine as she retires and recollects her self in her self Now because the Minde may be surprised by troublesome objects as well as by pleasing ones this retraction of the muscles may be as well with grief as with joy and indeed you see that in Tears the lips and some other parts of the face retire in the same manner as in Laughter Whence it is that there are persons in whom it would be difficult to discern at first sight the one from the other so like they are to one another which hath made some think that Nature who begins our life with crying and tears made an essay and designed these touches which were to be perfected in Laughter which is never formed before fourty days after birth Yet as we can never say that the retraction of the lips which accompanies grief is a true Laughter so we must thence conclude that Laughter consists not in the simple motion of the muscles but that there is also a certain air which Joy sheds over the face and which causeth the principal difference However it be Laughter being principally destin'd for conversation the objects which particularly respect it are those also which the most easily cause Laughter Such are the actions and facetious words which comprehend all what is uncomely and deformed light hurts purposely done or received out of folly cheats of small consequence jeers in a word all deformities without grief for all these things move Laugher forasmuch as they mark the defects of those qualities which are necessary for conversation as of a good grace of decency of advisedness of kindness and of the rest the Minde finding it self surprised when it sees contrary actions to those vertues which are the foundations of society and of a civil life All the difficulty which there is herein is to know why the Soul would have the surprise it suffers in these encounters appear for it seems as if it were a defect which she would do better to hide then to discover In effect it is a badge of Ignorance to suffer our selves to be surprised with a Novelty as it is a mark of Malice to be pleased at the defects of others Whence it is that Wise men laugh seldomer then others because that they are
that Reason which is sometimes at liberty in these encounters sees nothing which contents it that she even confesseth this Laughter to be forced and yet that she cannot hide it it is nevertheless very true that there is still a secret pleasure either in the superiour part of the soul or in the sensitive For the alienation of the Minde takes away from frantick persons the sense of ill and giveth liking to the Ridiculous Chimera's which are there formed to move Laughter So that if Reason be not hurt the Pleasure must be hid in the Senses and unwittingly to the Understanding it causeth that commotion there The Imagination discerns not always exactly the Pleasure which the objects form in the particular Senses either because it is distracted or surprised or because the impression they make is secret although still the spirits the humours and the bodies agitate themselves powerfully So the first motions of Passions happen in the Minde unawares and there are divers things which move us which we can hardly say whether they are troublesome or graceful we must not then wonder if we sometimes laugh without knowing the cause thereof it is sufficient if the Senses have a confused and secret knowledge to stir up afterwards that motion in the Appetite for there is so strong a connexion between these powers that the one is no sooner touched by the object but the other resents it In this precipitation the Soul hath not time to discern what it doth and the parts are sooner touched then she is advised of it and she is not then able to stop the shake which she hath given her self the spirits and the humours having received the impression thereof whose impetuosity cannot be so suddenly stayed And hence the difficulty comes to hinder Laughter when it is vehement although it be a voluntary action in the same manner as it happens in other Passions wherein the Soul suffers the same violence as he who runs into a precipice for although he gave himself that motion it is no more in his power to stop it he must abandon himself to the swinge he hath taken and to that steepness whence he hath precipitated himself What remains of most importance is to know why of all creatures Man onely laughs since it appears that other beasts also may be surprised with Novelty and it is not impossible but that they may have a designe to shew how sensible they are thereof since they make other things known by their voice and by their actions But as there are but two motives which oblige Man to witness the surprise which ridiculous objects cause to wit his own excellency and civil society it is certain that the first is useless to beasts who are never touched with glory or with vanity And for Society it is so imperfect amongst them that it respects but the necessities of the body to which indeed they work in common but yet it is but for their particular interest so that there is no communication of the pleasure which every one resents considering that the novelty of agreeable things surpriseth them not to speak properly no more then they do men who are quite stupid because they do not discern whether things are new or no considering them but as if they had always been present although for to know them new we must imagine they were not always so And it is for that reason that children laugh not before the fourtieth day for the Soul which is as it were wholly buried and as it were drown'd in the great quantity of the humors they have is capable of no knowledge but acording as humidity diminisheth these lights encrease and so by degrees she gets the power of laughing beginning by a smile and after being capable of vehement Laughter Perhaps some will say that the excellency wherewith man flatters himself and the love of society can no more reach a childe at forty days old then other creatures being not of a condition to minde either of them therefore that they then are not more capable of laughing then beasts are if there be no other motions but those for laugher But it is not necessary exactly to know those things for which we have a natural inclination for desires being born with us carry us also by the pure instinct of nature to the enquiry of those goods and from the time that our soul hath the liberty to act she produceth actions which shew the secret fence she hath of her own excellency and of her being destined to a civil life Now as beasts are capable of neither of them they have also no share in this instinct whose sourse is hidden in the intellectual parts of the Soul and can come from no inferior power for although there are some kinds of Laughter which seem wholly to depend from the sensitive as that which comes from tickling it is certain that without the influence of the Reasonable Faculty the Senses cannot produce that effect its light insensibly disperseth it self on all its actions and the neighbourhood they have therewith alwayes communicates somewhat of its perfection which still serves to shew that beasts are not capable of laughter because their Senses are deprived of that brightness and of that influence which Reason causeth to flow in ours Before I finish this discourse I must tell you by the way who those are who are most given to laughter it is certain that young folkes laugh more willingly then old ones women then men fools then wise men sanguine then cholerick flegmatick then melancholy And this comes from that laughter being made by a pleasing surprise which we would make known those are more easily surprised are naturally merrier then these For the spirits which move quick and which consider not things are most easie to be deceived and those who are the most merry are the most easily touched with pleasant objects and are more fit for conversation then others who are severe and serious Yet as there are divers sorts of ridiculous objects that some respect our proper excellency and others society that there are some which require a great knowledge as quaint jeers and others wherein a mean one is onely requisite So there are also some persons which are more easily touched then others the young and cholerick laugh rather at the defects of others then the old and the wise being naturally insolent and proud fools ignorants observe not jests or witty encounters women and those of a sanguine complexion are more fit for the laughter which caresses occasion because they have a natural inclination to flattery After having thus discovered the nature of laughter and of ridiculous things we shall easily give a reason for all the effects which this Passion produceth on the body for there are none which proceed not from the surprise and Joy which the Soul resents the splendor of the eyes the redness of the face and tears come chiefly from Joy all the rest come from surprise
that the Appetite in darting it self so goes beyond its natural bounds and that as animate bodies it goes from one to another to advance towards the absent good all this agitation is made in it self as we said in the discourse of Love and although it seems as if it would cast it self out it onely beats against its bounds and drives those parts as waves which beat on the shore without being able to go farther But since in effect the Soul goes not out of it self and that consequently it approacheth not the destined good we may enquire to what purpose the motion serves which it makes in this encounter we must doubtless confess that it is often useless to it if it penetrates not into the Faculties which may move the creature towards the good and give it the possession thereof For Nature hath given the Appetite the power to move it self thus onely to inspire the same Motion into those Faculties which are under its direction The agitation it gives it self is the Idea of that which the moving qualities ought to have outwardly it is like the chalk and the designe of a work which is to be finished in the Organs but if it rest there they prove vain and useless throws and sallies they are imperfect Motions and unformed desires which in some manner offend Nature for that she having destined them for action they destroy the order and commerce which she hath established amongst the Faculties of the Soul when they drive them not to the end she proposeth In effect there is so great a relation and so essential an order between the Desire and the enjoyment that we never form desires for those things which we beleeve impossible because the Soul at that time hath no end nor aim to work and can produce no action unless it have a motive to excite it and which staggers it since that the end is the first of all causes and that which gives them efficacy and Motion I know that there are several things we unprofitably seek which can never be acquired what care or pains soever we take but for that we do not consider the impediments and obstacles which we ought therein to encounter And if reason sometimes proposeth them and that contrary to its advice we continue to wish for them this disorder comes from the imagination which most commonly fancies things feasible which easily perswade the Appetite thereunto which afterwards causeth those vain and chimerical desires of which we have now spoken It is far a greater difficulty to know how this darting forth may be effected when Desire mixeth it self with Fear Grief and other Passions where the Soul inwardly retires it self and venters it self sooner then it seems to have gone out We may well beleeve that these Motions follow one another as we said it happens in Love that after the presence of ill hath made the Appetite retreat Desire sends it forth again to seek the good which is to accrew unto it by the absence of the ill and that there is thus every moment a continual ebbing and flowing of all these Passions but I beleeve this happens not always so and that even in flying the Soul may make the Motion which the Desire asketh without being obliged to return the same way As he who flees his enemy at the same time gets farther from him and neerer the place of his security so it is likely the Appetite retiring it self may at once shun evil and pursue good and that the same endeavours and the same strivings it makes to hasten its flight may also serve to form those desires which it hath to possess the good it fancies and that it seeks to go out of it self in the same manner as when there is nothing but what is purely good which attracts it for the Soul is so much disturbed at the presence of ill that it seems as if it were not enough to flee and estrange herself from it but that she must even hide and steal her self away from her self that she may by precipitating her flight go beyond her bounds and go out of herself as she doth in the pursuit of good But it is an errour which the Passions easily inspire in a blind power which is not guided by Reason whatsoever endeavour she makes she remaines still within her own limits and leaves not those places which she beleeves she hath abandoned it is true that the Spirits which follow the Motions in effect retire to the Centre of the Body and that the Organs cause a real flight in the creature which is surprised with this Passion but all this is without the Soul and we are to speak onely of what is within For the full clearing of this definition we have given there remains onely to be examined whether the Absent Good is the true Object of Desire for we proposed at the beginning of this discourse two very considerable Objections which seem to prove the contrary since it is evident we often desire the things we enjoy and that Absence being an evil is rather capable to take off the Appetite then to provoke it thereunto so that in this case the Object of Desire cannot be different from that of Love and so both must be but one Passion For the first we have already shewed in the former Discourses that when we desire the good we possess we alwayes fancy somewhat which we doe not yet enjoy whether it be that the most part of goods not presenting themselves to it in the whole there must still be a part wanting or whether this possession being to be but of a short continuance we desire its continuation as a good which is still to come To the second we must say although it be true that absence draws not the Appetite and that it is goodness onely it doth not therefore follow that Love and Desire have the same Motives nor that both make but one Passion for besides that it seems that Motion draws not always its species from the end it tends unto but ever from the middle through which it passeth to reach thither as we may judge by the circular Motion which is onely different from the direct but for that it makes a bent line and for that cause should these Passions have but one Object yet they must be of different species by reason of the different way they take to attain it it is true that in moral things the conditions and circumstances which have no relation with the Object diversifie the Motives of Actions and that the absence of Good gives another Motion to the Soul then goodness of it self alone gives for although it always seeks to unite it self to the good it knows if it be not present it must add another design to this first inclination and take care to draw near what is far from it before it can unite it self and gain a perfect enjoyment so that the true Motion of Desire is the Souls drawing neer and not the
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
which are dispositions nearly related to Boldness we confound them together So that we take Resolution for Boldness and a resolute man for a bold and couragious person Moreover We call it Boldness to despise dangers and not to fear them although in that there is no Passion forasmuch as to despise an ill is a clear effect of Judgement and not to Fear it is nothing but the want and privation of Fear Nevertheless because it 's the property of true Boldness not to value little ills which usually affright and astonish weak and timorous Spirits and that in despising of these and in assaulting the others she makes it appear that she fears nothing Hence it is we take that for Boldness which is only the effect of it or to speak to the purpose which is onely the sign of it For not to Fear is no action but a privation yet it commonly means the presence of its contrary But what shall we say of Confidence which the Greeks and Latins and we our selves often admit for Boldness It 's certain it 's a kinde of Hope or to speak better it 's the consummation and perfection of it For after the Appetite hath found Hope by stiffening it self against the difficulties which environ the good it aspires to the Soul which sees herself in a condition not to fear them fortifies herself in the opinion she had taken that the things she expects help from will not fail her and after a manner gives credit to the promises it seems to have made Thus we trust in our forces in our goods in our friends forasmuch as we then beleeve that what we promised our selves of them will succeed And because that we think there are no difficulties in this opinion which ought not to be overcome and in pursuit that we fear not their encounter thence it is that it hath been confounded with Boldness which ought to have the same sentiments although it onely is a disposition which precedes it However it be What the Dispositions to Boldness are and which way soever you will take these things either as parts of Boldness or for dispositions which precede or accompany her they serve to make known those who are most susceptible of this Passion For Assurance and Resolution to despise and not to fear dangers are effects of the good opinion a man hath of his own strength without which there could neither be Assurance nor Resolution Courage nor Boldness lastly without which the slightest evils move terror and even those things themselves which can do no harm possess us every moment with fear Now this opinion is grounded on the forces we effectually have or else believe we have but because they are of two sorts the one in us and which depend from us as the forces of the Body and those of the Mind others which are without us and which are not absolutely in our power as Goods Friends Honors c. Those who are endued with the former are most susceptible of Boldness so that a strong and robustious man is commonly more bold then he that is not and if he hath goods and friends also at his devotion But yet we must likewise observe that a man may be strong and robustious several ways for there is a force of Body which is only fit for resistance for to bear in a word to suffer such is that of Camels of Asses of Oxen and proceeds from a thick melancholy The other is purely active and all of fire which comes from choler or from subtile and stirring blood as is that of young Dogs and of generous Horses the last is composed of the two former and is observable in Lions Mastiffs and in wilde Boars Those who have this stupid and passive force such as melancholy persons are are but little susceptible of Boldness being deprived of that heat which is as it were the sonl of strength and of courage the others which are cholerick which have that which is ardent and active are easily carried away with this Passion but it hath this defect that it quickly passeth away and that it discerns not those ills which are worthy to be combated from those which are not The impetuosity wherewith she is carried away precipitating her designs before Judgment can examine them But those who have both and who are Cholerick and Melancholy have the Boldness of Hero's which is not suddenly kindled but having once taken it 's long lasting this fears nothing it scorns little dangers it assaults great ones with assurance and resolution and often with a transport which makes it to be thought divine After the strength of the Body we must produce the force of the Minde for those who think they have it and promise themselves great help from their address and good Judgment how weak soever they be easily undertake great matters and believe that they can supply the weakness of other things by the force of their Spirits Last of all those who are powerful by their Dignities by their Goods or by their Friends those who never endured a disgrace and who believe Heaven Men and Fortune are favorable to them have always a good opinion of their forces and are commonly Bold But to take away all difficulties which may be made concerning these things and to give that light which is necessary for clearing the following Discourses where at every turn we are to speak of Courage and of Forces it 's fit we should more carefully examine the Nature of those two and examine wherein it is they consist CHAP. III. What courage is and wherein it consists WE must first suppose that Courage is a quality proper to Animals That Courage is a power of the Sâ—ul that they onely are susceptible of it and therefore that the Soul is the principle of it and that its in her it resides as in its root and in its first and true subject we call likewise a Soul couragious and say that the Soul must have Courage to assault Vice and to resist the Passions thereof Now if there be as Aristoile will have it but three things in the Soul to wit Power Habit and Passion this Courage must be some one of the three Perhaps it s no Passion since it 's very true that a man may have Courage although he be agitated by none of the Passions and even when he doth nothing neither is it an Habit because it 's acquired by use and that a man may be born with Courage it 's therefore necessary it should be a Power But we must observe there are two sorts of Powers the one first and radical the other second and derived The first are parts or inseparable accidents of the soul which for that reason are equal in all the individuals of every Species So the power of Reasoning considered in it self and as it is a Faculty of the Soul is equally divided to all Men. Seconds are nothing but the dispositions of those organs which are necessary to make these
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
Anger and to Boldness to form it the Face must have somewhat of severe the Eyes must impetuously cast themselves towards the Enemy and the Head must be somewhat turned on the other side Now severity is necessary because we may cast our Eyes aside without looking through as it often happens in all those Passions which pursue good and flie from ill for Love Desire and Fear at every moment cast their Eyes aside because severity is wanting in some by reason of the pleasure which they inspire and in the other by reason of the astonishment which accompanies them In effect Severity is a certain rude pecuish stifness which the presence of ill imprints in the whole countenance and which is onely to be found in these Passions which assault ill forasmuch as the Soul stiffens it self onely in these encounters which we have spoken of the Eyes impetuously cast themselves against the Enemy because the Soul having put it self in a posture of fighting employs its looks as so many darts which she intends to cast on it but at the same time it turns the Head another way to shew its aversion from it that it fears it not and that it disdains to employ greater forces against it wherefore we commonly use this kinde of look in threatnings where by the minde and by words without coming to handy-blows we seek to stop the ill esteeming it not strong enough to need to be assaulted with its strongest arms in Indignation and in other little Anger 's whereto we intend not Vengance to all extremity and in the beginnings of Boldness before we are come to blows when we think to decide the combate by little skirmishes It 's true that it often happens that a man who dares not assault a potent Foe will look through him but that is but to hide his weakness and make him beleeve it is not for want of force that he assaults him not but rather that is out of generosity and because he esteems him worthy of so great an endeavor There are other kind of Looks which often happen in this Passion Why he contracts and raiseth the Brows as those which are urgent and unquiet those which are rude and furious but the first proceed from Desire and from Impatience whereof we have else-where spoken others come from Anger and from Fury which shall be examined in the Discourse of Anger Let 's now come to the motion of the Forehead and Brows To find the cause we must learn it from Physick that Nature hath not given to the Fore-head a proper motion for the muscles which cause it to move belong to the Brows which ought to be moveable for the preservation of the Eyes and to help them in their functions so that the Front never moves but when the Eye-brows move Now amongst those motions which they are capable of there are two principally which are commonly to be observed in Boldness and Anger the one is to lift them up and the other to strengthen them but it s very hard to tell what the motive is which the Soul proposeth it self in every of them nor of what use they might be in the Passions we have now spoken of It 's certain that according to the order which Nature hath prescribed to those parts they lift themselves up that they may the more freely see the object which presents it self either by enlarging the circle of the sight which restrains it self when they abate themselves or that they serve to the opening of the lids which after a manner they draw after them And they strengthen themselves to strengthen the eyes making as it were a rampire before them to stop those things which might fall from on high and to defend them from the light which comes from without for that the obscurity it causeth tempers the splendor gathers the spirits and in pursuit renders the sight stronger and more exact But if we consider these motions in the Passions the Soul indeed must propose other motives then these For I grant that the presence of ill obligeth it to seek all the liberty and all the strength of the eyes the better to discover the enemy and assault him the more rightly yet there are encounters wherein these cares seem useless or at least where they are greater then they need to be because it often happens that we that move the Brows and the sight at such things as never so little displease us and wherein it s nothing necessary to bring the least precaution Let 's therefore conclude that the disturbance and the blindness which the Passions cast in the Soul divert it often from those ordinary ways which Nature teacheth which make her forget the true use for which those organs were destinated and pursued her that what ought to serve her for one end may also be useful for another So in all vehement desires she brings water into the mouth although it be only necessary in that of Food so she makes those that are alone laugh and speak although all those actions are reserved for Society and Conversation As therefore she is accustomed to shrink up the Brows to fortifie the sight and to defend the Eyes against what might offend them she fancies she ought do the same in the encounters of all kinde of Enemies and by an error like that of Creatures which think they have hid all their Bodies when their Heads are covered so she thinks that fortifying her Eyes she inspires the same strength in the other parts and then all of them are in a condition to assault ill having put that upon the defensive It 's even so also that she raiseth up the Brows when she raiseth herself for although that serves her the better to see the Enemy yet she fancies this elevation helps her rising up and that it so far advanceth the execution of her design as to make the organs move so also Yet we may observe that that which furthers this error is that the parts are extreamly moveable and obedient and that they are in action sooner then the Soul is aware of it For the rest which are more heavy resist these preparations and require a greater deliberation to oblige them to stir We may yet add to this reason that the Soul will often by these external motions manifest the state and condition she is in So that she raiseth the Brows to shew that she raiseth herself and shrinks them up to witness that she fortifies and gathers her self together and this is the more likely for that without being moved with those agitations she forbears not also to make those parts move when she will dissemble her weakness and her fear and make us beleeve she hath a design to fight And now in pursuit of those motions which are made by the orders of the Soul the figure of the Fore-head necessarily changeth and altereth for of necessity when the Brows are lifted up the Forehead must wrinckle and when they shrink up that must
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
onely as Aristotle believes For his thought is that the Grief we have to see him who deserves it not to suffer ill causeth compassion and that which we have to see those prosper which are unworthy of it causeth ndignation But this seems not to agree with that signification which all Languages give that word nor even with the Nature of the thing Forasmuch as the Soul may two ways grieve for the ill it sees those suffer who deserve it not to wit by compassionating onely their sufferings without employing its forces to combate the ill or else by raising and lifting it self up against it to repell it Now it 's certain that Compassion is altogether without this commotion taking care onely to flye the ill and being quite plunged in Grief and Fear as we shall shew in its place And therefore if the Soul makes any effort when she is angry with the ill which happens to any man undeservedly since this motion can neither be compassion nor pity it must needs be a kinde of indignation Indeed the common manner of speaking teacheth us that there are persons who cannot see their enemies without indignation That their words are full of indignation and threatnings that God chastiseth the wicked in the Anger of his Indignation and even that we are sometimes in indignation against our selves Other Languages also use the word in the same sence for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Grecians which Aristotle hath placed for this hath a larger signification then he hath given it and may be as well applied to the indignation which we conceive seeing a man too ill used as for that we may have for him who is used but too well In effect himself confesseth that this Passion is attributed to God who yet ought not to be in indignation for the prosperity of the wicked because it 's he who dispenseth it to them but justly because they abuse it and use it unvvorthily by their crimes and by their ingratitude And truly we must not stick at all at what this incomparable Author hath said of the Passions in his Rhetorick in vvhich he hath treated of them but superficially and in most common notions For its certain that had he throughly examined them he vvould have made tvvo sorts of Indignation the one vvhich the good of another begets in us and that vvhich happens from the ill vvhich vve suffer or see others suffer and that the true and onely motive vvhich provokes them is Indignity for vvithout that there can be no Indignation it 's Despight it 's Envy or the like So vvhen vve are angry at the good vvhich happens to a man if vve do not consider him as unvvorthy of it it 's Envy and although the ill must be alvvays unjust vvhich moves us to Anger if we do not particularly look on it as an indignity it may well beget Despight or such a kind of an Anger but never Indignation for which cause the motion which the Soul suffers in this encounter runs not into those violences and excesses which true Anger is carried away withal because the real ill which causeth Grief consists not in this Indignity but in the Injustice which out of that consideration being a stranger unto it augments it So that if the Injury for example-sake is not great what indignity soever you may conceive it obligeth not the Soul to make any great endeavors forasmuch as it is but as a colour which she gives herself to the body and substance of the ill which in some manner renders it more sensible though not the greater And it 's also for this reason that Beasts are not susceptible of it being unable to make such reflections as are necessary to know whether one is not worthy of a thing Besides men are in indignation to see good or ill happen to those who deserve it not because it is a thing which seems unjust and that naturally we have an aversion against what is opposite to Reason and Justice but how ever we interess our selves so much for them we often abandon them in the Judgement which we make of the merit of persons whom we often esteem worthy or unworthy of things according as Pride Love or Hatred counsel it For which reason Ambitious persons and Lovers are extreamly subject to this Passion for as much as Vanity easily perswades those that all other men are unworthy of those Honors which they aspire unto and that Love gives a high esteem to those of the person beloved and a great opinion of their service for in that though at every moment they find cause of offence or are not sufficiently esteemed or else from that they are not well used or that others are better used who as they think deserve it not so well On the contrary those who are of a servile mind or base spirit and are not capable of any noble desire they do almost never resent the motions of Indignation What Disdain is Disdain is also a kind of Anger seeing that to provoke it there must be something which displeaseth and must cause the Soul to rise up against it But what renders it different from the rest is that Scorn which ever accompanies it for we never disdain any man but we scorn him although we scorn many things which we do not disdain So that we may say Disdain is a scornful Anger and thence it is that it never is violent or impetuous because those things which we scorn deserve not that we should trouble our selves for them Not that what we disdain is always scornful or else the Soul would never care to rise up against it since Scorn is nothing but the opinion which we have that a thing is unworthy of our esteem and of our care not judging it capable to do good or hurt as is before said And therefore it must needs be that what we ought to disdain may do some ill but that its power is not so great or at least that we feign we fear it not For it often happens in these Passions that the Soul which knows its weakness endeavours to hide it by actions which seem outragious as hath been said As for Despight What Despight is it hath nothing particular which distinguisheth it from Anger as the former have for it 's but a weak Anger and as it were a slight throw which the Soul to oppose ill gives it self whether it be because it 's of small concernment or because she dares not or will not strongly assault it For weakness commonly restrains it and hinders it from driving the Passion whether it ought to go And Reason which is not Mistris of the first motions of the Appetite suffers Despight well enough as the beginnings of Anger but permits it not to go any further for which cause timerous persons and those who are moderate despise those things which in others would kindle Anger it self The Characters which Anger imprints on the body The corporal Characters of
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
there is no inconvenience herein and that its true that all that is fair is pleasing and that the proportion of parts being fair must needs please the sight and that therefore they are graceful And indeed the ancients who in these things were wiser then we made not this difference and always placed the graces where beauty was For although Aristotle says that little ones might be call'd pretty and pleasing but that they were not to be esteem'd fair 't is that he spake of an entire and perfect beauty which is not to be found in little bodies for as much as they want that just proportion which belongs to the perfection of man Yet there is some ground for the difference which hath been since made between beauty and grace for as the matter and the form enter into the composition of man we have placed beauty in the figure and in the colour which belongs to the matter and grace in the motions which are effects of the soul not that grace is not in the colour and in the figure or that beauty is not in the motions but because she is more excellent in these by reason that the soul who is the principle thereof is more perfect then the matter and that action is the last perfection of things Beauty which ought to be the most agreeable hath been call'd by the name of grace although in effect it ought to be common to all that is fair and that the colour figure and motion which have all their beauties ought also to have every one their particular graces But to return to our subject the grace is a kind of air and means nothing more but that conformity and proportion whereof we have spoken For when the air is accompanied with this proportion its pleasing so that this air in general is in all those things which have a grace and it may be defin'd A certain exterior and sensible quality which is bred from the colour figure and motion of the parts And if we add that these things are proportionable and conformable to the perfection of man it will be the definition of grace We are notwithstanding to observe that the air appears more in one of these three things in some encounters then in the rest For that which is fixt and natural is chiefly in the figure and situation of the parts That which accompanies the passions depends most from the motion and the colour that of vertuous actions is sometimes in rest because reason hinders those motions which would not befit the moderation and quiet she seeks such is the grave and modest Mine such is the countenance of a man who meditates and thinks on great matters And it may be that even vices which are in excess have an active and turbulent air and those which are in the defect have quite the contrary so a hot and precipitate man is always in action and the lazy is immoveable besides the air appears sometime more in one part then in another and although it be more remarkable in the face then in any other place yet there is one which belongs to walking another in the carriage of the armes and another of the whole body The French hath been more happy to express those differences then any other language whatsoever Not content to say l'Air la Grace Air and Grace it adds la Mine la Contenance le Maintica le Geste le Port which as neer as we can render them are The Mine the Presence the Behaviour the Carriage and the Port. The Mine chiefly belongs to the face the port to the gate the carriage and the behaviour to the arms the Air the Grace and the Presence to the whole body And as the Port and the Gesture or Carriage denote motion so the Mine the Behaviour and the Presence apply themselves best to rest but the air and the grace are common to both of them However it be the air which is in Passions and in moral actions principally comes from motion but you must know what the cause of this motion is For upon this knowledge depends the greatest part of what we are to say and because it will better appear in the passions we will therefore by them begin the enquiry We have already said and we shall often be obliged to repeate that Passions are nothing but the emotions of the appetite by which the soul moves towards good and estrangeth it self from evil and as she hath divers organs which may be used to that end she also employs them and moves according to her intention Now the Spirits without question are the first she makes use of being the most agil and which take their birth from the same place where she forms her designs so that we need not wonder that they are the first to execute them since they seem to be the first who have the knowledge of them The soul then sends forth the spirits and scatters them over all the exterior parts either to acquire good or to oppose ill But when this is too powerful and she is sensible that she is not strong enough to resist it she retires them in and brings them back to the heart Now this flux and reflux brings two great changes because the humors being drawn along with them their arrival swels and agitates the parts and paints them of the same colour of which themselves are on the contrary their flight makes them fail looke pale and renders them immoveable Perhaps it would not be unprofitable to examine whether every passion hath a particular motion of the spirits and whether anger moves them otherwise then shame love joy or the rest which carries them outwardly Whether Fear retire them inwardly after another manner then Hate Aversion or Greif For if this were true and that we could know these differences we could with the more facility discover the causes of the alterations they produce For my part I beleeve that since in every Passion the appetite hath an emotion and a particular end the means it useth ought also to be particular and that the motion of the spirits must be conformable to the intention it hath and to the agitation it gives it self and therefore that that is done in one passion is different from those which are done in others So that its very likely that in one they cast themselves with impetuosity and high boylings like torrents and in another slide as sweetly as rivers that some make them overflow their banks others restrain them in their bounds that now their course is direct and presently again irregular Lastly That we may say love dilates them desire shoots them forth Joy sheds them abroad Hope holds them fast boldness drives them and that anger throws them forth in great boyling gulps and so of the rest as we shall more particularly see in the discourse of the Passions although to speak Truth our spirit is not clear-sighted enough to discern exactly all these differences and that in this
possest the Appetite But supposing that Love dilates them and Desire joynes it self with it will it not cause any change certainly when the Soul sees the good absent and that in effect she possesseth it not she must bate somewhat of the designe she had to open and extend herself to unite her to its Idea and she gathers her self together to pursue it the more swiftly So that it is likely she contracts not the Spirits in this Passion as she doth in Fear but that she reunites and somewhat regathers them driving them towards the absent Good But we will forbear these things which being too subtil and too obscure flee from our sight and tire the minde that we may seek the causes of the Characters we have marked PART 4. The Causes of the Characters of Desire LOve and Desire being the most general Passions of the minde are also the most fruitful in actions but if you respect the causes which are nearest their effects you must confess that Desire is the most active and that all human actions although they proceed from Love as from their original source seem to draw their origine from Desire as from their neerest and most sensible cause so that we may say that Love is as it were the seed but that Desire is the stock or trunk which affords life and motion to all the branches However it be we have not undertaken to give an account of all the effects which this Passion produceth it will be sufficient to examine the most general and the most ordinary And first of all to enquire what it is that renders it importunate impudent base and unquiet why it is boundless and how difficulties provoke it It is true that who ardently desires a thing renders himself easily Importunate because the violent Passion he hath to obtain it makes him blindly seek it without considering the persons and without examining the time or the place which might favour him in his designe he pursues it everywhere he craves it continually and as if all the world ought to contribute to his pleasure he solicites he urgeth he tires all those whose succour he may have and which may make him enjoy the good he desires besides having no other thought but that and his minde being continually bent on that Object reason findes no time to be understood nor power to contain the sallies of this unbridled Passion She even suffers herself to be thereby carried away and so abandons the conduct of her actions to blinde and rash powers And even from thence that Impudence comes which commonly accompanies Desire for as it is a certain boldness which makes us with pleasure undertake dishonest things and which makes us scorn the imfamy which they may cause he must necessarily be impudent who is pressing and importunate seeing he takes a liberty beyond good manners and that he fears not the blame which his shamelesness deserves But if desire cause boldness how can it then render a man Base and Timerous It may be said 't is done at several times That sometimes we fancy the things we desire are easily obtained and that sometimes there are great obstacles to be overcome and that as these different thoughts enter the minde they introduce either Boldness or Fear Hope or Despair Now although this be true it is also evident that that Boldness which breeds Impudence is not always incompatible with Baseness if it apprehend not infamy it may fear every other thing and we cannot doubt but those who sollicite with so much urgency and submission a person inferior to them are possest with a very cowardly Boldness and a base and servile Impudency Disquiet Impatience and Irresolution are also inseparable from Desire for the minde seeing it self deprived of the good she imagined necessary for her can take no rest til she hath obtained it The moments which retard its enjoyment seem years and ages the least impediments appear great obstacles and all the means she findes to make her the sooner enjoy the desired good are in her opinion weak and unprofitable so that forming at every moment new designes heaping desires upon desires and increasing difficulties by her irresolutions she uncessantly agitates and disquiets herself and findes not even in their possession the end of her troubles as we have shewed in the discourse of Joy But whenee comes it that Desires do thus encrease and multiply and that like waves they follow and drive one the other that obstacles make them encrease and that they have no bounds which can contain them It is true that the greatest part of our desires are of that Nature that they cannot be bounded and that they become infinite but there are others also which never pass their just extent To know the reason of this difference you must suppose that there are desires necessary for this life and others which are not so those are common to all creatures and are inspired by Nature these are proper to man and proceed from the opinion and choice he makes not onely of necessity but also of superfluous things The first have their certain bounds because Nature who leads them is determined to a certain end from which she never straggles and wherein she findes her rest when she is there arrived but the others are infinite for asmuch as the will whence they originally come is an Universal power which is not to be filled but by the possession of all things and which being unable to be satisfied by any one incessantly runs from one to another and forms as many desires as there are goods whersof she is in want it is not that all the desires which part from our choice are infinite when they are ruled by right reason they have also their bounds and we may also be sure that they are as natural and as necessary as those which serve ths necessities of life For right reason being nothing else but what is convenient for the Nature of man the Desires which are regulated thereby are as it were natural and by so much the more necessary as they serve the noblest part which is in him But this belongs to another Discourse Let us now see why Difficulty provokes Desire it is not that by putting of the Soul further off from the good she thought readily to enjoy she obligeth her to use the more endeavour to draw neerer unto it or else the impediments inspiring new designes give it also new subject for Desire which uniting it self to the former make the Passion appear the greater but these Passions are not Universal for they suppose we alwayes wish the good before these impediments present themselves and in the mean time it is true that difficulty and resistance doe often breed a desire of certain things which we had never sought how desireable soever they were had they not been forbidden us and difficult We must then conclude that the first source of this effect proceeds from the natural inclination which is in man for