Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A59161
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Natural history of the passions
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Charleton, Walter, 1619-1707.; Senault, Jean-François, 1601-1672. De l'usage des passions.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing S2501; ESTC R17216
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95,333
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238
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some have given the upper hand to that distortion of the countenance accompanied with a loud but inarticulate voice which we call Laughter but this being neither proper to nor inseparable from Ioy cannot therefore belong to it essentialy That it is frequently a concomitant of Mirth or Hilarity is not to be disputed but Mirth is the lowest degree of Joy a light and superficial emotion of the Sensitive Soul and Spirits a kind of short tickling of the Imagination usualy expressed by Laughter whereas Ioy is serious profound and grave according to that memorable Sentence of Seneca epist. 23. res severa est verum gaudium Laughter then as I said is not proper to all Joy because common to some other affections for some are observed to laugh out of Indignation others out of Contempt and disdain neither of which belong to any kind of Joy Nor is it inseparable from Joy because in truth Joy cannot produce Laughter unless when it is very moderate and hath somthing of Admiration or Hate mixt with it For we have it from the oracle of Experience that in great and profound Joy the cause of it whatsoever it be doth never force us to break forth into laughter nay more that we are most easily provoked to laugh when we are sad Whereof the reason seems to be either because in solid Joy the Sensitive Soul is so deeply commoved so intirely taken up with the delight of fruition that she cannot attend to shake the Midriff Lungs and Muscles of the breast nimbly and strongly enough to create laughter or because at that time the Lungs are so distended with blood that they cannot by repeted concussions or alternate contractions and relaxations be further inflated with air whereof no little quantity is required to produce that loud sound emitted in Laughter That we may understand this matter more fully let us examine the cause or occasion and the Motions of Laughter As for the First viz. the Occasion or Motive whatsoever it be there must concur therein these three Conditions following 1. it must be new and surprising because whatsoever is ridiculous at first ceaseth to be so when grown stale 2. it must be such a novelty as may suggest to us a conception of some eminency or advantage in our selves above another whom the occasion chiefly concerns for why are we naturally prone to laugh at either a jest which is nothing but a witty or elegant discovery and representation of some absurdity or indecency of another abstracted from his person or at the mischances and infirmities of others unless from hence that thereby our own abilities are the more set off and illustrated and recommended to us by way of comparison 3. It must not touch our own or our friends honour for in that point we are too tender to tolerate much less to laugh at a jest broken upon our selves or friends of whose dishonour we participate These requisites in a ridiculous cause considered we may adventure to conclude that Laughter is an effect of sudden but light Joy arising from the unexpected discovery of some infirmity in another not our friend and from imagination of our own eminency and exemption from the like Here then you see is something of Admiration from the Novelty something of Aversion from the Infirmity something of Ioy or triumph from our opinion of some eminency in our selves And as for that Laughter which is sometimes joyned with Indignation it is most commonly fictitious or artificial and then it depends intirely upon our will as a voluntary action but when 't is true or Natural it seems likewise to arise from Ioy conceived from hence that we see our selves to be above offence by that evil which is the cause or subject of our indignation and that we feel our selves surprised by the unexpected novelty of the same So that to the production of this Laughter also is required a concurs of Ioy Aversion and Admiration but all moderate If this be so what then shall we think of that odd example of Laughter in Ludovicus vives who writes of himself lib. 3. de Anima cap. de Risu that usually when he began to eat after long fasting he could not forbear to break forth into a fit of loud laughter This doubtless was not voluntary because he strove to suppress it nor could it be Convulsive such as Physicians call Risus Sardonius because he was in perfect health sensible of no pain therein nor incommodity thereupon It must therefore be Natural though not Passionate proceeding from some cause very obscure and idiosyncritical that is peculiar to his constitution perhaps this that in this Learned man either the Lungs were more apt to be distended with blood or the Midriff more easily put into the motions that produce laughter than commonly they are in most other men The First because in general whatsoever causeth the Lungs to be suddenly puffed up and distended with blood causeth also the external action of Laughter unless where sorrow changeth that action into groaning and weeping the other because all Laughter is made chiefly by quick and short vibrations of the Midriff But this rare Phenomenon we shall perhaps be better able to solve when we have considered how the action of Laughter is performed in all other men Concerning this Problem therefore it is observable that in Man there seems to be a greater consent or sympathy or rather commerce of motions betwixt the Midriff and the Heart yea and the Imagination also than in Brutes of what order or tribe soever and that the Reason given hereof by the most accurate of our Modern Anatomists is this that the principal Nerve of the Midriff is rooted in the same Nerve of the Spine named Nervus vertebralis from whence there comes a conspicuous branch into the grand plexus of the Intercostal nerve and that commonly two sometimes three other branches more are derived from that same notable plexus into the very trunk of the Nerve of the Diaphragm as you may see most elegantly represented by Dr. Willis in the 9 th Table of his most elaborate Book de Anatomia Cerebri which are not found in Beasts For from this plenty and singular contexture of nerves it may be conjectured not only why the Diaphragm doth so readily conform its motions to those of the Praecordia and of the Animal Spirits excited in passions of the Mind and cooperate with them but also why Risibility is an affection proper only to Man For as the same most curious Dr. Willis reasoneth in his chapter of the functions and uses of the Intercostal pair of nerves when the Imagination is affected with some pleasant and new conceipt instantly there is caused a brisk and placid motion of the heart as if it sprung up with joy to be alleviated or eased of its burden Wherefore that the blood may be the more speedily discharged out of the right Ventricle of the heart into the Lungs and out
Moral of which in their order 1. Passions meerly Physical or which properly belong to the Sensitive Soul alone are those natural and occult inclinations and aversations commonly call'd Sympathies and Antipathies whereby one Man more than another is not only disposed but even by secret impuls forced to affect or dislike such or such a person or thing without any manifest cause or inducement so to do Of Sympathies betwixt Persons there is great variety of Examples especialy in Lovers among whom many are not allured by that grand bait of the Sensitive Soul Beauty but strongly attracted and as it were fascinated by they know not what hidden Congruity or as the French call it agreeableness of Spirits which enchains them so firmly to the persons beloved that notwithstanding the deformities they see and acknowledge to be in them yea and the contempt they somtimes receive from them they still doat upon and with delightful submissions court and adore them And as for Antipathies as well toward Persons as things instances of them also are without number and many shew themselves at our very table Where one Man abhors a brest of Mutton yet loves the Shoulder cut from it a second swoons at the sight of Eels and yet will feast upon Lampreys or Congers a third abominates Chees but is pleased with Milk a fourth devests rosted Pigg yet can make a meal upon bacon This Man sweats at presence of a Cat that falls into an agony by casting his eye upon a Frogg or Toad an other can never be reconciled to Oysters Nay more there are who feel themselves ready to faint if a Cat be hidden in some secret place of the room wherein they are though they suspect no such encountre of their natural enemy till they are wounded with the invisible darts or emanations from her body And all these admirable Effects proceed not from any positive Evil or malignity in the things abhorred for what 's one Mans meat is an others poyson but only from their incongruity or occult Enmity to this or that particular Sensitive Soul For if at any time it happens that the consistence of Animal Spirits that constitute the lucid or Sensitive part of this Soul be by the encountre of any object put into great disorder she ever after abhors the approach or effâ—luvia of the same Whereas the Congruity of particles proceeding from an object to the contexture of the Soul is on the contrary the ground of all her secret Amities 2. Passions Metaphysical or which seem to have their first rise from and principaly to relate to the Rational Soul are those which Divines call devout and religious Affections directed to objects Supernatural and chiefly to God For when our nobler Soul reflecting upon the excellency and immortality of her nature aspires by sublime speculations toward her supreme felicity the contemplation and love of her Creator and determines her Will to persue that incomprehensible because infinite subject of all perfections which alone can satisfy her understanding with light or knowledge and her will with love she doth not only exercise herself in simple and abstracted conceptions such as are proper to her immaterial essence alone and conformable to the dignity of the thing she speculates but communicates her affects also to the Sensitive Soul by whose subordinate motions she is obliged to act respectively to her end And these motions or acts being thus traduced from the superiour to the inferior Soul and thence derived first to the brain and imagination then to the heart produce therein and so in the blood the various motions that constitute such Passions as we observe in our selves when we are most ardently urged to acts of devotion and piety toward the supream Being Whence it is doubtless that Divine love detestation of sin repentance hope of Salvation fear of incensing Divine justice and most if not all other acts or passions of devotion are commonly ascribed to the heart and that not without some reason For though I cannot admit the heart to be the Seat of the Passions as the Aristoteleans unanimously hold it to be only because of the sensible alterations therein produced in most passions since in truth those alterations are rather consequents than causes of Passions and since they are not felt by us as in the heart but only by means of the nerves descending thither from the brain as pain is not felt as in the foot but by intervention of nerves betwixt the foot and the brain and as the starrs appear to us as in heaven by mediation of their light affecting our Optick nerves So that it is no more necessary the Soul should exercise her functions or receive her passions immediately in the heart only because she feels her passions therein than it is she should be in heaven because she sees the starrs to be there or in the foot because pain appears to her to be there Notwithstanding this I say yet the adscription of these devout Passions to the heart is not altogether destitute of reason For for instance when the inferiour Soul is commanded by the Superior to humble and as it were to prostrate herself in adoration of the sacred Majesty of God instantly both parts thereof as well the Sensitive as the Vital are forced to repress and restrain their wonted emanations or effusions Whereupon the Animal Spirits being in whole legions withdrawn from minis tring to the Imagination and Senses are by the nerves transmitted in crowds to the heart which while they closely contract and shut they cause the blood to remain longer than is usual in the cavities thereof and by that means keep it both from being too much kindled in the Lungs and from being sent from the heart in too great abundance into the rest of the body and more especialy into the brain as if Nature itself had instituted that in sacred passions the blood or principal seat of life should be offered up to the Author of life upon the altar of the heart while the brain or seat of reason is kept serene and clear Nor is it difficult to a man praying to Almighty God with fervency of Spirit to observe in himself that his blood is more and more arrested and detained within his breast the while insomuch that his heart seems to swell his lungs to be opprest and he is forced frequently to interrupt his oraisons with profound sighs for attraction of fresh aer as if the reasonable Soul not content to devote herself alone and pour forth her holy desires to God laboured to make a libation also of the vital blood for a propitiatory oblation So that though the Soul cannot in strictness of truth be said to receive her passions in the heart yet since the alterations caused in us by them are greater and more sensible in the heart and consequently in the blood than in any other part of the whole body beside I am not so addicted to vitilitigation as to contend about