wisdome and this ordinary virtue of men with a state of Perfection much greater which reason gives us the Idea of we finde our selves forced to name them Vice and Folly just as we call foul linnen black in comparing it with that which hath been new washed or with snow though it be white in it self and in comparison with Ink for every mean state is an evil in regard of an excellency which is much above it as truly as it is a good in regard of that which is beneath it Now our soul is so much the more apt to look upon the good that is in it with disdain because it finds it is born for a state of perfection much more eminent and thus though an Artisan be to be commended if he perfectly understand any mechanick art yet wheen we judge of a Prince we make no account of such an ability if he hath no other because we conceive he is born for much greater things Secondly our soul doth often attribute to it self more imperfection then it hath because the good already gotten slips out of our memory and doth not ordinarily present it self to our minds as that which is wanting doth the reason of it is because the soul alwayes withdraws its sight from the things about which it hath no more to do as on the contrary it fixeth it upon those that give it some occasion of desire and endeavour In the third place a man doth not think there is any need of aggravating the good that is in man and believes rather it would be a thing very hurtful but on the contrary he thinks it is very profitable to aggravate his Vice and Folly which is also very true but yet to some certain degrees only for to give to man too low conceptions of himself and such as are like him is an abating of his Courage and quenching of his Emulation But however hereby sometimes the imperfection of man seems to us to be greater then it is for to consider first that which regards his understanding oftentimes when we speak of many fools we say with a serious tone as if we desired to be believed and to have it pass for an Axiome that they have no more judgement then beasts nay in aggravating their folly we think sometimes that beasts have more though if we consider it aright and according to the truth of the business a man that is the most void of wit gives at but opening his eyes and by his first gestures and by his first looks tokens of a greater judgement then all beasts put together There are also Philosophers that have contributed to the making of the generality of men be so severely condemned for whether it were that herein they alwayes had for their end some profit that might be reaped by it or that at sometimes they might be put upon it for some other reasons they have one after another aggravated his folly in such a manner as if they had a minde to take from him even common sense In this there is too much severity and bitterness for we should not consider only the faults of people but also the good that is in them and then we shall finde that in many things they have the first notions most quick and most pure though they know not how to discourse of them exactly and after a subtile manner we should not also impute as so many faults of their understanding all the weaknesses of their imagination and take them in the worst sense that can be for all things appear bad to him that considers them not with candor and equity and he that is resolved never to see any thing but bad makes short work by casting himself into an excess of rigour and turning away his eyes from that which is laudable in them but by this means he depraves himself and not that which he considers after this manner the same also happens from the aggravating of mens vice But to discover yet another cause that makes us thus defame our nature many times beyond the truth it may further be said that every one thinks to gain something to his own advantage in vilifying mankind and the generality of men for if he hath any perfection he is more willing to perswade himself that it comes to him from what he hath particular and proper then to believe that it proceeds from what he hath in common with others the reason whereof is because what he hath in particular is more his own and on the contrary if he hath any imperfection he also findes some comfort in the displeasure it doth him by attributing it to the general nature of man rather then to the fault of his own individual nature But especially wicked men are put upon a like design by the like motive for that they may finde out some excuse they endeavour to include all others in the same fault which they themselves are guilty of they scrape together therefore what ever is most ugly in our life and make it much worse in expressing it and in giving ill interpretations of it and when we hear them thus aggravate much beyond the truth that which is ill in us we contradict them not as well because as I told you that we think it is profitable it should be so as also because it seems to be Humility to consent to an accusation in which we are comprized and on the contrary that it is arrogance and presumption to oppose it From hence then arise many sayings and expressions which import that reason can do nothing or very little on the mind of man that there is nothing but injustice and ingratitude to be seen in the world and such other like things which are contrary to other sayings that we have at other times which are as much beyond the truth for it is not more impossible that heaven should fall then it is impossible that Justice and Reason should cease to have very much power upon the minds of men and that they should not suffer themselves to be bent and affected with this same Reason as their particular interest Pirats robbers upon the high-way poysoners and the most detestable of men do not make any exception against this rule and though Choler be the most wild and savage of all our passions and though it stir whatsoever is most base and evil in us yet that which first kindles it is an indignity which is nothing else but injustice and therefore Poets that are the Painters of the ordinary motions of the soul when they bring upon the stage one that talking to himself alone labours to animate himself with a violent rage they make him insist longer upon reasons drawn from justice or injustice then upon others drawn from profit and not without cause for if a man do only conclude in himself that it is profitable for him to be angry there would be nothing more cold then such an inticement and he would not for this obtain of himself to be
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
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
familiar things ought to be favoured against all those that consist in Sympathie or in secret influence or in specifick qualities and yet no doubt we ought to have recourse to these last but it is only as people that are like to be drowned catch at thorns and embrace them in that pressing need that is to say when we find no other means to deliver our selves from a difficulty for so long as there is any other means of escaping it if it be but any thing tolerable this must needs be very bad But to come to the present business Those which have considered that the heat of the Moneth of August is greater then that of the Moneths of June and July although in them the Sun be nearer to us and strikes us with less oblique rayes and makes longer dayes have thence inferred that this excess of heat proceeds from the influence of a Star which is called the Dog to which they have also given other ill qualities for this if we will believe what they say of it is the cause that in August the heat of the Sun is more malignant even when it is no greater then in the other Moneths of Summer that many creatures and especially Dogs do then run mad and that it is then more dangerous to go into the water and that sicknesses are more frequent and greater and that men feel some particular weaknesses in all the parts of the body But all things well considered it will be found that there is nothing in all this that should oblige us to attribute secret and particular vertues to the Dog-star and to leave the large field of known and ordinary causes For first I do not see why we should wonder that the Sun is hotter in August then in July though it be true that in August he regards us somewhat more obliquely and that the dayes are shotter the reason of it is because the Earth having been exceedingly dryed by the former heats is more apt to be violently scorched as we see that any dry thing set before a lesser fire receives a more violent heat then a thing that is moist from a fire that is much greater That this reason is pertinent there is an experience that methinks proves it plainly enough it is that though at noon the Sun be nearer to us and cast more direct rayes on us then he doth any time after yet those that travel in Summer do perceive a more violent heat two or three hours after-noon then at noon it self the reason whereof is that at noon the moisture of the morning is not so well dryed up either on the grass or the air or the earth as it is a while after This example is so put to the subject I apply it to the Question in hand that there cannot be found any difference in it and it may serve well enough to prove what I say for as somebody hath well observed the images of the Four Seasons of the year are to be seen in one only Day in which the Morning by its moisture represents the Spring Noon and sometime after is like the Summer Solstice and the two Moneths that follow it the Evening to the Autum and the arrival of Night to the arrival of Winter Now as this reason renders the heat of August greater it is manifest that withall it renders it necessarily more malign But yet if it be objected that it is often more malignant then that of other Moneths without being more violent I answer that this doth not yet force us to fly to a secret cause for if it were necessary to attribute this particular malignity to the influence of some Star it would follow also that we must give influences to some other Star for to render a reason of the particular malignity of the Sun in March which as having a very feeble hear one would think should not be able to be hurtful and to engender so easily rhumes and catarrhs But to say the truth these two several malignities are the effects only of the course of the year and of two contrary extreams for the Sun in March hath something of malign and dangerous by reason of the great humidity it meets with in the earth nay and in our brain on which it acts so weakly that instead of dissolving it only dilates it And on the contrary the Sun in August is extraordinary hurtful through an excess of dryness which it finds in the earth after it hath endured the heats of a great part of Summer and in our bodies which the same heats have dryed It is this dryness which at this time disposes beasts to madness though indeed Dogs run mad not only in August but also very often in the Moneths of June and July or September which need not for this borrow any thing of the Dog-star From this excessive drynesse proceeds likewise the weakness which we feel then in our bodies and the disposition which this season puts us in to divers maladies for every extream is alwayes nigh an evil and easily falls into one or rather is one it self To conclude if those that swim in this Moneth do find that the waters are more unwholsom then they were before a man may say it is because their more pure and subtile parts have been exhaled by the precedent heats and that what remains is gross and impure And I do not see that there is any thing in this we should need to attribute to the Dog-star more then in the other things we mentioned THE END