say that the inclination easily to condemn others proceeds from rudeness and a want of natural sweetness which is not to be found in minds that have an entire and perfect beauty because it is a great ugliness as on the contrary it is a great part of the beauty of the mind to have sweet and gentle thoughts to be ready to excuse the faults of others and not to contemn any one Or else as we see often that petty Lords are less accostable than the great ones and maintain a gravity fuller of pride because their authority being not so well founded as that of these later they think they must thus uphold it by surly and arrogant looks and by a brutish impudence Is it not just so in the meaner wits and do they not use this severity to condemn others for to separate themselves thereby from the common and labour to maintain the authority they usurp and which they perceive hath not footing and basis enough to uphold it self Or else as subordinate Judges are very often more severe and rigorous in their judgements then the Soveraigns because it is not in their power to remit any thing of the severity of the Law the meaner wits are they not more hard many times to excuse a thing that is against the ordinary rules because it is for great minds only to grant a dispensation from those rules upon certain occasions and because those that have meaner abilities ought not to be bold therein nor are they for fear lest whiles they desire to excuse others they be blamed themselves Or else is it that meaner spirits are not willing to confess in others a moderate worth because it is troublesom to have many companions but that when a man doth excell in some kind of thing he is glad that many others do but meanly in it because it is glorious and delightful to have a great many inferiours Or is it not lastly because great spirits love the truth more and have more of ingenuity and of good breeding to acknowledge the perfection that is in another and to publish it with all sincerity but the meaner sort are not alwayes capable of so pure and clean a candour and do many times dissemble their judgements upon some design It is certain indeed that many petty passions which they cannot rid themselves of are capable to alter their good nature and hinder them from confessing with sufficient magnanimity anothers worth For sometimes they will not confess it out of an appetite of revenge which some slight words hath raised in them sometime they refuse to do it out of some motion of emulation and envy sometimes it is not properly out of envy that they are loth to own a merit far above their own but because so high a perfection doth more plainly discover to them their own littleness and by this means makes them sad Or else it may be if they have once begun to blame a thing they will not unsay it out of obstinacy and lest they acknowledge they were deceived Or else they will not confess that another hath any worth out of fear lest somebody should thence inferr by a long consequence that they themselves have none Or if they have no interest to obscure anothers glory there will be some friend of theirs or else some one that is of the same City or of the same Countrey or of the same Party that they are whom this interest will concern and they will not preferr before him one that is indifferent or a stranger or of a contrary Party In a word there are besides many other causes more slight and more nice which change the candour of their words and make them deny either in whole or in part the perfection of another but great minds are free from these weaknesses and undefiled with this filth because they are less interessed and therefore worth finds more equity at their hands and is more easily owned PROB. 34. Whence comes it that it is so easie to blame and find fault that the least able do it best and that it is much more hard to commend IS it not because there is much more ill than good in humane things and that those which are the most perfect are yet very imperfect if a man examine them strictly and with a desire to find fault But this being supposed that the most perfect things in this world have very great defects Whence comes it that the meanest wits do take notice of them much more easily then they do the perfections Is it not because being ill-sighted they see only that which exceeds and is very great in the subjects they examine and that as we said the evil doth alwayes exceed Or else doth not the imperfection of the objects more lively affect the mind than their perfection for the same reason that that which hurts our bodies is much more lively felt then that which delights them Or else is it that to acknowledge worth and to commend it one must first know wherein the perfection and truth of things consists but that to know and to prove that another man is not arrived at it one needs only know wherein they do not consist Indeed this reason seems to be most true and to be able sufficiently to clear the difficulty of this Problem For it is so easie to say wherein things do not consist that after this manner we know the nature of God himself since that being ignorant what he is we do nevertheless know him by negation and we know that he is not any thing material any thing visible any thing mortal and that he is incapeable of change and of the least defect so that without being able to describe his greatness we can easily blame and reprove those that speak too lowly of him After the same manner it is very easie to tell where the Center of a circle is not and the least child can point out with his finger many places which are not the middle of it but to know where it is there is need of skill time and instruments But if we must still search out another reason for the same effect consists it not in this that as one that swims is carryed by the very same water which he strikes which he thrusts from him and which he troubles so he that reproves and combates any one and doth all he can to decry him is born up by his inventions because that he affirms nothing of himself and doth only maintain that what he whom he censures sayes being supposed such and such things do follow So that by this means he discourses oftentimes successfully of many things which he understands not nor sees the grounds of Truly it seems to be so For for instance though I know not what a Half-moon a Counterscarpe or a Bastion is it is clear notwithstanding that when he that discourses of them before me shall come to contradict himself either directly or indirectly I may in using these terms
of him that hath no cause to be afraid of us and hath our necks under his foot is sometimes sooner appeased by bravadoes and boldness then by humility and entreaties 9 PROB. 4. Whence comes it that Fears are a comfort to sadness and how they are formed 13 PROB. 5. What is the reason there are Tears of Joy 16 PROB. 6. Whence comes it that many very wicked men are often times the best friends 20 PROB. 7. What is the reason that the Wind which comes in at a window or a little hole is more dangerous than that which we feel abroad in the open field 25 PROB. 8. Whence comes it that Evil is more active then good 28 PROB. 9. What is the reason that Water-drinkers are greater lovers of fruit than others 31 PROB. 10. What is the reason that there is no such enmity as that which succeeds amity 33 PROB. 11. Why hath extream affliction no Tears 36 PROB. 12. What is the reason that some things are gotten best by neglecting them 41 PROB. 13. What is the reason that those things which we are accustomed to are not prejudicial to our health 44 PROB. 14. Whence comes it that as it is the saying of some body a great service is not so proper to gain our affections as many petty services done in a continued series and on all occasions 49 PROB. 15. What is the reason that a great Joy makes us facile to pardon injuries 53 PROB. 16. What is the reason there is so much false news spread abroad and that many delight to make others believe strange things 60 PROB. 17. What is the reason that having been long on horse-back a man doth better refresh himself by walking a little on foot then by sitting still 63 PROB. 18. What is the reason that when we come to rest our selves after much walking we find our selves more weary a while after 64 PROB. 19. Why is it good not to let a wicked man that hath power to do what mischief he please perceive that we are jealous of him 66 PROB. 20. Whence comes it that Beasts do know naturally how to swim and that Man hath need to learn 74 PROB. 21. What is the reason that the fruits that grow at the tops of the boughs are the best 79 PROB. 22. Why do good men think they ought to speak in proper terms of other Passions and Vices but not of things that regard Wantonness and Corporal love 81 PROB. 23. Whence comes it that they say whatsoever cures us and is good for us dislikes us and that on the contrary we love that which hurts us 90 PROB. 24. What is the reason that children in winter though their face and hands seem to shew that they are more afflicted with cold then men grown yet are not easily perswaded to warm themselves 95 PROB. 25. Whence comes it that when we are in affliction we are better diverted by the representation of some Tragick History or by the recital of some great misfortune then by more merry shews or facetious tales 97 PROB. 26. Why do some noises make a man sleep 100 PROB. 27. What is the reason we aggravate our miseries and love to perswade others that we are very unfortunate 105 PROB. 28. Why do many men laugh to see another man fall 113 PROB. 29. What is the reason that they which embrace civil and worldly affairs with too violent an ardor are subject to lose all sense of Religion and the knowledge of a Deitie 115 PROB. 30. What is the reason that the lowest Spirits are commonly most perswaded of the truth of their opinions 120 PROB. 31. Whence is it that in the greatest subjects of affliction we do many times take up more readily a constant resolution then in others that are much lighter 122 PROB. 32. Wherefore are old men great talkers 123 PROB. 33. Whence comes it that in all kind of things those that do but meanly in them are most commonly more severe and rigid Judges of others then those that excell therein and hold the first rank 127 PROB. 34. Whence comes it that it is so easie to blame and finde fault that the least able do it best and that it is much more hard to commend 132 PROB. 35. What is the reason that when the Winter hath been very cold they commonly say the Summer that follows will be very hot 136 PROB. 36. What is the reason that Fear makes ones hair stand on end 138 PROB. 37. Whence comes it that many being in a Frenzy have spoken Latin or Greek witâ—â—â—t having ever learned either of these Languages 141 PROB. 38. What is the reason that a too earnest entreaty makes us unwilling instead of inciting us to grant that which is desired of us 146 PROB. 39. What are the causes of the marvellous things which we observe in the Silk-worm 151 PROB. 40. Why are good men oftentimes subject to a light promptitude of Choler 161 PROB. 41. Whence comes it that they say the love of Grandfathers to their Grand-children is greater then that of their Fathers 165 PROB. 42. Why is it that a rare and eminent vertue which shines in a Prince raises greater motions of love in the lower sort of people then in other men 168 PROB. 43. What is the reason that Shame makes a redness arise in the face 177 PROB. 44. What is the reason that when we blush it appears especially in the forehead 185 PROB. 45. What is the reason that Praises make a man blush 187 PROB. 46. What is the reason a man laughs more at a pleasant jest or a merry tale when he himself that tells it doth not laugh 190 PROB. 47. Why do we laugh in seeing a thing very ill-favoured since that which delights the mind one would think ought to have in it some perfection 193 PROB. 48. What is the reason that Man being inclined to flatter himself doth nevertheless aggravate his own imperfection above the truth as for example in saying there is nothing but folly and injustice and ingratitude in the world 198 PROB. 49. What is the reason that according to the common saying of the Poets and of Aristotle himself in the second book of his Politicks Valiant and couragious persons are most subject to love 208 PROB. 50. Whence comes that aversion to marriage of persons too near 212 PROB. 51. Whence proceed the excessive Heats of the moneth of August and the other effects which are attributed to the Dog-star 221 The End PROB. 1. What 's the reason that the address and subtilty of wit which appears in the execution of an evil action makes us think it sometimes more ugly and sometimes less THis Question having two parts doth not the reason of the first consist in this that he which is ingenious and imployes â—his wit to do ill seems to be more â—ngratefull towards God in abusing the gifts which he hath received of him Or else is it that he which hath cunningly carried on a very malitious
greatness of it makes us weep even in the midst of our joy through a kind of pitty we have of our selves Or else shall I take it thus that in the sudden motions of a great joy the dilatation of the spirits of the heart is so great that it is weakned thereby and that our soul finding its own weakness by this means is apt to be wounded by every reflexion that hath never so little of trouble in it Or lastly do not these tears of joy proceed from hence that learning all on a sudden that we are delivered from some great evil under which we have lain a long time the news cannot presently gain an entire belief in us and that as a body that is frozen doth not lose its coldness at that very instant it is brought to the fire by the same reason our soul cannot lose that impression of its passed sadness at the very same instant that the good it was deprived of becomes present to it See then the causes which it seems may be given of that marvellous state of man wherein he weeps although he have a serene spirit by an accident which we see sometimes happen in the air when it rains and shines both at once There are are also Tears which abundant laughter brings into our eyes but they are not of the same species with those I spake of but now and I conceive they proceed only from that great and violent agitation which laughter causes within us for there is no passion which shakes a man all over with greater violence and it may very well be that a motion so violent forces out of the eyes some humidity as we see that the violent agitation of a vessel wherein there is some liquor makes some drops of it sparkle out and as the wind that shakes the trees after a rain makes those drops which lay there fall to the ground PROB. 6. Whence comes it that many very wicked men are oftentimes the best friends IT is found by experience that very bad men are often most zealous friends to them that they bear an affection to nay sometimes more then the best of men To enquire then the causes of this effect is it not that there is a kind of amity which is not begotten by reason but by a means more low namely long acquaintance and familiarity so that souls of the lowest rank and that have the least of reason are not incapable of it but on the contrary are in some sort more capable than others because not governing themselves by judgement they do only follow the impressions of other things amongst which that which length of time and use makes is none of the least Or else is it not because good men are friends only ad aras that is as far as will stand with Religion and wicked men beyond So that if they must only prostitute their consciences to their friends and tread underfoot all things sacred and despoile themselves of the fairest ornaments the soul can be adorned with they do it very willingly Or else is it not that as dogs are faithful to us and succour us against those that set upon us partly indeed out of love but partly also because it is their disposition to be easily provoked so wicked men help us with great ardour against our enemies and combat them with great animosity not only for the affection they bear us but partly also for that by reason of their natural curstness and venome of which they are full they are more apt to be inflamed with a violent choler Or else is it because it is very natural for us to love with violence something without us wicked men that love neither God nor Justice nor common goodness are constrained by the force of nature to love infinitely some particular persons Or else is it that cultivating only that part of their duty which consists only in friendship and keeping that only as a remainder of the beauty of the soul which hinders them from altogether resembling savage beasts they have the more love for that as a mother hath the more love for her son if he be her only one Or lastly is it not that the nature of things is such that generally in every extream there is some light mixture of the contrary extream For instance we see by experience that in cold Countries there are sometimes in summer more violent heats then those of the hot Countries and on the contrary the subtilty of the air of the hot Countries is the reason that sometimes the cold there is more penetrating than that of the cold Countries The Germans that pass for the least subtle people of Europe have more of subtilty than any of the rest in all sort of mechanick inventions The most ingenious people are commonly the most awkward and unapt in some slight things Melancholy persons are subject to more violent joyes then those that are sanguine covetous people according to the vulgar opinion are sometimes carried out to a greater excess of prodigality then prodigals Men extraordinary valiant do often tremble more then others at the sight of a great danger Women whose visage is more properly then that of men the seat of Beauty are also more susceptible then men of an extream and horrid ugliness Lastly to return to the mixture of goodness and wickedness one of the cruellest Emperours of Rome could not as the Historian saith be present at the acting of a Tragedy but those faigned miseries which he there heard raised a compassion in him which made him weep We read as much of another Tyrant of Greece of the same nature and when a man is arrived at the highest degree of wickedness the last crime he commits is to be his own murderer and voluntarily to throw himself into everlasting pains by the violence of the remorse of his conscience In which there seems to be a certain air and shaddow of magnanimity and heroick goodness PROB. 7. What is the reason that the Wind which comes in at a window or a little hole is more dangerous than that which we feel abroad in the open field UPon this Problem some may possibly think that as the water meeting with a very narrow channel becomes more rapid so the wind that comes in at a door or a window or a small chink for the same reason redoubles its violence Which is very true but nothing to the purpose for the clearing the difficulty of this Question because it is certain that a very little wind gliding in at a cranny is more apt to hurt one then another wind much more violent when one is in the open field This cause then being thus rejected is it not rather because the wind which we suffer in the open field doth presently close the pores through its coldness and so arms us against it self whereas the wind that comes into the house by some little hole finds us hot all the time and consequently doth as long as it continues blowing
insensibly that we perceive it not and so make no resistance Or else as we love more those meats which having delighted the palate do not lie heavy upon our stomacks do we not in some sort love more for the same reason the services that do us good and yet leave no weight of necessary and forced obligation upon our spirits as questionless petty services often reiterated do because that on one side their number supplies their weakness and makes them countervaile a great benefit all at once and that on the other side they are of such a nature that he which did them cannot handsomely reproach them to us Whence it comes that the acknowledgement we preserve of them in our minds seems to us to be the more voluntary Or else that which we search for proceeds it not hence that he which doth us a great good turn is believed by us to do it out of vanity to gain the reputation of generousness or bounty because a great service makes a noise and is exposed to view but that we cannot suspect the same of him who is assiduous to render us a thousand petty devoires which appear not to the eyes of others and are perceived only by our selves Or else shall we say that one may do us a great service in our absence but that this train of petty services presuppoâ—â—â— that he that would make himself be beloved is not absent from him by whom he desires to be beloved but that on the contrary he converses ordinarily with him and that this familiarity is that which aids him principally to insinuate himself into our heart Or lastly doth not this also contribute to it that when we have received some notable benefit from another as it is a thing commonly known it happens many times that those whose interest it is to make us forget it have so much artifice to extenuate it to give it ill interpretations and to take away its lustre and weight that they seduce us and extinguish in us the resentment which we should have had of it whereas when any one hath insinuated himself into our favour and hath witnessed to us the ardour of his affections in many occurrences by petty services which have not been observed by others the resentment which we have thereof is not exposed the assaults of his enemies or rivals and he is so much the more assured the more it is secret and the cause of it not known PROB. 15. What is the reason that a great joy makes us facile to pardon injuries IT is certain that a great joy disposes us extreamly to clemency that it softens our hearts and expells that hardness and bitterness which injuries have caused in them and makes us easie to pardon them and as it is a thing certain and such whereof the enquiry cannot be otherwise than curious pleasant and profitable I conceive I have reason to allow it a place among'st these Problems and endeavour to discover all the causes of it In the first place then I believe I shall speak a very great truth if I say that our soul being surprized on a sudden by a great happiness finds it self secretly obliged to some soveraign power and hath secret motions of gratitude towards it and that finding its self unable to do it any good whereby to testifie its thanks it is so much the more constrained to do good to his works that is to say that it becomes good and disposed to do good even to those that have wronged it But besides this reason which without doubt contributes very much to the effect we speak of I conceive that Joy doth besides of its own nature beautifie the soul as well as it beautifies the countenance And indeed seeing that Joy is more according to nature than Sadness seeing it is a Good as Sadness is an Evil it must needs for this reason inspire also into it and waken the passions that are more conform to nature and better than those which are awakened by Sadness Now there is nothing more according to nature then Goodness If it be objected that Affliction corrects us and makes us better I answer that it doth not do it out of its own nature but by accident as a medicine cures us by accident although at other times it be a kind of poyson and is alwayes in some sort contrary to the temper of our bodies For if we consider affliction in its self we shall finde that as it is the property of winter and ill weather to kill flowers and to despoile the trees of the ornament of their foliage even so it blasts the beauties of the soul soures and debases it But above all we shall finde that in cooling and weakening the courage it greatly impaires that generosity from whence issues the pardon of injuries Philosophers say that Light doth naturally beget Heat although it be not a quality of the same species with it by reason of a certain affinity or correspondence of nature which is between them I suppose it is for the same reason that Joy may beget in the soul goodness and vertuous inclinations though its self be not a vertuous inclination since that being a good passion it must have some analogy with all the good passions as sadness must have also with all the bad ones But to come to the consideration of another cause of the same effect it seems also that as an injury made us not angry but out of an opinion we had that it had cast us down when any great prosperity comes to raise us up it must for this reason appease and sweeten the grief which this pretended dejectment hath caused in us since that it doth in some sort do us reason Or else perhaps the soul in a great prâ—â—perity looking on the present which smiles upon it and offers it nothing but matter of satisfaction and a most perfect rest doth equally take its eye off both from what is to come and what is past and therefore hates to remember passed injuries since that it cannot do it without looking off from the present which is so grateful to it and interrupting its delicious employment but that which still puts it more strongly upon the same resolution is that having all on a sudden received a great blessing it doth passionately desire to enjoy it fully and not corrupt the sweetness thereof and that there is nothing can so corrupt its sweetness as a motion of hatred and revenge For as the act of Loving is in its self naturally sweet because it is very much according to nature so the motions of Hatred are naturally painful and mingled with grief because they cross nature and because the soul doth as I may so say wrest and distort its self in receiving them into it and doth ill employ its faculties Now that all motion of revenge and hatred of another is naturally painfull and mixed with grief is a thing that may easily be proved For besides that our own sense
makes us acknowledge it to be true we need only to look upon the visage of man in choler to confesse that nothing doth more resemble the visage of a man that is sad and there appears something of painfull and forced somewhat like to that one sees in the face of a Porter employed with all his strength to lift up a great burthen It is even so also in all other motions of Hate For in a word it is as unimaginable that a man should machinate any black designes and frame within himself some malicious contrivance without losing the native quiet and serenitie of his spirit as that the air should continue serene when it is formed into storms and tempests and that it should be overspread with dark clouds before it pours down either hail or thunderbolts upon the earth And as the spring of a Pistol is not at rest and as it were in its due place so long as it is cockt and ready to give fire and kill So our soul is without doubt restless and out of its repose so long as it continues as it were bent to the execution of some malicious act and is ready to do mischief to another And if we will descend from the consideration of men to that of beasts we shall there also finde some testimonies of this truth since that they which when they are alone seem to take pleasure in considering the beauty of the day of the meadows of the rivers and forrests and are most lightsome and sportive are also the most innocent and that on the contrary all the savage and blood-thirsty ones are sad and melancholy which may be seen both by their countenance and in that they hate and fly the light It is wisdom therefore in us to drive from our mindes all malicious thoughts when we would fully enjoy any great happiness Or else the joy which a good fortune causes in us renders us sweet and easie to pardon injuries because after having gotten external goods we do the more violently desire those that respect the soul namely wisdom and vertue as those only which we want and which remain to us to desire PROB. 16. What is the reason there is so much false news spread abroad and that many delight to make others believe strange things IS it not because a man thinks he doth not do very ill nor trasgresse much the Law of Liberty to add to that which he receives from others some small matter or to take from it some petty and slight circumstance which yet changes the whole face of the thing an absurdity like to that of an ill pay-master that thought he did not any great hurt and was no dishonest man in taking away a small cypher from a paper wherein his debt was contained and in his defrauding his Creditor of a great sum under pretence that he took away and blotted out only a small cyfer Or else do not false news arise principally from hence that we wholly give credit to our friends when they tell us strange things and that on the contrary our friends enlarge the wonder to us because they see we are delighted with it and that they are unwilling to deprive us of it by disabusing us and take from us that delightful error in which we are no more then they would wake us if they knew we were in a pleasant dream Or else is it because many men think they do well to make use of a lye to uphold the Truth Or else are we not chiefly deceived by false relations because we think it reasonable to give credit to one that is no bad man but hath on the contrary much of goodnesse whereas we should consider whether he be not guilty of some weaknesse because a man lyes through weakness as well as malice Or lastly may we not say that ill news is spread principally for this reason that many please themselves in making others believe strange things the truth is experience evidently discovers this malady with which they are affected and if it be demanded why they are thus delighted with it methinks one may say it is either because they would have these great and strange things be so and that being unable to give them a real existence they give them at least a shaddow of it in printing them upon the spirits of men Or that half-believing them and taking pleasure to believe them they labour to confirme themselves in their opinion by drawing many others to be of it and acquiring to it good store of suffrages or that being unable to believe them in any sort yet when they see that an another believes them they contemplate the joy which they imprint on his eyes and on his visage and hear the exclamations which admiration forces from him and the gestures it puts him in and receive hereby some reflection of his pleasure like in this to many sick people who though they cannot eat themselves yet delight to see others eat with a good appetite PROB. 17. What is the reason that having been long on horse-back a man doth better refresh himself by walking a little on foot than by sitting still IS it not that as a colour is more contrary to a colour then to a smell or a sound by the same reason one motion is more contrary to another motion then to rest and so easier effaces the impression of it by that Law which saith that things which are under the same genus do more vigorously combate one another Or else is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 body of the horse on which we have been a long time hath too much pressed many parts of ours and by this means shut up certain passages and that when we walk the spirits running to these parts to move them do raise them up and by this means open whatsoever was there pressed or too much straightned so that they soon recover their natural situation PROB. 18. What is the reason that when we come to rest our selves after much walking we finde our selves more weary a while after IS it because the heat which motion drew into our parts rendred them more supple and obedient to the will in dilitating the nerves and that after we have rested a while we have lost this heat but we have not lost our wearinesse Or else is is because when we walk our sweat runs down but when we come afterwards to rest it sticks upon our skin and benums it by its humidity as also by its coldnesse when the repose of the body hath given it means to grow cold We see by experience that those that come from swiming feel their arms and legs weak as if they had been beaten by reason of a cold moisture that rests upon them It is observed likewise that when after a long motion we come to rest our selves we sweat presently much more and this is because the motion of the parts of our body doth not then hinder that by which the drops of sweat do descend by their narrow passages
have seen that the love of a Princes Vertue shines chiefly in the common people which makes the greatest part of men and is able to beget in them most exquisite and admirable motions of affections because of this mixture with Greatness which hath a certain Luster and Beauty that doth extreamly take with the people And if I may be permitted to add something upon this consideration I shall say further that it is only the baseness of his own mind that made him imagine that Gratitude shame of an unworthiness generally confest or love of a rare merit should have so little power upon our spirits for it hath been often seen that a troop of mutiners from amongst the very dregs of the people after they have contemned the fear of punishment have become calm and appeased on a sudden meerly by the presence of a man of known vertue out of reverence which it imprinted in them There are many crimes which men cease not to commit every day although they that commit them are every day hanged for it but on the contrary there are ingratitudes and unworthinesses which are committed but very rarely although the Laws have not ordained any punishment for those that are guilty of them because the greatest part of men have conceptions lively enough of the blackness and sordidness of them The fear of Death and Pain which according to Machiavel do never forsake men is overcome every day in the wars by the hope of a little pay and the contempt of them is grown common But of so many thousand men that hazzard themselves thus without doubt there would be but a very few that for a much greater summ would betray a friend by whom they had been sensibly obliged But we leave this discourse before it hath carried us very much beyond our subject and pass on to another Problem PROB. 43. What is the reason that Shame makes a redness to arise in the face AS there are not any motions more pleasant and more worthy to be known then those of Shame so there are none that seem to produce their effects in us after so obscure a manner and so difficult to explain The reason is that whatever our mind doth most genuinely and after a more natural manner is alwayes that which it is least aware of Now the impressions that Shame causes in our blood and upon our faces is so natural that Stage-players which laugh and cry though they are neither sad nor merry which can make themselves look pale as if they were afraid and can artificially draw upon their faces the redness of Anger and easily counterfeit Pitty Astonishment or Disdain cannot for all this by any cunning draw upon their faces the redness of Shame and the characters which it ought to be accompanied with Besides he that cryes hath an intention to cry and he that weeps hath an intention to weep but most commonly he that blushes hath no intention to blush and this is the reason that very modest persons blush even at their very blushing and by endeavouring to hide their Shame increase and double it Lastly that which makes the difficulty of this Problem appear greater is that it is certain the redness of Shame proceeds alwayes from some grief and pain which the soul is in Now it is the property of Grief to repress the blood and spirits and gather them together about the heart instead of spreading of them in the face as shame doth Nevertheless we will endeavour here to discover the mysterie of so handsom a passion And first we will tell you what some have thought that the soul sends forth the blood into the face in shame because it desires to cover it as with a veil whereto they endeavour to add some weight from experience which shows us that those which are surprized with Shame do naturally hold their hand before their face Now as I do not absolutely reject this consideration of theirs yet I do not think it ought to satisfie us so but that we should search for others For besides that it is perhaps a pretty fancy rather than a reason certain it is that many times they that are surprized with Shame do not desire to hide their faces from him that censures them but on the contrary do earnestly wish that he read therein his repentance and sorrow and for all this cease not to blush To search then another cause of this effect we must in the first place consider that in all the Passions the Soul imprints the images of its least motions upon the body and there figures out what it resents and what it suffers by certain dispositions which it gives it as it were by so many Emblems and Metaphorical pictures whether it doth it out of design or be constrained to it by necessity Thus for example angry people hold up their heads high and commonly set both their hands on their sides because holding the head high and taking up more room then before is a Metaphorical expression of the vain elevation of a presumptuous mind and of the greatness which it falsly attributes to it self So a man that affirms any thing with much zeal and opinionativenesse commonly bends his fists because this action hath some Analogy and correspondence with the estate in which the soul is But it were unprofitable and endless to think to prove a thing so clear and certain by enumerating all our passions wherefore supposing it rather true we say and I think with much colour of Reason that in all griefs and sadnesses when the soul flyes some external evil and considers it as external it makes the spirits of the outward parts fly towards the inward because such a motion as shews that it desires from all sides to enter into its self thereby to escape that evil which comes unto it from without is most proper to represent to the life the desire which it then hath and the condition it is in but on the contrary in the grief of Shame because it is touched with the horrour and hatred of an evil that is within it self and is fastened to its own substance since it is nothing else but its own imperfection it cannot better express this horrour and hatred then by violently thrusting forth the blood and spirits from within to the outward parts as if it would banish them from us since that indeed it is an estate that hath some Analogy with this corporal motion and that it would if it could banish it self and go out of its self by that means to fly from the vice which it finds it is defiled with Moreover Shame dilates the spirits and the blood and sheds them upon the face more subtilly then any other passion because it proceeds from a most spiritual conception to wit from the conception of a dishonest thing and that the more spiritual impressions have also more quick and suddain effects To this effusion of the blood and spirits contributes also perhaps after another sort the