agitated and subtlest only get in while the rest is dispersed into all the other parts of the body Now these very subtle parts of the blood make the animall spirits and they need not to this end undergoe any other change in the brain but only be separated from the other lesse subtle parts of the blood for what I here call spirits are but bodyes and have no other property unlesse tha they are bodies exceeding small which move very nimbly as the parts of a flame issuing from a torch so that they stay not in any one place but still as some get into the cavities of the brain some others get out through the pores in the substance of it which pores convey them into the nerves and from thence into the muscles by means whereof they mould the body into all the severall postures it can move The 11th Article How the muscles are moved FOR the only cause of the motion of all the members is that some Muscles shrink up and their opposites extend as hath been already said and the only cause why one muscle shrinkes rather than his opposite is that there come though never so little more spirits to the one than the other not that the spirits which flow immediatly from the brain are alone sufficient to move these Muscles but they dispose the other spirits which already are in these two Muscles of sally forth immediatly from one of them into the other by means whereof that from whence they came becomes longer and flaggier that wherein they are being suddenly swelled up by them shortens and attracts the member appendent to it which is easily conceived when it is known that there are but very few animal spirits which proceed continually from the brain to every Muscle but that there are abundance of others lockt in the same Muscle which move very swiftly in it sometimes in whirling round only in the places where they are this is when they find no passages open to get out at and sometimes by slipping into the opposite Muscle For there are little overtures in each of these Muscles through which hese spirits can slide from one to another which are so disposed too that when the spirits which come from the brain towards one of them are but never so little stronger than those going to theother they open all the entries through which the spirits of the other Muscle can fly into this and in the same instant bar up all those through which the spirits of this might get into that whereby all the spirits formerly contained in both Muscles crowd suddenly into one so swelling it up and shortning it while the other extends it self and gives The 12th Article How outward objects act contrary to the organs of the senses IT remains yet to know the causes why the spirits slide not from the brain into the Muscles always after one manner and wherefore they come sometimes more towards some than others For besides the action of the Soul which in truth is in us one of the causes as I shall shew hereafter there are yet two besides which depend not of any thing but the body which it is necessary to take notice of the first consists in the diversitie of motions excited in the organs of the senses by their objects which I have already amply enough explained in the Dioptricks but that those who see this may not need to have read ought else I will here repeat that there are three things to be considered in the sinews to wit their marrow or interiour substance which stretches it self out in the form of little threds from the brain the originall thereof to the extremities of the other members whereunto these threds are fastened next the skins wherein they are lapt which being continuous with those that invelope the brain make up litle pipes wherein these threds are enclosed lastly the animal spirits which being conveyed through these very pipes from the brain to the muscles are the cause that these thredd 's remain there entirely unmolested and extended in such a manner that the least thing that moves that part of the body whereunto the extremity of any one of them is fastened doth by the same reason move that part of the brain from whence it comes just as when a man pulls at one end of a string he causeth the other end to stirre The 13th Article That this Action of objects without may differently convey the spirits into the Muscles AND I have made it evident in the Diopticks how all the objects of the sight are not communicated to us any way but thus they move locally by mediation of transparent bodies between them and us those little thredd 's of the Optick nerves which are at the bottome of our eyes and after them the places of the brain from whence those nerves come they move them I say as many severall kinds of wayes as there are diversities of objects in things nor are they immediatly the motions made in the eye but in the brain that represent these objects to the Soul in imitation whereof it is easie to conceive that sounds odours heat pain hunger thirst and generally and objects as well of our other exteriour senses as our interiour appetites doe also excite some motion in our nerves which passes by means of them unto the brain and besides that these severall motions of the brain create in our soul different resentments it may so be that that without her the spirits direct their course rather towards some Muscles than others and so they may move our members which I will prove here only by one example If any one lift up his hand on a sudden towards our eyes as if he were about to strike although we know he is our friend that he does this only in jest and that he will be carefull enough not to doe us any hurt yet wee can scarce refrain from shutting them which shews it is not by the intermedling of our soul that they shut since it is against our will which is the only or at least the principall Action thereof but by reason this machine of our body is so composed that the moving of this hand up towards our eyes excites another motion in our brain which conveys the animal spirits into those muscles that close the eye-lids The 14th Article That the diversity of the spirits may diversifie their course THe other cause which serves to convey the animal spirits variously into the muscles is the unequal agitation of these spirits and the diversity of their parts for when any of their parts are more gross and agitated than the rest they passe forwards in a direct line into the cavities and pores of the brain and by this means are conveyed into toher muscles whereinto they should not had they been weaker The 15th Article What are the causes of their diversity ANd this inequality may proceed from the divers matters whereof they are composed as is seen in those who have
drunk much wine The vapours of this wine entering suddenly into the blood mount up from the hear to the brain where they convert into spirits which being stronger and more abundant than ordinary are apt to move the body after many strange fashions This inequality of the spirits may also proceed from the divers dispositions of the heart liver Stomacke spleene and all other parts contributing to their production For it is principally necessary here to observe certaine little nerves inserted in the basis of the heart which serve to lengthen and contract the entries of its concavities by meanes whereof the blood there dilating more or lesse strongly produces spirits diversly disposed It is also to be noted that although the blood which enters into the heart comes thither from all the other parts of the body yet it falls out often times that more is driven thither from some parts than others by reason the nerves or muscles which answer to those parts oppresse or agitate it more and for that according to the diversity of the parts from whence it comes most it dilates it selfe diverfly in the heart and at last produces spirits of different natures as for example that which comes from the lower part of the liver where the gall is dilates it selfe otherwise in the heart than that which comes from the spleene and this after another manner than that which comes from the veines of the leggs or armes and lastly this quite otherwise than the juyce of meats when being newly come out of the stomack and bowels it passes through the liver to the heart The 16th Article How all the members may be moved by the objects of the sences and by the spirits without the help of the Soul Lastly it is to be observed that the machine of our body is so composed that all the changes befalling the motion of the spirits may so worke as to open some pores of the braine more than others and reciprocally that when any one of these pores are never so little more or lesse open than usuall by the Action of those nerves subservient to the senses it changes somewhat in the motion of the spirits and causes them to be conveyed into the muscles which serve to move the body in that manner it ordinarily is upon occasion of such an Action So that all the motions we make our will not contributing to them as it often happens that we sigh walk eat and to be short doe all actions common to us and beasts depend onely on the conformity of our members and the streame which the spirits excited by the heat of the heart follow naturally into the braine nerves and muscles Just as the motion of a watch is produced meerely by the strength of the spring and the fashion of the wheeles The 17th Article What the functions of the Soul are HAving thus considered all the functions belonging to the body only it is easie to know there remaines nothing in us which we ought to attribute to our Soul unlesse our thoughts which are chiefly of two kinds to wit some Actions of the Soul others her Passions Those which I call her actions are all our wills because we experimentally find they come directly from our Soul and seem to depend on nought but it as on the contrary one may generally call her Passions all those sorts of apprehensions and understandings to be found within us because oftimes our Soul does not make them such as they are to us and she alwayes receives things as they are represented to her by them The 18th Article Of the Will Again our Wills are of two sorts For some are actions of the Soul which terminate in the Soul it selfe as when we will love God or generally apply our thought to any object which is not materiall The other are actions which terminate in our body as in this case that we have onely a will to walke it followes that our legges must stir and we goe The 19th Article Of the Apprehension OUr Appprehensions also are of two sorts the Soul is the cause of some the Body of the other Those whereof the Soul is the cause are the apprehensions of our wills and all the imaginations or others thoughts thereon depending For we cannot will any thing but we must at the same time perceive that we doe will it And although in respect of our Soul it be an Action to will any thing it may be said also a passion in her to apprehend that she wills Yet because this apprehension and this will are in effect but one and the same thing the denomination comes still from that which is most noble therefore it is not customary to call it a Passion but onely an Action The 20th Article Of Imaginations and other thoughts framed by the Soul WHen our Soul applies her elfe to fancy any thing which is not as to represent to it selfe an inchanted Palace or a Chimera and also when she bends her selfe to consider any thing that is only intelligible not imaginable for example to ruminate on ones owne nature the apprehension she hath of things depends ptincipally on the Will which causeth her to perceive them Wherefore it is usuall to consider them as Actions rather than Passions The 21 Article Of Imaginations caused onely by the body Among the apprehensions caused by the body the greatest part depend on the nerves But yet there are some that depend not at all on them which are called Imaginations too as well as those I lately spoke of from which neverthelesse they differ herein that our Will hath no hand in framing them which is the reason wherefore they cannot be numbred among the actions of the Soul and they proceed from nothing but this that the spirits being agitated severall wayes and meeting the traces of divers impressions preceding them in the brain they take their course at haphazzard through some certaine pores rather than others Such are the illusions of our dreames and those dotages we often are troubled with waking when our thought carelessely roames witout applying it self to any thing of its own Now though some of these imaginations be Passions of the Soul taking this word in the genuine and peculiar signification and though they may be all called so if it be taken in a more generall acception yet seeing they have not so notorious and determined a cause as those apprehensions which the Soul receives by mediation of the nerves and that they seem to be onely the shadow and representation of the others before we can well distinguish them it is necessary to examine the difference between them The 22 Article Of the difference betwixt them and the other apprehensions ALL the apprehensions which I have not yet explained come to the Soul by mediation of the nerves and there is this difference between them that we attribute some of them to the objects from without that beat upon our senses some to our body or some parts of it and lastly
the rest to our Soul The 23th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to objects from without us Those which we attribute to things without us to wit to the objects of our enses are caused at least if our opinion be not false by those objects which exciting some motions in the organs of the exteriour senses by intercourse with the nerves stir up some in the brain which make the soul perceive them So when we see the light of a torch and hear the sound of a bell this sound and this light are two everall actions who meerly in this regard that they excite two severall motions in some of our nerves and by meanes of them in the brain deliver the Soul two different Resentments which we so attribute to those Subjects which we suppose to be their causes that we think we see the very flame and hear the bell not onely feel certain motions proceeding from them The 24th Article Of apprehensions which we attribute to our body THe apprehensions which we attribute to our body or any of the parts thereof are those we have concerning hunger thirst and other our naturall appetites whereunto may be added paine heat and the rest of the affections we feel as in our members and not in the objects without us So we may at at the same time by the intercourse of the same nerves feel the coldnesse of our hand and the heat of the flame it drawes neere to or contrarily the heat of the hand and the cold of the aire whereto it is exposed and yet there is no difference between the Actions that make us feel the heat or the cold in our hand and those which make us feel that which is without us unlesse that one of these Actions succeeding the other we conceive the first to be already in us and that which followes not to be yet in us but in the object that causeth it The 25th Article Of the apprehensions which we attribute to our Soul THe Apprehensions attributed only to the Soul are those whereof the effects are felt as in the Soul it selfe and whereof any neer cause whereunto it may be attributed is commonly unknown Such are the resentments of joy wrath and the like which are sometimes excited in us by the objects which move our nerves and sometimes too by other causes Now although all our Apprehensions as well those attributed to objects without us as those relating to divers affections of our body be in truth Passions in respect of our Soul when this word is taken in the more generall signification yet it is usuall to restrain it to signifie onely those attributed to the Soul it selfe And they are onely these latter which I here undertake to explaine under the notion of Passions of the Soul The 26th Article That the imaginations which depend onely on the accidentall motion of the spirits may be as reall Passions as the apprehensions depending on the nerves IT is here to be observed that all the same things which the Soul perceives by intercourse with the nerves may also be represented to it by the accidentall course of the spirits and no difference between them but this that the impressions which come from the brain by the nerves are usually more lively and manifest than those the spirits excite there which made me say in the one and twentieth Article that these are onely as the shadow and representation of those It is also to be noted that it sometimes fals out this picture is so like the thing it represents that it is possible to be deceived concerning the apprehensions attributed to those objects without us or those referred to any parts of our body but not to be srved so concerning the Passions forasmuch as they are so neer and interiour to our Soul that it is impossible she should feele them unlesse they were truely such as she doth feel them So oftentimes when one sleeps and sometimes too being awake a man fancies things so strongly that he thinkes he sees them before him or feels them in his body though there be no such thing but although a man be asleep and doate he cannot feel himselfe sad ormoved with any other Passion but it is most true that the Soul hath in it that passion The 27th Article The definition of the Passions of the Soul AFter we have thus considered wherein the passions of the Soul differ from all other thoughts me thinkes they may be generally defined thus Apprehensions resentments or emotions of the Soul attributed particularly to it and caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits The 28th Article An explication of the first part of the definition THey may be called Apprehensions when this word is used in a generall sense to signifie all thoughts that are not Actions of the Soul or the wills but not then when it onely signifies evident knowledges For experience shewes us that those who are most agitated by their Passions are not such as understand them best and that they are in the Catalogue of those apprehensions which the strict alliance between the soul and the body renders confused and obscure they may also be called resentments because they are received into the soul in the same manner as the objects of the exteriour senses and are not otherwise understood by her but they may justlier be stiled the emotions of the Soul not only because this name may be attributed to all the mutations befalling her that is all the various thoughts thereof but particularly because of all kinds of thoughts that she can have there are none that agitate and shake it so hard as these Passions doe The 29th Article An explication of the other part I Adde that they are attributed particularly to the Soul to distinguish them from other resentments relating some to exteriour objects as smells sounds colours the others to our body as hunger thirst pain I also subjoyn that they are caused fomented and fortified by some motion of the spirits to distinguish them from our Wills which cannot be called emotions of the Soul attributed to her but caused by her self as also to unfold their last and immediate cause that distinguisheth them again from other resentments The 30th article That the Soul is united to all the parts of the body joyntly BUt to understand all these things more perfectly it is necessary to know that the Soul is really joyned to all the body but it cannot properly bee said to bee in any of the parts thereof excluding the rest because it is One and in some sort indivisible by reason of the disposition of the organs which do all so relate one to another that when any one of them is taken away it renders the whole body defective and because it is of a nature that hath no reference to extension dimensions or other properties of matter whereof the body is composed but only to the whole masse or Contexture of Organs as appears by this that you cannot
conceive the half or third part of a Soul nor what space it takes up and that it becomes not any whit less by cutting off any part of the body but absolutely withdraws when the Contexture of its organs is dissolved The 31th Article That there is a little kernell in the brain wherein the soul exercises her functions more peculiarly than in the other parts IT is also necessary to know that although the foul be joyned to all the body yet there is some part in that body wherein shee exercises her functions more peculiarly than all the rest and it s commonly believed that this part is the brain or it may bee the heart the brain because thither tend the organs of the senses and the heart because therein the Passions are felt but having searched this businesse carefully me thinks I have plainly found out that that part of the body wherein the soul immediatly exercises her functions is not a jot of the heart nor yet all the brain but only the most interiour part of it which is a certain very small kernell situated in the middle of the substance of it and so hung on the top of the conduit by which the spirits of its anteriour cavities have communication with those of the posteriour whose least motions in it cause the course of the spirits very much to change and reciprocally the least alterations befalling the course of the spirits cause the motions of the kernell very much to alter The 32th Article How this kernell is known to be the principall seat of the soul THe reason which perswades me that the soul can have no other place in the whole body but this kernell where shee immediatly exercises for functions is for that I see all the other parts of our brain are paired as also we have two eyes two hands two ears lastly all the organs of our exteriour senses are double and forasmuch as we have but one onely and single thought of one very thing at one and the same time it must necessarily be that there is some place where the two images that come from the two eyes or the two other impressions that come from any single object through the double organs of the other senses have some where to meet in one before they come to the soul that they may not represent two objects in stead of one and it may bee easily conceived that these images or other impressions joyn together in this kernell by intercourse of the spirits that fill the cavities of the brain but there is no other place in the body where they can be so united unlesse it be granted that they are in this kernell The 33th Article That the seat of the Passions is not in the heart FOr the opinion of those who think the soul receives her Passions in the heart it is not worth consideration for it is grounded upon this that the Passions make us feel some alteration there and it is easie to take notice that this alteration is only felt in the heart by the intercourse of a small nerve descending to it from the brain just as pain is felt in the feet by intercourse of the nerves of the foot and the starres are perceived as to be in the firmament by the intercourse of their light and the optick nerves so that it is no more necessary that our soul exercise her functions immediatly in the heart to make her Passions be felt there than it is necessary shee should be in the sky to see the stars there The 34th Article How the Soul and the Body act one against another LEt us then conceive that the Soul holds her principall seat in that little kernell in the midst of the brain from whence she diffuseth her becames into all the rest of the body by intercourse of the spirits nerves yea and the very blood which participating the Impressions of the spirits may convey them through the arteries into all the members and remembring what was formerly said concerning this machine our body to wit that the little strings of our nerves are so distributed into all parts of it that upon occasion of severall motions excited therein by sensible objects they variously open the pores of the braine which causeth the animall spirits contained in the cavities thereof to enter divers wayes into the muscles by whose means they can move the members all the severall wayes they are apt tomove and also that all the other causes which can differently move the spirits are enough to convey them into severall muscles let us here adde that the little kernell which is the chief feat of the soul hangs so between the cavities which contain these spirits that it may be moved by them as many severall fashions as there are sensible diversities in objects but withall that it may be moved severall wayes by the soul too which is of such a nature that she receives as many various impressions that is hath as many severall apprehensions as there come severall motions into this kernell As also on the other side the machine of the body is so composed that this kernel being only divers wayes moved by the soul or by any other cause whatsoever it drives the Spirits that environ it towards the pores of the brain which convey them by the nerves into the muscles by which means it causeth them to move the members The 35th Article An example of the manner how the impressions of objects unite in the kernell in the middle of the brain AS for example if we see any creature come toward us the light reflected from his body paints two images one in each eye and these two images beget two others by intercourse with the optick nerves in the interiour superficies of the brain that looks towards its concavities from thence by intercourse of the spirits wherewith these cavities are filled these images glance in such a manner on the little kennell that these spirits encompasse it and the motion which composes any point of one of these images tends to the same point of the kernell to which that motion tends that frames the point of the other image which represents too part of this creature by which meanes the two images in the brain make up but one single one upon the kernell which acting immediately against the Soul shews her the figure of that creature The 36 Article An example how the Passions are excited in the Soul FUrthermore if this figure be very strange and hideous that is if it have much similitude with such things as have formerly been offensive to the body it excites in the Soul the Passion of fear afterwards that of boldness or else an affright or scaring according to the various temper of the body or the force of the soul and according as a man hath formerly protected himself by defence or flight against noxious things whereunto the present impression hath some resemblance for this renders the braine so disposed in some men that the
spirits reflected from the image so formed on the kernell go from thence to fall part into the nerves which serve to turn the back and stirre the legs to run away and part into those which as is spoken of before let out or draw upon together the orifices of the heart or which else so agitate the rest of the parts from whence the blood is sent that this blood not being rarified there in the usuall manner sends spirits to the braine that are fitting to maintain and confirm the passion of fear that is such as are proper to hold open or open again the pores of the brain that convey them into the very same nerves for the meere entry of these spirits into these pores excites in this kernell a particular motion instituted by nature to make the soul feel that passion and because these pores relate principally to the little nerves that serve to lock up or open wide the orifices of the heart this makes the soul feel it as if it were chiefly in the heart The 37th Article How it appears they are all caused by some motion of the spirits ANd because the like happens in all the other Passions to wit that they are principally caused by the spirits contained in the cavities of the brain seeing they direct their course towards the nerves which serve to enlarge or straiten the orifices of the heart either to thrust the blood in the other parts differently to it or whatsoever other way it be to feed the self same Passion it may be clearly understood by this wherefore I formerly inserted in my definition that they are caused by some peculiar motion of the Spirits The 38th Article An example of the motions of the Body that accompany the Passions and depend not of the Soul MOreover as the course which these spirits take towards the nerves of the heart is sufficient to give a motion to the kernell whereby fear is put into the soul even so by the meere going of the spirits at that time into those nerves which serve to stirre the legges to run away they cause another motion in the same kernell by meanes whereof the soul feels and perceives this flight which may in this manner be excited in the body by the meere disposition of the organs the soul not at all contributing to it The 39th Article How the same cause may excite divers Passions in divers men THe same impression that the presence of one formidable object workes upon the kernel and which causeth fear in some men may in others rouze up courage and boldnesse the reason whereof is that all braines are not alike disposed for the same motion of the Kernell which in some excites feare in others causeth the spirits to enter into the pores of the brain which convey them part into the nerves which serve to use the hands for defence and partly into those which agitate and drive the blood towards the heart in that manner as is requisite to produce spirits proper to continue this defence and retaine a will to it The 40th Article What the principall effect of the Passions is FOr it must be observed that the principall effect of all the Passions in men is they incite and dispose their Souls to will the things for which they prepare their Bodies so that the resentment of fear incites him to be willing to fly that of boldnesse to be willing to fight and so of the rest The 41th Article What is the power of the Soul in respect of the Body BUt the will is so free by nature that it can never be constrained and of two sorts of thoughts which I have distinguished in the Soul whereof some are her Actions to wit her Wils others her Passions taking that word in its generall signification which comprehends all sorts of apprehensions the first are absolutely in her owne power and cannot but indirectly be changed by the body as on the contrary the last depend absolutely upon the Actions which produce them and they cannot unlesse indirectly be changed by the Soul except then when her selfe is the cause of them And all the Action of the Soul consists in this that she meerely by willing any thing can make the little kernell whereunto she is strictly joyned move in the manner requisite to produce the effect relating to this Will The 42th Article How the things one would remember are found in the memory SO when the Soul would remember any thing this Will is the cause that the kernell nodding successively every way drives the spirits towards severall places of the braine untill they excounter that where the traces which were left there of the object one would remember are For these traces are nothing else but the pores of the braine through which the spirits formerly took their course by reason of the presence of that object have thereby accquired a greater facility to be open in the same manner again than the rest can have by the spirits that come to them so that these spirits meeting these pores enter into them easier than the others whereby they excite a peculiar motion in the kernell which represents the same object to the Soul and makes it know that is it she would remember The 43th Article How the Soul can imagine be attentive and move the Body SO when one would imagin any thing one hath never seen this Will hath the power to make the kernell move in the manner requisite to drive the spirits towards the pores of the braine by the opening of which this thing may be represented So when one would fix his attention some pretty while to consider or ruminate on one object this Will holds the kernell still at that time leaning ever to one side So in fine when one would walk or move his body any way this Will causes the kernell to drive the spirits towards the muscles which serve to that purpose The 44th Article That every Will is naturally joyned to some motion of the kernell but that by industry or habit itmay be annexed to another NOtwithstanding it is not alwayes the Will to excite in us any motion or other effect that can cause us to excite it but that changes according as nature or habit have differently joyned each motion of the kernell to each thought as for example if one would dispose his eyes to look on an object farr distant this Will causes the ball of them to dilate themselves and if one would prompt them to behold an object very neer this Will contracts them but if one thinks onely to dilate the ball he had as good doe nothing that dilates it not at all because nature hath not joyned the motion of the kernell which serves to drive the spirits to the optick nerve in that manner as is requisite to dilate or contract the ball of the eye with the will of dilating or contracting it but with the will of looking on objects remote or at hand and then when we
speak we only think the sense of what we would say yet that makes us move our tongues and lips much better and farre readier than if wee thought to move them in all the manners requisite to pronounce the same words Forasmuch as the habit we have acquired in learning to speak hath taught us to joyn the action of the Soul which by the intercourse of the kernell can move the tongue and the lipps with the signification of the words which follow out of these motions rather than with the motions themselves The 45th Article What the power of the Soul is in respect of her Passions OUr Passions also cannot be directly excited or takenaway by the action of our Will but they may indirectly by the representation of things which use to be joyned with the Passions which we will have and which are contrary to those we will reject Thus to excite in ones selfe boldness and remove fear it is not enough to have a will to do so but reasons objects and examples are to be considered of that perswade the danger is not great that there is ever more security in defence than flight that there is glory and joy in vanquishing whereas there is nothing to be expected but griefe and dishonour in flying and the like The 46th Article What is the reason that hinders the Soul from disposing her Passions totally NOw there is a peculiar reason why the Soul cannot suddenly alter or stop her Passions which gave me occasion to put formerly in their definition that they are not only caused but somented and fortified by some peculiar motion of the spirits the reason is they are almost all coupled with some emotion made in the heart and consequently in all the blood and spirits too so that till this emotion cease they remain present in our thoughts just as sensible objects are present in them while they act against the organs of our senses and as the Soul being very sattentive on any other thing may choose whether shewill hear a little noise or feel a little pain or no but cannot keep her self from hearing thunder or feeling fire that burns the hand so shee may easily overcome the smaller Passions but not the violentest and strongest untill after the emotion of the blood and spirits is allayed The most the Will can doe while this emotion is in its full strength is not to consent to its effects and to restrain divers motions whereunto it disposes the body For example if wrath makes me lift up my hand to strike the Will can usually restrain it if fear incites my legs to fly the Will can stop them and so of the rest The 47th Article Wherein consist those contestations which use to be imagined between the superiour and inferiour part of the Soul ANd it is only in the repugnance of those motions which the body by its spirits and the Soul by her Wil endeavour to excite at the same time in the kernall that all the contestations which use to be imagined between the inferiour part of the Soul called sensitive and the superiour which is reasonable or else between the naturall appetites and the Will consist for there is in us but one Soul only and this Soul hath no diversity of parts in it the same which is sensible is rationall and all her appetites are her Wills The errour committed in making her act two severall parts which are usually contrary one to another proceeds meerly hence that her functions have not been distinguished from them of the body to which only all that can be observed in us repugnant to our reason ought to bee attributed so that there is here no other contestation unlesse that the little kernell in the middle of the brain being driven on one side by the soul and on the other by the animall spirits which are only bodies as I laid down before it happens oftentimes that these two impulsions are contrary and that the strongest hinders the operation of the other Now we may distiguish two sorts of motions excited by the spirits in the kernell some represent to the soul the objects which move the senses or the impressions found in the brain which use not any violence on the Will others doe use violence to wit such as cause the Passions or motions of the body concomitant with them And for the first though they often-times hinder the action of the soul or else be hindered by it yet by reason that they are not directly contrary there is not any contestation observed in them it is only taken notice of among the last and the Wills which resist them for example between that violence wherewith the spirits drive the kernell to cause in the soul a desire of any thing and that wherewith the Soul beats it back by the will she hath to avoid the same thing and what chiefly makes this contestation appear is that the Will having not the power to excite the Passions directly as hath been already said is constrained to use art and fall on considering successively divers things if but one wherof chance to be strong enough to alter the course of the spirits one moment it is possible that which follows is not and so the others many immediately resume it a-again because the disposition preceding in the nerves heart and blood is not changed which makes the soul feel her self instigated almost in the same instant to desire and not desire the very same thing From hence it was that occasion was taken to imagine two contesting powers in her Yet there may some kind of contestation be conceived herein that oft times the same cause which excites some Passion in the soul excites also certain motions in the body whereunto the soul contributes not and which she stops or strives to sto assoon as ever she perceives them as is then tried when that which excites fearfullnesse causeth also the Spirits to enter into the muscles that serve to stirre the legges to run away and the Will to be bold stops them The 48th Article Wherein the strength or weaknesse of souls are known and what is the misery of the weakest NOw it is by the successe of these contestations that every one may understand the strength or weaknesse of his soul For those in whom the Will can most easily conquer the Passions and stop the motions of the body that come along with them have without doubt the strongest souls But there are some who can never try their own strength because they never let the Will fight with her own weapons but onely with such as are borrowed from some Passions to resist others Those which I call her own weapons are firm and determinate judgements concerning the knowledge of good and evil according to which she hath resolved to steere the actions of her life and the weakest soul of all is such an one whose Will hath not at all determined to follow certaine judgements but suffers it self to be swayed with the present Passions
rest derive their pedigree from them The 70th Article Of Admiration The definition and cause of it ADmiration is a sudden surprize of the Soul which causeth in her an inclination to consider with attention the objects which seem rare and extraordinary to her it is caused first by an impression in the brain that represents the object as rare and consequently worthy to be seriously considered after that by the motion of the spirits which are disposed by this impression to tend with might and main towards that place of the brain where it is to fortifie and conserve it there as also they are thereby disposed to passe from thence into the muscles which serve to hold the organs of the senses in the same scituation they are that it may be fomented by them if it bee by them that it was formed The 71 Article That there happens no alteration in the heart nor in the blood in this Passion ANd this Passion hath this peculiar quality it is observed not to be attended by any alteration in the heart and the blood as the other Passions are the reason whereof is that having neither good nor evill for its object but only the knowledge of the thing admired it hath no relation to the heart and blood on which depend all the good of the body but only with the brain where dwell the organs of the senses subservient to this knowledge The 72th Article Wherein consists the power of Admiration THis doth not hinder it from being exceeding powerfull notwithstanding the surprize that is the sudden and unexpected arrivall of the impression that alters the motion of the spirits which surprize is proper and peculiar to this Passion so that it at any time it doe happen to any of the rest as it usually does to all and encreaseth them it is because Admiration is joyned with them and the power of it consists in two things to wit the novelty and for that the motion which it causeth from the very beginning hath its full strength for it is certain such a motive is more operative then those which being eak at first and growing but by little and little may easily be diverted also it is certain that those objects of the senses which are new touch the brain in certain parts where it used not to be touched and that these parts being more tender or less firme then those that frequent agitation hath hardned augments the operation of the motions which they excite there which will not be deemed incredible if it bee considered that is the like reason which causeth the soles of our feet accustomed to a pretty stubborn touch by the weight of the body they bear but very little to feel this touch when we goe whereas another far lighter and softer when they are tickled is almost insupportable to us onely because it is is not usuall The 73th Article What Astonishment is ANd this surprize hath so much power to cause the spirits in the cavities of the brain to bend their course from thence to the place where the impression of the object admired is that it sometimes drives them all thither and finds them such work to conserve this impression that there are none which passe from thence into the muscles nor yet so much as deviate any way from the first tracts they followed into the brain this causes all the body to be unmoveable like a statue and that one can onely perceive the first represented face of the object and consequently not acquire any further knowledge of it it is thus when a man is said to be astonishted for astonishment is an excesse of admiration which can never be but evill The 74th Article For what use the Passions serve and what they are naught for NOw it is easie to gather by what hath formerly been said that the utility of all the Passions consists only in this that they fortifie and conserve in the Soul those thoughts which are good for her and which may else be easily obliterated as also all the discommodity they can cause consists in this that they strengthen and maintain those thoughts more then is necessary or fortifie and conserve others which ought not to be fixed there The 75th Article What is the peculiar use of Admiration ANd it may be said peculiarly of Admiration that it is as beneficiall for causing us to apprehend and keep in memory things whereof we were formerly ignorant for we admire nothing but what seems rare and extraordinary to us and nothing can seem so to us but because wee were ignorant of it or else at least because it differs from those things we knew before for it is this difference that makes it be called extraordinary Now although a thing unknown to us represent it self newly to our understanding or our senses we do not therefore retain it in memery unlesse the Idaea we have of it be fortified in our brain by some Passion or other or at least by application of our understanding which our Wills determines to a peculiar attention and reflexion And the rest of the Passions may serve to make us observe things as they seem either good or evill but we admire onely those which seem rare we see too that those who have no naturall inclination to this Passion are commonly very ignorant The 76th Article Wherein it is hurtfull and how the want of it may be supplyed and the excesse corrected BUt it falls out oftner that a man admires too much and is astonished in perceiving things of little or no consideration then too little and this may either absolutely take away or pervert the use of reason Wherefore although it is good to be born with some kind of inclination to this Passion because it disposeth us to the acquisition of Sciences yet we ought afterwards to endeavour as much as we can to be rid of it For it is easie to supply the want of of it by a peculiar reffection and attention whereunto our Will may alwayes oblige our understanding when we conceive the thing represented is worth the labour But there is no remedy to cure excessive admiration but to acquire the knowledge of most things and to be exercised in the consideration of all such as may seem to be most rare and strange The 77th Article That they are neither the most stupid nor the men of greatest parts who are most addicted to admiration FUrthermore although none unlesse blockheaded and stupid people but are naturally addicted to Admiration I do not say that they who have the most wit are alwayes most inclined to it but chiefly those who although they have a common sense good enough have no great opinion of their sufficiency The 78th Article That the excesse of it may be translated to a habit for want of correction ANd although this Passion seem to decrease by use because the more a man meets with rare things which he admires the more he usually ceases to admire them and thinks those
caten or at least corrupt them and convert them into ill humours The 99th Artick In Joy IN Joy that the pulse is even and quicker than ordinary but not so strong nor so great as in Love and that a man feels a pleasant heat which is not onely in the breast but spreads its self over all the exteriour parts of the body with the blood which is seen to flow abundantly thither and the mean while he sometimes loses his appetite because the digestion is lesse than usuall The 100th Article In Sadnesse IN Sadnesse that the pulse is weak and slow and that a man feels as it were strings about his heart which bind it close and Icycles that freez it and communicate their cold to the rest of the body yet in the mean while he hath sometimes a good appetite and feels his stomack not failing of its duty provided there be no Hatred mingled with the Sadnesse The 101 Article In Desire LAstly I observe this peculiar in Desire that it agitates the heart more violently than any of the other Passions and furnishes the brain with more spirits which passing from thence into the muscles make all the senses quicker and all parts of the body more agile The 102 Article The motion of the blood and spirits In Love THese observations and many more too long to insert gave me occasion to conceive that when the understanding represents to it self any object of Love the impression which this thought makes in the brain conveyes the animal spirits through the nerves of the sixth paire to the muscles about the intestines and the stomack in the manner requisite to make the juice of meats which convert into new blood passe suddenly to the heart without any demurre in the Liver and which being driven thither with greater force than that which is in the rest of the body it gets in thither in more abundance and excites a stronger heat by reason it is thicker than that which already hath been often rarified by passing and repassing through the heart which also causeth it to send spirits to the brain whose parts are grosser and more agitated than ordinary and these spirits fortifying the impression that the first thought of the object beloved stuck there bind the Soul to fix upon the thought and herein consists the Passion of Love The 103 Article In Hatred CContrarywise in Hatred the first thought of the object that breeds aversion so conveyes the spirits in the brain to the muscles of the stomack and intestines that they hinder the juyce of meats from mixing with the blood by contracting up all the passages through which it is used to runne and so conveyes it to the small nerves of the spleen and the lower part of the Liver where the receptacle of choler is that those parts of the blood which use to be cast out to those places get out and runne with that in the branches of the hollow vein to the heart which causeth much inequality in the heat of it seeing the blood that comes from the spleen is not heated nor rarified but with much difficulty and on the other side that which comes from the lower part of the Liver where the gall is inflamed and dilated suddenly by which consequence spirits that go to the brain have parts very unequall and motions very unusuall from whence it comes that they there fortifie the Id'aea of Hatred already imprinted and encline the souls to thoughts full of rancour and bitternesse The 104th Article In Joy IN Joy not onely the nerves of the spleen Liver stomack or intestines act but those in the rest of the body and particularly that about the Orifices of the heart which opening and dilating these Orifices enables the blood which the rest of the nerves have driven from the veins to the heart to get in there and issue forth in greater quantity then ordinary and because the blood which then gets into the heart hath often passed and repassed through it coming from the arteries into the veines it easily dilates and produces spirits whose parts being very equall and subtle are fit to form and fortifie the impressions of the brain which deal lively and quiet thoughts to the Soul The 105th Article In Sadnesse COntrariwise in Sadnesse the Orifices of the heart are hugely straitened by the small nerve that environs them and the blood of the veins is no whit agitated which causeth but very little to go to the heart and in the mean while the passages through which the juyce of meats glides from the stomack and entrailes to the Liver are open wherefore the appetite diminisheth not unlesse Hatred which is an ordinary companion of Sadnesse close them The 106th Article In Desire LAstly the Passion of Desire hath the peculiar property that the Will a man hath to attain any good or avoid any evill sends the Spirits of the brain immediately to all the parts of the body that may serve any wayes to actions requisire to that purpose and particularly to the heart and those parts which supply it with blood most that receiving it in greater abundance than ordinary it sends a great number of spirits to the brain as well to maintain and fortifie the Idaea of this Will as to passe from thence into all the organs of the senses and all the muscles which may be set on work to attaine what one desires The 107th Article What is the cause of these motions in Love ANd I deduce the reason of all this from what hath formerly been said that there is such a tye betwixt our soul and body that when we have joyned any corporall Action with any thought one of them never presents if selfe to us afterwards without the other As may be seen in such who with much aversnesse when they have been sick have taken some drink they can neither eat nor drink afterwards but they have the same aversion nay further they cannot think of their a version to medecines but the very same taste comes into their thought For met thinks the first passions our soul admitted when she was first joyned to our Body came from hence that sometimes the blood or some other juyce which got into the heart was an alimony more convenient than ordinary to maintain heat there which is the principle of life this caused the Soul to joyne in will to this alimony that is to love it and at the same time the spirits trickled from the braine into the muscles which might presse or agitate the parts from whence it came to the heart that they might send more of it thither and these parts were the Stomack and entrailes whose agiration augments the appetite or else the liver and lungs which the muscles of the Diaphragma may presse Wherefore the same motion of the spirits ever since accompanies the passion of Love The 108 Article In Hatred SOmetimes on the contrary some strange juyce came to the heart which was not good to cherish the heat
of it or which else might extinguish it wherefore the spirits which ascended from the heart to the braine excited in the Soul the passion of Hatred And at the same time also these spirits went from the braine to the nerves which might drive the blood from the spleene and the small veines of the liver to the heart to hinder this noxious juyce from getting in and more to those which might repell this juyce to the intrailes and the stomack or else sometimes to make the Stomack disgorge it From whence it comes that the same motions are used to accompany the Passion of Hatred And in the liver one may discern by the eye that there are inthe liver an abundance of veines or pipes indifferent broad through which the juyce of meates may passe from the Port-veine into the hollow-veine and from thence to the heart without stopping any whit at the liver but that there are also an infinite number of lesser ones where it may stop which alwayes contain a reserve of blood as the spleene doth too which blood being thicker then that which is in the other parts of the Body may better serve for nutriment to the fire in the heart when the Stomck and entrailes lack wherewithall to supply them The 109th Article In Joy IT hath also come to passe at the beginning of our life that the blood contained in the veines was an Alimony sufficiently convenient to maintain the heat of the heart and they contained so great an abundance of it that there was no need to exhaust nutriment elsewhere This hath excited in the Soul the Passion of Joy and at the same time hath caused the Orifices of the heart to be more open then ordinary and that the spirits trickling abundantly from the braine not onely into the nerves which serve to open these Orifices but also universally into all the rest which drive the blood of the veines to the heart hinder any from coming a fresh from the the liver splcen intrailes and Stomack Wherefore these very same motions accompany Joy The 110th Article In Sadnesse SOmetimes on the contrary it hath happened that the body hath wanted nutriment and this hath made the Soul feel her first Sadnesse at least that which hath not been joyned with Hatred this very thing hath also caused the Orifices of the heart to be contracted because they received but little blood and that a good quantity of this blood came from the spleen by reason that is as the last reserve which serves to supply the heart when there comes none to it from any where else Wherefore the same motions of the spirits and nerves which so serve to contract the Orifices of the heart and to convey the blood thither from the the spleen alwayes a company Sadnesse The 111th Article In Disire LAstly all the originall Desires which the Soul might have when it was newly joyned to the body were to admit things convenient for her and repell hurtfull and it was for the same purpose that from that instant the spirits began to move all the muscles and all the organs of the senses in all manners that they could move Which is the reason that now when the Soul desires any thing the whole body becomes more active and disposed to move than usually wichout it and then it fals out on the other side that the Body is so disposed then are the Desires of the Soul more strong and vehement The 112 Article What are the exteriour signes of these Passions WHat I have laid down here makes the differences of the pulse and all the other properties which I have here before attributed to these passions be fufficiently understood so that I need not stand any further to explaine them But because I have onely observed in each what may be remarkable onely when it is single and what shewes to know the motions of the blood and spirits that produce them it yet remaines that I should treat on divers exteriour signes which usually accompany them and which may be better noted when many of them are mixed together as ordinarily they are than when they are distinct The chief of these signes are the gestures of the eyes and face changes of colour tremblings languishing swouning laughter tears groanes and sighes The 113th Article Of the gestures of the eyes and face THere is no Passion but some particular gesture of the eyes declare it and it is so palpable in some that even the stupidst serving-men by the eye of their master observe whether he be angry with them or not But though a man may easily perceive these gestures of the eyes and know what they signifie yet it is not an easie matter to describe them because every one of them is composed of severall alterations which happen in the motion and figure of the eye which are so peculiar and so small that each of them cannot be discerned distinctly though the result of their conjunction be easily marked The same thing almost may be said of the gestures of the face which thus accompany the Passions for though they be greater then those of the eyes yet it is difficult to distinguish them they so little differ that there are men almost of the same aspect when they weep as others when they laugh It is true there are some very remarkable as the wrinkling of the forehead in wrath and certain motions of the nose and lips in indignation and derision but they seem rather to be voluntary then naturall And generally all the gestures as well of the face as eyes may be altered by the Soul when being willing to conceal her Passion she strongly imagines one contrary to it so that they may serve as well counterfeit as declare Passions The 114th Article Of changing Colour A Man cannot so easily refrain from blushing or looking pale when any Passion disposseth him thereunto because these changings depend not on the nerves and muscles as the former and because they come more immediately from the heart which may be called the source of the Passions seeing it prepares the blood and spirits to produce them Now it is certain that the colour of the face comes from nought but the blood which flowing continually from the heart through the arteries into all the veines and from all the veines into the heart colours the face more or lesse according as it more or lesse fills the little veines towards the superficies thereof The 115th Article How Joy causes blushing SO Joy renders the colour livelyer and more Vermillion because by opening the sluces of the heart it makes the blood flow quicker in all the veines and becomming hotter and more subtile it moderately raiseth up all parts of the face which makes the aspect of it more smiling and brisk The 116th Article How Sadnesse makes one look pale ON the contrary Sadness by contracting the Orifices of the heart makes the blood flow more slowly into the veins and that becomming colder and thicker hath not
Fear which causing the Soul to waver between severall actions that she may doe is the cause she cannot execute any and thereby she hath time to choose before she determines on them Whereof truly some good use may be made but when it lasts longer than it ought and it takes up that time to debate which is required to act it is very evill Now I say it is a sort of Feare though it may so fall out when a man hath choyce of many things whose goodnesse is equally apparent that he may bee at a stand and irresolute and yet not be afraid For this sort of Irresolution comes onely from the subject presented and not from any emotion of the spirits Wherefore it is not a Passion unlesse the sear of failing in his choyce encrease the uncertainty But this fear is so usuall and so strong in some that oftentimes although they have not any choyce and though they see only one thing to take or leave yet it seizes on them and causeth them unprofitably to stop there and search after others and then it is an excesse of Irresolution which proceeds from too great a Desire to doe well and an imbecillity in the understanding which having no clear and distinct notions hath only a great company of confused ones Wherefore the remedy against this excesse is to accustome a mans selfe to frame certaine and determinate Judgements concerning all things that present themselves and conceive he doth alwayes doe his duty when he doth what he conceives to be best though it may be he conceive amisse The 171 Article Of Courage and Boldnesse COurage when it is a Passion and not a habit or naturall inclination is a certain heat or agitation which disposeth the Soul to addict her powerfully to the execution of the things she will doe of what nature soever they be and Boldnesse is a sort of Courage that disposeth the Soul to the execution of things most dangerous The 172 Article Of Emulation AND Emulation also is a sort of it but in another sense for Courage may be considered as a kind or Genus that is divided into as many sorts or Species as there are severall objects and as many more as it hath causes In the first sence Boldnesse is a sort in the other Emulation and this last is nothing else but a heat which disposeth the Soul to undertake things that she hopes may succeed with her because shee sees them succeed with others and so it is a sort of Courage whose externall cause is example I say the externall cause because it ought ever besides that to have an internall one which consists in this that the body is so disposed as Desire and Hope are stronger to drive abundance of blood to the heart than Fear or Despaire to hinder it The 173 Article How Boldnesse depends on Hope FOr it is to be noted that although the object of Boldnesse be difficulty from whence commonly ensues Fear or even Despaire so that it is in most dangerous and desperate affairs that most Boldnesse and Courage is required neverthelesse there must be some Hope or else a man must be assured that the end he propounds to himselfe shall succeed to oppose himselfe vigorously against the difficulties he shall encounter But this end is different from this object For he can not be assured and despairing of the same thing at the same time So when the Decij flung themselves in the midst of their enemies and ran upon a certain death the object of their Boldnesse was the difficulty of keeping their lives in this action of which difficulty they utterly despaired for they were sure to die but their end was to animate their souldiers by their example and make them winne the victory of which they had Hope or else their end was to get Fame after their death whereof they were assured The 174 Article Of Cowardice and fearfulnesse COwardice is directly opposite to Courage and is a Ianguishing or coldnesse which hinders the Soul from addicting her selfe to the execution of things which she would doe if she were exempted from this Passion And fearefulnesse or affright the contrary to Boldnesse is not onely a coldnesse but a distraction and astonishment of the Soul that robs her of the power to resist evils which she thinks are neer her The 175 Article Of the use of Cowardice NOw although I cannot be perswaded that nature hath bestowed on man any Passion that is alwayes vicious and hath not some good and laudable use yet I am very much puzzeled to divine what these two are good for Only me thinkes Cowardice is of some use when it causeth a man to be free from paines he might be incited to take for reasons like truths if other more certain truths which make them be judged unprofitable had not invited this Passion in him For besides her exemption of the Soul from these paines it is then also very usefull to the Body for that retarding the motion of the spirits it hinders the forces thereof from being dissipated But is commonly very hurtfull because it diverts the Will from profitable Actions And because it proceeds from hence that a man hath not Hope or Desire enough to correct it he need onely augment these two Passions in himselfe The 176 Article Of the use of Fearfulnesse AS for Fearfulnesse or affright I see not how it can ever be laudable or usefull Neither is it one particular Passion but onely an excesse of Cowardice astonishment and Fear which is alsayes vicious as Boldnesse is an excesse of Courage ever good provided the end proposed be good And because the chiefe cause of Fearfulnesse is surprize there is no better way to be rid of it than to use premeditation and prepare ones selfe against all events the fear whereof may cause them The 177 Article Of Remorse REmorse of conscience is a sort of Sadnesse which comes from the scruple a man hath that a thing he hath done or hath not done is not good And it necessarily presupposes doubt For if he had been absolutely assured that what he did had been evill he had refrained from doing it since the Will enclines us not to any things but such as have an appearance of goodnesse And if he were assured that what he hath already done were evill it would breed repentance and not only Remorse Now the use of this Passion is to make him examine whether the thing he doubts of be good or no and to hinder him from doing it another time if he be not assured that it is good But because it presupposeth an evill the best way were never to be subject to feel it and it may be prevented the same way as a man may be exempted of Irresolution The 178 Article Of Derision DErision is a sort of Joy mingled with Hatred which proceeds from this that a man perceives some little evill in a person whereof he thinks him worthy He hates this evil and rejoyces to see
alone hath more heat and motion than any of our limbs we may be assured that heat and all the motions within us seeing they depend not on the mind belong onely to the body The fifth Article That it is an errour to believe the Soul gives motion and heat to the body WHereby we shall eschew a very considerable error which many have faln into so farre that I believe it the cause of hindering the Passions and other things which belong to the soul from being explained hitherto It is this that seeing all dead bodies are deprived of heat and consequently of motion people imagine the absence of the soul wrought this cessation of motion and heat and so erroniously conceive that our naturall heat and all the motions of our body depend on the soul whereas indeed the contrary should be supposed that the soul absents it self in death only because this naturall heat ceaseth and the organs which seem to move the body are corrupted The sixth Article What is the difference betwixt a living and a dead dody THat we may then avoid this errour Let us consider that death never comes by any defect of the soul but onely because some one of the principall parts of the body is corrupted and conceive that the body of a living man differs as much from that of a dead one as a watch or any other AUTOMA that is any kind of Machine that moves of it self wound up having in it self the corporeall principle of those motions for which it was instituted with all things requisite for its action and the same watch or other engine when it is broken and the principle of its motion ceases to act The seventh Article A brief explication of the parts of the body and of some of its functions TO make this more intelligible I will in few words display the pieces and lineaments whereof this Machine our body is composed There is none that doth not already know there is within us a heart a braine a stomach muscles sinews arteries veins and the like it is as commonly known that meats eaten descend into the stomack and bowells from whence the juice of them trickling into the liver and all the veines mixes it self with the blood in them and by this means augments the quantity thereof Those who have heard talk never so little of Physick know besides this how the Heart is composed and how all the blood of the veines may with facility drop into the hollow vein on the right side of it and from thence passe into the Liver by a vessell called the venous arterie then return from the liver into the left side of the heart through the Pipe called the arterious vein and at length passe from thence into the great arterie the branches whereof spread themselves all over the body Yea even all those whom the authority of the Ancients hath not totally blinded and who have vouchsafed to open their eyes to examine the opinion of Harvy concerning the circulation of the blood make no doubt but all the veins and arteries of the body are like channells through which the blood continually and easily glides taking its course from the right cavity of the heart through the arterious veine whereof the branches are dispersed into every part of the Liver and joyned to those of the venous arterie by which it passeth from the Liver into the left fide of the heart from thence going into the great arterie the branches whereof being scattered over all the rest of the body are joyned to the branches of the hollow vein which cary the same blood again into the right cavity of the heart so that the two cavities are as it were the sluces of it through each of which all the blood passes every round it walks about the body Moreover it is notorious that all the motions of the members depend upon the muscles and that these Muscles are opposite to one another in such a manner that when one of them shrinks up it drawes after it that part of the body whereto it is knit which causes the muscle opposite to it to stretch forth at the same time then again if at another time this last shrink up the first gives way suffering the other to attract that part it is joyned unto In fine it is knowne that all these motions of the muscles as also all the senses depend on the sinews which are as little strings or like small tonnells coming all from the braine and containing as that does a certain aire or exceeding subtle wind which is tearmed the Animall spirits The eighth Article What is the principle of all these functions BUt it is not commonly known in what manner these animall Spirits and nerves contribute to these motions and senses nor what is the corporeall principle that makes them act wherefore although I have already glanced upon it in former writings I will not here omit to say succinctly that while we live there is a continuall heat in our heart which is a kind of fire that the blood of the veines feeds and this fire is the corporeall principle of tall the motions of our members The ninth Article How the motion of the heart is wrought THe f irst effect of it is that it dilates the blood wherewith the cavities of the heart are fill'd which is the reason that this blood having need of a larger room passes impetuously from the right cavity into the arterious vein and from the left into the great arterie then this dilatation ceasing immediately new blood from the hollow vein enters into the right cavity of the heart and from the veinous arterie into the left for there are little skins at the entrance of these foure vessells so contrived that they will not let the blood get into the heart but by the two last nor come out but by the other two The new blood being gotten into the heart is there immediately rarified as the former was Hence onely is that pulse or palpitation of the heart and arteries for this beating is reiterated as often as any new blood gets into the heart It is also this alone which gives motion to the blood and causeth it uncessantly to run very swiftly in all the arteries and veines by means whereof it conveyes the heart acquired in the heart to all the other parts of the body and is their nutriment The tenth Article How the animall spirits are begotten in the braine BUt what here is most considerable is that all the most lively and subtle parts of the blood that heat hath rarified in the heart continually enter in abundandance into the cavities of the braine and the reason why they go thither rather than any where else is because all the blood that issues out of the heart by the great artery bends its course in a direct line thither ward and it not being possible for all to get in because there are none but very narrow passages those parts thereof that are the most
I also adde it is of that good which the impressions of the brain represent to her as her own that I may not confound this Joy which is a Passion with that Joy purely intellectuall which comes into the Soul by the sole action of the Soul and which may be called a pleasing emotion in her excited by her selfe wherein consists her enjoyment of good which her understanding represents to her as her own it is true while the Soul is joyned to the body this intellectuall Joy can hardly be rid of the company of that which is a Passion for as soon as ever our understanding perceives that we possesse any good although this good may be so farre different from all that belongs to the body that it be not imaginable yet will not the Imagination forbear to make immediatly some impression in the brain whereupon ensue the motion of the spirits which excite the Passion of Joy The 92 Article The Definition of Sadnesse SAdnesse is a displeasant languishing wherein consists the discommodity the Soul receives from evill or defect which the impressions of the brain represent unto her as belonging to her and there is also an intellectuall Sadnesse which is not the Passion but which wants but little of being accompanied by it The 93 Article What are the causes of these two Passions NOW when the intellectuall Joy or Sadnesse so excites that which is a Passion their cause is evident enough and one may see by their defintions that Joy comes from the opinion a man hath that he possesses some good and Sadnesse from the opinion of some evill or defect but it oft falls out that a man is Sad or joyfull and yet he cannot distinctly observe the good or evill which are the causes of it to wit when this good or this evill make their impressions in the brain without the intercourse of the Soul sometimes because they belong only to the body and sometimes too although they belong to the Soul because shee considers them not as good or evill but under some other notion the impression whereof is joyned in the brain with that of good and evill The 94th Article How the Passions are excited by Goods and evills which only respect the budy and wherein consists tick ling and pain SO when a man is in sound health and the weather is fairer then ordinary hee feels a lightsomnesse in himselfe which proceeds not from any function of the understanding but only from the impressions which the motion of the spirits makes in the brains and he feels himselfe sad likewise when his body is indisposed although he know not that it is Thus the tickling of the senses is so closely followed by Joy and pain by sadness that most men cannot distinguish them yet they differ so farre that a man may somtimes suffer pains with Joy and receive ticklings that displease but the cause why Joy commonly follows tickling is because all that is called tickling or a pleasing touch consists in this that the objects of the senses excite some morions in the nerves which would be apt to hurt them if they had not strength enough to resist it or the body were not well disposed which makes an impression in the brain which being instituted by nature to signifie this good disposition and this strength represents it to the Soul as a good belonging to her seeing she is united to the Body and so excites Joy in her the cause is almost the same why a man naturally takes delight to feel himself moved to all sorts of Passions yea even Sadness \ and Hatred when these Passions are caused only by strange adventures which he sees personated on a stage or by such like occasions which not being capable to trouble us any way seem to tickle the Soul by touching it And the reason why pain usually produces Sadness is because that feeling which is called pain proceeds alwayes from some action so violent that it offends the nerves so that being instituted by nature to signifie to the Soul the dammage the body receives by this action and its weaknesse-in not being able to resist it it represents each of them to him as evils alwayes displeasing unlesse then when they cause some good things which she esteems of more than them The 95th Article How they may also be excited by goods andevils which the Soul observes not though they belong to her as the delight a man takes to run into a danger or remember an evil past SO the delight which oft-times young men take to undertake difficult things and expose themselves to great perills though they do not so much as look for any profit or honour thereby comes from hence the conceit they have that they undertake a difficult thing makes an impression in the brain which being joyned to that which they may make if they thought it a good thing to be couragious fortunate active or strong enough to dare to hazzard so farre is the reason that they take delight in it and the content which old men take when they remember the miseries they suffered proceeds from hence they imagine to themselves it is a good thing that they could subsist in spight of them The 96th Article What are the motions of the blood and spirits that cause the five preceding Passions THe five Passions which I have here begun to explain are so joyned or opposed to one another that it is easier to consider them all together then to treat distinctly of each as I handled Admiration and their cause is not like that in the braine onely but also in the Heart Spleen Liver and all other parts of the body in as much as they serve to the production of the blood and afterwards of the Spirits For although all the veins convey the blood they contain into the heart yet it sometimes falls out that the blood of some of them is driven with a stronger force than the rest and it happens also that the overtures through which it enters into he heart or those through which it goes out are more dilated or contracted one time than another The 97th Article The principall experiments conducing to the knowledge of these motions in Love NOW considering the sundry alterations that experience lets us see in our bodies while our Soul is agitated with divers Passions I observe in Love when it is alone that is when it is not accompanied with any extream Ioy desire or Sadnes that the beating of the pulse is even much greater and stronger than ordinary that a man feels a gentle heart in his breast and quick digestion ofmeat so that this Passion is profitable for the health The 98 Article In Hatred ON the contrary I observe in Hatred that the pulse is uneven weaker and oftentimes faster that a man feels colds intermingled with I know not what sharp and pricking heat in the breast that the stomack ceases to do its office is enclined to vomit and reject the meats he hath
they contain to break out impetuously through the gullet where it formes an inarticulate and clattering sound and as well the lungs by their blowing and this aire by breaking forth shove all the muscles of the Diaphragma breast and throat by which means they cause those of the face which have some connexion with them to move and it is only this gesture of the face with this inarticulate and clattering voyce that is called Laughter The 125th Article Wherefore it doth not accompany the greatest joyes NOw though laughter may seem to be one of the chiefe signes of Joy yet this cannot cause that but only when that is mean and that there be some little Admiration or Hatred mixed with it for it is found by experience that when a man is extraordinary Joyfull the occasion of this Joy never makes him break out into Laughter and besides he can never be so easily invited to it as when hee is Sad the reason whereof is that in the greatest Joyes the lungs are continually so full of blood that they cannot be blown up any more by fits The 126th Article What are the chiefe causes of it ANd I can mark but two causes which blow up the lungs thus suddenly the first is a surprizal of Admiration which being joyned to Joy may so quickly open the Orifices of the heart that a great abundance of blood getting in all together at the right side of it through the hollow veine is rarified there and passing from thence through the arterious veine blows up the lungs the other is the mixture of some liquour that augments the rarefaction of the blood and I find none fit for that purpose but the wheyest part of that which comes from the Spleen which part of the blood being driven to the heart by some light emotion of Hatred assisted by a surprize of Admiration and mixing there with the blood which comes from the other parts of the body which Joy causes to enter in thither abundantly may cause this blood to dilate much more then usual as we see many hquours swell up over the fire if one fling but a little vinegar into the vessel where they are for the wheyest part of the blood which comes from the spleene is of a nature like vinegar Experience also shews us that in all rencounters producing this lowd Laughter which-comes from the lungs there is still some little occasion of Hatred or at least of Admiration and those whose spleens are not sound are subject not only to be more sad but by intervalls more merry and disposed to laughter then others forasmuch as the spleene sends two sorts of blood to the heart one thick and grosse which causeth Sadnesse the other exceeding fluid and subtile which causeth Joy And oft-times after much Laughter a man feeles himselfe naturally enclined to sadnesse because the most fluid part of the blood of the spleene being exhausted the grosser followes it to the heart The 127th Article What is the cause thereof in Indignation FOr that kinde of Laughter which sometimes accompanies Indignation it is usually artificiall and seigned But when it is naturall it seemes to come from the Joy a man hath to see he cannot be hurt by the evil whereat he is offended and withall that he finds himselfe surprized by the novelty or the unexpected encounter of this evil So that Joy Hatred and Admiration contribute to it Yet I will suppose that it may be produced without any Joy by the meer motion of Adversion which sends the blood from the spleen to the heart where it is rarified and thrust from thence into the lungs which it easily blowes up when it findes them empty And generally whatsoever suddenly blowes up the lungs in this manner causeth the exteriour Action of Laughter except when Sadnesse alters it into groanes and shrickes that accompany tears Vives 3 de Anima cap de Risu Writes of himselfe which is very pertinent to this that when he had been a long time fasting the first bits he put in his mouth made him laugh which might come from hence his lungs empty of blood for want of nutriment was suddenly blowne up by the first juyce that passed from his Stomack to his heart or else the meer imagination of eating might convey it thither even before that of the meat might get thither The 128. Article Of the Originall of Teares AS Laughter is never caused by the greatest Joyes so Tears proceed not from an extream Sadnesse but an indifferent one and that accompanied with or followed by some resentment of Love or also of joy And to understand their originall well it must be noted that although abundance of vapours continually issue forth from all parts of our Body yet there is none from whence there come so much as from the eyes by reason of the greatnesse of the optick neerves and the multitude of little arteries through which they come and that as sweat is made of the vapours which issuing our of the other parts convert into water on the superficies of them so teares are made of vapours issuing from the eyes The 129. Article Of the manner how vapours turn into water NOw as I have written in the Meteors explaining after what manner the vapours of the aire convert into rain that is proceeds from their being lesse agitated or more abundant than ordinary so I beleeve that when those that issue from the Body are farre lesse agitated then usually although they are not so abundant yet they may convert to water which causeth the cold sweats that sometimes proceed of weaknesse when a man is sick And I beleeve that when they are more abundant provided they be not withall more agitated they also convert into water this causeth sweat when one useth exercise But then the eyes sweat not because while the Body is exerecised the greatest parts of the spirits going into the muscles which serve to move it there go lesse through the optick nerve to the eyes And it is but the same matter which compounds the blood in the veins or arteries and the spirits when it is in the brain nerves or muscles and vapours when it issues out in the likenesse of aire And lastly sweat tears when it thickens into water on the superficies of the Body or the eyes The 130. Article How that which hurts the eye excites it to weep ANd I can see but two causes that make the vapours issuing from the eyes to change into teares The first is when the figure of the pores through which they passe is changed by any accident whatsoever for that retarding the motion of these vapours and altering their order may cause them to convert into water So there needs only a straw in the eye to draw out some teares by reason that exciting paine in it it altars the disposition of the pores so that some becoming more narrow the small parts of the vapours passe lesse quickly through it and whereas formerly they issued out