the mysterie of the holy government of our affections contayning their nature, originall, causes, and differences. together with the right ordering, triall, and benefit thereof: as also resoluing diuers cases of conscience, incident hereunto. very necessarie for the triall of sinceritie, and encreasing in the power of godlinesse. the first booke. cooper, thomas, fl. 1626. 1620 approx. 107 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 84 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-11 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a19292 stc 5700.5 estc s113515 99848749 99848749 13862 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a19292) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 13862) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 643:01) the mysterie of the holy government of our affections contayning their nature, originall, causes, and differences. together with the right ordering, triall, and benefit thereof: as also resoluing diuers cases of conscience, incident hereunto. very necessarie for the triall of sinceritie, and encreasing in the power of godlinesse. the first booke. cooper, thomas, fl. 1626. [12], 67, [5] leaves printed by bernard alsop, and ar[e] to be sold at his house, at s. annes church, neere aldersgate, london : [1620?] dedication signed: th. cooper. publication date, if any, cropped; publication date suggested by stc. running title reads: the gouernment of the affections. identified as stc 5700a on umi microfilm. imperfect; title page cropped?. reproduction of the original in the folger shakespeare library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books 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1800. 2004-08 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2004-08 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-09 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2004-09 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-10 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the mysterie of the holy government of our affections . contayning their nature , originall , causes , and differences . together with the right ordering , triall , and benefit thereof : as also resoluing diuers cases of conscience , incident hereunto . very necessarie for the triall of sinceritie , and encreasing in the power of godlinesse . the first booke . london , printed by bernard alsop , and are to be sold at his house , at s. annes church , neere aldersgate . to the right honorable , worshipfull , and my very bountifull benefactors , the hon : sir thomas smith , most worthie gouernour of the east indian company , together with the graue committees , & the rest of that famous societie : all health and happinesse . right honorable , worshipfull , and dearly beloued in our lord iesus : it hath beene an ancient and laudable custome of the church of god , as to ordaine generally certaine ordinarie loue-feasts and christian meetings , for the more comfortable exercise and maintenance of brotherly loue , which is the bond of perfection : so more especially , when the lord hath enlarged himselfe in any extraordinarie fauour vnto his church , by deliuering the same out of some desperate and inexplicable danger . we haue not onely the expresse commaund of god , to be enlarged in thankfulnesse accordingly , but to expresse our thankefulnesse : as principally by exercising our selues in psalmes and hymnes , and spirituall reioycings ; so also ( to testifie our renued interest in the creatures , which such extremities might haue vtterly depriued vs of ) in this respect also , to solace our selues in a more liberall vse thereof by solemne feastings , and all such outward meanes , as together with inward refreshing of the minde , might also tend aboundantly to the comfort of the body ; as being much weakened and disinabled with the feare and expectation of former dangers . and thus wee may finde , that the church of god hath vpon such occasion accordingly practised . see hest. 9. nehem. 8. and thus doe wee at this day solemnize the memoriall of our wonderfull and glorious deliuerance from the kingdome of darkenesse , by the true light of the world , iesus christ : who as at this time shined as it were in the darkenesse and obscuritie of his humane nature , that so hee might bring light out of darkenesse , and by his abasing of himselfe vnto the shape of a seruant , might restore vs to the glorious liberty of the sonnes of god. wherein howsoeuer happily we are not free from some vniust imputation of superstition , by such , who being not able to discerne betweene the right vse , and abuse of things , doe therefore condemne our liberty for the common abuse thereof in these licentious times , by turning the same as an occasion to the flesh : yet neither ought their aspersions any whit to discourage any religious heart from an holy improuing of his liberty to the glory of god , seeing they proceed rather of superstitious singularity then any sound ground of truth : neither may we doubt , but that our reuerend and spirituall behauiour herein , as it shall iustly cleare vs from any imputation of superstition , so it may also free vs from the danger of any such abuse , which the loosenesse of the times is guiltie of . for howsoeuer it may not be denyed , but that such obseruations as were meerely of humane inuention ; or though they were of gods appointment , yet tending to the obscuring and abrogating of the truth of christ , were meerely superstitious , and so to bee renounced of vs , as they were abolished by christ : such as were the ceremonies of moyses , and whatsoeuer else of the like nature : yet whatsoeuer ordinances haue their equitie from the law of god , and practise of the saints , according thereunto , and withall are so farre from opposing the uertue of christ , or christian libertie , as that both in their intent and use they may further to the more comfortable enioying of both : as these haue their sufficient warrant , because they further that blessed communion betweene god and man , and serue also for the maintenance of holy societie betweene man and man ; so may wee lawfully vse our libertie herein , so all things bee done to the glorie of god , and mutuall edification : especially , seeing the lawfull custome of our church and state ought to bind vs wisely heerein , if we will not be contentious , whereof we haue no such custome , neither the churches of god. and therefore , howsoeuer to him that doubteth , this libertie may be sinne ; & that much more , if hee shall proceed to condemne others , wherein himselfe is not resolued ; and that most of all , if hee shall depriue himselfe of the libertie in good things , vpon pretence of some euill that doth hang vpon the same ( as the manner of some is : ) yet should this rather prouoke vs to improue our libertie to the best in all spirituall manner , that so eyther the mouth of iniquitie may be vtterly stopped , or opened graciously to glorifie our god with vs , euen on our behalfe . the meanes and triall hereof , seeing it consists in the holy ordering and gouernment of the affections , as euidencing the inward puritie of the hart ; which being purified by faith , all things become pure thereunto : therefore shall this direction at this time prooue most seasonable , wherein by our libertie in the flesh , we may be so easily prouoked to exceed to the satisfying of the flesh . neither onely shall it serue for the restrayning of intemperancie at this time : but seeing the whole course of our christian life is graciously ledde , and so accordingly followeth the wise temper of our affections , and so is also approued and perfected thereby : therefore also shall this light prooue a profitable guide , to conduct vs throughout all the difficulties and infirmities thereof : as seruing for an armour both to enable vs in the conquest of such enemies , which will bee sure at all times to oppose vs in our heauenly iourney ; as also the better to comfort vs , in regard of such infirmities , and outward faylings , which doe oftentimes mainely challenge the truth of our proceeding . for as , if there be a willing minde , the lord accepts it aboue what we do , or can doe , that so wee may discerne a truth of grace in the imperfection thereof : so seeing the lord will perfect the worke he hath begun in vs. and yet in that manner , that still his power must be seene in our weakenesse , that he may haue the only glory ; therefore as this is for the present our euidence of sinceritie , that we loue & affect what we cannot do , greeuing withall for our fayling heerein ; so by these contrarie affections about the same obiect , wee doe not onely iustifie the spirituall combate , but do daily interesse our selues heereby in the vertue of our christ , by whom we are not only sustained in the combate , aboue any abilitie in our selues , but also by his vertue , we are daily strengthned against all oppositions , that so in time we may be more then conquerors . but of these things more particularly in the treatise ensuing . which as i haue now according to my promise , published for the common good ; so because we liue in a prophane and surfeting age , wherein all is counted too little for the satisfying of the flesh : and euery little too-much , that serues by the restraining thereof to the satisfaction of the mind : therefore are my meditations sorted accordingly ; as in some breuitie and much weakenesse , to stumble the prophane , who stands vpon colour more then cloth , doting rather vpon what may affect and puffe vp the giddy braine , then what may reforme and humble the honest heart : so thereby also to exercise , and stirre vp the dulnesse of the best ; that what seemes not so apparant at the first view , may by more serious meditation and feruent prayer be better conceiued , and more profitably digested . and therefore also haue i beene the briefer in this generall discouery of the gouernment of the affections ; because my purpose is ( god-willing ) to adde shortly hereunto a particular discouery of each seuerall affection , according to their order , nature , and differences ; wherein by the grace of god there may be some profitable supply in speciall , for what soeuer is wanting in the generall direction . meane while , that i might not be wanting to the season , whereby the time may in some measure be redeemed , and the hearts of gods children raysed vp to further hope . i haue thought good first to frame these wals and gates for the citie , that so the inward buildings may be more safely erected and perfected . of all which , as i haue bin bold to make choice of your honours & wor. as patrons ; and gardians , as to whom being already bound by so many former fauours ; i could not choose but renew my bonds , by paying this poor interest , though far i hope from any base usurie : yet binding hereby to a continuall debt of loue , which is then best paid , when stil it is owed . and so i humbly request you to accept therof , not as a discharge of my debt , but only a pledge of the renewing of the bonds of my best affections towards your worships , which seeing they ought not to be measured by any outward expressing thereof , therefore my hope is , that you will accept of my endeauours herein , not according vnto that which i haue , but answerable to my affection therein . comforting my selfe heerein : that seeing god hath giuen you wisedome to discern of things that differ , and our hearts are in the hands of god , that if we preuaile with him , we shall preuaile with men : therefore , as my desire heerein , is to approue my selfe vnto god and the consciences of his people ; so other things shall be so farre supplied , as that still the power of god may be seene in our weakenesse , and the lord may haue the glory of all his mercies . what others ayme at in these endeauours , i matter not ; neither doe i enuie at what they reape : much lesse doth it stumble me , what this way of making our selues knowne to the world , daily heares of , either vaineglory or filthy lucre , or such like : it sufficeth me , that my reward is with god , and that i haue daily experience of the difference betweene his paiment and mans , that so i might trust him better , and man the lesse ; and yet still not to faile any good occasion , whereby i may prouoke men , that they may be like vnto god in a wiser disposall of their affections . this is that i ayme at in this treatise . this i shall heartily labour for in my best deuotions and supplications vnto our god for you , that he would encrease in you al wisedome and spirituall vnderstanding , that you may approue the most excellent , and like wise merchants , still be buying that pretious pearle ; and hauing once obtained it , labour stil to husband it with most aduantage to gods glory and the good of his church , being neuer weary of wel-doing , that so you may reape in due time if you faint not , that so you may fight the good fight of faith and finish your course with ioy , and so lay hold of eternall life . and so i heartily commend you all to the grace of god in christ iesus . resting in him . your hon : and worsh : with all that i am or may be . th. cooper . the contents of this booke . of the n●tion of this terme affection , and the diuers acceptions thereof . chap. 1. of the generall distribution of affections into their seuerall classes & kinds . ch . 2. of the causes of affections and perturbations . ch . 3. rules for the right iudging of affections and their sinceritie . ch . 4. 1. concerning their ground . 2. their obiect . 3. their ende . general rules for the right ordering and triall of them : especially in regard of such ●entations as doe accompany ●he same . ch . 5. how we may discerne the ●entation from the affection . ch . 6. how to order our affections . 1. in regard of our selues . 2. towards others . 3. towards god. of the benefits of this holy ordering and triall of our affections . cases of conscience incident hereunto : whereof , 1. whither faith be an affection . 2. concerning the obiect of our affections , whether it be an argument of vnsanctified affections to be more conuersant about earthly , then heauenly things . 3. how we may place our affections on things which are done . the right ordering of our affections , consists in two things . first , in the right iudgement of them . secondly , in the holy disposing and imploying of them on their seuerall obiects . concerning the right iudgement of affections : heere first consider wee . the government of the affections . chap. i. of the notion of this terme affection , and the diuers senses thereof . this name affection , in our common occasions , vsually importeth these three things . first , either those desires and motions to such seuerall obiects as are offered in the world , whether they be good , or bad , and so it is a terme conuertible with appetite . genes . 3. 16. secondly , or else it is vsed in a more restrayned sense , to expresse our desires to good things . or , thirdly it extends it selfe , to expresse those manifold passions of the mind which are the fuell to our desires , & bellowes there unto , which by the stoikes were called perturbations , as conceiuing them not to stand with the tranquilitie of the minde , to interrupt and disgrace the same . by others , are called the passions thereof : as discouering a more violent working of the same , or some great violence offered thereunto . and are vsually called affections , as expressing the seuerall affects and desires of the mind , in the outward man. in which sense the holy ghost calls them members ( mortifie therefore your earthly members : col. 3. 4. ) as by a figura●iue speech signifying , that these affections exercise ●hemselues in our earthly ●embers , as vsing them 〈◊〉 the expressing thereof ; 〈◊〉 ioy and sorrow by the countenance ; feare and hope , by the hands and ●eet ; anger by the whole body , &c. and in this ●ense we take them in this treatise , and so doe prosecute them , first generally in this first booke , & the● particularly , according to their seuerall distinctions hereafter . chap. ii. of the generall distributio● of the affections into their seuerall classes . affections are distinguished , in regard o● the obiect , or extent . touching the obiect all affections and perturbations may be reduced to two heads : eyther simple , such as haue no mixture of any other perturbations ; or compound , such as are deriued of other . the simple affections are of two sorts . first , primitiue , which are the ground of all the rest . secondly , deriuatiue , such as are deriued from those primitiues . the primitiue affections are two : namely , loue , whereby wee vehemently affect a thing ; and hate , being a vehement affection of disliking . the simple deriuatiue affections arise from the primitiue : as , from loue , and liking of good , if it be present , proceedeth ioy. if it be to come , hope . from dislike , and hate of euill , if it be present , ariseth griefe , and heauinesse of heart . if it be a future euill , then feare riseth from the mislike of hate . and these i take to be all the simple perturbations . the compound are such as haue part of the simple , by mixture , and that either of the primitiue simple , or the deriuatiue , and of the primitiues , with simples onely , or mixed with deriuatiues . such as are mixed of primitiues onely , are eyther vnequally mixed , of loue , and liking , or of mislike , and hate : or mixed equally of them . of the first sort , taking more part of liking , is the affection of laughter : wherewith , wee with some discontentmēt , take pleasure at that , which is done or said ridiculously : of which sort , are deeds and words vnseemely , or vnmeet , and yet moue no compassion : as when one scaldeth his mouth with an hot pie , &c. wee are discontented with the hurt , yet ioy at the euent vnexpected by the party , and that we haue escaped it : from whence commeth laughter . which , because it exceedeth the mislike of the thing that hurteth , bursteth out into vehemencie on that side , and procureth that merry gesture . if on the other side , the thing be such , as the mislike exceedeth the ioy we haue of our freedome from that euill , then ariseth pitie , and compassion . and these perturbations take their beginnings of the primitiues , vnequally mixed : whereby one of them doth after a sort obscure the other . the other , are such as haue equall mixture , and those are enuie and iealousie . if the thing we loue , be such , as we haue not part of , then springeth an hate or mislike of the party , who inioyeth that we want , and like of , and so breedeth enuy , a griefe for the prosperitie of another , or good successe whatsoeuer , wherein we haue no part . if it be such a benefit as we enioy , and are grieued it should be communicated to others , and whereun we refuse a partner , this is called iealousie , incident to amorettoes , and aspiring natures : and these are compounded of the primitiues alone , like , or mislike , loue , or hate . those which are mixed of primitiues and deriuatiues , are of two sorts , according as the primitiues , that is to say , mixed of loue , or hate . now loue mixed with hope , breedeth trust : with loue and feare , distrust . hate , or mislike , compounded with hope , breedeth anger : whereby we are displeased with that which misliketh vs , and in hope of being satisfied of that which offered the mislike : are driuen to anger , the affection of reuenge . if it bee any thing , wherein wee haue displeased our selues , it is called shame . if it bee compounded with feare , it is called bashfulnesse . if the dislike bee taken from another , the composition is of hate and anger , and thereof springeth malice . these are perturbations , compounded of primitiue passions , with their deriuatiues . of deriuatiues betwixt themselues , arise despaire , and confident assurance . despaire is compounded of heauinesse , griefe , and feare . confidence , of ioy and hope . out of hope , and faith , patience . thus in generall of the distribution of affections , in regard of their seuerall grounds , nature , and comparison betweene themselues . secondly , affections may be deuided , in regard of their extent : as some concerne only this life . as first , all such as concerne euill , as hate , feare , griefe , iealousie , pitie , laughter , enuie , anger , shame , bashfulnesse , malice , despaire , &c. secondly , some such as concerne good : which because it cannot be perfectly attayned in this life , therefore some affections there are , which tend to the obtaining thereof , and perfitting of the same : as faith , hope , patience , and compassion . others concerne both his life and the life to come , as ioy and loue. chap. iii. of the causes of affections and perturbations . concerning the causes of perturbations , there are two contrarie opinions : one of the philosophers , that conceiued all perturbations to arise frō the complexions , or humours , that is , from the bodie and carnall part of man. the other is of diuines , that hold all perturbations , howsoeuer they may be occasioned , from the diuers temperatures of nature , yet to proceede immediately from the disposition of the diuine soule , either qualified with grace , and so expressing the same in the further ayme and imployment of such affections , as tend to good , or else oppressed with corruption , and so discouering it selfe in those affections of malice , enuie , &c. this latter to be true , appeareth first by the operation of the soule in these perturbations , without the vse of senses , as in dreams : secōdly , as also by the cōtrary temper of diseased parties , whē such humours doe most abound , as in the iaundize , though choller abound , yet there ●s least signe vsually of anger : thirdly , & especially seeing these are euils of sinne , therefore seeing the soule is the immediate subiect of sinne , and not the body , the body accidentally sinnes for the soules sake : it must needs follow , that these affections proceede from the soule , and not the bodie , not the humours , &c. and therefore , though the soule seeme to follow the temperature of the body , in regard , that the body being out of temper , the minde also fareth accordingly : yet neither is this generall , but onely in some persons , and vpon some occasions . neither that , that it may only at all be so referred to the body , as that it doth actually worke vpon the soule , making it suffer thereby . but either this falls out , in regard of the neere coniunction of the soule and body , the soule sympathizing herein with the body , as a louing companion : or the iustice of the lord , by this outward chastisement of the body , arrests the soule , to giue vp it account , or affects the same in mercie , to renue repentance : it being a certaine ground , that the soule is the onely ●●d prime mouer of the ●ody , and all the actions ●hereof : so that it were ●onstrous and preposte●ous , that the body should ●oue any such affections 〈◊〉 the soule , contrary to it ●mmortall and impassible ●ature . and therefore howsoe●er the wisedome of flesh was enforced to acknow●edge the immortalitie of ●he soule , both in that the ●nward power thereof , in ●ccusing , and excusing sinne , necessarily reacheth beyond this life : and it ●aturall light soaring a●oue these earthly things , doth argue plainely some further happinesse to belong thereto , then to this life is incident : yea , th●● not satisfaction thereof in any earthly thing whatsoeuer , doth plainely euidence , that there is some further happinesse to content the same : yet seeing this light serueth onely to make inexcusable , as appeareth by the contrary practise of men to their knowledge , therefore hath it beene iustly giuen vp to such dotages , and blockish imaginations : which , though they crosse euen naturall light , yet they may serue to the satisfaction of the flesh , that so enioying herein a shew of happinesse , they might be preuented of the search of ●he true happinesse , which ●oncernes the life to ●ome . and hence arose these ●●range and contrarie o●inions concerning the affections , according to ●hose diuers models and ●deas of happinesse which ●he wise men of the world ●●amed to themselues . for whereas the stoikes placed ●heir happinesse in such a ●ind of tranquilitie , and ●eace of the mind , which ●ight rather be senselesse ●f euill , then sensible of any ●ood , because they had no ●se , nor experience of grace , to the subduing of ●heir affections , and orde●ing them to the true ob●ects and ends : therefore in their carnall wisedome they coniected such a kind of senselesse happinesse , as might be free from all affections : as esteeming them to be no better then perturbations , tending to disturbe the peace of their minds , that so they might put out that light of conscience , expressed in the affections , and accusing them of enill , whereby they were bound to the punishment of another life , and so thereby confirme their imaginarie happinesse in the things of this life . vvherein , though they did not obscurely discouer their notion of the soules immortalitie , in that they laboured hereby to preuent that vse of conscience which conuinced the same , by the sense of future punishment due thereto : so herein also did they plainely proue the wisedome of the flesh to be enmitie against god , & their owne saluation , in that they placed happinesse in such a benummed and senselesse an estate , which of all other was farthest from true happinesse , as hauing no feeling nor comfort thereof , and by it sense lessenes in euill prooued necessarily the high way to most certaine condemnation , as seruing to make vp the measure of sinne . and like vnto these , is the conceit of the libertines , who mis-conceiuing the powe● and application of christ , as if he came to take away onely the sense of sinne , and not the power and guilt of it , doe therefore hereby measure their interest in christ , that they are senselesse in sinne , commit it most greedily without any remorse , and wallow most securely and desperately therein . thus as the stoike and libertine placed their happinesse in meere stupiditie and blockishnesse , so the epicure on the contrary , placing happinesse in the sense , and in such things as might best affect the same , for the enioying of present delight , and car●all appetite , as esteeming it no happinesse , which is ●ot by sense enioyed : ●onceiued therefore so ●nely of the soule , that it ●erued onely as salt , to keepe the body from pu●rifying , and make it sen●ible of delight , and so ●oncluded of the affecti●ns , as to be onely the ef●ects of the complexions ●nd humors of the body , ●eruing onely to expresse ●heir naturall inclinations ●nd operations , to the sa●isfying of the flesh : wherein , as they plainely discouered their estranging from the life of god , through the ignorance that was in them , in their confining their affections to 〈◊〉 carnall and senselesse pa●● of nature : i meane , th● body , separated from th● soule , whereby they v●terly excluded themselue● from all true notion o● the deitie , from all tru● fellowship with him which is onely attayne● by the mind and affect●ons thereof : so in thi● their prostituting of thes● noble affects of the diuin● soule to the guide & lur● of corruptible flesh : eue● wherein they seemed t● bee wise , they becam● fooles , cōfounding themselues in their owne imaginations , and ouerthrowing that sensuall happinesse which they fancied herein . for whereas they placed their chiefe happinesse in the sense & feeling of carnall delights , let vs ●at and drinke , for to mor●ow we shall die ; they did vtterly depriue themselues of that which they most aymed at , namely , ●o enioy the sense & com●ort of these sensuall meanes : in that they deri●ed and placed these affections only from and in ●he complexions and hu●ours , which of themselues are altogether void of sense , and appetite . wherein , as they altoge●her bewrayed their igno●ance of the true happi●esse , and so iustly depri●ed themselues thereof , in that they placed it onely in the enioying of suc● corruptible things , which end with this life : so , howsoeuer their mayne ayme herein was , that by imputing these perturbations to complexions and humours , they might hereby conclude a determining of sinn● with this life , and so a● hope of the determining 〈◊〉 punishment . ( seeing these affections ending heere the other which proceede● therefrom , must necessarily end also : ) or else , seeing these humours are im●patible , senselesse , &c. therefore sinne proceeding hereof , must neede● be a meere priuation , a nullitie , &c. yet as herein they discouered themselues to be without god , and so without hope of the life of glorie : so hereby they made vp more speedily the measure of their sinne , and so were led like fooles vnto the stocks , and oxen to the shambles . wherein , that they might make vp the measure of their damnation . behold herein a further delusion of the sadduces , imagining , that these carnall affections shal accompanie vs to heauen ; that the happinesse thereof consists onely in satisfying our carnall appetites , that so we need not make scruple of them ; nay , that we may giue the bridle most freely vnto them : as beeing the next way to haue an heauen vppon earth , to prepare our selues on earth vnto heauen . thus the wisdome of the flesh , as it is enmitie against god , so it iustly proues i● owne confusion . and therefore it being apparant by that which hath beene said before , that our affections cannot proceed immediately from the complexions , or humours , but from the diuine spirit ; these grounds may be further added , by way of conclusion , for the confirmation hereof . as first , that the affections in wicked men , euen in the best complexions , and temper of the body , euen when they are furthered with all outward contentments , to the satisfying of the flesh , as in the best measure of health and outward prosperitie , are then most vile & outragious . whether wee consider such affections as concerne the acting of sinne ; as appeares in the pursuit of our lust , reuenge , or such like : or take notice of such as concerne the punishment thereof , as feare , horror , and the like . as appeared in belshazz●r , in the midst of his greatest riot , and pompous excesse . which plainely argues , that they follow the temper of the minde , and not the condition of the body . as also , on the other side , the affections of the godly , in the worst constitution , and condition of the body , and outward estate , are yet notwithstanding , by the grace of god ruling in the heart , made more pure and tempera●e , more conformable to the will of god , more fitted to the right end . secondly , vnto which if wee adde , that it is the grace of god only ( whereof the soule is only capable ) that altereth and purgeth our affections of their corrupt and pestilent qualities , and so turneth them to their contrary and proper obiects ; as , slauish feare , into filiall feare , carnall loue , into the loue of god , and goodnesse , &c. by this it necessarily followeth , that our affections proceed immediately from the soule , and haue their residence therein . thirdly , if wee shall consider , that our most principall and noblest affections , of loue and ioy , are not determined and perfited in this life , but doe accompanie vs after death ; as whereby we expresse our enioying of eternall happinesse , euen when the body lyes rotten in the graue : this is a plaine euidence , that they arise out of the soule , as their proper fountaine . chap. iiii. of the wise gouerning and triall of the affections . another speciall helpe to constant obedience . here obserue first these generall rules concerning affections , in regard of iudging thereof . that they are not simply to bee discerned by themselues , as being in themselues , for the most part , not simply good , or euill : but as they depend vpon their true grounds , affect their proper obiects , and ayme at their right ends. and therefore know wee , that the true ground of all holy affections , is sound knowledge of the thing wee affect , and of our estate and right to and in the thing wee doe affect : so that no knowledge , no sound affection , no right therein , no hope for well-ordering of them . secondly , obserue wee , that all holy affections haue generally one maine obiect , namely , our god in christ iesus , and so subordinate , the saluation of the soule . but particularly , each of them hath it seuerall and proper obiect , whereon it is bent , and conuersant therein ; so that here the rules are . that the particular obiects must be subordinate to the generall , and included therein , both for direction and limitation also : all must bee from the lord , in him , and for him , rom. 11. for the obtayning of saluation . the particular obiects must bee the bounds to each particular affection ; as shall appeare afterward . our hatred must properly be against sinne , not goodnesse ; our loue to good , and not euill , &c. our affections must so bee squared to the obiects , as that it onely leuell therein at that which is proportionable thereunto . that whereas there is in the obiect the person , or thing , wherein the qualitie is , and the qualitie it selfe ; and the person , or thing , is to be diuersly affected , in regard of the different qualitie thereof . therefore the sinceritie of the affection appeares , in ayming at the qualitie , and so , for it , respecting the person , or thing . as to affect a thing for it goodnesse , to hate it , for the euill . and yet so , as whereas the substance is of god , and the qualitie of satan . therefore heere may be a concurrence of contrarie affections in one maine obiect . as that the person of a sinner ( being gods workmanship ) is to be beloued ; though wee hate the sinne of the person : the good of the same person may bee loued , though we hate the contrarie euil in him . and therefore , whereas the ground , next vnto faith , as of our worship of god , and dueties vnto men , is loue ; howsoeuer our affections are different in themselues , yet they must all be deriued from this principall affection of loue : wee must hope , grieue , reioyce , &c. because wee loue ; and loue must be the end and ayme of ●ll : therefore wee are angrie , we feare , we hope , we ioy , that we may still loue , and make better way for the manifestation thereof . and so , as loue is an affection , that is the ground and end of all other affections , and therefore all must be subordinate therunto : so also is there a subordination of other contrarie affections one to another , that they may end in this loue : as hatred is subordinate to loue , griefe to ioy , feare to hope , &c. as being not contraries in diuers subiects , but all the same generall : as no otherwise respecting diuers subordinate obiects , but that they ayme at one principall , as furthering each other in their particular contrarie , and different obiects to that one principall , namely , the glorie of god , and saluation of the soule . hereby shall we know the sinceritie of our affections , if they are proportionable to the obiect , and measure thereof : as , if the sinnes of the times be grieuous , and extraordinarie , so our griefe be sutable : if the mercies of god , and his deliuerances , be wonderfull , so our ioy and thankfulnesse be answerable . and this may serue for the iust conuiction of our times . first , in that though there be some feare of god , yet it is not proportionable to the meanes . wee haue beene better taught , then to feare god so little . wee haue had greater iudgements , then that we should be so secure . secondly , in that wee set not our affections high enough in good things , and yet racke them too farre in euill things . wee feare not god enough , and yet feare the world too much . we loue the world too scantly , and loue our profits too excessiuely : and so there is a iarre in both . our feare in spirituall things , is defectiue ; in worldly things , excessiue . so , in this proportion , if wee loue god without limitation , as the most excellent obiect , and our neighbour as our selues ; this is to proportion the affection to the obiect . our affections are good seruants , but bad masters ; that is , they must not beare rule , but still be in subiection to their seuerall limitations of the word , our callings , the common good : without which , the best affection , euen of zeale and loue , may be euill : not onely ●ill affections , or such as ●re more inclinable there●o ; but euen the best must ●hus be tryed , if they make ●s fitter for gods seruice : ●s anger , if we can fall to ●ray ; zeale , if we can re●it priuate offences , &c. first i say , our affections must be informed and ●imitted by the word : that is , whereas the lord hath giuen vs a sure word , both as a light shining in a darke place , to enlighten the darkenesse of our nature , and so as a guide , to the well-ordering thereof : if our affections now follow , and not runne before our knowledge . we first know what to loue , and then affect the same : and if our affections are proportionable to our knowledge , we affect so farre , as wee are informed and perswaded of the truth ; and according to the particular truth we know , so our particular affection is leuelied at , and confined thereunto . this is a certain euidence of the true light and ordering thereof : hereby wee shall hold out , and continue therein . whereas otherwise , if wee affect what wee know not , this may eyther arise from some tickling delight of the flesh , from vaine-glorie , and such like , or else from some outward ●casion of the world , as ●leasure , profit , &c. or it ●ay bee some illusion of ●atan , to deceiue vs with error , in stead of truth . or at the best , it will ●rooue no better then some sudden flash of the ●ll-lightning spirit , to make vs more inexcusable . our affections , in all these respects , will vanish and decay , according to the fayling of those seuerall occasions . and secondly , if our affections exceed our iudgement , and knowledge of the truth , wee shall not onely be driuen to question the truth of our iudgement : but also by our affections , exceeding our knowledge , wee may eyther bee caused to doe things doubtfully , without found information , and so sinne therein , rom. 14. or else , by the strength and violence of our affections , wee may bee drawne to doe that which is contrary to our iudgement ; and so therein also offer violence to our consciences . and thirdly , if our affections onely ayme at generalls , and are not confined to their particular obiects ; we conceiue wee loue god , and yet cannot seeke him onely in iesus christ ; and in such ordinances as reueale him vnto vs , cannot rest therein , for the quieting of our consciences , and enabling vs to obedience . our affections are not in faith , and so cannot be acceptable vnto god , because all our affections vnto god must arise from the knowledge and apprehension of his loue vnto vs in iesus christ : wee loue him , because hee loued vs first , 1. ioh. 4. 17. not as if wee could deserue his loue , by louing him first ; or could answere his loue with equall measure : but because hee hath freely , and infinitely loued vs , therefore we labour , in our weake measure , to loue him againe , to approue hereby our thankefulnesse vnto him , and so to giue him the glorie of his free goodnesse . secondly , i say , that our affections must be squared and limitted according to our seuerall callings , in regard of the execution of them . i say , in regard of the execution thereof outwardly , that though euerie christian is equally bound to loue god aboue all , and so to testifie his loue , not onely by affecting his glorie , grieuing at his dishonour , but also by all outward occasions , as may expresse the same : yet seeing the lord hath ordayned seuerall callings in the church and commonwealth , and these both distinct , by their seuerall offices and duties , and so also subordinate to each other , for the maintenance of the common peace and publike good . therefore also , according to these distinct and subordinate callings , there must be a different and subordinate execution of our affections . as , that though all must equally affect the glory of god , according to the inward measure of grace the lord hath vouchsafed , rom. 12. 3. yet each must seuerally expresse their affection herein , as their callings doe limit or enlarge the same . as that the magistrate may testifie his zeale to gods glorie , not onely in being angrie at sinne , but in punishing the same ; which a priuate man may not doe : his onely weapons heerein , must be prayers & teares . and so the minister may testifie his zeale to god by his publike calling , in reproouing , conuincing , and censuring publikely : all which , a priuate man may not doe , because god is the god of order , and requires no more at our hands , then he allots vnto vs. 1. cor. 14. 40. thirdly , i say our affections must be sutable to the occasions and condition of the times and church where wee liue , and so to our owne particular occasions . as that wee must weepe with them that weepe , and reioyce with them that reioyce . rom. 12. 15. 16. in generall calamities or sinnes threatning them , we must be mourners , ezech. 9. ierem. 13. 17. howsoeuer the multitude are senselesse , and carelesse , prou. 14. 16. in generall blessings , we must reioyce and abound in thankesgiuings to our god , psal. 126. 34. psal. 118. howsoeuer the wicked may gnash their teeth , and pine away , psal. 112. 10 , 11. and yet seeing there is an holy order to be obserued in our affections , according to the more excellent obiects : as that our god and his glorie must haue the chiefe place ; the publike good , the next , before our owne priuate : therefore our ●●●ctions must be suited and mixed accordingly . as if it stand with gods glorie , to punish nadab and abihu with fire from heauen , for offering strange fire vnto god ; aaron , their father , must preferre gods glorie before the good of his family , and in silence submit to the will of god. though nehemiah for his owne priuate be in good case ; yet because the house of his god lyes waste : therefore , though he stand before such a monarch , as would not endure any such melancholy passion ; yet his sad countenance must needes bewray his affection to his god , and compassion with his distressed and desolate church . yea , such must be our holy wisedome and temper herein ; as that seeing the publike must be preferred before the priuate : therefore , though our priuate case be safe , and yeeld vs sound matter of reioycing ; yet wee must withall be sorrowfull for the publike : yea , our particular ioy must giue way thereto : and though in priuate it goe ill with vs ; yet wee must reioyce in the publike good , and be comforted in our particular distresse , by the confideration of the publike welfare of the church of god. thus of the obiect of our affections , and rules therein . now , concerning the end of all our holy desires ; this is sutable to the obiect , euen the glorie of god , and saluation of the soule , subordinate thereunto : and so the rules are also accordingly . a second generall rule there is concerning our affections ; that as they must bee informed by knowledge , so they must be bounded thereby : reaching onely so farre vnto their obiects , aa the word alloweth . our desires must bee subordinate to the will of god , all tending to holinesse , and building forward to heauen . and hence ariseth a third rule , that as ou● affections are , so wee shall profit in the word , and holy duties . and therefore wee should labour not so much for knowledge , which may puffe vp , as for good affections , which may so humble vs in our selues , as withall they may quicken to well-doing . and hence ariseth a fourth rule , that as the affection is , so will be the acceptance of our seruice . it is not the thing done , but the chearefull minde that god accepts , 2. cor. 8. 12. 2. cor. 9. 11. and this affordeth also another comfortable rule , that as god accepteth the will for the deed ; so though wee faile in the outward act , yet it is the good affection , that shall stand in stead thereof . it is enough for abraham , to be willing to sacrifice his sonne . this is the triall of his faith ; this is the deliuerance of his sonne , and the confirmation of the couenant , genes . 22. & 2. cor. 8. 12. and hence also ariseth another sweet and comfortable rule , that whereas our affections , as all other parts , are but in part regenerate ; so that in the best temper and measure of grace , in the well-ordering of any of them , there will be a mixtu●● of that which is 〈◊〉 with that which is ●●●●●tuall : heere therefore wee must be wise , to dis cerne betweene thinges that differ : and so to iudge of the sinceritie of our affections ; not as they are not mingled at all with contrary tincture ( for this it must be , for the euidence and tryall of their sinceritie , in discerning and mastering of them : ) but rather by that which is predominant in this mixture , which preuayles in the end ; first , by drawing vs neerer vnto god in holinesse ; secondly , by most abasing vs in our selues ; thirdly , by enabling vs to more conscionable practice of diuine worship ; fourthly , by making vs more profitable to the saints , for the encrease of christs kingdome . as for example : all our affections must ayme at loue , and be ordered thereby ; that must bee predominant : and so sorrow must be subordinate to ioy , feare to hope , &c. a seuenth rule concerning our affections , is , that wee bee wise to distinguish betweene our affections themselues , and the seuerall tentations that doe accompanie them , and are shrowded vnder them . because , as in the wicked euery affection being wholly impure , is nothing else but a masse of tentations ; all inciting to euill , all hindering from goodnesse : so also in the godly , being but partly regenerate , the purest affections want not their mixture , as of corruption , so of tentation arising thereupon : which vsually is eyther so like the affection it selfe , or so ouer-shadoweth the same , as wee can hardly discerne the tentation , and colour , from the affection and puritie thereof , in the time of tentation . and therefore learne wee thus to distinguish betweene the affection and tentation , accompanying the same . first , as it was in the trauaile of rebecca , that esau came out first , and iacob afterward ; so vsually it falleth out in the trauaile of our affections . the prophane motion will vsually peepe out first : the flesh will first seeke it selfe , that so it may preuent the onset of grace , and quash it in the beginning and first quickening of the affection . and this falleth out either for want of due preparation to the dutie , in curbing the flesh , and tying the asse , when we goe to sacrifice . or though we be neuer so well prepared , satan will now put in , by stirring vp corruption , to dampe the fruit in the first peeping out thereof . and the wise and gracious god , by this impudencie of the flesh , stirres vp the spirit to a more glorious resistance , by an earnest setting of the heart on god , and crauing his assistance , by confounding the flesh , and stripping it of all confidence and partnership in the w●●ke , that so hee may haue all the glorie . and therefore the rules herein are , first , to distrust our affections in the first motions to good ; secondly , to examine and trie them by the word , to refine , and quicken them in the bloud of christ. a second rule , to discerne the tentation from the affection , is the constancie thereof . for if the affection hold one to the obiect ; and is the more inflamed thereon , the more it is opposed : if it recouer it coolings , and faintings , and so encrease and hold out , to the accomplishment of the worke ; this is a signe of the sinceritie thereof . but if it faint and vanish , and yeeld to the opposition , then it is carnall , & swallowed vp of the tentation ; vnlesse it be in time of tentation . a third rule herein is , that if the affection begin in weakenesse , and so encreaseth by practise of holinesse ; then it is spirituall : but if be sudden and hote at the first , and feele no encrease by the ordinances of god , but rather quayleth in the vse of them ; then it is rather the tentation , then the power of the affection . a fourth rule herein is , that if the affection out-last the action : eyther if it be accomplished , yet still we desire to better it ; or if it fayle , yet still it is more kindled to recouer againe ; this is a signe of the inward life thereof . but if it giue ouer with the action , eyther ending in the thing done , or quayling , because of the thing vndone ; this rather is the power of tentation , doting vpon the outward action , then the power of affection , approuing it selfe vnto god , and not measuring it selfe by the successe of the action , eyther way , but by the loue of god discerning inward and generall obedience . a fift rule hitherto is , that if our affection hath a sound ground , and rely on the word ; then are they spirituall : but if eyther ignorantly or superstitiously they are carried to any obiect ; this is rather the power of tentation , then the rectitude of the affection . 6. and so if our affection carries vs by indirect meanes , here we may suspect the strength of tentation . 7. especially , if they draw vs to contrary ends , this argueth plainely the power of tentation , and conuinceth manifestly the corruption of the affection . thus may we discerne betweene the tentation , and affection . and these are the rules concerning the right iudgement of our affections . and so of such directions as concerne the right ordering of them . chap. v. how to order affections for our selues . vnto which we may adde these rules , for the more holy ordering , and so benefiting , by them : as also for the tryall of sinceritie therein . whereof some concerne our selues : as that , first , when the case concerneth our selues , we must euer learne to suspect our owne opinion , and affection : as being ouer-weened with eonceit of our selues , and so subiect to much selfe-loue and deceit in our selfeiudgement . secondly , we must labour more for affection , then for knowledge ; because knowledge puffeth vp , and so causes barrennesse ; but affections humble , and prouoke to obedience : by the one , wee may rule others , but by these , rule our selues . thirdly , we must make our affections as little knowne in companie as may be ; so did ioseph : because the discouerie of affection causeth imputation of hypocrisie from others vnto vs , and causeth occasion of offence , by peruerting them to the flesh from vs vnto others . fourthly , we must trie our affections hereby , that if they make vs lesse fit to pray , more vnable to doe the good we should , lesse careful to auoid sinne , then they are euill : but when on the contrary , they can prouoke vs to well doing , preuent sinne ; thē they are quickned frō gods grace . fiftly , if whatsoeuer we haue in the iudgement , we haue also in the affection , endeuouring to practise as we know , and so desiring still to know more that we may practise ; this argues the sinceritie of our affections . thus they are to be ordered : because this implyes the subiection of the will and heart , and so of the whole man , to the obedience of christ iesus . sixtly , hereby also we shal discerne the sinceritie of our affections : if as by nature wee enclined to one vice more then another ; so now wee are more affected to the contrarie vertue . as if by nature we were more disposed to choler and fumes ; so now we are more affected to peaceablenesse and meekenesse . if naturally wee were more enclined to slouth ; so now wee are more actiue and diligent in good things . seuenthly , yea this is a notable tryall hereof , that whereas naturally we were furious , and violent to euill , wee can be now more zealous and feruent in good : whereas before we were more obstinate and desperate in euill , we can be now more constant and resolute for good : whereas before we were more desperate , in vnnecessarie and wilfull troubles , we can be now more couragious and victorious in those that are layd vpon vs , for good things . if the more violent our affections were to euill by nature , the more feruent they shall be in the worke of grace ; this is a certaine token of the true change of them . the reason hereof is , because vsually whom the lord conuerteth from a more desperate estate of sinne : as hereby they are more bound vnto him ; so shal they expresse what he aymeth at herein : namely , to be more iealous of his glory , to labour more abundantly therefore . thus as the apostle paul was more violent in persecuting the saints ; so was hee more zealous for the glory of his god : so did he labour more abundantly then the rest , for the aduancement thereof , 1. tim. 1. 17. thus , because much was forgiuen to that great sinner , therefore much more did shee loue ; the more shee had offended her god before , the more did shee labour to please him afterward , luk. 7. 47. eightly , whereas the triall of sinceritie in generall is , that god must be preferred aboue all things , aboue all earthly things whatsoeuer , yea aboue all heauenly things , as they concern vs , or any interest we haue therein : we must respect god simply for himselfe , & for that goodnes that is in him , without any respect of whatsoeuer benefit may redound to vs thereby . therefore by this rule also we may trie the sinceritie of our affections : that as they come more neerly to the nature and absolutenesse of god ; so they are more pure and heauenly : that as god loued vs for his own sake , & not for ours ; so wee can loue him for his owne sake , and not for any benefite redounds vnto vs hereby : nay , rather then we will fayle in our loue vnto him , and his glorie , wee can be contented to renounce all loue vnto our selues ; not onely to suffer whatsoeuer afflictions for his sake , but euen to bee accursed , rather then he should be dis-honoured , rom. 9. 12. exod . 32. so because our sinne it is , which displeaseth god , and it is the punishment that may displease vs : if therefore wee can grieue simply for our sinnes , because our god is grieued with them , and not rather for the punishment wherby we are like to smart : being rather willing , if it could be put to our choise , to vndergoe euen hellish torments , so we might be free from sinne , whereby we may offend our god ; then to enioy heauen , with condition of impuritie : so , that though there were no hell to punish , nor heauen to reward vs ; yet wee could hate sinne , and loue righteousnesse . this is a very gracious euidence of the sinceritie of our affections : hereby wee may know a great measure of gods grace in the mortifying of our affections , and quickening of them to the life of glory . ninthly , concerning our affections to euill : because they are like the waters , that if the floud-gates be open , grow headstrong and vnresistable ; therefore we are to nip them in the blade , nay , if it be possible , stifle them in the wombe , lest they grow so violent , as that they cannot be mastered . but touching good affections , because they are like the morning light , that shineth more and more vnto the perfect day ; therefore they are to bee cherished dayly , and quickened by the word , and prayer : that so they may master not onely our corrupt desires , but also bring in subiection all our gifts of illumination . yea , all other sauing graces may be turned as it were into affections ; that the zeale of gods house may euen eate vs vp : nothing may bee seene , in comparison of our affections ; these may preuayle and raigne ouer all . 7. as wee must take notice of this , that wee are subiect to one affection more then another . first , in regard of our different condition : as in prosperitie , to pride , anger , vncharitablenesse , &c. and so in aduersitie , to feare , impatiencie , despaire , &c. secondly , and so in regard of our naturall different disposition , by reason of complexion and education , societie , &c. thirdly , as also in regard of our different callings , as to couetousnesse , ambition , deceit , &c. so in regard hereof know we , that it is a good signe of grace to discerne the predominancie of the speciall affection , so that we labour principally against the same , auoyding the occasions lawfully , and strengthening our selues , by the contrarie meanes to subdue and weaken the power thereof . 8. if we can turne all the graces of god into affections , as to heare with feare and ioy , to pray with feruencie and zeale , to giue almes cheerefully ; so that indeede the whole action is swallowed vp of the affection , and conuerted thereunto . tenthly , whereas euery regenerate man consists of two contrary parts , namely , the new man , which is renewed according to the image of christ ; and the old man , that remainder of corruption which wee haue receiued from adam : the condition of both which is , that they are alwayes striuing against each other ; the spirit lusteth against the flesh ; and , the flesh lusteth against the spirit : so according to this continuall combate , the affections are to be ordered , and tried . as first for the ordering of them : the affections of the vnregenerate part must be alwayes led and ordered by those of the regenerate ; our loue of earthly things , directed by , and subordinate to our loue of the heauenly ; our feare of punishment ordered and subdued to our feare of god and his goodnesse . secondly , for the triall of our affections , here also the rule is , that seeing wee are but in part regenerate ; therefore our affections are then most sutable , when wee can expresse contrarie affections about the same action . as first , that we can reioyce in our god , and his goodnesse , and yet grieue that we are not answerable thereto ; that we cannot comprehend the measure thereof , that we cannot walke worthie the same . secondly , that we can so grieue for sinne , as that wee can also reioyce in this , that wee doe by vnfained sorrow testifie our obedience vnto god , our hatred of sinne , and our endeuour to repentance : that wee can so feare our god , and his goodnesse , as withall we can hope and trust in his mercie , and rely thereupon . the reason hereof is , that as by the one affection we iustifie our regeneration in part ; so by the other contrarie , wee conuince and mortifie the vnregenerate . by both , thus contending with each other in the same action , we approue the truth thereof in the presence of god , and so labour for the acceptance of it aboue the worth thereof , in the merit of christ , and we also maintaine the spirituall combate betweene the flesh and the spirit . 9. if our affections run more vpon heauenly then earthly things , and wee can begin our desires for earthly things from a spirituall ground , and so can vse them with a spirituall desire , still to thriue in grace , and to a spirituall end , namely , to further vs to heauen ; this is an argument of the circumcising thereof : thus may wee learne to order them aright . 10. our affections must begin from our selues to others ; and from others , returne vnto our selues againe . 11. wee must labour to quicken and order our affections , by prayer , singing , and meditation especially . 12. in most weightiest occasions , we must especially watch ouer our affections , because now satan will by them peruert vs herein . 13. our affection must be sutable to the qualitie of the obiect , and hence to be rightly iudged . concerning others , our affections are to bee ordered thus towards men. first , according to the diuersitie of gods graces in them , so must wee affect accordingly , and not according to outward endowments of nature , or worldly happinesse . for this is to haue respect of persons ; and so is condemned , iam. 2 , 3 , 4. act. 10. 34 , 35. secondly , according to present necessitie ; so wee must affect those that are in greatest present want , howsoeuer farre inferiour in grace to others , that are not in such extremitie : and out of our tender compassion , minister present reliefe vnto them ; that so it may appeare , wee doe it for gods sake , and not vpon any goodnesse in them : expecting our recompence from the lord ; which we are like to loose from men . thirdly , whereas there are some callings on earth which doe in some sort represent the maiestie and office of god : as the calling of the magistrate , minister , &c. therefore herein also there must be a wise ordering of our affections . as that , howsoeuer , in generall , we must affect where there be best graces ; yet now , if the case stand betweene a magistrate , though wicked , and a priuate christian : wee must more affect the magistrate , because he is the image of gods maiestie , power , &c. and in regard of his place and office , is to execute the will of god , whether for good or euill , and so is an image of gods free and absolute power . i say , in these respects we must more lone , feare , and regard the magistrate , then any priuate christian howsoeuer , superiour in spirituall graces . the reasons are : first , because the outward calling of the magistrate , and such gifts as may concerne the same , is that which the lord in wisdome hath set ouer not onely the persons of priuate men , but euen their best gifts also , either to reward them for the good they doe , or else to punish them for the euill they doe : yea , to correct them also for the good they may doe , because they haue fayled in the measure thereof : so that , wherein we thinke we haue most cause to spurne at gouernment , because happily it layes the burthen vpon the wrong horse , vexing the doues , and acquitting the crowes , as hee sayth . yet herein we haue greatest cause to loue the magistrate : as not onely being herein an image of the diuine prouidence , in bearing with the wicked in great patience , and correcting his children ; but also expressing herein the diuine goodnesse : first , of his generall prouidence to the wicked , in sparing them ; and therein , his speciall prouidence to the godly , in sparing the wicked , for the triall of his children ; and so of his goodnesse herein to his saints , in correcting them here , that they may not be condemned hereafter ; and so of his speciall prouidence to the wicked , in hardning them by his patience to the day of slaughter . the like may bee said concerning the faithfull minister : that whereas hee is the interpreter , one of a thousand , to declare vnto man his righteousnesse , iob. 33. 22. yea , is so gracious with god , as both to be the mouth of god vnto the people , the lord reuealing his will for our saluation , by their ministerie ; aa also to bee the mouth of the people vnto god , both to obtaine blessings for them , and also to remooue iudgements from them , exod. 32. so that if hee doe not pray for them , the lord will not heare their prayers , ierem. 14. 11 , 12. if he pray for them , the lord will be gracious , and pardon their offences . and so hee is , as the chariots and horsemen of israel , to preserue the land from desolation , and maintaine the peace thereof . therefore as these are worthie of double honour , 1. tim. 5. 17. so wee must affect them accordingly , as those which watch ouer our soules , and must giue vp their account for vs , that so they may giue it vp with ioy , and not with griefe , heb. 13. 18. yea , howsoeuer the person of the minister may be exorbit●●t and scandalous ; yet in regard of his calling , wee are bound to heare him : and if wee affect him not , we cannot profite by him ; ●hee may benefite vs , though himselfe be reproued , 1. cor. 9. yea , with the apostle : if christ be preached , whether of enuie , or uaine-glorie , or any such by-respects ; yet wee must reioyce in the truth , and the rather embrace the same , as hauing herein a gracious triall of our sinceriti● : that wee receiue the word , not with respect of persons , for the uessels sake ; but as from the lord , 1. thess. 2. 13. and in obedience to his ordinance . as also , hauing matter to exercise our spirituall wisdome , in discerning things that differ : to seuer the truth of the word from the scandals of the parson ; to trie all things , and hold that which is good , 1. thess. 5. yea , herein wee haue singular matter to exercise our loue ; both in praying for his parson , that god may make him more profitable : and so mourning for his defects , as that by our meekenesse and humilitie wee seeke by all holy meanes to winne him to more faithfulnesse , by being faithfull in the obedience of that truth which hee hath deliuered : as knowing , that our sinne is the cause that our pastour is so defectiue . and therefore mourne wee especially for our owne sinnes ; so wee may giue him example to doe the like , or else make him herein inexcusable . which as it reproueth the giddinesse of our people , which heape vp teachers vnto themselues , according to their owne lusts , forsaking and disgracing those whom god hath set ouer them , vpon pretence of their insufficiencie of gifts , or other defects ; so it ought to aduise vs , to be humbled for our owne sinnes , when any such stumbling blockes are offered . assuring our selues , that if wee can truely examine and compare , not out vaine and presumptuous affections after the most eminent gifts , but our measure of profiting answerable to the meanest gifts in truth , wee shall find , if wee deale truely with our owne hearts ( may i not speake of those that presume most in this case ) that wee are generally to learne the very first grounds of religion , heb. 5. 11. and so are short of answering the meanest gifts . and so may iustly feare , that whereas we would be generally thought better then wee are , as being ashamed that we haue been so short in answering so long and gracious time of our visitation : therefore god hath giuen vs vp to this presumption , to iudge of our teachers , that wee may iustifie our selues , and so to this wandring and hunting after those , as we take it , of the best gifts ; that so , by following them inordinately , wee may be conceited to be that wee are not , men of greater vnderstanding , of more spirituall experience , as being able to reach and attayne to their measure , and so thereby be further hardened in our owne ignorance and corruptions . thirdly , our affections to others , must be deriued from our affection to our selues : we must begin at home , and so be enlarged abroad ; so loue others , out of loue to our selues ; so to be zealous against others sinnes , as to begin at home , &c. and secondly , our affections to others must returne home againe : if by grieuing for others sinnes , we can doe little good vpon them , let our griefe returne home for our owne sinnes ; yea , let vs be grieued , that they are not grieued . fourthly , our affections to others must be alwayes bounded within the rules of the word , & the glory of god : we must so affect the saluation of others , as may stand with gods glorie , with the good of his church , according to his word . we must so grieue for their sinnes , as that we submit to gods will , and not hinder our callings , 1. sam. 16. 1. we must so pitie them , as not to harden them in sinne , not to pamper them in wantonnesse , &c. secondly , towards god. for the right ordering of our affections toward god , this generall rule must be obserued , that there are some affections which properly and only belong vnto him : as trust and hope ; these are peculiar onely to the lord : so that it is high treason to that supreme maiestie , to transferre them to any other . as for trust : onely in the lord ; not in princes , not any , psal. 146. 2 , 3. so for hope : onely in god ; not in man. the meaning is , not that wee must not trust them , that is , yeeld some ciuile credit to them , as to their words , to their actions , &c. in regard of temporall things , nor that wee must not hope well of them in charitie , 1. cor. 13. in regard of spirituall , because we know not the contrarie : but wee must not repose any religious confidence in them concerning saluation ; neyther hope in them , as being able to effect the s●me : in which sense wee here speake of these affections . a second rule is , that though some affections respect our selues & others , yet they must be subordinate to our respect of god. our affections to god must be without limitation : wee cannot loue him enough , we cannot feare him too much ; so farre as possibly wee may , our affections must be enlarged proportionably to the obiect ; they must be boundlesse , and endlesse , as the obiect is . but those to our neighbor must be confined within their limits , both subordinate to god ; and secondly , as our callings , and the condition of the party doth require , with reference still to gods glory . chap. vi. of the benefit of the right vse of holy affections . first , hereby wee shall be sure to profit and thriue in all well-doing : for as the thing is affected , so it is encreased and continued . secondly , hereby wee shal discerne vndoubtedly the true worke of grace begun in vs ; for as is the affection , so is the truth of the heart : looke what we loue , what we feare , what we reioyce in , what we are sorrie for ; these will discerne the vprightnesse of the heart . thirdly , hereby also wee shall approoue our selues in the growth of grace : for as our affections are more quickened to holy duties , as we more loue and reioyce in them , as we more feare and hope in the continuance of them , as wee are more grieued in our selues for our fayling , are more zealous against sinne , more angrie against it ; so wee doe thriue in well-doing . and fourthly , so also by our affections wee may discerne our perseuerance , and constancie , in well-doing ; each of them being furtherances thereunto , and assurances thereof . fiftly , our affections rightly ordered , will enable vs to haue more comfortable fellowship with god in prayer , meditation , &c. as quickening our zeale of his glorie , our loue vnto his maiestie ; procuring our more free and bold accesse into his glorious presence , our more entire and cheerefull societie with him , our better contentment in his prouidence ; enabling vs with more patience to wait vpon him , and so to striue more effectually with him , that we may not be sent emptie away . sixtly , these also well ordered , will proue gracious helpes for our more comfortable societie with men , to our mutuall profite and aduantage : as whereby , first , wee are enabled and enlarged to doe them most good . secondly , and so hereby fitted to maintaine the fellowship , as being enabled to ouercome whatsoeuer euills may arise , to the breach thereof , with our patience and meekenesse : and so fitted to further each other to the heauenly communion . seuenthly , especially whereas there are three speciall times , wherein our affections are not onely much distempered , but euen quite peruerted , so farre as wee can perceiue , from their right obiects , and vse ; namely , first , the time of desertion ; when our god with-draweth the light of his countenance from vs. secondly , the time of violent distresse ; by reason of acute diseases : as in feuers , power of melancholy , &c. thirdly , the time of vehement tentation ; by the malice of satan . in all these , as wee must bee wise to iudge of our affections , and our selues by them ; so wee may reape sound comfort thereby , both to preuent distraction and despaire , as also giue hope of recouerie thereout . as first , generally , that our affections must not be measured by any of these extraordinarie conditions ; wee may not bee iudged by the distemper of our affection in them . first , because the distemper is contrarie to the maine bent of our hearts , in our ordinarie course of sanctification : and , secondly , when wee come to our selues againe , and can iudge rightly of things , wee are the first that iudge our selues , and condemne our folly and ignorance in such distem pers : and ps. 73. 22. thirdly , our god lookes vpon vs , not as wee are transported with these distempers , but as he hath from euerlasting loued vs in christ , and in his singular wisedome and mercie , hath intended to turne our distem pers , as to the manifestation of our priuie corruption ; as it was in iob , cap. 3. so to the purging out of more inward and dangerous euils ; of pride , vaineglorie , &c. and so to the aduancing of his free mercie , and goodnesse , not onely in sustayning vs by his mightie power , in these desertions ; but in ouer-comming our distempers , by his wonderfull lenitie and goodnesse : as hee dealt with ionas ; and making way hereby , for the better quieting and settling of our vnruly and carnall heat and affections , for the time to come , by casting vs wholly out of our selues vpon his free mercie in christ iesus , and so renewing vs in him to more constant and sincere obedience . and so not so much respecting the present disorder of the affection , as preparing it hereby to that comfortable issue of conformitie to his will , that so hee may crowne and perfect his owne worke in vs ; meerely , for his owne sake , by his owne mightie arme , that hee may haue the onely glory of all his mercies . particularly , we may obserue a speciall hand of god in each of these occasions : as first , in the case of desertion . and here let the examples of iob and dauid be the instance of our case . it pleased god for a time to withdraw the sense of his mercy from them , and so to exercise them with contrarie buffettings and sense of his displeasure , iob. 6. 2. ps. 38. 4 , 5. ps. 77. 8. hereupon followes a strange distemper of their affections : in stead of ioy , bitter sorrow ; yea , sorrow prouoking to rage , and repining against the prouidence of god : whereby they encreased the burthen , and were readie to sinke vnder the same , by despaire . yet we see how mercifully the lord sustaines them in the midst of these terrors . first , it befalls not them as they foolishly feare , and wish . secondly , they are kept in some measure of sobrietie , to leaue the secret worke to god : yea , in some measure of fatth , as to relye on the power of god : yea , in some measure , nay , in an excellent measure of loue ; though hee forsaketh , yet he is still my god , ps. 22. and therfore dauid concludeth , will the lord forsake for euer ? not so much doubting , that he will forsake ; as wrestling with god by faith , that hee may not forsake for euer : as gathering from the former times , that he hath beene gracious ; and so concluding , from the faithfulnesse of god , that he will not forsake for euer . yea , victorious iob professeth confidently his loue vnto god , euen in the greatest extremitie , though he kill me , yet i will trust in him , iob. 16. 13. and lastly , when the lord hath tryed them in the furnace , and their drosse is purged out , their affections returne to their right kind againe , yea , much more refined ; to the denyall of themselues , and so to their more sober and constant furtherance in the worke of grace , iob. 42. 2 , 3 , 4. secondly , concerning the distemper of our affections in acute diseases : wherein if satan hath not vsually an hand , to encrease the fire ; yet the violence of the disease is sufficient to disorder and peruert the iudgement for a time , and so to distract and distemper the affections . yet seeing wee speake and doe that in these extremities , which is contrarie to our former constant course ; and when wee are recouered , wee eyther haue forgotten what wee did , or spake , or else doe condemne our selues for the same : herein is our comfort , that our god will not impute vnto vs what hath fallen out in this case . and so wee may also conclude of the time of tentation , that whatsoeuer distempers fall out in this case , as they are mercifully bounded within the generall condition , that nothing hath befallen vs herein , but what is incident to man ; so their disorder shall not be imputed to vs , but to the malice of satan . and the lord in mercy will giue that issue , as that we shall both beare the burthen without groaning vnder it , and be freed thereof so farre , as shall make for his glorie , and our good . but of this else-where , god willing , more at large . eightly , whereas it is a most desperate policie in poperie , to detayne vnstable and deceiued soules in their damnable errors , and so to draw such like nouices to their lure : that if it please god to affoord light vnto any , whereby they haue some inckling of their deceits , and so haue some inward motion , or affection , to renounce the same , and embrace the truth ; they presently suggest vnto them , that this is a dangerous tentation , and diuellish illusion : that so they might hereby deterre them from embracing the same , and so detayne them in their egyptian bondage . this triall of affections will proue an excellent meanes to resolue them herein . for as by those rules formerly layd downe , to discerne the affection from the tentation , they may easily discerne the truth of affection from the power of delusion : so especially , in that sauing knowledge , is layd downe both to bee the ground and bounds of all holy affections ; hereby they shall be sure to discerne the efficacie of delusion from an vpright affection . and so also , by a wise obseruation of these differences , may the weake christian bee preserued graciously from apostasie ; as hereby knowing what hee holdeth , and so holding that which is good . to conclude , there is not a better euidence of the sinceritie of the heart , then the well-ordering of the affections : because howsoeuer wee may bridle from outward grosse actions , yet our affections will discouer the corruption of our heart , and in●lination thereto . and on the other side , howsoeuer wee may be hindered from the outward action of well-doing , by many occasions , as want of opportunitie , violence of tentation , inabilitie , and the like ; yet our affection thereto , either by grieuing that we cannot doe it , or going so farre as our abilitie will serue , or endeuouring aboue our abilitie , is a gracious euidence of the sinceritie of our hearts . nay , we shall find , that there is not a better spurre to prouoke vs to well-doing ; not any more effectuall bridle to restrayne from sinne , then are our affections . for as if wee doe any good , we must first be affected with the loue of it , before we can attempt the same : or else if wee doe vndertake it vpon by-respects , as to please men , to satisfie carnall ends ; we shall easily giue ouer when these proppes fayle , onely it is the loue of goodnesse , for it selfe , will make vs constant therein : so , on the contrarie , wee shall neuer forsake euill conscionably , vnlesse wee first hate it for it selfe , and loathe as wel the corruption thereof , as feare the danger of the same . if vpon any other respects wee shall leaue sinne , as for feare of punishment , for credite , &c. these respects will proue meanes sometimes euen to returne to such sinnes , or worse ; which haue beene the occasions to lay them aside for a season . and therefore as it is the mercie of our god to shew vs oft times in our affections what we may doe in our actions : so it is also his singular goodnesse , to forewarne vs of many euills which wee may otherwise fall into , euen by the sway of our affections leading thereunto . what should i say ? can we haue a better euidence of the truth of our conuersion , then the alteration of our affections ? can wee now delight in such thinges , which before wee loathed ? and can we grieue especially at that , which heretofore was our principall reioycing ? can we delight in the mortifying of the flesh ? and reioyce that wee can sorrow for sinne ? and can we so reioyce in all spirituall comforts , as that we can also be sorrowfull for our abuse of them ? so that we can be alwayes sorrowing , and alwayes reioycing : reioycing in our god , and his goodnesse ; sorrowing , that wee cannot reioyce as we should ; that we cannot doe the good we would : reioycing in this , that wee haue got the masterie of some sinnes ; and yet sorrowing for our many faylings , and faintings euen in those conquests , & for that body of sin , that hangeth so fast vpon vs ? can we discerne our affections thus turned vpside down ? out ioy into sorrow , our sorrow into ioy , that so our carnall ioy in sinne may bee first swallowed vp of carnall sorrow for the punishment thereof : and our carnall sorrow may be preuented of extreame despaire , by the glad tidings of gods mercie in iesus christ , speaking peace vnto our soules , and breeding spirituall ioy by the euidence of our adoption . and so our ioy in the goodnesse of our god may still worke in vs a spirituall sorrow and repentance of all our secure wayes , that so wee may cleaue vnto our god in new obedience : and so still as wee can now reioyce in the truth of our endeuours ; so wee can also mourne for the imperfection of them ; that so wee may still labour to be found in christ. surely , by these changes and contrarieties of our affections , wee may vndoubtedly conclude a truth of our conuersion , and proceeding therein . a case of conscience , here to bee resolued , whether it be an argument of vnsanctified affections to be more placed on earthly then heauenly things . the resolution hereof consists in a wise distinction of our affections : which may be considered eyther as they are mixt , and so they are at the best ; or , as they are predominant , and so the better part preuayles against the worse . take them as they are mixt : and so because the corrupt part first breakes out , and so is more sensible , and so still accompanies the better part in the processe of the worke , and will haue a fling euen in the issue , to share with god , and rob him of his glory ; and so though happily the intention and purpose bee to the best , and in the issue of it , may prooue best to the confounding of the flesh : yet in regard of the appearance of that of flesh , as being more naturall and sensible to a carnall eye ; it may bee coniectured , that the affection is more vpon that which is carnall , then that which is spirituall . especially if wee consider , that as earthly things haue a present and necessarie vse in all occasions ; so bring they a kinde of warrant with them : as to vse them , so to affect them , that so we may take comfort in them ; and by this comfort be prouoked vnto thankfulnesse . so that thus to affect , is not to affect them as earthly , but as heauenly things ; as turned to the right end , and being good foundations and euidences to a better life . 1. tim. 6. 19. onely the triall is in the setting of the affection , and resting of the same in these earthly things , psal. 62. 10. col. 3. 2. it is one thing to affect euen the meanest things , as gods blessings , which wee are to receiue cheerefully , and returne thankfully vnto our god. and another thing , to set the affections vpō thē , that is , first , to rest in the thing , not in the giuer thereof . secondly , so to rest in the present , as we place happinesse heerein , and not make it a step to a further happinesse . thirdly , so to giue way vnto these affections , for the possessing of our hearts , as that either we leaue no roome for spirituall obiects , but are wholly taken vp with desire and pursuit of earthly things , or so to diuide our hearts to the entertainment of these diuers obiects , as that either they doe equally share in our desires ; we are indifferent to either , wee can serue god and mammon alike , wee can be as eager , take as great delight in the prosecuting and enioying of these , as the other . or else , as it vsually fails out , that if once wee grow to this equall partition , the handmaid will shortly perke aboue the mistresse , the carnall obiect will preuaile aboue the spirituall , and so wee shall labour more for the meat that perisheth , then for that which endureth for euer . thus to set our affections vpon earthly things , is indeed to giue more roome in our hearts for the world , then god , and so to exclude god , in regard of the world ; and this is carnall and diuellish . but so to affect earthly things , as to make them steps to higher blessings , as to acknowledge our faithfulnesse in the least , because god loues a cheerefull giuer , and husband of his meanest blessings , is indeed in earthly things to affect heauenly : the resolution rests in the meanes , and end of affecting these things ; that if we prosecute our affections by holy meanes , and subordinate still these thinges to better ; wee may affect them lawfully , and thereby affect the better . this is to liue by faith , and not by sense , euen in outward things . this is to reioyce in god , and not in the things themselues . this is to lay vp a good foundation against the day of christ , 1. tim. 6. 19. 20. especially if wee consider these two things . first , that the lord conueyes vnto vs euen the most spirituall blessings , by outward and carnall meanes ; as the word , by an earthen vessell ; the sacraments , by outward elements . and secondly , that wee receiue such blessings by the ministerie of the flesh ; as by hearing the word , eating the bread , &c. which , as the wisedome of god , no doubt , hath intended , for the humbling of the flesh , that it should not rest in the outward instrument , but in the inward operation of the spirit ; so also hath it his especiall worke for the triall of the spirit , that it leads vs from that which is obuious to sense , to that which is apprehended by faith : that so being in the flesh , yet wee may not liue after it , but rather vse the flesh for the mortifying of the flesh . as that , if wee were not flesh , we should not be thus led along with rudiments and elements , to the capacitie thereof ; and because wee are thus led with elements , therefore the lord hauing now supplyed our infancie and weakenesse , wee should not bee weakelings still , needing milke , &c. but rather grow on to strength , and power of grace , that so wee may digest the strongest meat . the summe of all is : the wicked affect heauenly thinges with an earthly appetite , and so all things are impure vnto them : the godly affect earthly thinges with an heauenly appetite , and so all thinges are pure vnto them . the wicked affect heauenly things for earthly thinges sake , and so all become earthly vnto them : the godly affect earthly things for heauenly things sake , and so all things become heauenly . the godly find a loathsomenesse in affecting earthly things , and so are prouoked to hunger after heauenly ; the wicked find a loathsomenesse in affecting heauenly things , and so rather seeke to quench their thirst in the puddle of earthly pleasure : the godly findea want of heauenly things , and so still affect the best graces ; the wicked are neuer satisfied with earthly things , and so still tyre themselues in pursuit after them . so that it is the predominancie of the affection , that determines the right ordering thereof . whereupon it settles most , wherein it sets vp it rest : how it subordinates the inferiour to the superiour , and aymes at the chiefest end , euen the glorie of god , and saluation of the soule . and secondly , it is the issue of the affection , that approoues the sinceritie thereof . if god giue salomon aboundance of earthly things , and hee giue his heart to seeke out pleasure , and contentment therein : yet , if vpon experience of the vanitie and insufficiencie of these things , to content the minde , hee renounce these carnall delights , yea , euen what is good in them , in regard of the end that doth accompanie the same , and so soare vp higher by this experience , to the highest good ; is not this the right vse of all earthly desires ? is not this to sanctifie euen these desires of earthly thinges , by making them whetstones , to quicken heauenly affections , and so to settle them more firmely vpon durable and proportionable obiects ? finis . to the christian reader . according to my promise , in my last treatise of the gouernment of the thoughts ; i haue now supplyed thee ( deare christian ) with some further directions for the well-ordering and subduing of thy vnruly and rebellious affections : a taske as so much the more difficult , then the former , of ruling the thoughts , by how much carnall reason and fleshly wisedome , beares more sway heerein , and so giues more strength and warrant to the excesses thereof : so in this respect also the more necessarie to be vndertaken , as being that wherein euen the best doe much faile in the wise temper thereof , and yet are very hardly brought to discerne their aberrations therein . for what one the one side through the ignorance of the right obiects whereon our affections are to be placed , and the right measure of proportion to their obiects : and on the other side , by reason of such collusions of carnall wisedome , making good our distempers therein : very lamentable it is to obserue how easily many , other wise good men , haue beene miserably transported into these aberrations either in the excesse or defect . as also how hardly they haue beene reclaimed to the right temper againe : nay , not so much as to discerne wherein they haue fallen . may we not obserue both these true in ionas his case ? how easily fel he through ignorance , and selfe loue into a violent fit of rage , and how hardly was he reduced to see his error heerein . that which he should haue reioyced in , in the truth of iudgement , that the lord had mercie vpon that people , voiced to destruction : wee see proues an occasion , through spirituall pride and selse-loue blinding of him ; that i say , proued a meanes to make him euen burst with anger , not sparing god himselfe in his rage and furie : and with what great patience doth the glorious lord seeke to allay his heat ? how hardly is he brought , so much as to the sight of his distemper , but that he is still ready to iustifie his fumes , though it were to the condemning of god himselfe ? the like we might exemplifie in the other affections . and had wee not then great neede of some light to further vs heerein , both that we may see our owne errors heerein , and also be gratiously enabled to moderate the same . accept then i pray you my endeauour heerein : and in the feare of god make vse of such directions as are afforded hereunto . i doubt not but as thou shalt perceiue a right ayme heerein , so thou wilt not measure the truth of god by my infirmities , but rather take occasion heereby to glorifie god the more , if that his power shall any whit shine throughout such mists of humane corruption . in the conclusion of my last booke howsoeuer i may be censured to giue way to too much passion , yet for mine owne part , i blesse god with my soule , for giuing mee so much patience , as that when i might haue righted my selfe by deeds to the vtter wracke of such who haue sought by slaunders and desperate practises my vtter vndoing . it hath pleased my gratious god so to guide me therein , as only to giue them a generall item of their wicked designes , that so they may be brought to repentance : which as i doe heartily pray for , so my endeauour by gods mercie shall be to watch ouer my affections with more heede and resolution : that so i may keepe my peace more comfortably with my god , howsoeuer i make account still to be more and more encountered by vnreasonable men . and so i desire thee also to walke after the same rule , labouring so farre as possibly thou maiest to be at peace with all men , by possessing thy soule in patience and ouercomming euill with good . and so i commend thee ( heartily ) to the grace of god : wishing thee to expect shortly as heere a generall directson for the affections in generall : so a particular discouery of each affection in their liuely collours , that so thou maiest bee furnished with what may particularly informe thee heerein , and thereby bee enabled to walke peaceably with god and men , to thy comfortable being in this thy pilgrimage , and so to the better preparing of thee to thy countrie which is aboue . to this end , and so i rest thy poore remembrancer at the throne of grace . th. cooper . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a19292-e2240 affection , what it signifies . meta●●mia subiecti . notes for div a19292-e2470 the diuision of affections , 1. in respect of the obiect . 1. loue. 2. hate . 3. ioy. 4. hope . 5. griefe . 6. feare . 7. laughter . 8. pitie . 8. enuie whar . 9. ielousie . 10. trust. 11. distrust 12. anger . 13. shame . 14. bashfulnesse . 15. malice . 16. despaire 17. confidence . 18. patience . 2 : in respect of the extent . notes for div a19292-e4100 1. of philosophers , which deriue from the humors 2. diuines , from the soule . from the soule proued . answ. to obiect . how the soule suffers from the body . ground of these false conceits , concerning affections . 1. stoikes . 2. epicure , and his confusion . 1. cor. 15 4. sadduces . rom. 8. 7. 3. reasons proouing , that they arise from the mind . dan. 5. tit. 2. 11. notes for div a19292-e5350 rules for iudging hereof . 1. their condition . 2. their true ground prou. 19. 2. 3. touching their obiects . 1. generall . 2. particular . with their rules . 1. rule . 2. rule . 3. rule . 4. rule . 5. rule . 6. rule . vse 1. 2. 7. rule . limitation . 1. by the word . heb. 6. 4. 5. 2. to the obiects . 3. to our callings . 3. the occasions . 9. leuit. 10. nehem. 2. the end. aff●●●ions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●pirituall thrift . 5. genes . 22 11 , 12. 6. how to iudge of the sinceritie of affections , in the corruption of them . how to distinguish betweene affections , and their tentations note . rules hereto 1. the tentation first breakes out and why . 1. want of preparation . 2. satans policie . 3. gods prouiden●e . vse hereof . 2. rule . constancie in affections . 3. rule . encrease in power . 4. rule . out-lasting the action . 5. rule . sound ground . 6. rule . direct meanes . 7. rule . right ends notes for div a19292-e8820 how to order affections for our selues . in companie . by vse , and practise . by contrary bent. by contrary measure . 1. cor. 15. by their sinceritie . concerning euill and good . 〈◊〉 . 4. 19. note . rule heerein . in regard of the combate . for ordering . and triall . note . in regard of the obiect . in respect of reflection note . affections vnited to the most excellent obiect . reasons hereof . iam. 5. 17. note . matth. 23. 1 phil. 1. 16. iam. 2 4. vse . 1. tim. 4. 2. note . note . order of affections towards god. notes for div a19292-e11430 ch. 11. ps. 77. iob. 3. iob. 62. 12. ps. 77. 7 , 9 , 10. 1. cor. 10. 13. notes for div a19292-e12510 note . rom. 8. 4. heb. 5. 12. tit. 1. 15. [apographē storgēs], or, a description of the passion of love demonstrating its original, causes, effects, signes, and remedies / by will. greenwood, [philalethēs]. greenwood, will. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a42026 of text r43220 in the english short title catalog (wing g1869). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. 262 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 78 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo 2017 a42026 wing g1869 estc r43220 27040785 ocm 27040785 109924 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a42026) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 109924) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1718:27) [apographē storgēs], or, a description of the passion of love demonstrating its original, causes, effects, signes, and remedies / by will. greenwood, [philalethēs]. greenwood, will. [16], 127, [9] p. printed for william place ..., london : 1657. bracketed words printed in greek letters. errata: p. [16]. imperfect: print show-through, with loss of text. reproduction of original in bodleian library. eng love -early works to 1800. emotions -early works to 1800. a42026 r43220 (wing g1869). civilwar no [apographē storgēs], or, a description of the passion of love demonstrating its original, causes, effects, signes, and remedies by will. g greenwood, will 1657 44204 45 25 0 0 0 0 16 c the rate of 16 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the c category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-11 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2008-01 john latta sampled and proofread 2008-01 john latta text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion απογραφε ϛοργεσ . or , a description of the passion of love . demonstrating its orignal , causes , effects , signes , and remedies . by will . greenwood , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . omne meum . nil meum . nihil dictum quod non dictum prius . london , printed for william place at grayes inne-gate in holborn , 1657. to the service and delight of all truly noble , generous and honest spirits of both sexes ; the author dedicateth these his exiguous devoyres . noble hearts , being invited with several pleasing considerations , and delightful motives to appear the second time upon the slippery stage of this world ; i here present to your view a description of a passion too much regent in this britle age . the worke is of no great substance , not much satyrical nor critical ; only glances , like the dogs of nilus , taking a touch here and there . it may happily appear at the first view , a meer congested chaos , and somewhat indigested and promiscuously handled ; i can assure you my meaning was methodical ; but i hope your favourable opinions will dissipate the foggy mists of erronious misprision , and be really clarified in your considerate censure . i cannot conceive what more acceptable present may be offered unto you , then that which with an appar●nt brevity compriseth the original , ●enerality , definition , causes , effects , signes , &c. of love . for which purpose , and your greater contentment , i have madly rambled in every one of them . if i have over roaved , gone wide , or falne short , it 's not unlike you may impute it to my folly of precipitancy . in this ( to forge an excusive answer ) i shall not unfittingly resemble the painter , who being to figure forth the fury of a mad dog , the better to expresse it , stood long curiously pidling about the froth or fome issuing from his mouth ; but finding nothing frame fitly to his invention , rashly takes up his pencil ▪ dashes it against the picture , with an intent to spoil it ; howbeit this suddain accident prevailed to make his work more excellent . so may i in these suddain touches pencil out this passion with a more lively tincture , then if i had been tediously curious in contriving , or vaingloriously to embellish them with quaint ear-pleasing elocution . to speak the reall truth , you must not expect any additional ornaments of rhetorick , nor neat flourishes of eloquence , or wyre-drawn phrases , meer inke-pot termes , or a hodgpodge of a laboured contexture : but a plain and smooth style which best becomes our subject . i am not passionately enamoured on pety courtships , like to those helena's all of gold , where we can behold nothing but drapery ; but my sole aim is to speak to be understood : i have more laboured at the reality of the matter , then ornament of words ; for he that courts his pen , and neglects the matter , shall alwayes have trouble enough to defend himself from moths , rats and oblivion . fine heads will pick a quarrell with me ; but this is my minde , let him that findeth a fault amend it , and he that liketh it use it . i submit my self to the judgement of the wise , and little esteem the frownes of a censorious brow . i dedicate this unto you , not because either by virtue of a long experience , or of an exact judgement , i make profession to be master in this science , but to manifest that by the pole-star of methodical observations , one may furrow the deepest seas of unknown discipline . and to vindicate my self with that of mr. burton , vita verecunda est , musa jocosa mihi . however my lines err , my life is honest . but i presume , i need no such apologies , for no man compos mentis , will make me culpable of lightness , wantonness , and rashness in speaking of the causes , effects , signes , &c. of love ; i speak only to tax and deter others from it ; not to teach , but to demonstrate the vanities ▪ and errors of this heroical and herculean passion , and to administer apt remedies . i cannot please all men ; for the same cause that made democritus laugh , made heraclitus weep : it is impossible for an angler to please all fish with one bait ; so if one write never so well , he cannot please all ; and write he never so badly , he shall please some . i know there are some counterfeit cato's that will pish at me , cannot abide to hear of love toyes , they hare the very name of love in detestation ; vultu , gestu , & oculis , in their outward actions averse , and yet in their cogitations they are all out as bad , if not worse then others . whatsoever i speak in this treatise of the one sex , may be also said of the other , mutato nomine . i determine not to run with the hare and hold with the hound , to carry fire in one hand , and water in the other , neither to flatter men as altogether faultless , nor be critical with women as altogether guilty ; for as i am not desirous to intrude into the favour of the one , so am i resolved not to incur the disfavour of the other . honored ladies , i commit my self to the candor of your curtesies , craving this only , that if you be pinched in the instep , you rather cut the shooe then burn the last . if i discover the legerdemaine , and subtle traines women lay to inveigle their lovers , and unvail the furrows of womens dispositions ; you ought no more to be vexed with what i have said , then the mint-master is to see the coyner hang'd ; or the true subject , the false traytor arraigned ; or the honest man the thief condemned . i grant it an act somewhat uncivil , to run inconsiderately into invectives against the sex ; so it is an unworthy servitude of minde to be obsequious to them : but i deal with them , as he who slew the serpent , not touching the body of his son twined ▪ up in folds ; so i strike the vice , without slandering the sex . i hope this book will insensibly increase under the favour and good opinion of virtuous ladies , as plants sprout under the aspects of the most benigne stars . what i here declare ( candid readers ) is not in the least to extinguish a pure and reall love , or to detract from the honour of marriage ; for my stomach will not digest the unworthy practises of those who in their discourse and writings , plant all their arguments point blanck to batter down love , and the marryed estate , using most bitter invectives against it , as the author of the advice to a son , and such like , whose behaviour speaks nothing but satyrs against this divine ordinance , and the whole sex of women . but such do it out of meer dissimulations , to divert suspicion , being defatigated in a vigorous pursuit of their desires are made incompetent judges of that which they undertake to condemn ; or else out of revenge , having themselves formerly light upon bad women ( yet not worse then they deserved ) they curse all adventures because of their own shipwrack . here my book and my self march both together and keep one pace ; one cannot condemn the work without the work-man ; who toucheth the one , toucheth the other ; what i speak is truth , not so much as i could , but as much as with modesty i dare . let that which i borrow be surveyed , and then tell me whether i have made good choise of ornaments to beautifie and set forth the work ; for i make others to relate ( not after my own fancy , but as it best falleth out ) what i cannot so well expresse , either through unskill of language , or want of judgement . i have purposely concealed the authors of those i have transplanted into my soil , and digested them with my own , thereby to bridle the rashness of the hasty knit brown'd censurer . i will honour him that shall trace and unfeather me , by the only distinction of the force and beauty of my discourse . look how my humours or conceits present themselves , so i shuffle them up ; for these are matters which juniors may not be ignorant of . but not to tire you with a tedious preamble , like the pulpit cuffers of this age ; and a long discourse argueth folly , and delicate words incur the suspicion of obsequiousness ; i am determined to use neither of them ; only intreating your milde and charitable censure , of this my rude and hirsute labour : untill the next occasion , i conclude , your friend , w. g. to his honoured and ingenious friend , mr. w. g. on his description of the passion of love . when criticks shall but view the title , they will carp at this great enterprize , and say , it was too boldly done , thus to comprize in this small tract , loves passion , and true size to set upon it ; but the learned will excuse thy little book , and praise thy quill ; thy aime being only to instruct the youth : in male and female thou discover'st truth . thy pencil in live colours hath limm'd out , erotick passion from its very root . causes , effects , and signes ( thou here discovers ) the jealousies and fears of wanton lovers ; physician-like thou here prescribest cures to ease poor lovers of their calentures . my worthy friend , in either hemisphere , where ere i goe , thy praise i 'le eccho there . w. b. errata . page 8. line 19. dele . 1. p. 19. l. 9. r. osculis . p. 26. l. 19 r. conducted . p. 30. l. 2. r. froward . p 33. l. 30 r. magno sua . p. 38 l. 10. r. torment . p. 40. l. 4. r. can'st . p. 42. l. 3. ● . to l. 14. r. never . p. 44. l. 29. r. vollyes . p. 48. l. 33. r. mistresse . p. 51. l. 11. r. fairest . p. 55. l. 15. r. sighes . p. 64. l 7. r. heart . p. 70. l. 26. r. specter . p. 85. l. 20. r. prae se ferat cum pharetr● . a description of the passions of love . of love , the original , the universality , and the definition of it . the nature of the whole universe ( according to the primo-geniture ) tendeth to that which we are now determined to treat o f ; for it was love that moved god , not only to create the world , but also to create it beautiful in every part ; the name whereof in greek yieldeth a testimony of loveliness and beauty , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , mundus , signifying a beautiful and well decked ornament . therefore seeing god hath created and framed it by love , then indubitably love is dispersed throughout the whole world , and invested into every creature , as well mineral and vegetable , as animal , all obeying the statute of the great law-giver , instituted in primo adami . the which causeth a sympathie or love in all things . now to demonstrate this in man . he having by nature imprinted in his soul an affected desire or earnest inclination to that which seemeth good , is drawn as it were by necessity to search it out in every thing which he esteemeth fair and good , finds nothing so apt to be the center of his affections , and to correspond with his nature ( her creation solely tending to that ) as woman . for after god had created man , and placed him in the garden to dresse it , it is not good ( saith he ) that man should be alone , i will make him an help meet for him : & to demonstrate how this help was not only meet , but also necessary for man ; moses addeth , that amongst all those living creatures , he found no help meet for adam : for although all the beasts , and the residue of creatures were given to man to assist him , so that being in the state of innocency , wherein he was then , he might receive all service and ready obedience from them ; nevertheless he had not yet an help of his kinde , for he could not have the familiarity and society with beasts , nor receive such help from them , as he could from a creature of his own nature . now seeing man was created for this end , he could not continue without generation , which could not be unless he were joyned to a woman ; which was before his fall a most pure and innocent love . but now because of his corruption , his affections are irregular , and are made extreme ; there is nothing so greatly exciteth and carryeth away his minde , nor cometh more neer to his destruction , then this foolish passion endangereth his life . to prove which , many presidents might be produced . galacea of mantua declairing oftentimes to a maid of pavia , whom he courted and made love to , that he would suffer a thousand deaths for her sake , which she imagining was but spoken coggingly and in jest , commanded him to cast himself into the river ; which he presently performed and was drowned . but we shall more fitly alleadge such testimonies of the effects of love , when we discourse more particularly of every vice that proceedeth from them . yet , as well as man , this amity ( as i have said ) is ingraffed into every creature ; this love , appetite , or universal inclination , or complacency , given to them at the creation likewise , and inciteth them to desire and search out that which is consentaneous to , and agreeth and sympathizeth with their own nature ; so that there is nothing so insensible , which hath not in it self this amity innate , propending and moving to its proper object , as amber and straw , iron and adamant , and the palme-trees of both sexes , express not a sympathy only , but a love passion ; according to that of the poet ; vivunt in venerem frondes , omnisque vicissim foelix arbor amat , nutant ad mutua palmae foedera , populeo suspirat populus ictu , et platano platanus , alnoque assibilat alous . which is thus paraphraz'd ; leaves sing their loves , each complemental tree in courtship bowes , the amorous palmes we see confirm their leagues with nods , poplers inchaine their armes , the plane infettereth the plane . now the better to illustrate this by example , florentius tels us of a palme that loved most fervently , and would receive ( if properly it may be so said ) no consolation , until her love applyed himself to her ; you might see the two trees bend , and of their own accord stretch out their boughes to embrace and kiss each other . they ( saith he ) marry one another , and when the winde brings their odour unto each other , they are marvellously affected ; they will be sick and pine away for love , which the husbandman perceiving , strokes his hand on those palmes which grow together , and so stroaking again the palme that is enamored , they carry kisses from one to the other , or weaving their leaves into a love-net , they will prosper and flourish with a greater bravery . no creature is to be found quod non aliquid amat , which doth not love something , no stock nor stone , which hath not some feeling of its effects ; yet it is more eminent in vegetables . to prosecute our discourse , let us define what this amorous love is ; theophrastus demonstrateth it to be a desire of the soul , that easily and very speedily gets entrance , but retireth back again very slowly . another saith , it is an invisible fire kindled within the hidden forges of the breasts of lovers , scorching and consuming their miserable hearts , and burning in the flames of desire , yeelding no other sign or testimony thereof , then an ardent desire of the thing beloved . montag . lib. 3. cap. 5. saith , that love is nothing but an insatiate thirst of enjoying a greedily desired object . socrates saith , it is an appetite of generation by the mediation of beauty . others will have it to be a motion of the bloud getting strength by little and little , through the hope of pleasure , almost a kind of fascination or inchantment . tully thought it to be a wishing well to the party affected . seneca , a great strength of the understanding , and a heat that moveth gently up and down the spirits . and others say , that this erotical passion is a kinde of dotage , proceeding from an irregular desire of enjoying a lovely object , and is attended on by fear and sadness ( common symptomes of love ) according to ovid ; res est solliciti plena timoris amor . thus have we been carryed away by the current of other mens judgements , and now have watched our advantage to swim back again , and shew our private opinion ; and that is , that love is an expansion of the soul towards it object ; which is , what ever is attractive ; and that naturally man loves himself best and first , and all other things in subordination to himself ; and whatsoever hath most similitude of man in nature , is the proper object of his love ; then consequently ( in my opinion ) no object so proper as the princess of the female sex , viz. woman , it being ordained and constituted for the propagation and preservation of every species . we will illustrate this with that pretty piece of policy of paris , which prompted him to the disposal of the golden ball , he being made umpire between three deities , juno , pallas , and venus , whereof he was to make one his friend , and two his enemies ; it was his wisdom to win favour with the most potent , for his own safety , which is venus , if we may take an estimate of power from the extent of dominions , and largeness of command and conquest , all which are so clearly cypria's as they leave no place for opposition . it is true , juno commands the world by riches , and pallas by wisdom , but venus monarchizeth in the most unlimited manner of soveraignty over millions of worlds , if it will passe for sterling , that every man is a microcosm , or a little world , the epitomy of the macrocosm , or the greater world : she is that powerfull planet , that makes not only the rational , but irrational ; not only the animate , but inanimate creatures , and vegetables feel her influxious power . lucr. l. 1. 22. tu dea , tu rerum naturam sola gubernas , nec sine te quicquam dias in luminis oras exoritur , neque fit laetum , nec amabile quicquam . goddess , thou rul'st the nature of all things , without thee nothing into this light springs , nothing is lovely , nothing pleasure brings . therefore they that submit not to the scepter of the paphian queen , are rebels against nature , and but the shadows of men ; but such stubborn ones are as rare as a horse in the streets of venice , or a begger in holland . i know not ( saith montag . in his essayes lih . 3. cap. 5. ) who could set pallas and the muses at oddes with venus , and make them cold and slow in affecting of love ; as for me , i see no deities that better sute together , nor are more indebted one to another . whoever shall go about to remove amorous imaginations from the muses , shall deprive them of the best entertainment , and of the noblest subject of their work . and who shall debar cupid the service and conversation of poesie ; shall weaken him of his best weapons . but for so much as i know of it , the power and might of this god , are found more quick and lively in the shadow of poesie , then in their own essence : it representing a kinde of air as lovely as love it self . thus ( equally tendering all these opinions to the readers discretion , to reject or accept which of them he shall conclude most probable ) i proceed on to demonstrate the causes of this passion in the subsequent chapter . the causes of love . we will now express what special causes and motives tend most to the increase of this passion . the sages have sought the true causes which dispose the wils of men to love ; and have delivered many different opinions in this point . some hold , it is a quality which god imprinted on nature : for it pleased him to create adam on earth as his own image , and hath drawn eve to be unto man a spirit of peace , and a love of a perpetual lasting ; this indubitably is the first ; for we must ingenuously confess , that there is no reall love , no true delight , but proceeds from the supreme divinity , the pure and immaterial essence of the omnipotent protector , and sole ruler of all celestial and terrestrial creatures : it is a communicative delight , whose chief propriety is perpetually to stream into the hearts and souls of all that are capable thereof . others imagine ( and 't is reall ) it comes from the influence of the stars at their nativities , and these ( in my opinion ) are the second causes . prima deus causa est ▪ causae sunt astra secundae . god is ( of all created ) the prime cause : th' second ( in spite of holmes ) are starry laws . others say , it proceeds from parents and education , and that 's very probable . others from a certain harmony and consonance of hearts which meeting in accord upon the same tone , having a natural correspondencie . the maxime of divines , and morall philosophers saith , that fair and good ( otherwise that which seems to be so ) make all loves . and lastly , money . now it is our intent and purpose to treat of every one of these causes distinctly ( the first excepted , being explained in the first chapter , and likewise in the beginning of this section ) therefore we will proceed to the second cause , which is the stars . the fairest and enticing objects that proceed from men and women , that most frequently captivate , allure , and make them dote beyond all measure one upon another , aret by the force and power of the stars ( quod me tibi temperat astrum ) such a woman doth singularly dote upon such a man , and likewise such a man upon such a woman ; hate such again , and give no reason for it , it being too high for the vulgar capacity to attain to the knowledge of it . they by their influence act upon the humors and bodies , and by their secret qualities tie creatures with the knot of love ; for how many are there who love things which are neither lovely nor good ? i mean , not only in effect , but in their own opinion and judgement , yet are they fastened by some tie ( unknown to any but the reall sons of art , and those which are acquainted with the sublime sciences ) nor can they free themselves from it but by the absolute power of reason . do we not dayly finde by experience , that a man who is , and who knoweth himself to be deformed and wicked , yet by nature falleth not in love with himself ? so through a love of concupiscence , he may love things which have neither beauty nor goodness , although he daily hath a blinde feeling of something sutable to sensuality and an unperceptible attractive . for there may be a sympathy in nature , and an antipathy in complexion ; and a sympathy in complexion , and an antipathy in nature ; as in animals , there is amity betwixt the black-bird and the thrush , betwixt the crow and hern , betwixt peacocks and pigeons , turtles and parrats . whence sappho in ovids epist. writes to phaon ; to birds unlike oft-times joyn'd are white doves ; also the bird that 's green black turtle loves . for of what sort the amities and enmities of the superiours be , such are the inclinations of things subject to them in these inferiours . these dispositions therefore of love , are nothing else but certain inclinations of things , of one towards another , desiring such and such a thing if it be absent , and to move toward it , and to acquiesce in it when it is obtained , shunning the contrary and dreading the approach of it . he that knowes the amities and enmities the superiours have one towards another , knows my meaning , and will quickly give you a reason , and that none of the worst , let the priests say what they please . the third cause is from parents and education . this cause is from our first parents , for the preservation and propagation of the species , and will so continue till nature shall be no more . it is according to the old adage , qualis pater , talis filius ; like father , like son . cat to her kinde ; if the dam trot , the foal will not amble . experience and nature approves it , that the fruit will relish of the tree from whence it sprung . consider how love proceeds from parents , and gradually descends ; that so soon as we are come to maturity , and that our bloud begins to boyl in our veins , we devote our selves to a woman , forgetting our mother in a wise , and the womb that bare us in that which shall bear our image . this woman blessing us with children , our affection leaves the levell it held before , and sinks from our bed unto our issue and picture of posterity , where affection holds no steady mansion : they applying themselves to a woman , take a lawful way to love another better then our selves , and thus run to posterity . but education is more potent , for themistocles in his youth ( as himself confesseth ) for want of discipline , was carryed away by the lascivious and hot passion of love , like to a young unbridled colt , untill that by miltiades example , who was then famous among the grecians , he caused the heat of his courage to be cooled , and the lasciviousness which was naturally in him , to attend upon virtue : he fed delicately and highly , qualis cibus , talis sanguis & membrum ; such as the meat , such is the broath ; for luscious fare , is the only nurse and nourisher of sensual appetite , the sole maintenance of youthful affection , the fewell of this inordinate passion , nothing so much feeding it , nor insensates the understanding by delighting in it . he was very idly educated , which is one main branch that causeth love , and the first arrow that cupid shooteth into the hot liver of a heedless lover . for the man being idle , the minde is apt to all uncleanness ; the minde being void of exercise , the man is void of honesty . doth not rust corrode the hardest iron , if it be not used ? doth not the moth eat the finest garment , if it be not worn ? doth not impiety infect the clearest and most acute wit , if it be given to idleness ? doth not common experience make this common unto us , that the fertilest ground bringeth forth nothing but weeds , if it be not tilled ? the particulars of idleness , as immoderate sleep , immodest play , unsatiable drinking , doth so weaken the senses and bewitch the soul , that before we feel the motion of love , we are resolved to lust . cupid is ▪ a crafty gentleman , he followes those to a hair that studdy pleasure , and flies those that stoutly labour . likewise though their natural inclination be to virtue , if they be educated , in dancing-schooles , schooles of musick , lead a riotous life , they will be much subject to this passion , they will prefer fancie before friends , lay reason in the water , being too salt for their tast , and follow unbridled affection suitable to their education . but let their inclinations be never so strong , if they have been well brought up and instructed , they are in some sort forced to moderate themselves , not suffering love to have such pernicious effects in them , as naturally they are inclined to ; whereupon ( in my opinion ) that old proverb was not spoken without reason , that education goeth beyond nature : so that quintilian would not have nurses to be of an immodest or uncomely speech ; adding this cause , lest ( saith he ) such manners , precepts , and discourses as young children learn in their unriper years remain so deeply rooted , as they shall scarce ever be relinquished . sure i am , that the first impressions , whether good or evill , are most continuate , and with least difficulty preserved . quo semel est imbuta recens , servabit odorem testa diu . — a pot well season'd , holds the primitive tast a long time after . — socrates confesseth in plato , that by nature he was inclined to vices , and yet philosophy made him as perfect and excellent a man , as any was in the world . besides education and custome have power not only to change the natural inclination of some particular men , but also of whole countries , as the histories of most nations declare unto us ; and namely that of the germans , who in the time of tacitus ( and lycurgus amongst the lacedemonians ) had neither law nor religion , knowledge nor forme of common-wealth ( but were led and carryed on by the current of their own inclinations , and as their wils was inclined by the influence of the superiours ) whereas now they will give place to no nation for good institution in all things . to reform the lacedemonians , lycurgus used this piece of policy ; he nourished two whelps both of one sire and one dam , but in different manner ; for the one he trained up to hunt , and the other to lie alwaies in the chimney-corner at the porridge-pot ; afterwards calling the lacedemonians into one assembly , he said , ye lacedemonians , to the attaining of virtue , education , industry and exercise is the most noble means ; the truth of which i shall make manifest to you by tryall ; then bringing forth the whelps , and setting down a porridge-pot and an hare , the one run at the hare , and the other at the pot : the lacedemonians not understanding the mystery , he said , both of these be of one sire and one dam , but you see how education altereth nature . let us therefore ( that seeing our flexible nature is assaulted and provoked to the acting of any thing which is not good ) endevour to accustome and exercise our selves in virtue , which will be as it were unto us another nature ; let us use the means of good education and instruction in wisdom , whereby our souls shall be made conquerors over these hot passions , and our mindes moderated and stayed in all our actions . we will now proceed on to the next , and fourth cause , which is a certain harmony and consonancy of hearts , which meeting accord upon the same tone , having a natural correspondency . for it is mans nature to affect all harmony , and sure it is ( where cupid strikes this silent note ( for love is the musick , the harmony , complexion , the genus , and very soul of nature ) more sweet and melodious then the sound of any instrument ; for there is musick wheresoever there is an harmony . and thus far we maintain the musick of the spheres : for these well ordered motions , and regular paces , though they give no sound unto the ear , yet to the understanding of the parties affected , they strike a love-note most full of harmony . i desire leave to insist a little upon this . every body hath its projections and unperceiveable influences , as we finde in the power of amber and the adamant , which attract iron and straw , by the expiration they scatter in the aire , to serve as instruments and hands to their attractions . this being common to other natures of plants , metals , and living creatures , we must not think but that the body of man participateth therein , by reason of its vivacity and multitude of pores which give a more easie passage to such emissions . there then cometh forth a spirituous substance , which is ( according to marcilius ficinus ) : vapour of bloud , pure , subtle , hot and clear , more strong or weak according to the interiour agitations of spirits ; which carryeth along with it some friendly , convenient , and temperate quality , which insinuateth it self into the heart and soul , doth ( if it there finde a disposition of conformity ) abide , as a seed cast into the earth , and forms there an harmony , and this love of correspondency , with an admirable promptness and vigor ; so it happeneth that the spirits , being transpired from one body to another , and carrying on their wings qualities consonant , do infallibly excite and awaken the inclinations . the eye is principally interessed herein , breathing thence the most thin spirits and darting forth the visual rayes , as the arrows of love which penetrate the heart , striking a most dulcisonant harmony , and are united one within another ; then heating the bloud , they strike upon the imagination , and attract the will , which are linked one to another , that they are tyed together with an unperceiveable knot ; and so by this means love entereth into the heart . the fifth cause is that of the divines and morall philosophers , that beauty and goodness make us love . which two if they be found both in one woman ( she 's rara avis , a very rare thing indeed ) are most availeful advantages . love varies as its objects varie , which is alwaies good , beautiful , amiable , gratious , and pleasant , or at least which seems to be so ; from goodness comes beauty , from beauty grace and comeliness , which result as so many rayes from their good parts , makes us to love , and so covet and desire it : for were it not pleasing and gratious in our eyes , we should not seek it . omne pulchrum amabile , and what we love is fair and gratious in our eyes , or at least we do so apprehend or esteem it . suum cuique pulchrum . th' perfections of his mistress are most rare , in all mens eyes , yet in his own most faire . amiableness is the object of love , the scope and end is to obtain it , for whose sake we love , and with our minds covet to enjoy . likewise grace and beauty are so wonderfully annexed , do so sweetly and gently win our souls , and strongly allure , that they confound our judgement , and cannot be distinguished . and this makes the poets still put the three graces in venus company , as attending on her and holding up her train . as the needle of a diall being touched with an adamant , doth alwaies turn towards the pole-star , because the philosophers hold that to be the element of the load-stone or magnet , and by a natural sympathy doth attract every part of it self unto it self ; so a lo●ers heart being touched with the beauty and goodness of his mistress doth turne it , and all its thoughts towards her : poetically to explain this conception let us add , the needle of a diall northward turns , if touch'd by adamant : his heart touch'd by his mistress burns , and after her doth pant . as this magnet draweth the heavie iron , and the harp the swift dolphin ; so beauty allureth the chast minde to love . in that exquisite romance of clytiphon and lucippe , where clytiphon ( being captivated with her beauty ) speaking of himself , ingenuously confesseth , that he no sooner came in lucippe's presence , but saith he , statim ac eam contemplatus sum , occidi ; oculos à virgine avertere conatus sum , sed illi repugnabant . he was wounded at the first sight , his heart panted , he could not possibily turn his eyes from her . this beauty hath great power to procure love ; for where it appeareth in the exterior parts in any body , it is as it were a witness and testimony of the beauty in the soul . for the creator created all things in such manner that he hath commonly joyned beauty and goodness together ; in the beginning there was nothing made , but it was very good and beautiful in his kind , therefore there is an agreement between the body and the soul ; for bodily beauty is as it were an image of the beauty of the soul , and promiseth after a sort some good thing of the inward beauty ; for internal perfection breedeth the external ; whereupon the internal is called goodness , and the external , beauty . many would willingly die for the beauty of others , and are so tormented and tossed , that they become senseless and phrenetick , being captivated with looking upon a beautiful face , which hath such a sting that it pierceth even unto the liveliest part of their heart and soul . whereupon it falleth out that poor silly lovers are so full of passions , that they stand altogether amazed ; making their souls so subject to their desires , that she must obey them , as if she were some poor chamber-maid or drudge . it is the witch of nature , as gold is the god of the world ; for a woman without beauty hath as few followers , as a man without money hath friends . the reason why womens beauty is of such force , that it overcomes men , is that the sense being too much fastened upon it , doth not only ( as if it gazed upon an object above its strength ) remain dazled with the rayes thereof , but reason it self is darkned , the heart is fettered , and the will by love made a prisoner . and i must needs tell you in plain terms , that beauty without the indowments of a virtuous minde is stark naught ▪ yet most commonly , the beauty of the minde is manifest in the face , as it were in a looking-glass ; for in it is seen a modest blush the vail of shame fac'dness , the true ornament of an honest minde , the treasure of chastitity , the splendor of clemency , the riches of silence , the majesty of virtue , the lodge of love , and the nest of grace ; because the face ( amongst all the other corporal parts ) is the more noble , where the minde by those senses that are in it exerciseth its effects and operatious . having discoursed thus much of beauty in general , we will now descend to the particulars of beauty , and demonstrate their force in causing love . for there is not any that loves , but there is some particular part , either in form or condition , which pleaseth most , and inflameth him above the rest . and first of the eyes , which scaliger cals cupids arrowes ; the black , round , quick sparkling eye , is the most fair , amorous and enticing , the speaking , courting , enchanting eye . hesiod cals those that have fair lovely eyes , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ; and pindarus {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , by a metaphor borrowed from the greek word {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , signifying the young tender sprigs or branches of vines , for as these alwaies embrace the neighbouring bough , twining about it with many various circles ; in like manner , the eyes of a beautiful woman apply their beames , and endevour to intangle the hearts of those that earnestly behold her . the poet propertius cals the eyes the conductors and guides in love . si nescis , oculi sunt in amore duces . it is the eyes that infect the spirits , by the gazing upon an object , and thence the spirits infect the bloud . to this effect the lady in apuleius complained , thou art the cause of my grief , thine eyes piercing through mine eyes into mine inward parts , have set my bowels on fire , therefore commiserate me that am now ready to die for thy sake . the eye is the judge of beauty , and is as it were the looking-glasse of the soul , in which are described all the affections of the soul , as love , passion , anger , disdain , &c. the eye exceedingly lusteth after beauty ( and whilst it contemplateth the colours , formes , features , comeliness , grace , laughter , and whatsoever excellent quality appertaines unto beauty ) is deemed fittest to be the principal judge thereof ; the eye being an organ by which a lover doth best discern the perfection of all those principal parts , which are required to the framing of a compleat beauty ; for we often times see , by the bare report of virtue , in any honorable breast love imperfectly ; but if report be once confirmed by an interview , and the eye be made judge as well as the ear , it gathereth strength , and exceedingly encreaseth ; which proceedeth from no other cause then from the great force that the eye hath in the true judgement of sensible things , besides the power thereof extending it self more then all the other senses to the multitude of objects , and more speedily apprehending them . pardon me for stepping a little out of the way , but i shall quickly be in again . secondly , faire hair , as the poets say , are the prisons of cupid ; that is the cause ( as i suppose ) that ladies make rings , and bracelets , and love-locks to send to their lovers . and that 's the cause too ( for i must handle both sexes ) that men curle and powder their hair , and prune their pickativants , making the east side correspond to the west . thirdly , the tongue , is called by scaliger , the lightning of love . but we wil take all the actions and gestures of the mouth together with it ; what a bewitching force hath a gratious laughter , a pleasant and eloquent delivery , a modest courting , a syrens song , or any other comely carriage or manifestation of the minde , a corral lip , a comely order and set of two ivory rails ? how great force and enticements lie in kissing ? balthazer castilio saith , jam pluribus oculis labra crepitabant , animarum quoque mixturam facientes , inter mutuos complexus animas anhelantes : they breath out their souls and spirits together with their kisses , changing hearts and spirits , and mingle affections as they do kisses , and it is rather a connexion of the minde then of the body . what 's a kisse of that pure faire ? but loves lure , or adonis snare . fourthly , some are enamoured of an handsome tall and slender body ; some again are taken with one of a middle size and plump ; but many are captivated with a handsome leg and foot . fiftly , their breasts and paps are called the tents of love ; for which cause women do so much discover them , ( for women , saith aristotle , are natures errata , continually studying temptations ) together with their naked necks , shoulders and armes , having all things necessary and in readiness , that may either allure the minde to love , or the heart to folly . what is the meaning of their affected carriages , those garments so pompous , those guizes so sought after , those colours so fantastick , the jewels and pendants so sumptuous , that painting so shameless , those curles and patches , their silk and bow-die stockins , with their coats tucked up that their neat leg and foot may be seen , their lac'd shooes , those curtesies , salutations , cringings and mincing gates ; but to cut the throat of chastity , and are springes to catch wood-cocks . a ship is not so long a rigging , as a yong lady is in trimming her self against the coming of her sweet-heart . eye but the dresses of women which are now in use , and thou shall not only see the carved vizard of a lewd woman , but the incarnate visage of a lascivious wanton ; not only the shadow of love , but the substance of lust . sir philip sydney in his arcadia , saith that apparel ( though it be many degrees better then the wearer ) is a great motive and provocation to love , and nothing like unto it : which doth even beauty beautifie , and most bewitch a wretched eie . and as another poet saith ; — love-locks and clothes which speak all countries , and no man . — he layes all that ever he hath upon his back , making the meridian of his estate stoop to his shoulders , judging that women are captivated with and marryed to bravery . add hereunto the painting practised by harlots , adulterated complexions well agreeing with adulterous conditions . they especially use to paint their eyes ( understand their eye-browes and eye-lids ) with stibium , to make them look black , conceited by them an extraordinary comeliness . hereupon was solomons caution , neither let her take thee with her eye-lids , as one of her principal nets to catch wantons therewith . when aged they use in vain to make themselves fair by renting their faces with painting , though more cause to rent them with their nails out of penitent indignation . thus painting used to reconcile , in time widens the breaches in their faces ; and their flesh tainted , at least , with the poison thereof , like rotten vessels spring the more leaks the more they are repaired . and the truth is , i would have such as these to joyn themselves with souldiers , for so both may fight under their colours . sixthly , pleasant and well composed looks , glances , smiles , counter-smiles , plausible gestures , pleasant carriage and behaviour , affable complements , a comely gate and pace , daliances , playes , revels , maskes , dancing , time , place , opportunity , conference , and importunity , are materials of which loves torch is made ; also no stronger engins then to hear and read of love toyes , fables and discourses , so that many by this means become distracted , for these exercises do as well open the pores of the heart as the body . and truly such heart-traps are laid by cunning beauties , in such pretty ambuscadoes , that he must be a crafty fox that can escape them ; for there is still some peculiar grace in a woman , as of beauty , good discourse , wit , eloquence , or honesty , which is the primum mobile , or first mover , and a most forcible loadstone , to attract the favours , and good will of mens eyes , eares and affections unto them . it is a plain ornament becomes a virgin or virtuous woman , and they get more credit in a wise mans eye and judgement , by their plainness , and are more comely and fair ▪ then they that are set out with their patches , bables , puffed up , and adorned like jayes in peacocks feathers . ladies , let the example of lucretia be set before you , who stamped a deeper impression of affection in the heart of the virtuous beholder , by addressing herself to houswifery , and purple spinning , then others could ever do with their rare banquets , and riotous spending . all are not of aegisthus minde , who was taken with a complement of lightness . this argued , that a youthful heat had rather surprised his amorous heart , then any discreet affection preferred him to his choise . this love is fading ; for where virtue is not directrice in our choise , our mindes are ever prone to change ; we finde not what we expected , nor digest well what we formerly affected ; all is out of square , because discretion contrived not the building . it is a decent and comely habit best becomes ladies to be wooed in , and contents discreet suitors most to have them won in . conforme then your generous dispositions to a decency of fashion , that you may attract to your selves , and beget in others motives of affection : whose private virtues render you to the imitation , and publick to the admiration of all . seventhly , a tender and hot heart , lucid spirits , vegetous and subtle bloud , are causes of amorous fires , a small beauty makes a great impression in them . eightly , obsequious love-letters , to insinuate themselves into their mistresses favour , are great incitements , they are the life of love . the pen can furrow a fond females heart , and pierce it more , then cupids faigned dart . letters a kinde of magick virtue have , and like strong philters humane souls inslave . ninthly , words much corrupt the disposition ; they set an edge or glosse on depraved liberty ; making that member the vent and spout of their passion , and making the hearts of credulous women melt with their ear-charming oratory . the tenth , love is caused very often by the ear , as achilles tacitus saith , ea enim hominum intemperantium libido est , ut etiam fama ad amandum impellantur , & audientes aequè afficiantur ac videntes ; such is that intemperance and passion of some men , that they are as much inamoured by report , as if they see them . oft-times the species of love are received into the fantasie , as well by relation as by sight , for we see by the eyes of our understanding . no face yet seen ; but shafts that love lets flie , kils in the ear as well as in the eie . also ; the pleader burns his books , disdains the law , and fals in love , with whom his eyes ne'r saw . lycidas declaring to cleon his love towards astrea , said , whether she was really fair or no , i know not , but so it was , that so soon as ever i heard the report of her , i loved her . some report ( saith he ) that love proceeds from the eyes of the party loved ; but this cannot be , for her eye never looked upon me , nor did mine see her so much as to know her again . for an illustrious name is a strange course to attract love , and good report hath force . we purpose now to treat of money causing love . that is the general humour of the world , and in this iron age of ours , and in that commodity stears our affections , the love of riches being most respected ; for now a maid must buy her husband with a great dowry if she will have him , making love mercenary ; and 't is the fashion altogether in use , to chuse wives as chapmen sell their wares , with quantum dabitis ? what is the most you will give ? witty was that young gentlewomans answer to an inconsiderate suitor , who having solicited the father , and bargained with him for the affection of his daughter for so much , and covenants of marriage concluded : this undiscreet wooer unseasonably imparts his minde to the daughter ; who made strange with it , saying , she never heard of any such matter : yea but ( replyed he ) i have bargained with your father , and he hath already consented : and you may marry him too ( quoth she ) for you must hold me excused . covetousness and filthy lucre mars many a good match , or some such by-respect . veniunt a dote sagit●ae , 't is money that makes the mare to go ; 't is money and a good dowry , lights hymens torches . they care not for beauty , education , honesty , or birth ; if they hear that she is a rich heir , or hath ready cash , they are frantick & doting upon such a one , more then if she were natures master-piece in beauty . if she be never so ugly and stinking , 't is money makes her kisse sweetly . has she money ? ( that 's the first question ) o how they love her ! is she mula auro onusta ? nay then , run dog , run bear , they 'l venture hanging to compasse their desire . auri sacra fames , quid non mortalia cogis pectora ? — what will not this desire of money compell a man to attempt ? is she as old as saturn , deformed , vitious , blear-eyed , though they be like two powdering tubs either running over or full of standing brine , and her browes hang ore her eyes like flie flaps , though her nose be like a hunters horn , and so bending up , that a man may hang a hat upon it , and her cheeks may serve boys for cherry-pits , doth her teeth stand like an old park pale , if she have any ? has she a tongue would make a deaf man blesse his imperfections , that frees him from the plague of so much noise ; and such a breath ( heavens shield us ) as out-vies the shambles for a sent ? yet if she have cash , oh how amiable is she ! without doubt she hath no lesse then twenty suitors , never rack she 's good enough . est natura hominum , to love those that are fortunate and rich , that thrive , let them get it as they will , by hook or crook , all 's one so they have it . de moribus ultima fiet qnestio ; to enquire of her conditions and education is the last interrogatory . but let me assure you these being joyned together , the seene is altered on a suddain , their love is converted into hate , their mirth into melancholy , having only fixed their affections upon this object of commodity ; the desire of which in excesse is meer covetousnesse ; and on the otherside their hate is furiously bent upon the woman , she becomes an abject , and an odious object unto them . now to turn the current of our discourse to the other sex ; for this desire of lucre is not adherent to men only , but that there are some of the female train of the same temper . let the man be what he will , let him be cast in esops mould , with his back like a lute , and his face like thersites , his eyes broad and tawny , his lips of the largest size in folio , able to furnish a coblers shop with clouting-leather ; if he have but a golden hand , midas's touch , or loadened with golden pockets , immediately they salute him with an easement , ego te hoc fasce levabo : and it is reason you should do it , replies the woodcock ; yielding up the souls of his pockets for the hopes of a smile , embrace or a kisse : and having emptied them , stuffe them up again with frowning looks , and serve him like a sheep in june , turned forth for a bare neck'd ewe , to seek a ruffe for the piece next below his coxcombe . money hath a significant voice , semper ad placitum , always pleasing , always grateful . he that will learn to win by smooth perswasion , must practise much the topick cal'd donation , strowing the path by which he means to passe , with the sweet flowers of yellow-fac'd midas ; so shall he finde all easie to his will ; come in at 's pleasure and be welcome still . but the truly handsome , compleat , and meritorious , that cannot shew the face of a jacobus , that hath not pocket angels for his gardians , shall live at a distance from gratia dei , the grace of her good liking ; he shall passe by for vas vacuum , and be embarked in the ship of scorn , to be conpucted to the haven of heavinesse , and thrust upon the shore ( as an exile ) of never return again . yet , i would rather wish ladies to let the picture of love be the emblem of their hearts , and not these inferiour pictures , which we call money ; which are so far from satisfying the affection , as they are only for the mold or worldling ; whose grosser thoughts never yet aspired to the knowledge of loves definition . also it shewes a servile nature , to cashire a faithfull lover because he is poor , and to prefer another lesse desertfull because he is rich . we will now declare what the poets say is the cause of love . they say that when jupiter first formed man , and all souls , he touched every one with severall pieces of loadstone , and afterwards put all the pieces in a place by themselves ; likewise , the souls of women after he had touched them , he put them in a magazine by themselves : afterwards when he had sent the souls into bodies , he brought those of the women to the place where the load-stones were which touched the men , and made every one to take one piece ; if there were any theevish souls , they took several pieces and hid them . now when that man meets with that woman that hath the piece which touched his soul , it is impossible but he must love her ; the loadstone which she hath doth attract his soul : and from hence doth proceed the several effects of love ; for those who are loved of many , are those theevish souls who took many pieces of the loadstone ; if any do love one who loves not him aagain , that was one who took his loadstone , but he not hers . and from hence ( say they ) comes it to passe , that we do often see some persons love others , who in our eyes are nothing amiable . also from hence proceed those strange loves which sometimes fals out , as that a gaul brought up amongst many beauties fals in love with a barbarous stanger . fonseca holds ( and i am of the same minde ) there is something in a woman beyond all humane delight , a magnetick virtue , a charming quality , and a powerful motive . to illustrate this ; there is a story recorded in the lives of the fathers , of a childe whose education was in a desert from his infancy , by an old hermite ; being come to mans estate , he accidentally spied two comely women wandering in the woods ; he enquired of the hermite ( having never seen such before in his life ) what creatures they were , the hermite told him that they were fairies ; after some tract of time , being in discourse , the hermite demanded of him which was the pleasantest and most delectable sight that ever he saw in his life ? he readily replyed ( without any pause or further consideration ) the two fairies he espied in the desert . so that indubitably , there is in a fair and beautiful woman , a magnetick power , and a natural imbred affection , which moves our concupiscence . and this surely proceeds from the particular institutes of nature , and the perfections a man imagins in another creature of his likeness , which he thinks may become another self : for with the distinction of sexes which nature hath bestowed on man , as well as irrationall creatures ; she hath put certaine impressions in the brain ( as in this young man ) which makes a man at a certain age , and at a certain season , to look on himself as defective , and as if he were but the half of an whole , whereof a person of the other sex ought to be the other half ▪ so that the acquisition of this half is represented to us confusedly by nature , as the greatest of all imaginable goods ; and although he see many persons of the other sex , he doth not therefore desire many at the same time , by reason nature makes him conceive that he hath need of no more but one half ; but when he observes some thing in any one , that likes him better then any thing he hath marked at the same time in the rest ; that fixes the soul to feel all the inclination which nature hath given him to seek after that good , that she represents to him , as the greatest he can possibly possesse , on that woman only ; and this is it which furnisheth the romancers and poets with stuffe . to conclude this chapter ; it may be , that some will expect , that i should prescribe some things to cause love ; as to teach them how to temper and spice an amatorious cup , and what time may be elected for the administring of it ; or how love may be caused by natural magick : but not knowing into whose hands the book might come , neither do i write it to be an instrument ready tun'd for every wanton eye , tongue , and hand to play upon ; i forbear , lest more hurt then good come thereby : for pliny reporteth that lucullus a most brave general and captain of great execution , lost his life by a love-potion . — love hath us'd against frail hearts unlawful weapons , shooting poyson'd darts . that there is things that have power and virtue to cause love is not to be doubted ; for the soul of the world ( according to corn . agrip. ) by its vertue doth make all things that are naturally generated , and artificially made fruitfull , by infusing into them celestial properties , for the working of these effects ; then , those things themselves not only administred by potions , or any other such like way , but also when they being conveniently wrapped up , and bound to , or hanged about the neck , or any other way applyed , although by never so small a contact , do impresse their virtue upon us . for by those applications or contacts the accidents of the body and minde are changed , causing them to whom they are administred to love , and render them that carry them to be beloved . but if these be not done under a sutable and proper constellation , you may as well go about to pick stravvs , as effect any thing by them ; no more but verbum sat sapienti . also there are certain seasons ( which i will conceal for modesties sake ) when women ( though never so forward at other times ) may be won , in the which moment they have neither will to deny , nor wit to mistrust ; such a time is recorded in history a young gentleman found to obtain the love of the dutchesse of millaine ; such a time a poor yeoman elected , and in it purchased the love of the fairest lady in mantua . sed vulgo prodere grande nefas . if i have displeased any fools in concealing such things as are to be concealed , i hope the wise will hold me excused , whilst i proceed to declare unto them in the next chapter , the power and effects of love . of the power and effects of love . the reader shall pay nothing but his pains in following me , whilest i shew him the great power and various effects of love ; and yet i think i may as well go about to number the leaves of trees , and sands of the sea , the grasse piles upon the land , and the stars in the firmament , as enumerate the different effects and disorders that love produceth in mortals . what poyson may be dissolved which love mingleth not ? what weapons can be forged and filed , to transfix the sides of innocent creatures which love hammereth and polisheth not in his shop ? or what precipices are there which love prepareth not ? all the mischiefs and crimes which have in former ages been perpetrated , love hath acted and dayly invented them . plato cals it magnus daemon , or the great devill , for its vehemency and soveraingty over all other passions . for saith one , i had rather contend with tygers , wolves , dragons , lions , buls , bears , and gyants , then with love , he is so powerfull . regnat , & in superos jus habet ille deus , saith ovid ; he enforceth all to become tributary to him , he domineers over all , and can make mad and sober whom he list , and strikes with sickness , and cures whom he list ; he is of such power and majesty , that no creature can withstand him ; he is to be seen in creatures void of reason : for the pelican gores her brest to feed her young ones , and the storke is not unkinde to feed her old one in her age . we are informed by common experience , how violently brute beasts are carryed away with this passion , lions , buls , dogs and cocks are so furious in this kinde that they will kill one another ; but especially harts are so fierce that they may be heard fight at a great distance . pliny saith , fishes pine away for love and wax lean ; for ( saith he ) a dolphin so loved a boy , that when he dyed the fish came on land , and so perished . this love is the most fatall plague amongst all the passions , it hath the shiffering and heat of fevers , the ach and striking of the meagrim , the rage of teeth , the stupefaction of the vertigo , the furies of frenzie , the black vapors of the hypochondry , the stupidities of the lethargie , the fits of the mother , and spleen , the faintness of the ptisick , the tremblings and palpitations of the heart . it is wils darling , the triall of patience , passions torture , the pleasure of melancholy , the sport of madnesse , the delight of varieties , and the deviser of vanities . after all this it is made a god called cupid , to whom poems , elogies ▪ hymnes , songs , and victimes are offered . empire over the heart is given to it . there are many millions of men in the world , who would be most fortunate and flourishing , if they knew how to avoid the mischievous power of this passion . what a sweet poyson is the beauty and comelinesse of one sex to another ? which entereth in by the eye and maketh a strange havock . i wonder not at all why the scriptures compare it to a panther ( a savage and cruell beast ) which with teeth , teareth those she hath amazed with the mirour-like spots of her skin , and drawn to her by the sweet exhalation of her body . love hath walked on scepters , parched the lawrels of victors , thrown trouble into states , schismes into churches , corruption among judges , and furies into arms . it assaulteth in company , in solitude , at windowes , at prison gates , at theaters , and in cabinets , at sports , in a feast , at a comedy , and many times at church , ( like the simple old woman belull'd with a sleepy zeal , had a minde to go to church purposely to take a nap ; so many of our dainty ones , desire nothing more , then to go to the temple to present to the deluded eye a new dresse , and captivating love-tainted hearts ) and who can assure us against it ? when it once gets the master-head of reason , and passion prevails , there is nothing left , but wandering of the soul , a fever , a perpetual frenzie , a neglect of operations , of affaires , of functions , sadnesse , languor and impatience , they think businesse is done when 't is but thought on . amor ordinem nescit ; love knows nor keeps no order . o the inexpressible variousnesse of this love ! in some it is sharp and violent ; in others , dull and impetuous ; in others , toyish and wanton ; in others , turbulent and cloudy ; in others , brutish and unnatural ; in others , mute and shamefaced ; in others , perplexed and captious ; in others , light and transitory ; in others , fast and retentive ; in others , fantastick and inconstant ; in others , weak and foppish ; in others stupid and astonished ; in others , distempered ; and in some furious and desperate . magna suo ardent furore pectora . it inflameth the bloud , it weakens the body , it wanneth the colour , it holloweth the eyes , it totally subverts the minde ; it hath somewhat of being possessed , something of idolatry ; for those that are thus love-stricken , make lust the idoll of their souls , and the person loved the idoll of their lust . you may behold in those that are far entred into this passion , floods and ebbs of thoughts , fits and countenances of persons possessed , and it is in all of them to deifie the creature on whom they are so passionately enamored , and would willingly place them among the stars , yea upon the altars . chaines and wounds are honorable if they come from a beloved hand , making their heads cushions for their mistresses feet , shewing that they finde more force in their eyes , then in their own hearts . they would die a thousand deaths for them , so they throw but so much as a handful of flowers , or distill but a poor tear on their tombs . this love awakeneth ( excludeth none ) all other passions , and garboyles them , and makes them all lacques to wait upon it : it makes lovers ( through immoderate watching ) giddy brain'd , having their spirits troubled , and become very fools . fears and joyes , hopes and desires , mixt with despairs and doubts , do make the sport in love ; they are the very dogs by which the hare is hunted ; and being flesh'd in the chase , neither stop nor give ore ( passion being in a hot sent ) till they have killed her . it is a natural distemper , a kinde of smal-pox ; every one hath had it , or is to expect it , and the sooner the better . it is of so great force and authority , that it subjugateth unto its will the greatest power of the minde ; that is will which ruleth and governeth all the other , both interiour and exteriour powers , and yet the will is constrained many times , for the better pleasing and content of love , to follow those things which it doth altogether abhor and detest : so that having so wonderful an empire and command over all the powers both inward and outward , of the body and of the minde , no wonder if love both will and can do what it will . it was love that betrayed sampson by dalila ; it was love made colomon brutish by his concubines and turn idolater ; 't was love caused ahab to be rooted out through jesabel ; marc. anthony slew himself for the love of cleopatra ; the destruction of troy was caused by helena , the pandora of hesiodus , the pitifull death of hercules by deianira , and many other miserable events procured through the love of women , and plentifully declared in histories . how was loves great-master ovid , inamoured of bright julia ( the jewell of his soul ) and celebrated her excellencies , and their love stealths under the mask of corinna ? nay , apollo himself , the inventer of poesie , musick , and physick , elated for his victory over the ugly python , found cupids shaft the most prevalent , when he pursued the too much loved , but overmuch hating daphne , over the uncouth rocks , craggy cliffes , and untrod mazes of the woods . cupid is more then quarter-master among the gods , ( capiumque jovem coelo traxit ) he made jupiter metamorphose himself for europa into a bull ( and put himself to graze , that he might lick her hands who fed him with flowers ) for danae into a shower of gold , for astrea into an eagle , for leda into a swan , for antiope into a satyr , for egina into a flame , for mnemosyne into a shepherd , for dois into a serpent , for calysto into a wood-nymph or nun ; so by this you may see that love made him esteem his pleasure above his state , so as lucian juno called him ludus amoris , cupids whirligig . sen. in herc. oet. . tu fulminantem saepe domuisti jovem . likewise all faigned romances do continually chant forth the complaints of millions of lovers , and the infidelity of their mistresses ; on the other side women waging war with men cease not to accuse their inconstancy , which were able to tire spirits any thing serious . a lovers heart is cupids quiver , an inextinguishable fire ; more hot and vehement then any material fire , it is the quintessence of fire , no water can quench . sen. hippol . — quis meas miserae deus , aut quis juvare daedalus flammas queat ? — what god can ease ? what daedalus can quench such flames as these ? or according to the eloquent poesie of another ; for love hath nets there laid to serve his turn , and in the water , will his wildfire burn . o! how many men do wander in this way ? how many persons in this age are corrupted too much with the extremity of this passion , lulling themselves asleeep in the laps of such as seek to strangle them ? how many excellent spirits are recorded in history , which were in excellent state and in full vigour of the functions of an intellectual life ; who by approaching over-neer to this sex , have entred into affections of fire and flames , which like little creeping serpents have stolne into their hearts . i cannot sufficiently admire at the sottishnesse and drowsinesse of many noble spirits , who are so delighted and captivated with the vain dreams of their own fancies , that they imploy all the gifts and graces of the minde , and incline to some beautiful object . what a ridiculous thing is it , to see men fall from their primitive goodnesse , as to lose their selves in dotage , and that dotage on one creature , and that creature a woman ? really , next to a miracle is my only admiration . o traitresse dalila , which seekest by thy inticings to deliver mans soul to an enemy far worse then the philistines ! such pleasures are like gilded pils , which under their external beauty include bitternesse . they are also like fresh rivers that end their course in the sea , losing their sweet relish in an ocean of saltness . man cannot love and be wise both together , the very best of them is betwixt hawke and buzzard , if once they be overtaken with this passion : it being the first and chief mistresse of all the passions , the most furious and severest of all ; he that suffers himself to be seduced by it , he is no more himself ; his body endureth a thousand labours in the search of his pleasure ; his minde a thousand hels to satisfie his desire , and desire it self increasing growes into fury . as it is natural , so it is violent and common to all : it maketh all the wisdom , resolution , contemplation and the operation of the soul brutish . it is impossible to reckon up the many great dangers and hazzards they undergoe ; they undertake single combates , venture their lives , creep in at windowes , gutters , go down chimnies in ropes , and climbe over wals to come to their sweet-hearts ; anoint the doores and hinges with oil , lest they should make a noise , tread softly , whisper , &c. and if they be surprised , leap out at windowes , and cast themselves down headlong . what a passionate speech was that of callicratides in lucian . dial. amorum . mihi ô dii coelestes ultra sit vita haec perpetua exadverso amicae sedere , & suave loquentem audire , &c. si moriatur , vivere non sustinebo , & idem erit sepulchrum utrisquethe which we thus paraphase ; o ye gods celestial , grant me this life for ever to sit opposite to her i love , that i may continually be an auditor of her mellifluous speeches , to go in and out with her ; he that frowns upon her , shall frown upon me ; if she should die , i would not live , and one tombe should contain us both . when the king of babylon would have punished one of his courtiers , for loving a young lady of the royal blood , far transcending his fortunes , apollonius being in his presence , by all means perswaded him to let him alone ; for to love and not enjoy , was most inexpressible tornent . loves force is shown in the continuation of a design , in spight of all impeachment and crosses ▪ how great was that of psyche in the search of cupid ? she saw three goddesses set against her pretensions , juno , ceres , and venus , and yet her passion became victorious over their malevolence ▪ she did things that seemed impossible , she went down to hell and spoke to preserpina , passing without much difficulty many obstructions in the way . but where it cannot effect its designes , it causes revenge . for when edward courtney earl of devonshire , being released by queen mary , long detained prisoner in the tower , a gentleman of a beautiful body , sweet nature , and royall descent , intending him ( as it was generally conceived ) to be an husband for herself . for when the said earl petitioned the queen for leave to travell , she advised him rather to marry , assuring him , that no lady in the land how high soever , would refuse him for an husband , and urging him to make his choice where he pleased ; she pointed out her self unto him as plainly , as might stand with the modesty of a maid , and the majesty of a queen . hereupon the young earl ( whether because his long durance had some influence on his brain , or that naturally ( as i rather suppose ) his face was better then his head , or out of some private fancy and affection to the lady elizabeth , or out of loyall bashfulnesse , not presuming to climbe higher , but expecting to be called up ) is said to have requested the queen for leave to marry her sister the lady elizabeth ; unhappy was it , that his choice either went so high or no higher ; for who could have spoken worse treason against mary ( though not against the queen ) then to prefer her sister before her ? and she innocent lady did afterwards dearly pay the score of this earls indiscretion ; for the queen having no cause of revenge against the earl , yet she under a colour imposed greater affliction , and closer imprisonment against elizabeth . love causeth him that doth love , to ingrave and imprint in his heart , that face and image which he loveth ; so that the heart of him that loveth is like unto a looking-glasse , in which the image of the party beloved shineth and is represented ; and doth as it were deprive himself of himself , and giveth himself to whom he loveth ; for the delights of love are commonly more in the imagination , then in the thing it self ; and the soul doth cast her eye upon those images which remain in the fancy , and looks upon them as if they were present . when venus commands , all things lose their antipathy , such is the power of love , that for the thing beloved , they neglect their own good , they fear not to expose their bodies to the edge of the sword , deny unto themselves whatsoever to them is profitable , as sleep to their eyes , quietnesse to their mindes , rest to their members , ease to their bodies ; yea , more then all this , they glory in those vain glorious attempts , those labours , sweatings , watchings , wounds , burnings and freezings , all which they endure and undergo for their mistresses ; as sir jo. suckling sings ; ah cruell love , how great a power is thine ! under the pole although we lie , thou mak'st us frie : and thou cast make us freeze beneath the line . yet this amorous passion is not more frequent with men and women , then it is with the airy quiristers , the nimble birds , who are overtaken with cupids nimbler wings , annually electing their valentines . what a perfect harmonie of affection is there betwixt the turtle and his dear mate ? whose continual billing shames diana and her frigid train . what a zealous adorer of venus is the wanton sparrow ( as pliny reporteth in his natural history ) who empties himself of all his radical moisture in her rites , and at three years end ( when the columne of his life fails him ) offers up his dry bones a sacrifice to her . aristotle will have birds sing ob futuram venerem , for joy and hope of their love stealth to come . cupid is as familiar with lions , as children with cosset lambs , and oftentimes mounts on their backs , holding by their brisly mains , and riding them about like horses , whilest they fawn upon him with their tails . he blunts the horns of the bull , and muzzels the fierce tyger , and makes the sluggish bear nimbly dance a corranto . omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque et genus aequoreum , pecudes pictaeque volucres in furias ignemque ruunt , amor omnibus idem . all kinde of creatures on the earth , beasts grim , and men , and fish with golden fins that swim , and painted birds alike to rage doth flie . thus love bears equall sway in earth , sea , skie . it is love makes old men and women , that have more toes then teeth , dance and frisk like goats ; it makes old gowty fellowes break their cruches , i , and shins too , & dance after fidlers hei go mad : and 't is no new thing , take the poets reason , which seems to me to be as true as ever fiction was , and that is , cupid and death met in an inne , and being merrily disposed , they did exchange some arrowes out of eithers quiver , which is the cause that young men die , and oft-times old men dote . and who can withstand the force of it ? ( saith mr. burton ) if once it pricks us at the heart , young or old , though our teeth shake in our heads like virginal jacks , or stand parallel asunder like arches in a bridge ; there 's no remedy , we must dance and caper candlestick height , leap over tables , chaires , and stools , though we be 60 years above waste , scarce 30 below . maides when they get together ( pardon me ladies , for 't is my design to touch all ) are still either reading or telling of love-stories , singing love-songs or sonnets , talking of this or that young man , such a man is proper , fair , and handsome , saith one ; and such a man is black and comely ; o! what a pearl is he in mine eye , saith another ; and thus they chat when they meet , never thinking or willingly discoursing upon any other subject . and forfoorh they must fast st. agnes eve , to see who must be their first husbands , and flock to the artist to know who they shall marry , and how many husbands they shall have ; nay , what would they not give if they might but see him in a glasse ? this is no court complement or allegation , but a downright truth . we will now turn to the enamorate ; and suppose one should endevour to reform him ( then which , one had better strive and tame a panther ) immediately he will burst out in choler , saying , do you think that love that thinks the whole universe too narrow a compasse to be confined unto , and who disposeth of all our wils according to his pleasure , be hem'd up in such strait limits as you prescribe ? will love be ruled and governed by the will of any but himself ? he will confesse his fault , yet will not insist upon any other argument or reason but his extreme affection , and will not argue with you anywhere but before the throne of love , and there he will prostrate himself upon his knees , and vow by all eternity , ndver to rise so long as he lives , unlesse he be ingratiated into his mistresses favour . and such a one is this who sues for an office in fools paradise ; but let him take it , for my part i le never ride ( like one for the county-clerk ship when a new sheriff is elected ) nor strive with him for it . what ( saith he ) would you have me inconstant ? oh no , not for a world ! what , would you have me mad ? ( as he is no better ) no , i will be constant till death ; startling more at the word inconstancy , then at a devil : so that i have often smiled at those who condemn inconstancy , and are professed enemies against it ; considering that they themselves are not able to be as they say , nor more constant then those whom they brand with the vice of inconstancy . for when they fall in love , do they not fall in love with beauty , or something which seems pleasing unto them ? now when this beauty doth fade , as time doubtlesse will make all beauty do , are they not then inconstant , still loving those faces that are now grown ugly , and retain nothing of what they were , but only the very name of a face ? if to love that , which is contrary to that which was loved , be constancy ; and if uglinesse be contrary unto beauty , then he that did love a fair face , and continues loving when it is ugly , must be concluded inconstant . this consideration makes me think , that the way to avoid inconstancy , is always to love beauty , and when it fades farewel love , finde some other that is faire , and still love beauty ( if you will be loving and accounted constant ) and not its contrary , unlesse you be unconstant to your first love . i know this is point blanck against the opinion of the vulgar , but if they gainsay it , i cannot help it . likewise ( saith this love-simplician ) did you know what it is to be a fool in such occasions , you would confesse that all the wisdom in the world is not comparable to this pleasing folly ; were you able to comprehend it , you would never aske what pleasure and contentment those faithful lovers ( whom you phrase melancholy and pensive ) do receive ; for you then would know that they are so ravished in the contemplation of the party whom they love and adore , as scorning all that is in the whole universe ; they do not repent of any thing more , then the losse of that time , which they spend anywhere else ; and their souls not being well able to contain the grandure of their contentment , they stand astonished at so much treasure , and so many felicities which transcends their knowledge . but i am so far from thinking them felicities , as my opinion of the contrary is much fortified . had i a quill pluck'd from cupids wing , and dip'd in the milke of venus , i could not record all the delight lovers take in displaying the beauty of their mistresses , with obsequious hyperboles , and things most excellent , comparing their eyes to those of night , to the sun , and call them spheres of light , flaming and strongly enkindling all others , they compare her to aurora , or the morning , to the snow , lilly , rose , to the whitenesse of the swan , sometimes to the myrtle , sometimes to gold , rubies , diamonds , crystal , sometimes they parallel her with the heavens , the spring , and whatsoever is in any degree excellent ; and yet , they think those but beggerly similitudes , and would go higher if they could tell how . they suppose their cheek two fair gardens planted with the choisest flowers of paradise , making the lilly and the rose as obscure types and shadowes of those delicate tinctures laid on their blooming cheeks by natures pencil . they imagine their necks towers of alabaster , their breasts hillocks of snow inlaid with saphires , their mouthes musicks temple deckt with rails of pearl , their voices the harmony of the sphears . and these they count as faint metaphors of them , to represent whom ( in their thoughts ) words are too narrow , and freshest colours too dim . oh! how she-lovers fry under the torrid zone of love , hourly in that elizium , quenching and renewing their heats , and letting themselves loose to the freedome of uncontrouled embraces . expressing themselves in these or such like raptures , viz. my dearest , unlesse thou be'st frosty spirited , unlesse alecto's cold poison fils thy veins , i le melt thee into amorous thoughts , and speak charmes to all thy senses , and make thee all flame . and thus they besiege and seek to storme loves-fort , with whole volly of obediential oathes , and the hollow granado's of complement ; crying out to their obstinate sweet-hearts , to tell them ( for loves sake ) if it be not better and more lovely to lie intwin'd in their folding armes , freely enjoying their embraces , like lillies imprisoned in goales of snow , or ivory in bands of alabaster , then to sit muffled in furs like a bed-rid miser ? they lie open to the touch , the warm snow and soft polisht ivory of their brests , which excels in softnesse the ranging clouds , the indian cotton , and in sleeknesse the smoothest cut diamond , and these are lures to catch buzzards . thus wounds they give , and wounds they take again , nor doth it grieve them slaying to be slain . now to return again to our loves weather-beaten widgeon , he hugs and embraces all his mistresses friends and followers , her picture and what ever she wears he adores as a relique , her dog he makes his constant companion , feeding him at his table , verifying the proverb , love me love my dog . if he get a ring , a ribband , a shooe-tie , her garter , a bracelet of hair of hers , he wears it ( ut pignus amoris ) for a favour about his arme , in his hat , finger or next his heart . how many of such like , would not let to hazzard their very souls for their mistresses sake ? forsake heaven with venus for the love of an adonis ? there is no man so pusillanimous , so very a dastard , whom love would not incense , making an heroical spirit ; for ( saith sir . phil. sydney ) they imagine that valour towards men , is an emblem of ability towards women , a good quality signifying a better . nothing drawes a woman like to it . nothing is more behooveful for that sex ; for with it they receive protection , and in a free way too without any danger . nothing makes a shorter cut to obtaining ; for a man of armes is always void of ceremony , which is the wall betwixt pyramus and thisbe , that is , man and woman ; for there is no pride in women , but that which rebounds from our own basenesse ( as cowards grow valiant upon those that are more cowards ) so that only by our pale asking we teach them to deny , and by our shamefacednesse we put them in minde to be modest . this kinde of bashfulnesse is far from men of valorous dispositions , and especially from soudiers ; for such are ever men ( without doubt ) forward and confident , losing no time , lest they should lose opportunity , which is the best factor for a lover . and because they know women are given to dissemble , they will never believe them when they deny . they will defend their mistresses even in a wrong and unjust cause ; for from the first moment that they fastened their affections upon that object , they prize it above their own proper essence , and therefore how justly soever an injury or violence may be offered unto it , they think no injustice in themselves to defend it ; or because winking at the wrong offered their sweet hearts , they make themselves unwortby of their grace . plato is of opinion that it was the love of venus , made mars couragious and valorous : and ( truly ) who would not be valorous to fight under such colours ? before this cowardly age , there was no way known to win a lady but by tilting and turning , and riding , to seek adventures through dangerous forrests ; in which time these slender small bon'd striplings with little legs , were held but of strength enough to marry their widowes . and even in our days there can be given no reason of the inundation of servingmen upon their mistresses , but only that usually they carry their masters weapons , and their valour . it is better to be admitted to the title of valiant acts ; at least that imports the venturing of mortality ; and all women delight to hold him fast in their armes , who hath escaped thither through many dangers . to speak at once , man hath a priviledge in valour . in clothes and good face , we do but imitate women . so then these whiffling skips , these women in mens apparel , are too neer a woman to be beloved of her . a scar in a mans face , is the same that a mole is in a womans , and a mole in a womans face , is a jewell set in white , to make it seem more white ; so a scar in a man is a mark of honour , and no blemish ; for 't is a scar and a blemish in a souldier to be without one . a good face availeth nothing , if it be on a coward that is bashful , the utmost of it is to be kist , which rather increaseth , then quencheth the appetite . she cares not for a man that wooes by letters , and through cowardlynesse dares not come into her company ; no woman takes advice of any in her loving , but of her own eyes , and her waiting maids ; and there is no clothes fits so well in a womans eye as a suit of steel , though not of the fashion : and no man so soon surprizeth a womans affections , as he that is the subject of whisperings , and hath alwayes some twenty stories of his own atchievements depending upon him . there is one love-simplician who is so led by the nose into fools paradise , that if he see an handsome maid smile and laugh upon him , or shew a pleasant countenance , or look ( obliquis ocellis ) asquint upon him , or use some gratious words , or amorous gestures ( as many are too full of ) he applies it all to himself , as done in his favour , thinking that surely she loves him ; to the tavern he runs , looks big , erects his mouchatoes , stampes , stares , and cals the drawer rogue , drinks to his venus in a venice-glace , and thinks he sees the smile she gave him in it , and to moralize her sex , throwes it over his head and breaks it . this fellow is like to mullidor ( in greenes never too late ) who said to his mother , that he compared the church to a looking-glasse , for as a man may see himself in the one , so in the other the wenches eyes are a certificate ; for upon whom you see all the girles look , he for foot and face carries away the bell , phillida solus habet : and i am sure ( sayes he ) for these two years i never came into the church , and was no sooner set , but the maids began to winke one upon another , to look on me and laugh . oh! war mother , when a dog wags his tail he loves his master , and when a wanton laughes , for my life , she is over head and ears in love . another gull seeks to win his mistresses affection with gallant and costly apparell , putting all he hath on his back , thinking women are marryed to fine clothes ; making his taylor his baude , and hopes to inveagle her love with such a coloured suit ; surely the same man hazzards the losse of her favour upon every change of his clothes . another with an affected pace . another with musick . another with rich gifts , and pleasant discourse . another with letters , vowes , and promises , to be gratious in her eyes , struts like a peacock , with his train before her . but there are many other , who every moment declare their fervour , their torment , and martyrdom ; they serve , they sooth , they continually frequent , they spie out all occasions , they silently practise all the ways they can , to come to the end of their designs ; and often it happeneth , that as drops of water incessantly falling , do hollow rocks ; so ceaselesse complements soften the most inaccessible rigors . yet some are so sottishly overcome , as to waste ten years of service to kisse a womans hand , and suffer for a shameful servitude , that , which ( i professe ) i would not endure one year for an empire . fond novices , you pule , and continually strive to please your mistresses , which is the only way to make her flie you , nothing so tiring and tedious ; such as thus love , must needs perpetually be imprisoned , never at liberty , always present , continually talking with her , she cannot stir a foot , but you must do the like . if she chance to be at any time ill , or frown , and do not smile upon you , nor please you , then must you forsooth put the finger in the eye and cry , cry tears . do you think this is the way ? no , no , it is in love as in all things else , the mean is the best measure ; so as to avoid all frivolous follies and troubles ( as they are no other when you have made the best of them ) the only way is but to love indifferently ; and if you will be silly fools , and must needs have mistresses , your best way is never to tie your self to one ; for to love one only , gives her an occasion to think that it is for want of courage , that you dare not attempt to love any else , and therefore she will scorn such a fainthearted lover : whereas , did you love all you look upon ( or at least a good many of them ) she will not think you came to her , because you know not whither to go else ; but she will then prize you the higher , and will be obliged to love you , especially if you particularize her above any other ; and once a week is often enough to tender your service to her , for oftener is a palpable doting . but because i say a mediocrity in love is the best , ( me thinks ) i see one of these melancholy lovers , setting a frowning , tart , saturnine face upon me ; objecting , that he that loves not in the highest point of extremity , does not love one jot ; he that can be indifferent and love all alike , cannot love one as he ought to do ; or he that can measure , or think any greater then his own , is not a lover worth a rush ; for to injoyn a mediocrity in love , is to impose an impossibility . and then ( poor soul ) he shakes his head at me , saying , ah , you little know what belongs to love ! and then having recovered his breath , for ( through the vehemency of anger towards me ) he had almost lost it , he begins to object again , saying , those effects which belong to an extreme love , and one that knowes , what sacrifice and duties belong unto the altars of love , is so far from calling those effects , troubles , or follies ( as you terme them ) as they think them felicities and perfect contentments ; likewise he saith , that love is to die in ones self , that he may live in another ; never to love any thing but what is pleasing and agreeable to the party loved . the will must be transformed into a night toy he cals a mistresse . and can you think ( saith he ) that one who loves thus , will ever be troubled with the presence of her whom he loves . if you did but know what it is to love , you would never think that he who loves , can do any thing to displease . if he chance to commit any fault , the fault it self pleaseth , considering with what intention it was committed . the very desire of being amiable has such a vigour in a right lover , as though he be rough to the world in general , yet will he be sure smooth and spruce up himself towards her he loves . nay , he thinks himself in the orchard of adonis , or the elizium fields , if he injoy her company , he is so taken with delight . and these , and an hundred such like whimsical chym●raes , hot brained lovers conceive , and do affect a vainglorious humor , which lovers use to attribute to themselves , and it is to be reputed constant . they suffer themselves wholly to be led by sense , and are so far from repressing these rebellious inclinations , that they give all incouragement unto them , leaving the reigns , and using all provocations to further them ; bad by nature , worse by art , education , and a perverse will of their own ; they follow on wheresoever their unbridled affections will transport them , doing all out of self-will , casting reason at their heels ; this stubborn-will of theirs perverts judgement , which sees and knows what should and ought to be done , and yet will not do it , slaves to their lusts and appetite , they precipitate and plunge themselves into a labyrinth of cares blinded with lust . for her they do depart even from their reason , bids welcome unto manacles and prison : in sharpest torments think themselves at ease , so they thereby their fair saint shall please ; and all without expectance of reward ; to love her is the honour they regard . but if this be love , heaven shield us from it , and preserve our eye-sight . this love gathereth its heat , and redoubleth its force by hope , which inflameth with the soft and gentle aire thereof our foolish desires , kindleth in our mindes a fire from whence ariseth a thick smoak , which blindeth our understanding , carryeth with it our thoughts , holds them hanging in the clouds , and makes us dream waking . although she be all soveraignty , as high as heaven , and be a deity : yet still my high-blown hopes will have the glory , to enterprise an act beyond all story . if you narrowly survey the palace of this amorous passion ( the plague and frenzie of the soul ) you shall finde it to be built all upon hopes . the staires are of ice , made in such wise , that he who most ascendeth , most descendeth ; the hals , chambers , and wardrobes , are all furnished and hanged with idlenesse , dreams , desires and inconstancies ; the seats and chaires are made of false contentment . it hath affliction , torment , and fraud for engineers ; uncertainty , fear , false opinion and distrust for guard . the court being all composed of heartlesse , soft , and effeminate men ; the counsellors are lying and deceit ; and the steward , suspicion . it is a play-game wherewith nature busieth our mindes ; contrarywise when despair is once londged neer us , it torments our souls in such a sort , with an opinion of never obtaining that we desire , that all businesse besides must yeeld unto it . and for the love of that which we think never to obtain , we lose even the rest of whatsoever we possesse . this passion is like unto little children , who to be revenged of him who hath taken one of their play games from them , cast the rest into the fire . it is angry with it self , and requireth of its self the punishment of its own folly and ( seeming ) felicity ; and hence it is , that many despairing of ever having them whom they affect , make themselves away either by strangling or drowning , or some such like miserable end , or continually deploring their dysasterous condition . plant me where nothing growes but cruelty , ' amongst lions , bears , and other savage beasts ; to see if they that mercy will deny , which i in vain implore from humane breasts . how justly are those cruel ladies to be condemned , who being rich in beauty ( scorning art ) suffer their loyall amorists to die for love of them unpityed . they are so nice they scorn all suitors , crucifie their poor enamoratoes , and think no body good enough for them , as dainty to please , as daphne herself ; they take a pride to prank up themselves , to make young men enamored : but 't is a lamentable thing to see a silly soul so profuse of love , as to confer it upon such ingrate and disdainful women ▪ as if one took delight to feed and flatter owles . and on the other side ( to make neither barrell better herring ) some young men are so obstinate , and as curious in their choise , and tyrannically proud , insulting , deceitful and false hearted . therefore let these go together , for love and hanging go by destiny . yet there are some feminine humours so tractable , that they are won with a small intreaty , according to that of the comedian , such rape thou act'st upon my soul , and with such pleasing violence dost inforce it , that when it should resist , it tamely yeelds ; making a kinde of haste to be undone , as if the victory were losse , and conquest came by overthrow . wounded with love , they yeeld up natures treasure , to be all ransackt at the victors pleasure . there are others , who are more taken with a soothing observance , or handsome congie making , then all the fair qualities or good parts can be in a man , or the faithfullest service can be rendered them . there are others , who lay snares and keep alwayes a kinde of order in the receit of such as they intend to in register in the number of their subjects . but at length , this idalian fire kindles in them , and then are they unable to suffer the absence of their lover , yet modesty will not suffer them to intrrude into his presence , they desire with all impatience to see him , yet shun all occasions of seeing him , seeking and fearing in one and the same time to meet him , a troublesome passion , that brings them to will and not to will in the same time one and the same thing . she is peevish and sick till she see him , discontent , heavy , sad , and why comes he not ? where is he ? why bteaks he promise ? why tarries he so long ? sure he is not well ; he hath some mischance certainly , he forgets himself and me . and when he comes , then with a seeming coynesse she looks upon him , with a cold look , though she be all flame within . some are as sappho , who was subtle to allure , and slippery to deceive , having their hearts made of wax , ready to receive every impression , not content till they have as many lovers as their hearts have entrances for love , their hearts being like pumice stones , light and full of holes . some are as inconstant as cressida , that , be troylus never so true , yet out of sight out of minde ; and so soon as d●omede begins to court , she like venetian traffick , is for his penny currant , à currendo , sterling coyne ; passable from man to man in way of exchange . others are as lydia cruell , whose hearts are hammered in the forge of pride , thinking themselves too good for all , ( when as in truth they are too bad for any ) and none worthy of them , and oft-times nestling all day with the beetle , are at night contented with a cowsherd for a shelter . these have eyes of basilisks that are prejudiciall to every object , and hearts of adamant not any way to be pierced . some are as if they were votaries unto venus , and at their nativities had no other influence , take no pleasure but in amorous passions , no delight but in madrigals of love , wetting cupids wings with rose-water , and tricking up his quiver with sweet perfumes ; they set out their faces , as fowlers doe their daring-glasses , that the larkes that sore highest may stoop lowest ; as soon as the poor loving fools are wrapped within their nets , then they sue with signes and plead with sonnets , faign tears , and paint out passions to win her , that seeming to be coy comes at the first lure . there ate others taken as schoole boyes catch squirrels , hunting them up and down till they be weary and fall down before them . all melted in pure love languidly sweet , she lets her self fall at the victors feet . the coyest she that is may be won by fair opportunity , being the strongest plea in the court of venus , able to overthrow her be she never so coy ; ( for it is more easie for some maides to suffer themselves to be martyred by tyrants in defence of their chastity , then ( if opportunity , pleasing courtship and importunity serve ) not to yield that to a lover , which they would have denyed to an executioner ; and there are some so strongly inclined by nature , and assaulted with such violent temptations , that if they resist and become victors over passion , may well be recorded among noble and heroick women ) yet time may be so elected , that he that takes it wisely , shall be sure never to misse : he that can temper toyes with art , she being in a merry vein , may bring that love which swimmeth in her eyes , to dive into her heart ; but other times they are so squeemish , so skittish , and demure , that one may better catch and tame a wilde horse , then win their favour ; no not a look , not a smile , not a kisse for a kingdome : this being one of their subtle arts , as one wittily saith , quanquam natura & arte eram formosissima , isto tamen astu tanto speciosior videbar , quod enim oculis cupitum agrè praebetur , multo magis affectus humanos incendit . though i was by nature and art most beautifull , yet by those tricks , i seemed to be far more amiable then i was ; for that which men earnestly seek and cannot attain , draw on their affections with a most furious desire . and to gull their lovers the more , and fetch them over , they will shew them rings , gloves , scarffes , &c. saying , that such a gallant sent them , when there is no such matter , but meerly to circumvent them . o the subtilty of women to whet their lovers appetite ! they will fall out and quarrell with them on set purpose , pick quarrels upon no occasion , because they would be reconciled unto them again , according to the old grammar rule , amantium irae amoris redintegratio est . the falling out of lovers is a renewing of love . the blunt countrey wench did as eloquently as she could expresse her self in these words ; there is something runs in my minde , i wish it were out ; but i wish somebody loved me , as well as i love somebody : poor girl , both at milking , walking , and working , still something troubles her : at last she cryes out , hai-ho , for an husband , a bad husband , nay the worst that ever was is better then none . how earnestly do they seek marriage and are never well till they have effected it ! o how sweet is the contemplation of marriage to them ! and likewise we batchelours , when we see and behold those angelical faces , observe their pleasant gestures and graces , lend an ear to their siren-like songs , see them dance , &c. we think their conditions are as fine as their faces , we are taken with dumb signes , we rave , we burn , and how gladly would we be marryed ? but when we feel the cares and miseries of it , then we wish to be single again ; as the story goes of a good-fellow , which whilest he was a batchelour , was a boon companion , and would spend his money freely , and therefore with his hostess he was termed a good-fellow ; but so it happened , that at length he was marryed , and coming not so frequently to his hostess as formerly , nor spending his cash so freely when he came , was by one of them demanded the reason of this his unwonted strangenesse and great change ; who replying said , i am now married ; why then quoth she , thou art now an honest man ; but he sighingly made answer in these words , ha , but if i were once a good-fellow again , i would never be an honest man whilest i lived . if this be true , as some out of disconsolate experience will informe us ; farewell wiving for my part . but to put a period to this section ; volumes would not be sufficient for him , who should write all the passions which dayly arise as members from this passion , all pens would be weak , words would be dried up , and wits lost therein . the power and effects of love in widowes . reader , i pray thee smile , but do not jear at my curiosity in describing the effects of love in widowes ( who , like heralds herse-clothes , serve to many funerals with a little altering the colour ) and the wylie lures they lay to bring on their suitors . it would make a dog laugh to hear how they will belie their age , saying , they are little past 30 when they have scarce a tooth in their heads . as one reports , who loved a widow of 50 years of age , she swore she was but 32 the next december , and 't is a thing more familiar with stale batchelours ; but venus haec perjuria ridet : venus laughes at these perjuries . they will artificially discourse of their former husbands , saying , they have no memory of life , unlesse it be to think of , and to live in him ; thinking thereby to engage their lovers the more , and to let them see how much they doe deserve to be beloved , in shewing them how capable they are of love , and how much they can cherrish the affections of a living man , since they so long retain those of dead ones ; imitating such decoyes , as to gain another mans money , doe willingly deposite some of their own . o heavens ! saith she , ( relating her love to her former husband ) how doe i resent his losse , and have ever since preserv'd so lively a memory of him in my soul ( for i did love him with most perfect affection ) that me thinks i see him every hour before mine eyes , and me thinks i hear him every minute bid me love him still ; making a dead man a ground bait to draw suitors ▪ on ; delighteth in the multitude of them ; for by them she gaines : one serves to draw on another , and with one at last she shoots out another , as boyes do pellets in elder-guns . she has a trick to commend to them a single life ; just as horse-coursers do their jades to put them away . while she is a widow ( observe her ) she is no morning woman ; the evening and a good fire may make her listen to a husband ; but if ever she be made sure , 't is upon a full stomach to bedward . they ( all of them ) are full of suspicion of their lovers , extremely jealous , lest they be deceived by young wenches , exceeding hard to be won , and very easily lost , quickly offended , but abominably hard to be pleased . really , i admire at those men , who take delight to court widowes . what a fantasticall stomach must he needs have , that cannot eat of a dish of meat , till another have cut of it ? who would wash after another , when he might have fresh water enough for asking ? or what a pitiful thing is it , for a man that is about to go a long journey , to be tyed to ride on a beast that is half tyred to his hand ? men will say he is benighted , and is now glad of any inne . therefore i wish you never to marry any advowson that has had other incumbents ; for he that takes her , has but a reversion in taile , and if she prove good , he may thank death for his aime ; if evill , upbraid him , and not unjustly for his occasion . but hold , a church-man she dares not venture upon , for she hath heard widowes complain of dilapidations . never ( with the philosopher ) drink of that fountain another hath dyed in . wherefore it is a resolution of the spaniard , of what mean quality soever he be , he will not marry a widow , although she be very young and wealthy , and it hath been a resolution of theirs from antiquity , and continueth to this day : and to this effect one of them made this answer , i will no widow wed , my reason's sound , i 'le drink no water wherein one was drown'd . he that takes her halfe worne , makes account she hath that will pay for new dressing ; she seems to promise security in her peace , yet invites many times to a troublesome estate ; when the conquest atchieved , scarce countervails the wars , the principall of her love is perished with the use . but ( indeed ) rich widowes were ordained for younger brothers ; for they being born to no lands , must plough in another mans soil . but i expect no thanks from them for this , having trespassed a little too much upon their patience . wherefore i will proceed on to the next chapter ; and discover to you the signes of love . the signes of love . having entered thus far within this melancholy devils territories ; it is our purpose to set before thee ( courteous reader ) in this section ( as in a glasse ) a clear representation and image of a love-sick soul , and an account of those various gestures , and actions lovers have , as few books of this nature do so copiously demonstrate . love though it be never so close and kept private , may be discovered , if prudence and artifice be used . yet i wish every one , who deposites his judgement in the discovering of an enamorato , not rashly to give credit to one testimony of contingent signes , but joyn many , and consider them together for the perfection of your judgement ; therefore aristotle adviseth , vni signo non fidendum , sed pluribus inter se collatis . and first , how it may be discovered by physiognomie . we commonly call physiognomie the science , whereby men judge of the nature , complexion and manners of every one , by the contemplation of all the members of the body , and chiefly of the face and countenance : but there is no physiognomie so certain , as that we are about to touch , whereby men may be easily convinced of that which they think to hide in their hearts , which notwithstanding is quickly discovered in their countenances , as if we read it in a book ; according to ovid ; heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu ! how hard is it a fault with face not to bewray ? and to the same effect , the wise man saith , ecclus. 13. 26. cor hominis immutat faciem sive in bono sive in malo : the heat of man changeth his countenance , whether in good or evill ; for in anger and fear we see men , either extreme pale or high coloured ; in melancholy and sadnesse , the eyes are heavie ; in joy and pleasure , the motions of the eyes are lively and pleasant , according to the diverb , cor gaudens exhilarat animum ; a rejoycing heart maketh merry the face . and it is a received opinion , that vultus est index animi ; the countenance is the discoverer of the minde . so that one affirmes that those that are in love , semper conniventes , have a continuall motion or winking with their eye-lids . tears are signums of this passion , which may be observed by the poets so often representing unto us lovers weeping and lamenting ▪ because love is delighted in tears ; but this signe is not pathognomical , nor very certain , especially in women , who have the command of their tears , and can unsluce the floudgates of their eye when they please . but as this passion enters first into the internall parts by the eyes ; so they send forth the first assured and undoubted tokens of the same ( for there is no passion but some particular gesture of the eyes declare it ) : so soon as ever the malady hath seized upon the patient , it causeth a certain kinde of modest cast of the eyes ; but if it begin to get strength upon the party , then the eyes begin to grow hollow and dry , and you may observe them to stand , as if they were in some deep contemplation , or else were fixed in beholding something that much delights them . jonadab discovered by the languishing countenance of amnon , davids son , that he was in love with some great princesse or personage . the hair of his eye-browes stand upright and grow hard , he rubs his eyes very much as though he were sleepy , he rols his eyes much . his eyes are all white , either to weare the livery of his mistresse complexion , or to keep cupid from hitting the black . hair growing thick behind the ears , and besides the temples , is a signe of a vehement inclination to love . valescus de tarenta the most famous physitian of his age , observes the chopping of lips in women to be a sign of their inclination to this malady ; for that it denotes the intemperate heat of the matrix . they cannot endure to look any in the face , because they think , that through their eyes they see their hearts . his armes are carelesly used , as if their best use were nothing but imbracements . he is untrust , unbuttoned , ungartered , not out of carelesnesse , but care ; his farthest end being but going to bed . her favours lift him up as the sun doth moisture ; when she disfavours , unable to hold that happinesse , it fals down in tears . if you aske him a question , he answers not , or not to the purpose ; and no wonder , for he is not at home , his thoughts being gone a wool-gathering with his mistresse . stragling thoughts are his content , they make him dream waking . speak to him , he hears with his eyes , eares follow his minde , and that 's not at leasure . ovid saith , that palenesse is a constant colour with lovers . pallidus omnis amans , color hic est aptus amanti . one trembles at the sight of his mistresse , tremor cordis , palpitations of the heart ; another sweats , blowes short , his heart is at his mouth , leapes , he burns , freezes , and sometimes through violent agitation of the spirits bleeds at nose . he denies nature her due in sleep , and payes her with watchfulnesse , he lies upon a bed of thornes , he has no order or equality at all in his gestures , motions or actions ; he thinks of businesse , but never does any ; he is all contemplation and no action ; nothing pleases him long , but that which pleaseth his own fancy . they are the consuming evils , and evill consumptions that consume him alive . he perpetually sighes to the hazzard of his buttons , and complaines without any evident cause . poor soul , he is inflam'd with fits of love , so violently hot , as they do move his pulse to beat a madmans temper : he does sigh , does langish , and half dead is he , and ever in such violencies swell , as aske him what he ailes , he cannot tell . as the old woman catechized her son mullidor ; thy cheeks are lean , and now thou looks like leuton pale and wan , i saw thy stomach to night , thou art not thine own man ; thou hadst of late ( god save thee ) a lovely plump pair of cheeks , and now thou looks like a shotten herring . tell me mullidor , and fear not to tell me , for thou tellest it to thy mother , what ailest thou ? is it a grief of body , or of minde , that keeps thee on the holy-dayes from frisking at the foot-ball ? thou art not as thou wert wont , and therefore say what thou ailest , and thou shalt see old women have good counsell . at these speeches of his mother , mullidor fetched a great sigh ; and with that , being after supper , he brake winde ; which his mother hearing , oh son ( quoth she ) it is the colick that troubles thee , to bed man , to bed , and we will have a warme pot lid . the colick mother , no , 't is a disease that all the cunning women in the countrey cannot cure , and strangely it holds me ; for sometimes it holds me in my head , and sometimes in mine eyes ; my heart , my heart , oh there ( mother ) it plays the devill in a morter ; sometimes it is like a frost , cold ; sometimes like a fire , hot ; when i should sleep , then it makes me wake ; when i should eat , then it troubles my stomach ; when i am alone , it makes me cry right-out , i can wet one of my new lockeram napkins with weeping . it came to me by a great chance ; for as i looked on a fair flower , a thing i know not what , crept in at mine eyes , and ran round about all my veins , and at last got into my heart , and there ever since hath remained , and there ( mother ) so wrings me that mullidor must die , and with that he fell on weeping . his mother seeing him shed tears , fell to her hempen apron , and wip't her bleared eyes , and at last demanded of him if it were not love . at that question , he hung down his head and sighed . ah my son ( quoth she ) now i see 't is love , for he is such a sneaking fellow , that if he but leap in at the eye-lid , he dives down into the heart , and there rests as cold as a stone , and yet touch him and he will screek . erasistratus discovered the love of antiochus to his step-mother , for so soon as ever she entered the chamber , his colour changed , his speech stopped , his looks were pleasant , his face burned , and he was all in a sweat , his pulse beat very disorderly , and lastly his heart failed him ; with other such like symptomes , which are wont to appear in melancholy lovers . galen saith , that by these forementioned signes joyned together , he discovered the miserable doting of the wife of justus upon pylades , because saith he , at the naming of pylades , her colour changed from white to red , and from red to white , alternis vicibus , her pulse beat unequally and with divers motions . it is undeniable , but that a passionate lover may be known by the pulse , by reason of the stirrings of the spirits ; for which cause , saith avicen , if one would know the name of such a ones mistresse , he must feel his pulse , and at the same instant name the party whom he suspects to be the cause of his malady , and take some occasion or other to commend her beauty , sweetnesse of behaviour , attire , or qualities of the minde ; for at the same time , pulsus diversicabitur in varietate magna , & fiet similis intersecto ; you shall perceive ( saith he ) a strange alteration in the motion of the pulse , and it will be very unequall , swift and often interrupted . mr. burton in his anatomy of melancholy saith , the best conjectures are taken , from such symptomes as appear when the parties are both present , all their speeches , amorous glances , actions , and gestures will bewray them , they cannot contain themselves , but they will be still kissing , joyning hands , treading on one anothers toes , embracing , pinching , diving into their bosoms , &c. though it be so that they cannot come neer and have the opportunity to dally , yet if they be in presence , their eyes will bewray them : ubi amor , ibi oculus , where i look i like , and where i like i love . they will be still gazing , staring , winking , nodding , stealing faces , smiling and glancing at her , with much eagernesse and greedinesse , as if their eyes should never be satisfied with seeing her . it is affirmed by some , that those that are sick of love melancholy , are generally lean throughout the whole body , facit amor maciem , as well by reason of their little eating and drinking , as also for their bad digestion , by reason that the spirits , and natural heat are withdrawn from the stomach to the brain . another will have leannesse to be caused in a lover , by reason of too much intention of the minde , pensivenesse and anxietie ; the lover loseth the fulnesse of flesh , and good liking of his body , that before he enjoyed . a third will have leannesse caused in lovers , by a direction of vitall heat from the circumference to the center , thereby consuming the vitall spirits , drying the body and causing leannesse . they are troubled with immoderate watchings , wakings , and sighings , because in lovers are divers imaginations , and fancies , that steal into the brain , and never suffers them to take any quiet repose ; whence the brain becomes dry and cold ; and if by chance they be surprised by any light slumber , which is the provision nature hath made for the repairing of the animal spirits , which in them are wasted and much impaired , by the violence of their imagination and excessive wakings ; that slumber is attended on by a thousand phantasmes and fearful dreams , so that they awake oft-times more discontented , sad , pensive and melancholy then before ; and for the most part they finde themselves more tormented sleeping then waking . they are vexed with immoderate sighings , by reason that they many times are oblivious of drawing their breath , being wholly taken up with the strong imagination , that they love either in beholding the beauty of their objects , or else in their absence contemplating on their rare perfections , and contriving the means how to come to their desires : so that recollecting themselves , nature is constrained to draw in as much air at once , as before it should have done at two or three times ▪ and such a respiration is called a sigh ; which indeed is nothing else but a double respiration . observe one tranfixed with violent love ( whose minde is bewitched , brain dislocated , and reason eclipsed ) and you shall finde that all he holdeth , all he meditateth on , all he speaketh , all he dreameth , is of the creature he loveth . he hath her in his head and heart , painted , graved , carved in the most pleasing formes . for her he entereth sometimes into quakings , sometimes into faintings , another while into fits of fire , ice ; he soreth in the aire , and instantly is drenched in the abysse ; he attendeth , he espieth , he fears , he hopes , he despaires , he sighes , he blushes , he waxeth pale , he doteth in the best company , he addresses his colloquiums to woods , groves and fountains ; he writeth , he blots out , he teareth , he lives like a spittler estranged from the conversation of men : repose which charmeth all the eares of the world , is not made for him , still this fair one , still this cruel one , tormenteth him . plutarch saith , the heart of a lover was a city , in which upon one and the same day , were seen sports and banquets , battles and funerals . you shall see another of cupids slaves burthen himself with newes of no value ; he makes a secret of every thing , and gives out those for mysteries to his mistresse , which are proclaimed with a trumpet . another is so extremely open breasted ( that you need look for no other signe ) he tels all his thoughts , and as if his heart were a sieve , it keeps nothing which it sends not out by the lips . he becomes an extreme babler , which proceeds from the influence of the heart ; for plutarch saith , that love is naturally a great babler , chiefly when it chanceth to light upon the commendation of those things that are its objects . for that lovers have a strong desire to induce others to give credence to that whereof themselves are already perswaded ; which is , that they love nothing but what is absolutely perfect , both for goodnesse and beauty ; and they would willingly have these opinions of theirs confirmed also by all other judgements . he is importunate and unseasonable in complements ; he pratles with his friends whilest he hath a fever ; he tels extravagant tales , wherein he makes himself very facetious , although at the latter end of the discourse , he askes where the conceit to be laughed at lies . he is very merry , and then within a moment he fals to be very melancholy and extreme sad , pensive and dejected ; then by and by he entertains himself with some merry pleasant conceits , and then within a small tract of time the contrary ; by this weather cock you may perceive in what quarter the winde is . this passion makes him very simple , next door to sottishnesse , and makes him do many extravagancies ; so that through these fooleries , he brings to himself a turbulent life , a continual torment , a hasty death , and his salvation doubtful . all of them are restlesse , casting their weari●d members upon their loathed beds in their solitary chambers , filling the aire with a thousand throbs and interrupted sighes , sometimes disturbed with the rivality of others , sometimes afflicted , and fear those manifold mischances that may befall the person beloved ; so that the many passions that multiply in the breast of a lover , do bring with them an extenuation and impairing of the complexion ; and sometimes a strange kinde of alteration in the individual essence , from whence doe arise those furies of love , and potent frenzies , and insensible astonishments , which happen many times to those that love , either because they make not reason the forerunner of their sense , or because they directed not their loves by the rules of wisdome , which teacheth the only means to the attaining of all other virtues . they are guided with the blind lanthorne of sense , whilest rambling in the streets , they leave reason sleeping with the constable . never raged alcides on mount oeta , nor fierce orlando for his angelica more then these vtopian lovers , for their imaginary shadowes . you may observe this passion drawn to the life by virgil in his dido aeneid . 4. uritur infelix dido , totaque vagatur urbe furens , &c. she was so tormented with the heat of her love , that she ran up and down the city as if she had been distracted . for lovers through despair of obtaining their desires , through the inflamation of the vitals become nelancholy , which is ( to speak truth ) a madnesse ; for all passions that produce strange and unusuall behaviour , are called by the general terme of madnesse . and of the severall kinds of madnesse caused by love , he that would take the paines might enroll a legion . by reason of these perturbations of the minde , the bloud becomes adust , as in all other violent passions , excepting joy , according to galen , by which means divers have fallen into strange and desperate diseases , growing foolish , mad , cynicall and wolvish . the learned avicen reporteth in his chapter de amore , that from this passion proceeds the green sicknesse in women , ( which is sometimes accompanyed with a gentle fever , called by our modern writers an amorous fever ) suffocations , head-ach , epilepsies , and divers other desperate symptomes , which ▪ for the most part ( saith he ) admit neither cure nor mitigation . the poor inamorato loves to be in melancholy saturnine places , where he may best contemplate the beauty of his ▪ mistresse , and not be obstructed by other objects , where he may best remember any one action of hers ; nay , the very place where he last saw her ; for love breedeth melancholy , and melancholy requires solitarinesse , and solitarinesse setteth the thoughts on worke . do you think he would change his contentment , for any thing in the whole universe ? he is so jealous and so careful to entertain this very thought , that lest he should make any a sharer with him , he will retire unto the most solitary and unfrequented places that he can finde ; he cares not for the society of men , or all the delight that men can devise and use to court with such care , so he may enjoy his own thoughts . he may be styled an astronomer , for he fixes the eye of his meditation upon the wandring venerean planet . if you go into his study , you shall finde ten amorous volumes , for one pamphlet of theologie , and scarce that too . o! how the shelves are stuft with romances , and his pockets with songs and sonnets ; he longs to be graduate in the university of venus ; he accounts himself already master in this art in actu designato , and thinks long till he be in actu exercito ; nothing now in his judgement is wanting to compleate his degree but a pone manum in manum maritae . if you observe a lover in the presence of his mistresse , you shall see him either struck dumbe , or when he speaks it is but stammeringly , not knowing how to speak . and this is , because the sense of a lover being too earnestly intent and setled in the contemplation of the beauty of his mistresse , he doth as it were altogether forget himself , and being lull'd asleep in his beloved object ; the over vehement intention of the minde , taketh away the outward use of the tongue ; for experience the best schoole-mistris , whilest a man attentively hearing any delightful musick , all his other senses are out of joynt and uselesse , the powers being hindered from their due operation , by the concourse of the vitall spirits to that power only , which so attentively worketh , and therefore it is no great wonder , if men stand as mute as fishes in the presence of their mistresses , when they have most need to speak . or because ( as an amorist saith ) that a lover fearing that he should not speak so as may please , and tickle the ears of his mistresse , chuseth rather to be silent ( making his tongue more a stock then a lambes tail ) then to utter his minde imperfectly ; and if he dare proceed so far as to open his mouth , still fearing that he cannot speak as he should , nor so eloquently as he would , utters his minde stammeringly and interceptedly . also at that present he is of a flushing colour , and looks as though he were drunk , because the object from which his love taketh greatest force being present ; he by reason of the great joy that he feeleth in the presence thereof , sendeth forth those lively flames , which being plainly descried in the superficiall parts of the face , do commonly give such a vermilian tincture , that the whole countenance seems to be covered with a flashing kind of ardor , and that by reason of the great store of spirits gathered into that place . an unfortunate lover speaks of nothing but his mistresse and his flames , he is alwayes in the fire like the salamander , he has a perpetual mount aetna in his breast ; nay , saith he , i will touch a forrest with my finger , and it will totally burn and waste it . but contrarily , he that prospers and speeds in his love , or gets a pleasing answer from his mistresse , he alwayes shews a merry cheerfull countenance , jocond and laughing , full of spirit , quick eyed , eloquent , and in his whole carriage full of joy and consolation . this passion cannot be concealed , for amorous passions do prick and wound the hearts of inamoratoes , and therefore provoked by the sharpenesse of such a spur , they cannot but manifest their grief ; for it is some comfort to him that is assailed , to vent that which went in at the eye by the mouth , by the help of his tongue , by sighing , by making complaints to senselesse creatures , many times to his bed-curtains . it requires much subtlety and craft to discover this passion in women , they conceal and smother it so closely , that they will seem to be in a great fury and hatred , when they most of all love , giving peevish answers , and refuse seemingly the affections presented unto them ; but — licet ipsa neget , vultus loquitur quodcunque teget . they are like those physitians and lawyers , that refuse a fee , yet put out their hand to take it . or , she 'l flie away , and yet would fain with all her heart be overtain . she will deny , yet seem to dant a lover when she fain would grant . she will resist , that you at length may seem to vanquish her by strength . for thus her honour does ordain , she should resist , and yet but faign . yea , ( ladies ) you shall see some of your own sex so surprized with affection , as it bursts out into violent extremes ; their discourse is semibrev'd with sighs , their talk with tears ; they walke desperately forlorn , making woods and groves their disconsolate consorts . their eyes are estranged from sleep , their weakened appetite from repast , their wearied limbs from repose . melancholy is their sole melody ; they have made a contract with grief , till grief bring them to their graves . and truely those poor maids are to be pityed , because their own tender hearts brought them to this exigent ; have either set their affections where they thought verily they might be requited , and were not ; or else where they received ▪ like seeming tender of affection , but afterwards rejected ; what they wished to effect , they could not . so as in time they fall in a poor maudlins distemper by giving rains to passion , till it estrange them from the soveraignty of reason . i could say more , but modesty will not permit me . yet , some there are , who are not such kinde souls , nor half so passionate , more discreet in their choise , and in the passages of love more temperate . these will not daigin to cast a loose look upon their beloved ; but stand so punctually upon their termes , as if they stood indifferent for their choise , albeit constantly ( though privately ) resolved never to admit of any change . these scorn to paint out their passions in their colours , or utter their thoughts in sighes , or shed one dispassionate tear for an incompassionate lover . their experience hath taught them better notions ; they will seemingly flie ( as i have said ) to make them more eagerly follow , and to take them by whom they are most taken . they can play with the flame and never singe their wings , look love in their face , and preserve their eyes , converse where they take delight , and colour their affection with a faigned disdain . these are they who can walke in the clouds to their intimatest friends , making their eyes strangers to their hearts , and conclude nothing more foolish then love if discovered , and nothing more wise if artificially shadowed . some artists will undertake to judge who are in love by chiromancy , by the lines of the hand . for say they , if a little crosse be upon the line of life ( in the hand ) neer the angle , it portends maladies of love . also , if the table line joyn it self with the middle naturall line , so as both do make an angle , this doth demonstrate one to be variously troubled with love , rendring the parties life very displeasing . it seems to some ( how true it is i know not ) to be possible for a man to know whether one be in love or no , by their natural and animal dreams , if the party will but relate them at his awaking ; for the fancy in sleep is most taken up with those things that the minde hath been busied with in the day ; according to that in the poet ; judicibus lites , aurigae somnia , currus : vanaque nocturnis meta cavatur equis . gaudet amans furto , &c. the lawyer pleads in 's sleep ; the careful swains manage their pransing coursers o're the plains . lovers dream of their stoln delights , &c. and indeed dreams do sometimes so far ingage them , as they cannot dissemble nor deny them . they say , that those lovers who are very melancholy through the extremity of this passion , are accustomed to horrible and fearful dreams , by reason of the melancholy vapors that ascend up into the brain . and because this affection of all others doth most disturbe and afflict the spirits , and from that disturbance and purturbation these monstrous and horrible dreams do arise ; so that many times by reason of their ( little ) sleep , they bewray a strange kinde of horror and astonishment in their countenances . also , to dream of travelling through woods , sticking in bushes , and bryers doth signifie much trouble and crosses in love . to dream of angling and fishing signifies a difficulty , and the party despaires of obtaining the party beloved . but to dream of banquets and feasts , doth signifie the hopes of the party loving , and that his proceeding in love shall be prosperous . to dream of winds , stormes , and showers of rain , doth signifie love passion . to dream of riding on a tired horse , or drawing water out of a well , or climbing upon a steep hill , is a sign of a vebement love passion . to dream of seeing ones mistresse in a glasse , is an infallible token of love , and that there shall be reciprocall affection between the parties . to dream of being a husbandman or plowman , to sow , plant , or dig , is a signe of being in love . but sanguine-complexioned lovers , use to dream of pleasant and delectable things , as fair gardens , orchards , flowers , green meadowes , bedeck't with the pride of flora , pleasant rivers , dreaming that they sit culling and playing with their sweet-hearts upon their pleasant bancks , often thinking they see many little cupids flying in the aire ; and all delightful dreams they say , proceed from an amorous and love pierc't soul . as to dream of singing or playing on any instrument , doth signifie that love hath seiz'd upon the party . for if dreams and wishes had been all true , there had not been since popery one maide to make a nun of . but whether dreams are onely the working of the fancy and imagination , upon such things as have been seen and thought upon , or presages of things future , it is not our present purpose to determine . we will now see what we can discover in a love-sick minde , by the sublime science of astrology , maugre all its antagonists . first diligently inquire whether the party hath had any crosses or troubles which might cause a dejection of the soul in him , and whether they do not suspect the party to be in love ; these being considered then you may safely go on to judgement . saturn generally signifies melancholy , and by consequence alienation of the minde , madnesse , &c. and therefore always when you finde him to be significator of the malady , or in the ascendant , or in the sixth house , the sick is afflicted with care and grief , and be sure the love-sick minde suffers for it . also if venus be author of the disease , and she lady of the ascendant sixth or twelfth houses , the distemper comes from love , or something else of this nature is the cause . if the ☉ or ☽ or lord of the ascendant , or two of them at the least be afflicted , the disease is in the spirits , together with an indisposition of the minde ; the reason whereof is , because the lord of the ascendant , and dispositor of the ☽ , are properly the significators of the animall faculties , which do cause infirmities in man , or which may chance unto him ; a deprivation of sense , madnesse , or frenzie through love melancholy . venus significatrix and afflicted , argues a great desire to women , wherewith both body and minde are disturbed . wheresoever you finde mercury afflicted and significator , shewes doting fancies . if the planet who rules the sign , wherein the lord of the ascendant is , and he who is dispositor of the ☽ be infortunate and in their fall , detriment or otherwayes very much afflicted , the disease reignes and rageth in the minde . at what age we begin to be in love . what complexions do best sympathize . what complexions are most subject to this malady ; and at what time more then another . it is most certain , that there is nothing more impatient of delay then love , nor no wound more incureable whilest we live . there is no exemption , no age , no condition are more ignorant of it , then of their bread , all have a taste of this potion , though it have several degrees of operation , and at several seasons . look all about you , who so young that loves not ? or who so old , a comely feature moves not ? but the most received opinion is , that men and women are subject to this passion , as soon as they are entered into those years in which they come to their puberty ; which appeareth in men chiefly by their voice , which at that time growes great and harsh ; it may be known also in women by observing their breasts , which about this time begin to swell and grow bigger , and that for the most part about the age of 12 and 14 ; so likewise it is the justice of nature , that those creatures that soonest meet their period , do as suddenly arrive at their perfection and maturity ; as we may observe in women , who as they are ripe sooner then men , so they commonly fail before them . some there are that would deprive men of this power , or love to have any power over them , so long as they are under the age of twenty years ; for homer saith , love pricks not till such time as the chin begins to bud : which is altogether repugnant to truth and dayly examples ; for we see many to rage furiously before they come to years of discretion ; especially women . quartilia in petronius never remembered that she was a maide . rahab the harlot began to be a profest quean at ten years of age , and was but 15 when she hid the spies , as some report . leo saith , that in africk one shall scarce finde a maid at 14 years of age ; for when the vehemency of adolescency ( which is betwixt the age of 14 and 28 ) beginneth to tickle them , and when they have greatest need of a bridle , then they let loose the raines , committing themselves to the subjection of this passion . there are many forward virgins of our age are of opinion , that this commodity can never be taken up too soon , and howsoever they neglect in other things , they are sure to catch time by the forelock in this ; if you aske them this question , they will resolve you 14 is the best time of their age , if 13 be not better then that , and they have for the most part , their mothers example before them to confirme and prove their ability ; and this withall they hold for a certain ground , that be they never so little , they are sure thereby to become no lesse ; yet let me tell these forward girles , the effects that ( most commonly ) ensue , are dangerous births , diminution of statute , brevity of life , and such like . this passion is more tolerable in youth , and such as are in their hot bloud ; and shall i be bold to speak it without offence to the stale batchelors , that love is not properly nor naturally in season , but in that age next unto infancy . — nunc grata juveni venus . venus to young men is a welcome guest . but for an amorous complexion to cover glowing fires beneath the embers of a gray-beard ; to see an old man to dote upon women , what more odious ? what more absurd ? yet in some this idalian fire flameth more in their old age then in their youth . aristotle saith , that old men are not out of the reach of cupid , nor bid defiance to venus till they have passed the age of 70 years . and truly a gray-head and a wanton-heart are ill suited ; it is more ridiculous to see it in women then men . it rageth in all ages ; yet is it most common and evident among young and lusty persons , in the flower of their age , high fed , and living idly ; for such as are continually imployed , it scarce touches them till they come to be 24 or 25 years of age , and then but very lightly , according to the speech of lyndamor to pallemas , that he had arrived to the age of 25 years , before he ever felt any effects , as love useth to produce in hearts of his age . not but that he was of his naturall inclination as much devoted servant unto ladies , but being continually exercised in businesse much different from idlenesse , he had no pleasure to let love sow any seeds in his soul ; for ever since he was able to bear armes , moved by a generous instinct , which invites noble spirits unto dangerous enterprizes , he was perpetually in wars , where he did most heroically signalize himself . some have given two reasons , why youth is more subject to this illimited passion , then any other age . the first is , that naturall heat or vigour which is most predominant in youth , provoking him to attempt the greatest of difficulties , rather then suffer the repulse where he affects . the second is , want of imployment , which begets this distemperature ; vacuo pectore regnat amor , love playes hai-day in an idle person . amor otiosae cura est solicitudinis , saith theophrastus , it is an affection of an idle minde . also it fosters it self by a writ of priviledge in the hearts of young men , who abounding with much bloud , and consequently with great store of vitall spirits , are more fiery and ardent , making them full of wanton and youthfull desires . i have many times observed a great sympathy and affection young boyes and girles have one to another ; and ( indeed ) there is a pretty pleasing kind of wooing , drawn from a conceived , but concealed fancy , which suits well with these amorous younglings ; they could wish with their hearts , ever to be in the presence of those they love , so they might not be seen by them . might they chuse , they would converse with them freely , consort with them friendly , and impart their truest thoughts fully ; yet would they not have their bashful loves finde discovery . they would be seen , yet seem obscured ; love , but not disclose it ; see whom they love , but not be eyed . yea ( which hath struck me into more admiration ) i have known divers , whose unripe years half assured me , that their green youth had never instructed them in the knowledge , nor brought them to conceit of such vanities ; excellently well read in love lectures , and prompt enough to shew proofes of their reading in publick places . the amorous toyes of venus and adonis , with other poems of like nature , they peruse with such devotion , and retain with such delectation , as no subject can equally relish their unseasoned palats , like those lighter discourses . if this passion begin in infancy , and so continue , it is more affectionate and strong , because that custom which is taken in that age , doth by degrees become a nature , which growing up with years , growes solid and unalterable . fronutus saith of love , juvenis pingitur , quod amore plerumque juvenes capiuntur ; sic & mollis , formosus , nudus , quod simplex & apertus hic affectus ; ridet , quod oblectamentum prae ase ferat , cum phiretra , &c. the reason why love was painted young is because young men are most apt to love ; soft , fair and fat , because such folks are soon captivated ; naked , because all true affection is simple and open ; he smiles , because merry and given to delights ; hath a quiver , to shew his power , and none can escape him , old nor young ; is blinde , because he sees not where he shootes , nor whom he hits , &c. let us now demonstrate what temperatures and complexions do sympathize together , and are most prone and apt to receive the impression of this passion . the diversitie of complexions , breeds a diversity of desires : whereby they judge diversly of things present , and follow those which do best agree with their constitutions , whereby we see that in the election of any thing whatsoever , the appetite doth accommodate it self to the temperature of the body ; for we see men fit themselves in their customs and carriages to their corporeal temperature , ever desiring to converse with their like ; for nature would so have it , to this only end that every one should be esteemed , and be loved ; and they that are not absolutely faire in every part , should not be despised ▪ but being received into grace and favour with their lovers might live honestly , in mutuall society , and in good esteem with them . every like desireth , and loveth his like ; whereby ever for the publick good , there remaineth nothing despised , because there is nothing but hath its like . and therefore to the eyes of a moor , the black or tawny countenance of his moorish damosel pleaseth best ; and yet such a one would almost turn the stomach of a sanguine complexioned english man to look upon . now to discover those who are most prone and apt to love . the fairest are inclined to love , because the cause of love is beauty ; and he or she that hath the cause in potentia , doth easily produce the effect : and therefore saith the divine plato , that love reigneth most in the hearts of those young men ( the which , he that hath but half an eye may dayly see ) that are honorably born , and tenderly brought up , who as apt receptacles receive into them that passion . or more probably , venus being the giver of beauty , likewise inclineth those to love , upon whose nativity she cast her influence ; for it seldome falleth out that beauty is separated from the force of love , and for as much as custome in all things hath the force of love , they that are beautiful following custome cannot but love . galen saith , that the manners of the minde do follow the temperature of the body . we see those that are of a sanguine complexion , are generally very amorous . hairinesse , saith aristotle , is a signe of abundance of excrements , and therefore much addicted to this passion , venus tickling them with a delight of emptying of their seminal vessels ; for a woman cannot endure a man with a little beard , for that they are commonly cold and impotent . the aire , climate , and place of ones birth , are of very great consideration in this particular . and now being in the bowels of love , some will ask , whether men or women be soonest allured , and whether be most constant , the male or the female ? i answer , that most women are to be won with every pleasing winde , in whose sex there is neither force to withstand the assaults of love ( as we shall hereafter more fully declare ) neither constancy to remain faithful ; therefore women are the soonest allured , and most inconstant . likewise , a hot and dry temperature , or else such a one as is only hot , is much inclined to love ; for a man that is hot is hairy , high coloured , with a black thick curled head of hair , great veines and big voice ; ( and what a pretious thing a black man is in a womans eye , i will refer to the judgement of their own sex ) i dare boldly affirme , that that man hath a hot and dry liver , and his generative parts are also of the same temper , and so consequently very much inclined to this passion ; which is also confirmed by that of galen , that a hot complexion , or such a one that is hot and dry , is much more prone and subject to a violent and irregular love , then any other temperature or complexion whatever : from whence we may infer , that men are oftner and more grievously tormented with this malady then women , whose temperature is lesse hot and lesse dry . but women are naturally of meaner spirits and lesse courage then men , having weaker reasons : and therefore are lesse able to make resistance against so strong a passion . and hereto accords that of hero in her epist. to leander in ovid . vrimur igne pari : sed sum tibi viribus impar ; fortius ingenium suspicor esse viris . vt corpus , teneris sic mens infirma puellis . our flames are equall : but your kinder fate hath lent you strength , your hearts to temperate . but in our weaker sex , our passions finde , a feeble body bears a feeble minde . women often become frenetick , and mad for love , but rarely men ; unlesse it be some effeminate weak spirited fellowes . upon this , i took occasion one day to visite bedlam , and for one man that was there for love , i found five women ; and those men that were there , were such as had lived effeminately , idly , and dieted themselves riotously and delicately . ficinus cap. 19. comment. in convivium platonis , saith , irretiuntur cito quibus nascentibus venus fuerit in leone , vel luna venerem vehementer aspexerit , & quia eadem complexione sunt praediti . they are most prone to burning lust , or the vehement scorching of the idalian flame , that have ♀ in ♌ in their horoscope , when the ☽ and ♀ be mutually aspected , or when ♄ is in a △ or ⚹ aspect , with the ☉ or ☿ , especially if it happen in the second or fifteenth day of the ☽ ; or such as be of the complextion of ♀ , and that is a white ruddy complexon , fair and lovely eyes , a little black , a round and fleshie face , fair hair and smooth , a rolling eye , and one desirous of trimming and making himself neat both in clothes and body . in whose geniture ♂ and ♀ are in ☌ , ⚹ or △ , plerumque amatores sunt , & si foemina , meritrices , they are undobtedly inclined to love and erorick melancholy , and if women , queans ; for martialists and men of war are easily taken prisoners by cupid . cardan saith of himself in the judgement of his geniture , that a ☌ of ♀ and ☿ in the dignities of ☿ , perpetually troubled him with venereal thoughts , that he could never rest , so strong was their influence upon him . in whose genesis ♀ shall be in a masculine signe , and in the termes or ☍ of ♃ , signifies the parties to be very much inclined to the sports of ♀ . phlegmatick persons are rarely captivated , and those who are naturally melancholy lesse then they ; but if they once be catched in the snare ( unlesse they hang themselves , which they will be much inclined to ) they will never be free . but ( as mr. burton saith ) the colts evil is common to all complexions , whilest they are young and lusty . and some refer it adtesticulorum crisin , to the hot temperature of the resticles . now to declare what time is most fit and delightfull to lovers ; it is that time of the year , when the longest dayes make the evenings most delightful , and dispose lovers to accommodate their ears , to the chirping melody of the airy quire , which awakeneth a marvellous desire in their hearts . may is called loves moneth , either because the temperature of the season which is hot and moist , of the nature of venus , doth incline all creatures to chuse and select their mates ; or because venus at that time doth usher in aurora , and by her influence doth excite the hearts of lovers to rise early to view the richnesse of flora , and the ear-pleasing harmony , and love-exciting melody of the nightingale . in what principal part of the microcosme or body of man is the seat of love . love having his first entrance in at the eyes , which are the faithful spies and intelligencers of the soul , stealing gently through those sluces , and so passing insensibly to the liver , it there presently imprinteth an ardent desire of the object , which is either really lovely , or at least appears to be so . but distrusting its own strength , and fearing it is not able to overthrow the reason , it presently layeth siege to the heart ; of which having once fully possest it self , as being the strongest fort of all , it assaults so violently the reason , and all the noble parts of the brain , that they are suddenly forced to yield themselves up to its subjection . so that now the poor enamorato , or loves weather ▪ beaten widgeon thinks of nothing but his mistresse . so that through the eye it seizeth upon the liver , which is the first receptacle of love , then the heart , then the brain and bloud , and then the spirits , and so consequently the imagination and reason . the liver to be the seat of love is grounded upon the saying of solomon ( in prov. 7. ) that a young man void of understanding goeth after a strange woman till a dart strike through his liver . cogit amare jecur , the which being affected and inflamed setteth all the other principall parts on fire ; according to senec. in hippol . — pectus insanum vapor amorque torret , intimas saevus vorat penitus medullas , atque per venas meat visceribus ignis mersus & venis latens , vt agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes . now love within my raging bosome fumes , and with a cruell fire my reins consumes . the flame within my bowels hid remains , thence shooteth up and down my melting veins , as agile fire over dry timber spreads . valesius lib. 3. contr. 13. saith , that that love which is in men , is defined to be an affection of both powers , appetite and reason . the rationall resides in the brain , and the appetite in the liver , and the heart is diversly affected of both , and carryed a thousand wayes by consent , being variously inclined , sometimes merry and jocond , and sometimes sad and dejected . the sensitive faculty over-ruling reason , carryes the soul hoodwink't , and hurries the understanding to dawfair to eat a wood-cock pie . of jealousie in lovers ; the defininition , the signes , and symptomes of it . it is described and defined to be a certain suspicion which the lover hath of the party he chiefly affecteth , lest he or she should be enamoured of another . or an eager desire of enjoying some beauty alone , and to have it proper to himself only . it is a fear or doubt lest any forainer should participate or share with him in his love ; still apt to suspect the worst in such doubtfull cases . this passion of jealousie is more eminent among batchelours , then marryed-men . if it appear among batchelours , we commonly call them rivals or corrivals , a similitude having its original from a river , rivales a rivo ; for as a river divides a common ground betwixt two men , and both participate of it : so is a woman indifferent betwixt two suitors , both likely to enjoy her ; and thence cometh this emulation , which breaks out many times into tempestuous stormes , and produceth lamentable effects , murders it self with much cruelty , many single combates . ariosto calls it a fury , a continual fever , full of suspicion , fear and sorrow , a mirth-marring monster . ( ecclus. 28. 6. ) the sorrow and grief of heart of one woman jealous of another is heavier then death . but true and pure love is without jealousie , for this affection springs from the love of concupiscency , for jealousie is a fear ( as i have said ) which a man hath , lest another should enjoy the thing he desireth : the reason thereof is , because we judge it hurtfull either to our selves , or to those whom we love , if others should enjoy it . and if they have any interest in the party beloved , they have a speciall care that no other have the fruition thereof but themselves , taking the matter heavily if it fall out otherwise ; being very much offended and full of indignation , against him that should attempt any such thing ; being very suspicious , and carrying within themselves matter of jealousie , and tormenting themselves and others without cause ; for love with jealousie and a madman are cozen ▪ germans in understanding ; for questionlesse immoderate love is a madnesse : and then had bedlam need be a great and spacious house ; for he that never was in that predicament is either blinde or babish . when jealousie once seiseth on these silly , weak , and unresisting souls ; 't is pitifull to see , how cruelly it tormenteth them , insultingly it tyrannizeth over them . it insinuateth it self under colour of friendship : but after it once possesseth them , the same causes which served for a ground of goodwill , serves for the foundation of mortal hatred . of all the mindes diseases , that is it , whereto most things serve for sustenance , and fewest for remedy . this consuming fever blemisheth and corrupteth all that otherwise is good and goodly in them . but as the most firme in religion , may have doubts ; so the most confident in love , are capable of some suspicion . the strongest trees are shaken by the winde , though the root be fixed , whilst the leaves and branches be tossed . why should we not rest our selves , and abandon all suspicious ideas , after having had a tryall of a person , and many effects for testimonies of the affection ? yet all these proofs and tryals keep us not from vexing and tormenting our selves ; because fear , which is not in our power to restrain , interprets ill the least appearance , and buries it self in false objections , where it findes no true ones . o weak jealousie , did ever thy prying and suspicious sight finde thy mistresses lip guilty of any smile ? or any lascivious glance from her eye ? doest not thou see the blushes of her cheeks are innocent ? her carriage , sober ? her discourse all chast ? no toyish gesture ? no desire to see the publick shewes , or haunt the theater ? she is no popular mistresse , all her kisses do speak her virgin ? such a bashful heat at several tides ebbes and flowes ; flowes and ebbes again , as it were affraid to meet our wilder flame ? what is it then that stirs up this hot passion in thee ? some will object and say , all this is but cunningnesse , ( as who knowes the sleights of sirens ? ) it is these idiots that have these symptomes of jealousie , as fear , sorrow , suspicion , strange actions , gestures , outrages , lockings up , oathes , tryals , with a thousand more devises then any pen is able to enumerate . 't is a vehement passion , a furious perturbation , a bitter pain , a scorching fire , a pernicious curiosity , it fils the minde with grief , half suspicion , accidentall brawles , compassionate tears , throbbings of the heart , distracted cogitations , inconstant desires , and a thousand the like lancing razors , that cut and wound the hearts of men ( as gall corrupting the hony of our life ) more then ordinarily disquieted and discontented . next time you see a jealous lover , doe but mark him , and you shall see ( without a pair of spectacles ) how he misinterprets every thing is either said or done , most apt to mistake or misconster , he peeps into every corner , followes close , observes to an hair all the postures and actions of his mistresse , he will sometimes sigh , weep , and sob for anger , swear , slander , and belie any man , sometimes he will use obsequious and flattering speeches , and aske forgivenesse , condemning his rashnesse and folly , and then immediately again , he is as impatient and furious as ever he was ; therefore i wish ( gentlewomen ) to beware of such infidels , who wax and wane an hundred times in an hour , as though they were got in the change of the moon : so strange is the inferences of this malicious jealousie , that it never makes a good logician . he pries on all sides , accurately observing on whom she looks , and who looks on her . argus did not so keep his cow , the watchfull dragon the golden fleece , or cerberus , hell gates , as he does her , toyling and wasting away himself in pursuite of so concealed a mystery , and so obscure a verification . if he see her discourse familiarly with another , if by nod , winke , smile or message , he think she discloseth her self to another , he is instantly tormented , none so dejected as he is , he thinks himself utterly undone , a cast away , the scorne of fortune . there are some , ( though their hearts be violently assaulted with jealousie and false suspicion , insomuch that they can never rest in quiet ) make shew outwardly of a happy life , and a carelesse neglect of their best beloved ; yet in despite of themselves and their best endevours , they cannot dissemble it . it is the natural course of this passion , for it is with those who are in the highest pitch of love , as those who are on the tops of great elevations , their heads grow dizie , and though no body touch them , they reel till they fall of themselves , meerly by the fear of falling . and this is the passion that ruines loves reputation , and disorders ▪ the souls tranquillity . therefore , if lovers needs must jealous be , and from this venom ne'r be free , then fie upon 't ; my prayer shall be , from love ( good jove ) deliver me . now as touching women , they have the symptomes of this passion more vehemently , their wils being stronger then their reason , there is no counsell to be given them against this evill of jealousie , their nature being wholly suspicion , vanity and curiosity . if you seek to perswade them , they will flie out against you like so many lyonesses , objecting , how can they moderate their passions ? how can they but be jealous , when they see themselves manifestly neglected , contemned , loathed , unkindly used , and their unkind lovers court ladies to their faces ? there is a tree in mexicana which is so exceedingly tender , that a man cannot touch any of its branches , but it withers presently : so women are so subject to this passion , that ( like tinder ) they will take fire at the least sparke of suspicion , and a small touch will wound and kill their love . this passion is most predominant in old men ( as saith the author of the accomplisht woman ) which very properly be compared to ivy , because that grows ordinarily upon old heapes or ruines ; so this passion wreathes it self most commonly about old tortured and dejected spirits , such as marry young wenches , and how can they be otherwise , all things considered ? we see ivy flourishing upon dry , withered , and saplesse trees : so in old men this passion is very potent and youthfull ; and becomes the stronger in such , as age , or crazinesse of wit infeebles or stupefies . it is no great miracle , if jealous ones be lean , their passions feeding on nothing but faintnesse ; and nothing like melancholy to entertain jealousie . therefore i exhort gentlewomen not to bestow themselves upon fools , or apparent melancholy persons , jealousie being a symptome of that disease , and fools have no moderation . it is an enemy with poysoned weapons , and his approach is enough to overthrow ; when the memory hath once received it , reason often comes too late for a resistance . i hope i shall not be thought a vagrant from my subject , if i tell marryed couples that suspicion of it self is able to make one flie out that was otherwise honest . if we consider that jealousie and cuckolds differ no otherwise then a city sheriffe and alderman , a little time makes the one the other ; for it is as common as the moon gives hornes twice a moneth to the world , for a jealous man to wear actaeons badge ; the miller sees not all the water that goes by his mill : sometimes sweet-heart and cuckold are reciprocal termes : many a good gentleman hath worn a plume of buls feathers in his crest , being set in by his arrant honest mistresse . there was a roman named cydippus , who took so great a delight to see buls baited , that it set such an impression in his idea , as he thought so much of it over night , that he arose in the morning with a horned head . this spectacle pleased him , for that he had entertained his fancy with it , and in the end his imagination did him this ill office . there is no malice sufficiently black to blind this passions capacity ; it gives subtlety and craft to the dullest , and perverts the most vertuous to seek satisfaction for the injury : if has no bound to inventions , it brings ruine to its fosterer , as it did to procris , jealous of her husband cephalus , she imagined he had a mistresse besides her self ; which ( she thought ) he went to seek in the woods under pretence of hunting ; she hid her self behind a bush , thinking to hear the discourse of his solitary thought ; he hearing a stir and a noise in the thicket , and believing it was a deer , shot an arrow at it and struck her to the heart ; she dying cryed cephalus , which word made him know he had taken his wife for a beast ; and i think he was not very much mistaken . also mr. brathwaith in his english gentlewoman records a matchlesse president of jealousie acted in england , with the like tragicall conclusion ; he hath it in these words : it sometimes pleased a young gentlewoman , whose fortunes had swelled her high , to settle her affections on a gentleman of deserving parts , which he entertained with a generous requitall : nothing was omitted that might any way increase their respect , or second the height of their joyes . continuall resort and frequent made them inseparably one ; no day so pleasing as when they were together , no hour so tedious as when they were asunder . but short is that moment of fading happinesse , which hath in it a relish of lightnesse , and is not grounded on essentiall goodnesse . long had they not thus lived , and sociably loved , but the gentlewoman conceived some private suspicion that her self was not the sole soveraignesse of his heart ; but that another was become sharer in his love . neither was this competitrice , whom she suspected , any other then her own attendant , whose casket she secretly opened , where she found a ring of especiall note , which she had formerly bestowed on him . this confirmed her conceit , changed her reall love into mortall hate ; which she seconded with this tragick act . inviting him one day into a summer arbour , where in former times , they were wont to repose , amidst of an amorous discourse , she casually fixt her eye upon three lennets , one whereof picking some privet leaves , purposely to build her nest , flew away , whilest the two which remained , lovingly billed one with another ; which she intentively observing , used these words , how tenderly and intimately do these poor fools mate it ? were it not pity they should be ever divided ? which words she had no sooner uttered , then the she lennet flew away , and left the male alone , till another returned ; with whom the he lennet billed , and amorously wooed , as he had done before ; which she more seriously eyeing , o , quoth she , how light these males are in their affection ! this may seem to you an easie errour , but were i judge of birds , it should receive due censure . why lady ( replyed he ) these poor birds doe but according to their kinde . yea but what do ye men then , who ingage your selves , interest your selves , empawn your souls to be constant where you professe love , and perform nothing lesse then what you professe most . nor would her long intended revenge admit more liberty to her tongue ; for with a passionate enterbreath , she closed this speech with a fatall stab ; leaving so much time to her unfortunate and dysasterous lover , as to discover to one of that sorrowfull family the ground of her hate ; the occasion of his fall , which hastened on the dolefull scene of her tragedy . and these are the products of that hell-born fiend jealousie . an astrologer may give a probable conjecture , by every mans nativity ( if it may be had ) whether he will be jealous or no , and at what time , by the direction of the significators to their severall promissors ; of which you may read many aphorismes in sconer , junctine , pontanus , ptolemy , albubator , &c. the remedies of love . that we may use the method of art ; to cure the effects , is first to take away the cause . cessante causa , cessat effectus , take away the cause , and the effect ceaseth . it was the scope of our discourse in the second section of this treatise , to discover the causes ( those incendiaries and fomenters of this inordinate passion , or this intoxicating poyson ) in the third section we demonstrated the effects arising from them ; now in this last section it is our purpose to treat of the cure and remedies of them . we will begin at the second cause , viz. the stars ( for the first cause instituted by the creator was moderate and good . ) as the minde hath its natural principles of knowledge , so the will hath her natural inclinations and affections from the influence of the stars ; for they do incline the will to love , but do not compell it ; agunt non cogunt ; of their own nature they are good , as they are taken from the first nature created of god ; neither would they be at any time hurtfull , if there were not excesse in us proceeding from nature corrupted ; which afterwards by the force of their influence , breed in us such inclinations and affections as are these passions . for god in the beginning made all things good ; neither doth he forbid and condemn this love and affection in his law , so far forth as it is ruled thereby , but approveth it being instituted in the creation . but when this love and affection is disordered in us , and is inflamed , giving way to the power of the superiours to work together with it , it is not only vitious , but is as it were the originall and fountain of all vices , ( for what vice , would a man , whose reason is governed by will , and that will inclined by the stars , leave unperpetrated to effect them ? ) whereas if it were well ordered , and ruled according to the will and institutes of god , it would be the original and well-spring of all vertues . sapiens dominabitur astris ; a wise man through grace , and the strength of reason can moderate and divert their evill influences , and convert them into good seeds of virtue ; but if they be not well ordered and ruled , they corrupt and degenerate . as if venus be lady of the nativity , she giveth to the native a sanguine complexion , whose nature is bloud , and beareth greatest sway among the other humors and qualities ; or if she be in a ☌ , ⚹ , or △ of ♂ , inclineth the native naturally to love ; if this be not moderated and well guided by reason , but letteth the will receive their influence , and their work upon it without any obstruction , it easily passeth measure , and falleth into this foolish doting passion of love . therefore seek for grace of him that can give it , and that he will grant strength of reason to divert the influxious power of the superiours , and to moderate the vehement heat of this idalian fire . let us now remove the third cause , and that is , education . ( for to remove that which comes gradually from parents we cannot , unlesse we seek to subvert nature , and utterly extinguish the race of man ; but according to the old proverbe , that which is bred in the bone , will never out of the flesh . ) if you finde that your parents have been addicted to this folly , and that they brought you up delicately and idly , and that you feel in your self an inlcination to the same passions ; corripite lora manu ; take up the slackned rains in time , before you run your selves past recovery . addict your selves to the study of good letters , flying idlenesse as a mortall enemy , reading of love books , comedies , looking upon immodest pictures , feasts , private familiarities , loose company , and have in derision even the shadow of impurity . love has no subject so apt to work upon as idlenesse , therefore handle the matter so , that he may alwayes finde you busied ; for vitia otii negotio discutienda sunt , the vices of idlenesse should be shaken off with businesse ; and to this effect speaks the poet ; otia si tollas , frangis cupidinis arcum . — an idle life forsake . what made thee love , a lover makes thee still : the cause of nourishment of that sweet ill , shun idlenesse , and cupids bow will break , his slighted flames flie out , disarm'd and weak . as reeds in marishes affect their site ; as poplars in the running brooks delight ; so venus joyes in sloth : let cupid be by action tam'd ; live busie , and live free . faint ease , long sleeps , which no cōmand controls , time spent in sport , & drench't in flowing bowls , without a wound th' enfeebled minde surprize : then in unspi'd insidious cupid flies . that sloth-affecting boy , doth toyle detest : do something to imploy thy empty brest . witty and proper was that elegant invention of lucian , who faigned cupid to invite the gods to an amorous feast , prevailed with all of them to give way to love , till he came to pallas , but she was found conversing with the muses , and would admit of no time to enter parley with cupid . by this you may see that exercise draweth the minde from effeminacy ; and remisnesse feeds the desire , and adds fuell to loves fires . and no lesse occasion gives wanton discourse or lascivious books to the inraged affections of distempered youth . therefore as love is entertained with idlenesse and feasts , subdue him with austerity and exercise . he will fall upon some object , scatter and confound him . as he laboureth to finde out a loose and unbridled spirit , hold yours extended upon the study of some good science . he requires liberty , private places , and night , let him have witnesses , and enlighten him on every side . he will be governed by fantasie , keep him obedient both by admonition and menaces ; so by this means you will banish the wanton jack of apes out of house and harbour . the bed being a sensitive nourishment , renders many lascivious fancies , therefore no sooner wake but arise , and expell such cogitations with pious meditations . i could advise maides ( as the only remedy for this passion ) to walk early into the fields , and keep themselves continually both head and hand in motion in some good exercise ; and not alwayes pricking a clout , for many times ( their thought being gone a wool-gathering with cupid ) they chance to prick their fingers , and cupid their hearts too if they be not aware . this sedentary life is the cause of the disease called the greensicknesse , and it having seized upon their sloath affecting bodies , makes them laizie , and as quick as snails in all their operations , and then it is more difficult to make them marry , then cure the disease . st. cyptian found nothing more powerfull to conquer the temptations of venus , then to turn the otherside of the medall . but above all it behoveth us to use the example of an arabian , who presented to himself perpetually over his head , an eye which enlightened him , an ear which heard him , a hand which measured out all his deportments , and demeanors , and guards of chastity , which daily blunt a thousand arrowes shot against the impenetrable hearts of brave and undaunted champions : that you may not fall into the fire , it is good to avoid the smoke , not to trust our selves too much to petty dalliances , which under pretext of innocency , steal in with the more liberty : for to court and dally with beauty ( as we shall hereafter declare ) is an enterprise of danger ; for some i have known , who upon their accesse to beauty have been free men , but at their return have become slaves . we now intend to extinguish the heat and vehemency of love in the fourth cause , which is meer beauty , and the particulars of it . be not so sensual as to love only the body , and to dote upon an outside , but look higher , and see something in the person loved of an angelical nature ; that is , a free and vertuous minde , which to an understanding soul appears to be of a divine essence , and to which he mingles his soul in love , which is ( if really considered ) a far more excellent and permament love , then that of an externall and fading beauty , and consequently much more pleasant . do we not commonly see , that in painted pots of apothecaries are contained the deadliest poyson ? that the cypresse tree bears a fair leaf , but no fruit ? that the estrich carryeth fair feathers , but rank flesh ? how frantick then are those lovers , who are hurried headlong with the gay glistering of a fine face ? the beauty whereof is parched with the suns blaze , and chapped with a winters blast : which is of so short continuance , that it fadeth before we see it flourish ; of so small profit , that it poysoneth those that possesse it ; of so little value with the wise , that they account it a delicate bait with a mortall hook ; a sweet panther with a devowring panch , a tart poyson in a silver pot . but hark , one word with you , love symplicians . let your humane imaginations think and assemble into one subject whatsoever is most beautiful and delicious in nature . do you imagine a quire of sirens , and do you joyne in consort , both the harpe of orpheus , and the voice of amphion . let apollo and the muses be there to bear a part ; and do you search within the power of nature , rifle up her treasure , and all the extreme pleasures which it hath produced in the world hitherto , to charme our souls , and to ravish our spirits ; what permanency and felicity do you finde in all these ? they are meer chimeraes , and as a vain idea ; a meer shadow of a body of pleasure in comparison of vertues , and those divine thoughts and pleasures which may be enjoyed in the contemplation of the almighty , and his infinite beauty , glory , and love , and of the felicity of felicities which he hath prepared for them that love him . so that happy are those ( but too few are they ) who with wise ithacus hudwink themselves , and stop their eares to those soul-tainting , and sin-tempting sirens . what a great example of continency and neglect of beauty was that of mahomet the great , towards the fair greek , irene ; whom albeit he entirely loved ; yet to shew to his peers , a princely command of himself , and his affections ; as he had incensed them before by loving her , so he regained their love by slighting her ; whence the poet , with that he drew his turkish cymeter , which he did brandish o're the damsels head , demanding of such janizers were there , if 't were not pity she sh'd be slaughtered ? pity indeed ; but i perforce must do that which displeaseth me , to pleasure you . many such instances , ancient and modern histories afford , but i must not insist on each particular lest i should enlarge my self too much , and swell that into a volume , which i intend but a pamphlet . how many do we finde , who having their spirits possessed with other passions , one of ambition , another of avarice , another of revenge , another of envie , another transported by the solitude of a law suite , and the turmoile of a family , who think very little upon love ? how many others are there , from whom study affaires , charges , ( wherein they strive supereminently to transcend ) free their mindes from all other thoughts , not suffering them to have any complements with cupid ? and how many ladies do we see in the world , with countenances ever smiling , of humours cheerfull , and conversation most pleasing , who make love to wits and spirits , as bees to flowers ; but have with the body no commerce at all ? the author of the theater of nature , holdeth , that the basilisk alone among serpents cannot be enchanted : and i dare really affirm , that there are men who have the like priviledge , and have their eyes love proof , and their hearts shut up and defended as with a palizado against the piercing darts of cupid , and the fiery assaults of the idalian flame . democritus made himself blinde voluntarily , by stedfastly beholding the sunbeams , to free himself from the charming beauties , and inticing opportunities of women : and ( seriously ) i think he shut up two gates against love , to open a thousand to his imagination . for some affirm that this malady or love melancholy , is cherished by the presence of the party affected : and that the contrary , to wit , absence is the best remedy . and this they seem to prove by resembling our passions with ecchoes : ( but omne simile non est idem , every like is not the same thing ) for ( say they ) do you not see the ecchoes , the further you go from them , the lesse repercussion there is , they diminishing and losing themselves in the aire ; so the affection which is caused by the reflexion of the countenance , which you dayly behold with so much entertainment , will quickly vanish by a little absence . but may i be so bold as to whisper my opinion in your ear , craving leave to insist a little upon this ; to prove that absence doth more augment then decrease the heat of this passion . i will be brief . i confesse eyes may conceive and produce a green infant affection , but there must be something more solid and substantial to make it grow unto perfection ; and that must be by the knowledge of the vertues , merits , ( as well as beauty ) and a reciprocall affection of the party loved . now this knowledge doth take indeed its originall from the eyes , but it must be the soul which must afterwards bring it to the test of judgement , and by the testimonies both of the eyes and ears , and all other considerations concoct a verity , and so ground upon it . if this verity be to our advantage , then it produceth such thoughts , whose sweetnesse cannot be equalled by any other kind of contentment , then the effects of the same thoughts . if it be advantagious to the party affected , then doubtlesse it doth augment our affection ; but yet with violence and inquietude ; and therefore no question but absence doth augment love , so that it be not so long , as that the very image of the party loved be quite effaced ; whether it be that an absent lover never represents unto his fancy but only the perfections of the person loved ; or whether it be that the understanding being already wounded will not fancy any thing but what pleaseth it ; or whether it be that the very thought of such things does add much unto the perfections of the party loved : yet this is infallibly true , that he does not truly love , whose affection does not augment in absence from the party loved . for in absence nothing can content the reall lover ; not sweet harmony , not beautiful gardens , or groves , not pleasant company , not eloquent tongues , not civill entertainment , but every sweetnesse is converted into sowrenesse , all ear-pleasing harmony is turned into an obstreperous jangling , and nothing can content but the wished object , which being far distant from their enflamed desires , do ingender a vehement grief in the heart , which cannot be expressed by them that prove it ; much lesse by my pen which is not acquainted with such miseries . now it is objected , that absence is the greatest and most potent and dangerous enemy that love hath . but ( with their favour ) presence without comparison is much more , as we may dayly see by experience ; for you may see a thousand loves change in presence for one in absence ; for in presence , some imperfections may be found , which may cause a detestation , which absence could never do ; and to illustrate and confirm this by example . the excellent philosopher raymund lullius , was passionately enamoured of a lady , wise , prudent and honest ; she purposely to cure his frenzie , shewed him one of her breasts eaten and knawed through with a canker , and extremely hideous to behold , stay simple man ( said she ) behold what you loved ; he at that instant coming to himself uttered ; alas ! was it for this i lost so many good houres , that i burned , became entranced , that i passed through fire and water ? all lovers would say the like if the scarffe were taken from their eyes . consider that if one absent cease from loving ( which is very rare ) its cessation is without any violence or noise of strugling , and the change ( through a long tract of time ) is only because the memory is by degrees smothered with oblivion , as a fire is with its own ashes . but when love breaks off in presence , it is never without a noise and extreme violence , and ( which is a strange argument to prove my assertion ) converts that love into a greater hatred then if love had never been : which proceeds from this reason ; a lover is always either loved or hated , or held in a degree of indifferency ; if he be loved , as an abundance is apt to glut , so love being loadened in presence with too many favours , growes weary . if he be hated , then he meets with so many demonstrations of that hate every moment , as at length he is forced to ease himself . if he be in a degree of indifferency , and findes his love still slighted , he will at length , if he be a man of any courage , make a retreat and resist the continual affronts which are put upon him ; whereas in absence , all favours received , cannot by their abundance glut , since they do rather set an edge on desire , and the knowledge of hatred entering into our souls only by the eare , the blow smarts not so much as that which is received by sight ; and likewise disdain and slight be more tolerable in absence , then presence ; doubtlesse absence is then more fit to preserve affection , then presence ; for there is a vast difference betwixt the love that is nourished by the eyes , and a love that is nourished by the understanding . as much as the soul is superiour to the body , so much is the understanding to be preferred before the eyes . and absence is so far from diminishing love , that it augments and begets fresh and violent desires to augment it ; and the contemplation of a beauty , doth imprint it deeper in the fancy , then any eye can . therefore ( you love simplicians ) make a little resistance , cast away those idle toyes that afflict you ; let not absence be so troublesome , that you must torture your bodies , vilifie your spirits , and yeeld up your reputations as preyes to slander . if you know what you desired , you would be ashamed of your selves , you would be amazed that so noble spirits should suffer themselves to be transported with such follies . represent to your selves that a thousand undanted courages , have set themselves free , at liberty , and enjoyed tranquillity of spirit ; and you for want of a little resolution , tumble and involve your selves faster and faster in these fetters . will any man in his wits be thus deluded ? can he be so silly as to consume himself in seeking such a toy ? do you call this love , forsooth ? may it not rather be called madnesse and folly ? what , languish in the lap of an ungratefull mistresse ? fie , fie , it is an errour far unworthy of a man , that pretends unto any wisdom or courage . put a stop to your passions , and couragiously contend against them . you shall no sooner have put the wedge of courage into the block , but it shall be done ; you shall have your souls victoriously elevated over passion , which shall rejoyce amidst the trophies thereof . never stay upon thoughts and imaginations of love ; but so soon as it presents it self , chase it away , and extinguish it in your hearts , no otherwise then you should extinguish a hot iron in a river . if it be in presenim restrain your eyes , for they are the windowes , the allurements , the snares and the conducts of love . it buddeth in the eyes , that it may at leasure blossome in the heart ; therefore divert your sight from objects which dart a sting into the minde apt to receive , and sensible of such penetrations . likewise lest it get entrance at the ear , stop them against the inchanting melody of sirens songs , and charming musick of their tongues , never open them to be auditors of any lascivious discourse . but if you be already tainted with these charmes , unloose your selves , stoutly take your selves off , dispute not any longer with your passions ; flie from it , cut the cable , weigh anchor , spread sails , set forward , go , flie , look not for any more letters , regard not their pictures , no longer preserve favours , let all your endevours be to preserve your reason . i add one advice ( which i think very essential ) which is infinitely to fear a relapse after health , and to avoid all objects that may re-inkindle the flame . for love oftentimes resembleth a snake enchanted , cast asleep and smothered ; which upon the first occasion awaketh and becomes more strong , and more outragious then ever . you must not only fortifie your bodies against it , but also your souls . but my discourse like nilus overflowes , it shall return within its banks ; concluding with this , that terrestriall beauty is like a shadow , and therefore we are not to fix the eyes of our understanding upon it , but to turn them to that soveraign beauty which is permament and free from all change and passion . we will now indevour our selves to remove the cause of money causing love , which is meer covetousnesse ( the root of all evill ) and to satisfie their own voluptuousnesse , having their only delights upon earth ; who desire not the woman but her riches to make his houses the larger , to fill his chests fuller , being respectlesse of a virtuous woman , and the supreme good wherein all happinesse consisteth . and this , he saith , is to raise a fortune for his ( i say seldom thriving ) posterity ; studying how he may become an eternal affliction to himself . his minde is so fixed on money ( not on the woman ) as he findes no time to erect it to heaven . he employes so much time in getting and gathering of goods , as he reserves no time for doing good . he runs on still in desire ( not of his mistresse ) labouring of a disease incurable till death cure him . he encreaseth his cares with his substance , ( not his love to his wife ) and the more he adds to his estate , the more he detracts from his content , and love towards her . but consider ( you money-lovers ) and seek for a remedy while it is to be had , lest you repent your delay when 't is too late ) how secure was the rich-man ( as he thought ) when he invited his wretched soul to take her rest , having much goods laid up for many years ! but this self-security , was the occasion of his succeeding misery ; for that night was his soul to be taken from him . o how terrible will the approach of death seem to you , being to be divided from the staffe of your confidence , from thence to descend without the least hope of comfort to the land of forgetfulnesse ; for as the scorpion hath in her the remedy of her own poyson , a receipt for her own infection ; so the evill and covetous carry alwayes with them the punishment of their own wickednesse , the which doth never leave ( so incessant is the torment of a guilty conscience ) to wound and afflict the minde , both sleeping and waking : so as to what place he betakes him , he cannot so privily retire , but fear and horrour will awake him ; nor flie so fast , though he should take the wings of the morning , but fury and vengeance will overtake him . consider this ( i speak to both sexes ) and let not money and riches be the sole object of your love ; but look at that which is far more noble , that which is more permanent , that summum bonum , that chief good , which will direct you the way to all felicity . before we proceed any further , we will ( hoping such variety will prove the more pleasant ) turn our discourse a little in particular to the female sex , such whose kinde hearts , like wrought wax , are apt to receive any amorous impression . therefore to you ( loving souls ) do i recommend these necessary cautions ; which if carefully observed , will preserve you from the causes and consequently the effects of love , and may make you wiser then you thought of ; and to have a tender care of that , which before you had never minde of . the best preservative and soveraignest receipt is , to fortifie the weaknesse of your sex with strength of resolution , for the imagination of love is strong , and works admirable effects on a willing subject . give not power to an insulting lover to triumph over your weakness , or which is worse , to work on the opportunity of your lightnesse . ram up those portals which betray you to your enemy , and prevent his entry by your vigilancy . keep at home , and let neither you nor your thoughts stray abroad , lest by gadding you incur dinah's fate . check your madding , and to love inclining fancy , and if it use resistance , curbe it with restraint ; forbear to resort to places of publick meeting , till you have drawn up and sealed a covenant with your eyes , to see nothing that they may lawfully covet . this will yeeld you more liberty then the whole worlds freedome can afford you . be not too liberall in bestowing your favours , nor too familiar in publick converse . presume not too much on the strength of a weak fort . make a contract with your eyes , not to wander abroad , lest they be catch'd in coming home . treat not of love too freely ; be not too bold to play with the blinde boy ; he hath a dangerous aime , though he hath no eyes ; the cat playes with the mouse , but at last bites off her head ; the flie playes with the candle , till at last her light wings are sindged . sport not with him , that will hurt you ; play not with him , that would play on you ; your sports will turn to a bad jeast , when you are wounded in earnest . if this wanton frenzie hath never surpriz'd you ; prevent the means , and it will never invade you ; be not such foes to your selves as to purchase your own disquiet . if love issue out in too violent a stream , it is to be cooled by a temperate expostulation with fancy , or else fix your eyes upon some more attractive object ; divert the course of that madding passion , as physitians do to their patients who having a violent efflux of bloud in one place , cut a vein in another to turn the course of it another way . expostulate with fancy ( as brathwaite adviseth in his english gent. ) thus ; how is it with me ? me thinks it fares with me otherwise then it hath done formerly . a strange distemper i finde in my minde ; and might seem to resemble love , if i knew the nature of it . love ! can virgin modesty return that accent and not blush ? yes , why not ? if the object i affect he worth loving . ( if the party affected have more virtues then money , and not more money then virtues ) and if not , what then ? is not the lover ever blinde in affection towards his beloved ? he who may seem a thersites to another , may be a paris in mine eye . yea , but a little advice would do well . art thou perswaded that this non-parallel , thou thus affectest , hath dedicated his service only to thee ? that his affection is really towards thee ? that his protests , though delivered by his mouth , are ingraven in his heart ? yea , his protests have confirmed him mine . that hour is tedious wherein he sees me not . his eye is ever fixed on me ; his sole discourse is to me . these i must confesse are promising arguments of love ; yet these may deceive you , and consequently leave you in a miserable error . he may prove a false-hearted jason , demophoon , or theseus , and leave you in the briers for all your confidence . you say his vowes and protests have confirmed him yours ; and he hath attested heaven to bear record of his love . but take heed he play not the part of the ridiculous actor in smyrna , who pronouncing , o heavens , pointed with his finger to the ground . therefore i wish you , ground your fancy with deliberation ; and do not affect , before you finde ground of respect . entertain not a rhetoricall lover , whose protests are formall complements , and whose promises are gilded pils , which cover much bitternesse . many men are flattering gnatho's , dissembling chamelions , meer outsides , hypocrites that make a shew of great love , ( but 't is no more then from the teeth outwards ) pretend honesty , zeal , modesty , with affected looks , and counterfeit gestures , full of lip-love , faigned vowes , stealing away the hearts and favours of poor silly soules , deceiving them , specie virtutis & umbra , when as ( in truth ) there is no worth of honesty at all in them , no reality , but meer hypocrisie , subtilty and knavery . therefore ( gentlewomen ) trials in affairs of this nature , have ever a truer touch then protestations . for i am confident there are some ( yea , i really know many ) who make it their only study , how to tip their glozing tongues with rhetoricall phrases , ear-charming oratory , vowes , and protestations , purposely to gull credulous ▪ creatures , for the purchase of an unlawful pleasure ; which obtained , they leave them to bewail their lost honour . i exhort you to sift him narrowly to see what bran there is in him , before you chuse him . taske him before you take him . as thus ; hath his fair carriage got him estimation where he lives ? hath he never enured his tongue to play the hypocrite with his heart ? hath he kept a fair quarter , and been ever tender of his untainted honour ? hath he never boasted of young gentlewomens favors , nor run descant on their kindnesse ? hath he ever since he vowed himself your servant , solely devoted himself yours , and not mixt his affection with forain beauties ? if so , then chuse him , he well deserves your choise . be like the juniper tree , whose coal is the hottest , and whose shadow is the coolest ; be hot in your affection , but cool in your passion . set before your eyes the difference betwixt a wise and a wilde passion ; the one ever deliberates before it love , and the other loves before it deliberate : therefore let your fancy be grounded with deliberation . if you be a maid , ever fear to become a woman , and cast not the garland of your virginity under the feet of hogs . give not a hair of your head to those who promise you golden mountains , for such will deceive you , and when they most desire you in the quest of marriage , then is the time you must least be for marriage : for all you grant to their importunities , will be the subject of your disgrace ; and when they shall have marryed you , though you should live as chast as susanna , they will be jealous , and continually imagine you will be liberal to others ▪ of that whereof you were prodigal to them . if you desire to marry by fancy , rather pursuing your own wanton humors , then the reasonable commands of those to whom you owe your being ; hold it as a crime the most capitall you can undertake , and confidently believe if so you do , you will open a floud-gate to a deluge of miseries and cares , which will flow upon you thorow all the parts of your life . account the resolutions you make to this purpose , as treasons , and think whatsoever shall to you suggest the execution of them , will poison you by the eare to murther your chastity . but i fear ( reader ) i have too much trespassed upon thy patience , in insisting so long upon this branch . and i know there are some enamoratoes will account my precepts too difficult to be followed , and set my perswasions at nought ; they will not desist from their melancholy thoughts , not want the least idea of their lovers , so much pleasure they take in it . therefore i will instruct their friends , and see if they can withdraw their affection ; the which take as followeth . the arabians do advise us to take occasion to discourse of the party affected , in the patients hearing , and to enumerate all her imperfections and vices , making-them more and more , and far greater then they really are ; and to set out her perfections and virtues in the colours and shape of vices ; and to labour by probable arguments to prove unto him , that that which he judgeth to be comely and handsome , is in the judgment of those that are more quick sighted , both ugly and deformed ; telling him that cupid is blind , and makes all enamoratoes so too . endevour with what possibility you can , to convert his love either into hate of jealousie , by preswading him , that his mistresse doth not love him so well as she makes him believe she doth , and that all her entertainments , favours , kisses , dalliances , and embraces , are only baits and enticements to keep him from slavery : but if the party be of the other sex , then may be pleaded the obsequiousnesse and dissembling of man , ( which is as frequently found in them , as inconstancy in women : ) the parthians , to cause the youth to loath the alluring trains of womens wiles , and deceitful inticements , had most exquisitely carved in their houses , a young man blinde , besides whom was adjoyned a woman so exquisite , that in some mens judgement , pigmalions image was not half so excellent , having one hand in his pocket as noting her theft , and holding a knife in the other hand to cut his throat . injuries , slanders , contempts , and disgraces are very forcible means to withdraw mens affections ; for lovers reviled or neglected , contemned or abused , turn love into hate . mr. burton adviseth you to tell him she is a fool , an ideot , a slut , and many time so nasty that one cannot touch her with a pair of tonges , and that always against the time of his coming , she tricks and trimmes her self up to allure him , and will not be seen by him , but in an inticing dresse ; that she is a scold , a devill incarnate ; that she is come of a light heel'd kinde ; or that he or she hath some loathsome incurable disease ; that she is bald , her breath stinks , that he or she is mad and frenetick hereditarily ; to tell her that he is an hermophrodite , , an eunuch , imperfect , impotent , a spend-thrift , a gamester , a gull , his mother was a witch , his father was hanged , that he will surely beat her , that he is a desperate fellow , and will stab his bedfellow , and that no body will lie with him . if she be fair and wanton , tell him she will make him a cornuto , and to sing an april song . if she be virtuous , that it is but a cloak for her more secret vices , a meer outside , a whited sepulchre . if he be enamoured on a widow , that she will still hit him in the teeth with her first husband , that she hath cast her rider , and will endanger him too , and that a wife and children are a perpetual bill of charges . endevour to divert the patients thoughts from his former mistresse , by making him fall in love with another ; upon whom when once his affection begins to take root , make him hate that , and fall in love with a third ; following this course with him still , till at length he begins of his own accord to be weary of loving : for ( i le assure you ) he that is in love with many women at once , will never run mad for any of them ; for the minde being thus disunited , the desires are lesse violent ; so one love takes away the force of another . love is of the nature of a burning-glasse , which kept still in one place fireth ; but changed often it doth nothing , not so much as warm : or a kinde of glowing cole , which shifted from hand to hand , a man easily endures . a young man ( saith lucian ) was pitifully in love , he came to the theater by chance , and by seeing variety of objects there , was fully recovered , e theatro egressus hilaris , ac si pharmacum oblivionis bibisset ; and went merrily home , as if the had drunk a dram of oblivion . a mouse ( saith the fabulist ) was brought up in a chest , and there fed with fragments of bread and cheese , thought there could be no better meat , till at last coming to feed on other varieties , loathed her former life : just so it is with a silly lover , none so fair as his mistresse at first , he cares for none but her ; yet after a while when he hath compared her to others , he abhors her name , sight , and memory . if all this will do no good , let us see what may be done by physicall means ; yet , some there are , who exclaim and cry with open throats against the gods , for ordaining for every malady a medicine , for every sore a salve , for every pain a plaister ; leaving only love remedilesse , and then exclaiming with the inventer of physick apollo . hei mihi quod null is amor est medicalilis herbis ! did you ( oye gods ! ) deem no man ( say they ) so mad as to be entangled with desire ? or thought you them worthy to be tormented , that were so misled ? have ye dealt more favorably with brute beasts then with reasonable creatures ? no simple lovers you want not medicines to cure your maladies , but reason to use the means . of physicall means therefore we will treat as followeth . first , it is good to take away the superfluity of bloud , ( if age and the strength of the patient will permit ) by opening the liver vein . i should have said , vena hepatica , ( but i speak as well to those that do not understand latine , as them that do ) in the right arme , let the quantity taken be according to the constitution and strength of the patient ; and if you see cause , open the saphaena or ankle vein ; for phlebotomie maketh those that are dejected merry , appeaseth those that are angry , and makes lovers come to themselves , and keep in their right mindes , amantes ne sint amentes : for ( saith one ) amantes & amentes iisdem remediis curentur ; lovers and madnen are cured by the self-same remedy : affirming that love extended is meer madnesse ▪ aelian montaltus saith , love makes the bloud hot , thick and black ( being converted into black choler and melancholy ) and if the inflamation get into the brain , with continual meditation , it so dryes it up , that a madnesse followes , or they make away themselves , as divers in that case have done . let him have change and variety of place , for that doth awaken the spirits of melancholy lovers ; let him not be without company and frequent conversation , for many times that diverts the minde of a doting lover , and cheeres him up , making him see his errour ▪ it is good for the patient to be in a cold and moist aire ; and not to use in his diet such things as do heat the bloud and provoke lust . let him use to fast often , and feed often on bread and water : sine cerere & baccho frig●t venus ; love takes not up his lodging in an empty stomach ; but on the contrary venus delights in dainties . let him use these simples in his broath and sallads ; purslane . sorrell . endive . woodbine . ammi . succory . and lettice , which is so soveraigne a remedy against this malady , that venus desiring to forget all her unchast desires , buried her dear adonis under a bed of lettice . likewise the syrup or conserve of red-roses , or province-roses ; the same virtue is attributed to mints . let him also use to eat , grapes . mellons . cherries . plums . apples . pears . cowcumbers , &c. it is good to take sometimes , hempeseed . seed of water lillies . hemlock . tu●san . camphire . cominseeds . coriander seeds . agnus costus , or the chast tree , not only the seeds of it used and taken in what manner soever doth restrain the instigation to venery , which it doth by a specifick property , seeing it is of the same tēperature with pepper , which worketh contrary effects ▪ and therefore the athenian matrons in their thesmophoria did use the leaves as sheets to lie on , thereby to preserve their thoughts ( if it were possible ) from impurity . rue is an excellent remedy , but of different operation in men an women . one quality thereof commend i must , it makes men chast , and women fils with lust . let his sauces with his meat be , vinegar , orenges , or verdejuyce . lemmons , sorrell , let him abstain from all aromaticall things , and all fryed or salt meats ; because that salt by reason of its heat and acrimony , provokes to lust , those that use to eat it in any great quantity . let him abstain from meats that are nutritive , hot , flatulent , and melancholy : as , soft egges . partridges . pigeons . sparrows . testicles of creatures . quails . rabbets . hares . greengeese especially . let him not eat , pine nuts . pistachoes . small nuts . artechokes . turneps . greenginger . eringoes . mustard . coleworts . rapes . carrots . parsnips . chesnuts . pease . sweet almonds . satyrion . onions . water nuts . rocket . cich-pease . beans . syrrups . electuaries . let him not lie upon a soft bed . also from all manner of fish * , &c. and oysters . prawnes . lobsters . crabs . muscles . cockles , &c. let him exercise usque ad sudorem , till he sweat again ; provided that the disease be not already grown to madnesse . often bathes are good . eye the heart , and be sure what ever you do , have a care to keep that on wheels , for all melancholy vapors afflict that especially . therefore to fortifie that , take conserve of roses . borrage flowers . buglosse flowers . rosemary flowers . marigold flowers . saffron . green walnuts preserved . juniper berries . bettony . citron pils candied , &c. thebane crates saith , there is no other remedy for love then time , and that must wear it out ; if time will not , the last refuge ( saith he ) is an halter . and that 's a speedy and sure remedy , very quick of operation . but when all fails , apply that cordiall salve to your corroding sore made by loves wounding weapon , that excellent remedy , that soveraign balme , that universal medicine , which if seasonably administred , will give you comfort when you are most distempered . the recipe is , divine contemplation ; for certainly those spirits which are truly raised to the study and knowledge of divine things , and do well know the art of celestiall contemplation , are elevated above all terrestrial pleasures , in as much as eternity is above time , and infinite felicities above vanities . and not finding any thing on earth worthy our desire , and to fix our affections upon , let the object of our love and felicities be in the empyreall heaven . and while we are in these divine extasies , let our spirits be so strong , as they may be conquerors of our bodies ; so heavenly , that they may esteem the chiefest pleasures of the body ( as this of heroick love ) but as dung and drosse , nay worse if worse may be , in comparison of those sublime and celestial pleasures we enjoy in our souls . and in such comparison we may rejoyce more in contemning these corporeal delights , and being above them , then in the fruition of them . therefore in stead of placing our affections on terrene objects , let us seek after that fountain and well-spring of all love , lovelinesse , beauty , sweetnesse , and excellencies of the creator ; which is infinitely more permanent , and doth as much transcend all other beauties and excellencies in the world , if they were all united in one : so that when a soul is possessed with the beauty and love of god , it will have the eye of its imagination fixed on him , often soaring and mounting up to heaven as its center , on the wings of contemplation ; and a sa vapor exhaled by the sun , often gliding after its love , being thereunto attracted by the allurements of his most amiable , fair and divine lustre and lovelinesse ; insomuch as it will be enlightened with glorious ideas , touring apprehensions , ardent affections , and celestial raptures . we will conclude with that poetical and divine strain of the nightingale of france . if wanton lovers so delight to gaze on mortall beauties brittle little blaze ; that not content with ( almost ) dayly sight of those deer idols of their appetite ; nor with th' ideas which the idalian dart hath deep imprinted in their yielding heart ; much more should those , whose souls , in sacred love are rapt with beauties ▪ proto-type above . finis . the postscript . reader , i know i shall come under the lash of a satyrical dijudication , and be boy'd out of countenance , for presuming to appear in this subject , which would have become the neat flourishes of a more elegant pen . therefore i will acknowledge that philomus as one of my most energetical palizadoes , who will defend this enchiridion against the malevolous aspersions of the venemous tongues of detractors , that will endevour to derogate its worth by calumny . but i have herculean hopes , that some will vindicate me ( where i cannot answer for my self ) against the viperous brood of backbiters . and as i love not to come within the jawes of such black-mouth'd plutonian curs ; so i desire not to be bandied up and down in the tennis court of this world with the racket of praise ; for there is a herb called lingua pagana ( i translate it ) a double tongue ; the devill that crafty gardner hath got a slip of it , and hath set it in the heart of the g●athonical reader ; for bilinguis was none of gods making ; no , it was of the devils marring , he loves to make that double which god made single : so there will be some cloven tongues that will disallow of that in the writers absence , which before did approve of and commend in his presence ; and if such distastful criticks shall misinterpret the innocency of my harmlesse meaning , i shall but reply , and play with their sporting censures , as doth ben. johnson in his play works , their praise or dispraise is to me alike , th' one doth not stroke me , nor the other strike . i will conclude with one word to momus , who like a cowardly cur will fawn in a mans face , but bite him by the heels when his turn'd back hath given the farewell , or like the cholerick horse-rider , who being cast from a young colt , not daring to kill the horse cut the saddle . think ▪ ( momus ) speak do what thou wilt , th'art free ; thy thoughts , thy words , thy deeds are nought to me . finis . the contents . of love , the original , the universality and the definition of it ▪ pag. 1. the whole vniverse tendeth to love ▪ and that it was love which caused god to create the world . pag. 1. mans inclination to a seeming good , and the cause of womans creation . 2. the sympathy that minerals and vegetables have one to another . 3. the definition of amorous love , and the several opinions of theophrastus , montagne , socrates , tully , seneca , and others . pag. 4 , 5. the policy of paris , in the disposal of the golden ball to venus . 5. the power of the planet venus . pag. 6. the concord betwixt pallas , the muses and venus . ibid. the conclusion . 7. the causes of love . pag. 7. the first cause from god . ibid. the second from the influence of the stars . 8 , 9. parents and education . 9 , 10. the example of themistocles . 10. idlenesse . ibid. luscious fair . ibid. dancing schooles , and schooles of musick . 11. quintilians opinion of nurses . ibid. the example of socrates . 12. a harmony and consonancy of spirits , &c. 13. that beauty and goodnesse make us love . 14. the great power that beauty hath in procuring love . 16. the particulars of beauty causing love , 1. the eyes . 17. 2. fair hair . 18. 3. the tongue , a gracious laughter , songs , kissing , &c. 19. 4. a tall slender body , &c. ibid. 5. breasts and paps , affected carriages , garments , guises , colons , jewels , pendants , painting , &c. 19. apparel . 20. 6. pleasant looks , glances , &c. 21. good instruction to ladies . 21. 7. a tender and hot heart . ibid. 8. love-letters . 23. 9. words . ibid. 10. eare . ibid. lysidas love to astrea . ibid. money causing love in men . 23. money causing love in women . 25. what the poets say are the causes of love . 26. fonsecas opinion of the cause of love . 27. the conclusion . 29. of the power and effects of love . 31. what plato cals love . ibid. the effects of love in animals . 31 , 32. diseases caused by love . 32. powers and assaults of love . 33. the variousnesse of it . ibid. divers examples of the effects of love . 35. the many dangers and hazzards lovers undergoe . 37. loves force is shown in the continuation of a designe . 39. the effects of love in birds , &c. 40. the effects of love in old persons . 41. in maids . ibid. constancy in lovers inconstancy . 43. how lovers display the beauty of their mistresses . 43. the effects of love in she-lovers , with their ear-charming notes . 44. a loves simplician described . 47. a description a great many guls . 48. instructions to lovers . 48 , 49. love strengthened by hope , &c. 51. a description of the palace of love . 57. the effects of love in women . 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57. the conclusion . 58. of the power and effects of love in widows . 59 widows compared to heralds hearse-clothes , and how they will belie their age , &c. ibid. the artificial discourse of widows . ibid. widow courters , &c. 61. the cause why spaniards will not mary widows . 61. widows were ordained for younger brothers . 62. the signes of love . 63. cautions before you judges of signes . ibid. what physognomie is . ibid. various signes of love are from pag. 64. to 69. signes of love in women . 75 , 76 , 77. signes of love by chiromancy . 77. signes of love by dreams . 77 , 78. signes of love by astrology . 79 , 80. at what age we begin to be in love . what complexions do best sympathize . what , &c. 81. when it beginneth in men . 81 , 82. when in women . ibid. 83 , 84 , 85. what temperatures and complexions do sympathize together , and are most prone to receive the impression of this passion . 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90. in what principal part of the body of man is the seat of love . 91. where love first entreth . 91 , 92. of jealousie in lovers . 93. the definition of it . 93 , 94. the effects , signes and symptomes of it . 94. 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99. how it may be known who will be subject to jealousie by every mans nativity . 101. the remedies of love . 102. how to take away love caused by the stars . 102 , 103. how to remove it caused by parents and education . 103 , 104 , 105 , 106. how to extinguish it , caused by beauty . 106 , 107. that love is sooner extinguished in presence then absence . 109. how to take away the cause of money causing love . 113 , 114. a preservative and soveraign receipt for women to fortifie themselves against the contagion of this pussion . 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119. how to extinguish love according to the way of the arabians . 119. and the parthians . 120 , 121. several other instructions to divert the patients thoughts . 120. physical cures , by letting of bloud ▪ change and variety of places , and what air is best ; how to diet him , as what simples to use in his broaths . what syrups and conserves he must take ▪ what fruit he may eat , &c. what sauces to use with his meats . 122 , 123 , 124. what the patient must abstain from . 124. his exercise . 125. fortifie the haart . ibid. the remedy of theban crates . ibid. the conclusion . 126 , 127. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a42026e-2320 * and that is the cause why women love fish better then flesh , for they will have plaice what ever they pay for it . natural history of the passions charleton, walter, 1619-1707. 1674 approx. 308 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 119 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a59161 wing s2501 estc r17216 12434551 ocm 12434551 62014 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a59161) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 62014) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 295:10) natural history of the passions charleton, walter, 1619-1707. senault, jean-françois, 1601-1672. de l'usage des passions. [45], 188 p. printed by t.n. for james magnes ..., in the savoy : 1674. based on: de l'usage des passions / by j.f. senault. written by walter charleton. cf. bm. wing erroneously attributed this work to j.f. senault. errata: p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng emotions -early works to 1800. 2003-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2003-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion natural history of the passions . mihi crede , qui nihil agere videntur , majora agunt ; humana divinaque simul tractant . seneca epist. 8. in the savoy , printed by t. n. for iames magnes in russell-street , near the piazza in convent-garden , 1674. epistle prefatory , to a person of honor , friend to the author . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exercetur ad virtutem in solitudine anima ; was the the saying of a bragman or indian philosopher to alexander the the great : and how memorable it is , you may perhaps collect from this diversion . for , the imperfect discourse i herewith send to you , my dear friend , concerning the passions , is the product of my late ten weeks solitude in the country . where being remote from my library , and wanting conversation with learned men ; i knew not how more innocently to shorten the winter evenings , than by spending them in revising some philosophical papers of my own , wherein among other things , i had formerly , out of the best authors , made certain collections concerning the divine art of acquiring constant tranquillity of mind , by wisedom or the right use of reason . and of this serious diversion i then made choice , both because i well understood the best part of human science to be that which teacheth us how to moderate our affections to the deceiptfull and transitory things of this life , and so to regulate our actions , as to reap from them , whatever their events may be , the happy fruit of internal acquiescence and satisfaction : and because my accumulated misfortunes had at that time reduced me to a necessity of consulting that part of philosophy , about the most effectual remedies against discontent . in this state and resolution then , first i remembred , that nature hath made man subject to no other real evil , but only pain of the body ; all grief or pain of the mind , though many times more sharp and intollerable , being created by our own false opinion , that we stand in want of things that are in truth without the circle of ourselves , and therefore not absolutely necessary to our wel-being . then i considered , that most commonly false opinions are occasioned , and so exorbitant desires suggested to us by our passions ; upon which all the good and evil incident to us in this life , seem's to depend : as ioy and grief are the two points in which all human actions end . for , though it be undoubtedly true , that the reasonable soul hath her intellectual delights and disquiets apart , such as are proper to her simple and spiritual nature : yet is it no less true , that those other delights and disquiets that are common to her with the body , depend intirely upon the affections . which when regular , that is , moderated and directed by reason , are indeed of good use to the soul , in that they serve to incite her to desire such objects which she well know's to be pleasant and beneficial to her , and to persist in that desire : but when irregular , by representing as realy good , things that are so only in apparence , provoke her to erroneous desires , and in persuit of them , to actions also repugnant to the dictates of right reason , and consequently to peace and tranquility of mind . from these cogitations it was not difficult for me to infer , that the whole art of attaining unto that internal serenity after which i was seeking , consisteth principaly in directing our desires aright , that is , to things which we clearly and distinctly know to be realy good : and that the only way so to direct our desires , is to imploy our understanding or faculty of discerning , which god hath to that end given us , strictly and attentively to examine and consider the goodness of things recommended to us by our passions , before we determin our will to affect and persue them . for , most certain it is , that as our faculty of discerning , that is our intellect , cannot naturaly tend to falsity : so neither can our faculty of assenting , that is our will , be deceived , when it is determined only upon objects which we clearly and distinctly understand ; and where our will is not misplaced , there can be no just cause of perturbation of mind . being soon convinced of this no less evident than important verity , in the next place i considered , that if our inordinate affections be the bitter fountain from whence the greatest part of , if not all our practical errors , and by consequence most of the evils we suffer , flow ; and if as the diseases of the body , so likewise those of the mind may be more easily cured , when their nature and causes are understood : then would it be requisite for me first to inquire as far as i should be able , into the nature , causes , motions , &c. of the passions , before i proceeded further in my research after the most powerfull remedies against their excesses . to this inquiry therefore i diligently applied myself , both by reading and meditation ; by reading , that i might recall into my memory what i had long before transcribed out of the books of such authors who had written judiciously and laudably of the passions : by meditation , that i might examin the weight of what i read , by comparing it with what i daily observed within the theatre of my own breast ; every man living being naturaly so sensible of the various commotions hapning in various passions , especialy more violent ones , that some have held , the knowledge of their nature and causes may be without much of difficulty derived from thence alone , without any help from foreign observations . and while i proceeded in this course , i digested my collections and private sentiments into such an order or method which seem'd to me most convenient , aswell to show their genuin succession , and mutual dependence , as to make the antecedents support the consequents , and both to illustrate each other reciprocaly . i put them also into a dress of language so plain and familiar , as may alone evince , my design was to write of this argument , neither as an orator , nor as a moral philosopher , but only as a natural one conversant in pathology , and that too more for his own private satisfaction , than the instruction of others . and thus have i succinctly acquainted you with the occasion , subject , scope and stile of the treatise that accompanieth this epistle . but this , noble sir is not all whereof i ought to advertise you , before you come to open the treatise itself . there remain yet two or three things more , which it imports me to offer to your notice , as preparatives against prejudice . one is , that if in the preliminary part of the discourse , where it was necessary for me to investigate the subjectum primarium of the passions , i have declared my assent to their opinion , who hold that in every individual man , there are two distinct souls , coexistent , conjoined , and cooperating ; one , only rational , by which he is made a reasonable creature ; the other , sensitive , by virtue whereof he participateth also of life and sense : i did so chiefly for these two reasons . first , it seem'd to me unintelligible , how an agent incorporeal , but not infinite , such as the rational soul by her excellent faculties and proper acts appear's to be , can act physicaly in and upon a gross and ponderous body , such as ours are , immediately or without the mediation of a third thing ; which though corporeal too , may yet be of a substance so refined and subtil , as to approach somwhat neerer to the nature of a pure spirit , than the body itself doth : and therefore for the more probable explication of the phenomena of the passions which are not raised in the rational soul , i found myself obliged to admit her to have a sensitive one conjoyned with her , to receive her immediate suggestions , and to actuate the body according to her soveraign will and pleasure ; there being less of disparity betwixt the most thin and subtil bodies of light and flame ( whereof many eminent philosophers have conceived a sensitive soul to consist ) and a substance purely spiritual , than between a pure spirit and a gross , heavy body , as ours is . secondly it seem'd to me no less unconceivable , whence that dismal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or intestin war which every man too frequently feels within himself , and whereof even st. paul himself so sadly complained , when ( in epist. ad roman . cap. 3. ) he cries out , video aliam legem in membris meis repugnantem legi mentis meae ; should arise , if not from a duumvirate as it were of rulers contending for superiority within us , and inclining us two contrary ways at once . for , to conceive that one and the. same simple thing , such as the reasonable soul is rightly presumed to be , can be repugnant to itself , or at one and the same time be possessed with opposite affections ; is manifestly absurd . there are indeed , who to evade this absurdity , imagine it possible , that of one and the same rational , simple soul , there may be two distinct faculties or powers opposite each to other , from whose clashings and contrary inclinations this civil war may proceed . but to oblige us to swallow this palpable contradiction , these men ought to have reconciled those two repugnant notions of simple and compound ; and to have told us , why in the same simple substance of fire there cannot likewise be two mutualy repugnant faculties , heat and cold . in a mixed body there may be , i confess , opposite faculties ; and therefore the like may be imagined also in the rational soul , if she be conceived to be of a mixed or compound nature : but this is against their own supposition , and destructive to the natural immortality of the soul. what then can remain to cause this dire war daily observed within us , betwixt the allurements of our sense , on one side , and the grave dictates of our mind , on the other ; but two distinct agents , the rational soul and the sensitive , coexistent within us , and hotly contending about the conduct of our will ? but you , sir , will perhaps tell me , there may another , and that a more probable cause be given of this hostility ; and that the searching wit of monsieur des cartes hath been so happy to discover what it is , in libr. de passion . part . 1. art . 47. where he thus reasoneth . in no other thing ( saith he ) but in the repugnancy that is between the motions which the body by its spirits , and those which the soul by her will , do at the same time endeavour to excite in the glandula pinealis in the brain , consist all the conflicts which men commonly imagin betwixt the inferior part of the soul , which is named the sensitive , and the superior , which is called the rational , or betwixt the appetites natural and the will. for , in us there is only one soul , which hath in her no variety of parts : the same that is sensitive , is also rational , and all the appetites thereof are volitions . the error by which divers persons as it were , that are for the most part mutualy contrary , come to be imposed upon her ; hath proceeded only from hence , that hitherto her functions have not been sufficiently distinguished from the functions of the body ; to which alone is to be ascribed all that can be observed in us to be repugnant to our reason . so that here is no other contrast , but that when the glandule seated in the middle of the brain , is impell'd on one part by the soul , and on the other by the spirits animal , which are nothing but bodies , as i have before declared : it often happens , that those two impulses or impressions are contrary each to other , and that the strongger hindereth the effect of the weaker . now there may be distinguished two kinds of motions excited in the glandule by the spirits : some represent to the soul objects that move the senses , or impressions found in the brain , and use no force upon the will ; others use force , namely those that make the passions , or the motions of the body that accompany them . and as for the first ; though they often hinder the actions of the soul , or be hindered by them ; yet because they are not directly contrary , there is no strife or contention observed in them : but only betwixt the last and the wills that are repugnant to them ; for example , betwixt the endeavour by which the spirits impell the glandule to induce upon the soul a desire of some one thing , and that by which the soul repells the same glandule by her will to avoid it . and this chiefly demonstrateth this strife , that since the will hath not power ( as hath been already shown ) to excite passions directly , the soul is therefore compell'd to use art , and to apply herself to the consideration of various things successively . whence if it happen that any one of those various things hath the force of changing for a moment the cours of the spirits ; it may so fall out , that the next thing that occurs to be considered , may want the like force , and the spirits may resume their former cours , because the precedent disposition in the nerves , in the heart , and in the blood , hath not been changed : whereby it comes to pass , that the soul almost in the same moment feels herself impell'd to desire and decline the same thing . and this hath given men occasion of imagining in the soul two powers mutualy repugnant . but yet there may be conceived a certain conflict in this , that oftentimes the same cause that exciteth some passion in the soul , exciteth also in the body some certain motions , whereunto the soul contributeth nothing at all , and which she stops , or endevours to stop , so soon as she observes them : as is manifest from experience , when that which exciteth fear , causeth also the spirits to flow into the muscles that serve to move the leggs to flight ; and occasioneth the will of exercising courage to stop them . to this objection therefore i answer ( 1. ) that had this excellent man , monsieur des cartes been but half as conversant in anatomy , as he seems to have been in geometry , doubtles he would never have lodged so noble a guest as the rational soul , in so incommodious a closet of the brain , as the glandula pincalis is ; that use whereof hath been demonstrated to be no other but to receive into its spongy cavities , from two little nerves , a certain serous excrement , and to exonerate the same again into its vein , which nature hath therefore made much larger than the artery that accompanieth it ; and which having no communication with the external organs of the senses , cannot with any colour of reason be thought the part of the brain , wherein the soul exerciseth her principal faculties of judging and commanding . ( 2. ) this glandule which he supposeth to be so easily flexible and yielding to contrary impulses , is not loosely suspended , but fixed : so that whoever hath once beheld the solid basis , strong consistence , and firm connexion thereof , will hardly ever be brought to allow it capable of any impulse to either side , though by the greatest hurricano of spirits imaginable ; much less by every light motion of them excited by external objects affecting the senses . ( 3 ) though we should grant this gland to be both the throne of the soul , and most easily flexible every way : yet hath des cartes left it still unconceivable , how an immaterial agent , not infinite , comes to move by impuls a solid body , without the mediation of a third thing that is less disparil or disproportionate to both . now these things duely considered , you will ( i presume ) no longer imagine the conflicts or combats that frequently happen within us betwixt the rational and sensitive appetites , to consist only in the repugnancy of the impulses of this little glandule by the spirits on one side , to those of the same glandule by the soul on the other . besides , that the soul hath power to excite corporeal passions directly , that is , without considering successively various things ; is manifest from her soveraignity over the body , which in all voluntary actions is absolute and uncontrollable ; and in the very instance of fear alleadged by our author , where she determineth her will to courage to oppose the danger suggested , instantly and without running through a long series of various considerations , for which she then hath not time sufficient . however , evident enough it is , that this conceipt of repugnant impulses of this gland in the brain , is so far from giving light to the reason of the conflict here considered , that it rather augmenteth the obscurity thereof , by implying two contrary appetites or wills in one and the same soul , at one and the same time : whereas the supposition of two souls mutually opposing each others appetites , doth render the same intelligible . against this opinion of a duality of souls in one man , some have ( i well know ) with not a little confidence urged the sentence of some of the fathers , yea and of whole councils condemning all who should assert it ; and more particularly concil . 8. act . 10. vienn . in clem. vii . & lateran . 3. sess . 8. but this , sir , is brutum fulmen , dangerous to none , terrible only to the unlearned . for , to any understanding reader of those decrees , it is clearly manifest , that the edge of them is turned against first the doctrin of the maniches holding two human souls in every individual man ; one polluted with the stain of vices , and derived from an evil principle ; the other incontaminate , and proceeding immediately from god , yea more , a particle of the divine essence itself ; then the platonics also , and averrhoists , teaching that the rational soul is not man's forma informans , but part of the anima mundi or universal soul : but not against the asserters of two souls coexistent , one simply reasonable , the other merely sensitive , in every single person , in that innocent sense i deliver it . and thus have the same decrees been judiciously interpreted by the religious philosophers of the collegue of conimbra ; who as of all men they have discoursed most acutely and profoundly of this argument ; so have they with greatest moderation treated the defendents of this opinion by me here embraced . for ( in 1. de generat . cap. 4. quaest . 21. art . 2. ) though they expresly avow their adherence rather to the common belief of the singularity of the human soul , as most consentaneous to the sense of the church : yet they declare also , that the contrary opinion ought not to be censured as heretical or erroneous . why therefore should i fear to espouse it ? especially if to the reasons here urged , and others no less considerable alledged by me in the third section of the treatise to which this epistle invites you , be added for confirmation , that so celebrated text of st. paul ( ad thessal . 1. cap. 5. vers . 23. ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , integer vester spiritus , & anima , & corpus , &c. where our most learned dr. hammond of pious memory ( in his annotations on the place ) conceives the apostle to divide the whole man into three constituent parts , viz. the body , which comprehendeth the flesh and members ; the vital soul , which being also animal or sensitive , is common likewise to brutes ; and the spirit , by which is denoted the reasonable soul originally created by god , infused into the body , and from thence after death to return to god ; and this genuin exposition of his he confirms by agreeing testimonies both of ethnic philosophers , and some ancient fathers . to these give me leave to super-add ( ex abundanti ) the concordant suffrages of three eminent philosophers of our own age ; namely the lord chancellor bacon , who ( in his 4 book of the advancement of learning , chap. 3. ) gravely discoursing of the parts of knowledge concerning the mind or soul of man , divideth it into that which declares the nature of the reasonable soul , which is a thing divine ; and that which treateth of the unreasonable soul , which is common to us with beasts : and then proceeds to affirm at large , that the former hath its original from the inspiration or breath of god ; the later , from the matrices of the elements : the immortal gassendus , de physiologia epicuri , cap. de animae sede , passionibms animi , &c. and the now flourishing dr. willis , in libr. de anima brutorum cap. 7. whose words i forbear to transcribe , out of design to increase your satisfaction , by obliging you to read them at your leisure in the places cited . now if solid reasons , authority divine , and the judgment of many sublime wits and profound philosophers , aswell ancient as modern , be of any weight to recommend this neither heretical , nor improbable opinion to me ; certainly i need not blush to incline thereunto . notwithstanding this , i recount the same tanquam in hypothesi , only as a supposition convenient to solve the phenomena of the passions ; not as an article of my faith : nor had i so importunely insisted thus long upon arguments to justify my approbation thereof , in this letter ; had i not , through want of books , omitted to doe it where i ought , in the iii. section of the discourse itself . ¶ the second advertisement i owe you , friend , is this , that the greatest part of what is delivered in the same discourse , concerning the nature , substance , faculties , knowledge , &c. of a sensitive soul , hath been borrowed from that elaborate work of our learned dr. willis de anima brutorum , lately published . which i hold my self bound here ingeniously to acknowledge left otherwise you might justly condemn me as a plagiary , and that i may invite you also to the pleasure of attentively reading that useful book . wherein i found great part of what i had formerly read of that subject in various authors , so well collected , digested and explained ; that i chose from thence to copy an image of the sensitive soul of man , whereupon i was often to reflect my thoughts , while i fate to describe the most remarkable of the passions to which it is liable : and this i did the rather , because at that time i had by me no other book of the same subject . you are not therefore to look upon the description of the nature and affections of a sensitive soul therein delivered , as a supposition newly excogitated , and unheard of by former ages . for to men conversant in the theories of physiologists concerning that subject , it is well known , that all the ancients were so far from holding the soul of a brute to be other than corporeal , that they for the most part taught their disciples , that the soul of man was so too : except a few of them , namely pythagoras , plato , and in some favourable sense aristotle ( when he defined the soul by that enigmatical term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) and his sectators , aristoxenus and dicaearchus , when they called it a harmony . true it is indeed , they were much divided in their opinions about the substance or matter of a soul ; some imagining it to be of fire , as heraclitus , democritus , hipparchus , and the stoicks ; some conceiving it to be on the contrary , of a watery nature , as hippon , and thales ; others fancying it to be composed of water and earth , as xenophanes ; others , of earth and fire , as parmenides ; others again , of all the four elements , as empedocles : and yet notwithstanding they unanimously consented in these points , that this corporeal soul is divisible ; composed of particles extremely small , subtil and active ; diffused through or coextens to the whole body wherein it is contained ; produced at first by generation out of the seed of the parents ; perpetualy recruited or regenerated out of the purest and most spirituous part of the nourishment ; subject to contraction and expansion in passions ; and finally dissolved or extinguished by death . if you doubt of the truth of what i here say , i know not how more easily to convince you , than by referring you to the incomparable gassendus in lib. 10. diogen . laert. cap. de natura , contexturàque animae ad mentem epicuri : where you find the same more amply delivered . meanwhile suffer me to recite a pertinent and memorable text of the lord verulam's ( of the advancement of learning book 4. chap. 3. ) that now comes into my head . the sensible soul ( saith he ) must needs be granted to be a corporeal substance , attenuated by heat and made invisible . i say , a thin , gentle gale of wind swell'd and blown up from some flamy and and airy nature ; indued with the softness of aire to receive impression , and with the vigour of fire to embrace action ; nourished partly by an oyly , partly by a watery substance ; spread over the body ; residing ( in perfect creatures ) chiefly in the head ; running through the nerves ; refreshed and repaired by the spirituous part of the blood of the arteries : as bernardinus telesius ( de rerum natura lib. 5. ) and his scholar augustinus donius have delivered it . and as for the bipartition of this sensitive soul into two principle members as it were , or active sourses ; vix . the fiery part , upon which life depends ; and the lucid , from whence all the faculties animal are , like so many distinct rayes of light , derived : i will not affirm it to be very ancient : but yet methinks , i discern more than a shadow thereof in some lines of the same most acute lord bacon ( de vita & morte , explicatione canonis quartae ) which are these . spiritus vitalis omnis sibi continuatur , per quosdam canales , per quos permeat , nec totaliter intercipitur . atque hic spiritus etiam duplex est : alter ramosus tantum , permeans per parvos ductus , & tanquam lineas ; alter habet etiam cellam , ut non tantum sibi continuetur , sed etiam congregetur in spatio aliquo cavo , in bene magna quantitate , pro analogia corporis ; atque in illa cella est fons rivulorum , qui inde deducantur . ea cella praecipue est in ventriculis cerebri , qui in animalibus magis ignobilioribus angusti sunt ; adeo ut videantur spiritus per universum corpus fusi , potius quam cellulati : ut cernere est in serpentibus , anguillis , muscis , quorum singulae portiones abscissae moventur diu : etiam aves diutius , capitibus avulsis , subsultant ; quoniam parva habeant capita , & parvas cellas . at animalia nobiliora ventriculos eos habent ampliores ; & maximè omnium homo . alterum discrimen inter spiritus est , quod spiritus vitalis nonnullam habeat incensionem , atque sit tanquam aura composita ex flamma , & aere ; quemadmodum succi animalium habeant & oleum , & aquam . at illa incensio peculiares praebet motus , & facultates . etenim & fumus inflammabilis , etiam ante flammam conceptam , calidus est , tenuis , mobilis : & tamen alia res est , postquam facta sit flamma : at incensio spirituum vitalium , multis partibus lenior est , quàm mollissima flamma ex spiritu vini , aut alias ; atque insuper mixta est magna ex parte , cum substantia aerea ; ut sit & flammeae , & aereae naturae mysterium . this place of that prince of modern philosophers , the lord st. albans , conjoyned to that other of his immediately precedent , seems to me to contain a pourtraiture of the sensitive soul , drawn indeed as in perspective , in colours somwhat faint , and not accurately ground ; yet with good judgment , and bold strokes of the pencill , such as give it no obscure resemblance of the original . and if you ( sir ) please to compare it with the more ample description of the same sensitive soul , lately set forth by dr. willis : it will not be difficult to you , to observe , in how many things they agree . ¶ the third and last thing whereof i am here to advertise you , is , that in the description of many of the passions likewise , i have interwoven some threds taken from the webbs of those three excellent men , gassendus , des cartes , and our mr. hobbes ; who have all written most judiciously of that obstruse theme . nor will i otherwise excuse myself for being so liberal to you , of what i owe to the bounty of those richer wits ; than by reciting what your beloved seneca said to his dear lucilius , in defense of his adopting for his own so many wise and memorable sentences of his , and our oracle , epicurus : adhuc de alieno liberalis sum . quare autem alienum dixi ? quicquid benè dictum est ab ullo , meum est . epist. 16. i will only add , as a reason of my so frank communication of these unpolished papers to you , who are my lucilius , what the same latin stoic most affectionately p●ofessed to his , on the like occasion : ego vero cupio ista omnia in te transfundere , & in hoc gaudeo aliquid discere , ut doceam . nec me ulla res delectabit , licet eximia sit & salutaris , quam mihi uni sciturus sim. si cum hac exceptione detur sapientia , ut illam inclusam teneam , nec enunciem , rejiciam . epist. 6. ¶ index of the contents . section . i. introduction , page 2. sect . ii. article 1 what kind of substance a sensitive soul may be conceived to be . pag. 5. 2. two reasons of that supposition . p. 6. 3. second supposition that the substance of a sensitive soul is fiery : p. 9. 4. because life is seated principaly in the blood ; and can no more than fire itself , subsi●t without aliment and ventilation , p. 9. 5. and because a sensitive soul seems to be first formed of the most spirituous particles of the same seminal matter , whereof the body itself is made . p. 12. 6. a sensitive soul imagined to be also of the same figure with the body it animates . p. 13. 7. that the existence of a sensitive soul d●th , ●s that of flame , depend intirely upon motion . p. 14. 8. that the first operation of a sensitive soul , is the formation of the body , according to the modell preordained by nature . p. 16. 9. recapitulation of the premises . p. 19. 10. the faculties and organs of a sensitive soul , reciprocaly inservient each to other . p. 20. 11. a twofold desire or inclination congenial to a sensitive soul ; viz. of self-preservation , and propagation of her kind . p. 22. 12. to what various mutations and irregular commotions a sensitive soul is subject , from her own passions ; p. 24. 13. from the temperament and diseases of the body ; p. 26. 14. from various impressions of external objects ; and exorbitant motions of the animal spirits . p. 27. 15. the various gestures of a sensitive soul , respective to the impressions of external objects variously affecting her . p. 28. 16. an inquiry concerning the knowledge whereby brutes are directed in actions voluntary . p. 30. 17. the knowledge of brutes , either innate , or acquired . p. 39. 18. that brutes are directed only by natural instinct , in all actions conducing either to their own preservation , or to the propagation of their species : not by reason ; p. 41. 19. nor material necessity , p. 43. sect . iii. 1. the excellency of a rational soul. pag. 46. 2. manifest from her proper objects , p. 47. 3. and acts. p. 48. 4. life and sense depend not on the rational soul of man , and p. 51. 5. therefore he seems to have also a sensitive soul. p. 53. 6. the same inferred from the civil war betwixt the rational and sensitive souls . p. 54. 7. the causes of that war. p. 55. 8. wherein somtimes the sensitive appetite prevails : and p. 57. 9. somtimes the rational . p. 59. 10. that the rational soul is created immediately by god. p. 60 11. the resemblance betwixt father and son , ascribed to the sensitive soul. p. 61. 12. the rational soul seated in that part of the brain which serves to imagination : and p. 61. 13. there connexed to the sensitive , by the will of her creator . p. 64. 14. where the manner how she judges of the images of things formed in the imagination . seems to be inexplicable . p. 65. sect . iv. of the passions of the mind in general . 1. a twofold state of the sensitive soul ; viz. of tranquility , and p. 68. 2. of perturbation . p. 69. 3. the first , most observable in sleep , and when objects appear indifferent : p. 70. 4. the other , manifest in all passions . ibidem . 5. that in the state of perturbation , the sensisitive soul varieth her gestures , by contraction or expansion . p. 72. 6. we are not moved to passion by good or evil , but only when we conceive ourselves particularly concerned therein . p. 73. 7. all passions distinguished into physical , metaphysical , and moral . p. 74. 8. what are passions physical , p. 75. 9. what metaphysical , p. 77. 10. and what moral , p. 81. 11. all passions referred to pleasure or pain : and p. 82. 12. all their motions , to contraction and effusion . p. 83. 13. wherein consist pleasure and displeasure of sense . p. 83. 14. rehearsal of the heads handled in this section . p. 85. sect . v. of the passions in particular . 1. why men have not been able to observe all passions incident to the sensitive soul. p. 85. 2. the passions best distinguished by having respect to the differences of time. p. 86. 3. admiration , p. 87. 4. which causeth no commotion in the heart and blood : and p. 89. 5. yet is dangerous , when immoderate . p. 90. 6. estimation and contempt , p. 91. 7. both consequents of admiration . p. 92. 8. no just cause of self-esteem , but the right use our free will. p. 92. 9. pride . p. 93. 10. humility , virtuous ; and p. 90. 11. vicious , or dejection of spirit . p. 96. 12. shame and impudence . p. 97. 13. that pride , and its contrary , abjectness of spirit , are not only vices , but passions also . p. 99. 14. love and hatred , p. 100. 15. defined . p. 101. 16. love not well distinguished into benevolence and concupiscence ; p. 101. 17. but by the various degrees of estimation , p. 103. 18. that there are not so many distinct sorts of love , as of objects to excite it . p. 104 , 19. hatred , less various than love. p. 106. 20. desire , alwayes a consequent of love : but p. 106. 21. not alwaies a concomitant of it . p. 106. 22. the motions of the soul and spirits in love ; and their symptomes . p. 107. 23. the motions of the soul and spirits in desire . p. 109. 24. the motions of the spirits and blood in hatred . p. 111. 25. hate , alwaies accompanyed with sadness . p. 114. 26. hope and fear . p. 115. 27. pusillanimity and courage . p. 116 , 28. emulation , a sort of magnanimity . p. 117. 29. confidence and despair . p. 117. 30. doubting . p. 118. 31. remorse and acquiescence . p. 119. 32. the motions of the soul and spirits in hope . p. 121. 33. the motions of the soul and spirits in fear : and p. 122. 34. in desperation . p. 124. 35. ioy. p. 126. 36. the various degrees of ioy , and their names . p. 127. 37. the various degrees of grief , and their distinct appellations . p. 127. 38. envy and pity . p. 128. 39. generous men most inclined to commiseration ; and why . p. 129. 40. commiseration , a species of grief mixed with benevolence . p. 131. 41. envy , a sort of grief mixed with hate . p. 131. 42. acquiescence of mind , a kind of joy. p. 132. 43. repentance , a species of grief , but allayd with a touch of joy. p. 133. 44. favour . p. 134. 45. gratitude . p. 135. 46. indignation ▪ p. 136. 47. anger . p. 137. 48. two sorts of anger ; one harmless , the other revengeful . p. 138. 49. glory and shame . p. 140. 50. the motions of the soul and spirits in joy. p. 141. 51. laughter . p. 144. 52. the occasions of laughter . p. 145. 53. laughter from indignation . p. 146. 54. a rare example of involuntary laughter . p. 147. 55. conjecture concerning the cause thereof . p. 148. 56. the motions and effects of sorrow . p. 150. 57. sighs and tears . p. 152. 58. whence tears flow : and p. 154. 59. how they are expressed . p. 155. 60. the reason of weeping for joy. p. 157. 61. why infants and old men are more prone to shed tears . p. 158. 62. the reason of sighing and sobbing . ibid. 63. the motions and symptomes of anger . p. 159. 64. excess of anger , to be avoided ; and that chiefly by the help of generosity . p. 163. 65. of all passions hitherto considered , only six are simple : the rest mixed . p. 164. 66. reasons against publication of this discourse . p. 165. sect . vi. conclusion . 1. that all the good and evil of this life , depends upon our passions , p. 168. 2. which yet were instituted by nature , as incitements to the soul. ibid. 3. that we are liable to errors , not from want of an omniscious vnderstanding ; p. 170. 4. but from our ill use of that finite vnderstanding we have , in the conduct of our desires suggested by passions . p. 172. 5. that all errors to which such desires expose us , arise from hence ; that we do not sufficiently distinguish things that depend intirely upon ourselves , from those that depend upon others . p. 173. 6. which may be obviated by two general remedies ; viz. generosity , and p. 175. 7. dependence upon providence divine , p. 177. 8. which utterly excluding fortune , doth yet leave us at liberty to direct our desires . p. 178. 9. how we may extricate ourselves from the difficulties that seem to make the decrees of providence divine , irreconcileable to the liberty of our will. p. 179. 10. whence it is , that we are often deceived by our will , though never with our will. p. 180. 11. a third general remedy against error occasioned by our inordinate passions ; viz. premeditation and deliberation . p. 182. 82. a fourth vniversal preservative ; viz. the stant exercise of virtue . p. 185. 13. toward the acquisition whereof , the study of epicurus's morals is recommended . ¶ p. 187. errors of this impression to be by the reader thus corrected . pag. 1. l. 5. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pag. 15. lin . 18. read viviparous . pag. 69. l. 6. read investing . pag. 76. lin . 16. read detests . pag. 180. lin . 8. read undetermined . pag. 185. lin . 2. read thoughts . summary of the contents . marcus antoninus philosophus libr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. sect. 2. o , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. quicquid sum , constat id omne caruncula , ammula , & parte principante . proinde mitte libros . nec distrahere amplius : ( nihil obstat , quo minus hoc facias ) sed tanquam qui jam statim moriturus sis , carnes istas ●●ntemnas . cruor est , & ossicula , & reticulum ex nervis , venulis arteriisque contextum . quin & animam considera , qualis sit . spiritus est , sive aer , nec is semper idem , sed qui jugiter efflatus denuò resorbetur . tertium restat , pars illa principatum gerens . tu ergo sic tecum : senex es : partem tui principem servire ulterius ne siveris ; sed nec motibus à communione humana alienis raptari . nec quicquam quod fato destinatum tibi fuerit , vel jam ascitum aversari , vel futurum pavere . natural history of the passions . section i. introduction . the reasonable soul of man seems to be of a nature so divine and excellent , that it is capable of understanding all things that are in this life intelligible : but yet so reserved and abstruse withall , that it cannot understand itself ; as many most sublime wits , who had long exercised and perplex'd themselves in enquiries into the hidden and mysterious essence thereof , have at length ingenuously confess'd . well therefore may we without blushing , own our ignorance of this noblest part of our selves , from which we derive all our knowledge . well may we without regret content our curiosity with those faint glimmerings of light , which shine through the operations of this celestial guest in our frail and darksom tabernacles of flesh ; and which are reflected upon our understanding , only from the illustrious effects of its proper powers and acts. what these powers and acts are , and how vastly they transcend the energie of a sensitive soul , how perfect soever in its kind ; as also in what exercises of the mind they are chiefly observable ; hath been by sir kenelm digby in his book of the rational soul , copiously declared . so that here they need not to be repeated . nor indeed would such a prolix research be consistent with my present design ; which principally aim's at a recollection of some notions , that have partly in reading , partly in meditation , occurred to me , concerning the various passions of the mind , their genealogy , their first sourses and resorts , their most remarkable differences , motions , and forces , and in fine , by what kind of connexion and intercourse betwixt two so disparate natures , the one incorporeal , the other corporeal , it is , that the rational soul is respectively coaffected by them . and this with as much brevity , as the amplitude of the subject can admit ; with as much perspicuity , as my weak reason can attain unto , in an argument so sublime and difficult . that i may then effect this my design , if not so happily , as in the end to arrive at the certain and demonstrative knowledge of the truth i seek ; yet so plausibly at least , as to form an hypothesis by which the nature and reasons of the principal , and most predominant of our passions , may be congruously and with probability explained : it is requisite i begin with these few preliminaries . 1. what kind of thing i suppose the sensitive soul to be , as well in man , as in brutes . 2. what seem's to me most consentaneous concerning the original , nature , and royal seat of the rational soul. 3. how , and after what manner i conceive both souls to be connexed in man , during this shadow of life . 4. how the rational soul may come to be affected by the motions of the sensitive , in some passions ; and this , by predominion of that , in others ; and whence their mutual consent , and dissent . for , my present conceptions concerning these things , though i foresee , i shall not be able to establish them all upon reasons irrefutable and cogent : are yet nevertheless to be here premised , as postulates or fundamentals , for introduction and support of the following theory about the passions . these therefore i shall in their order , and concisely , and in a plain familiar style , ( such with which i am always best pleas'd , especially in discourses philosophical ) set down , tanquam praecognoscenda . ¶ sect ii. what kind of substance the sensitive soul may be conceived to be . as for the first postulatum ; the sensitive soul of a brute animal , i conceive to be corporeal , and consequently divisible , coextense to the whole body ; of a substance either fiery , or meerly resembling fire ; of a consistence most thin and subtile , not much unlike the flame of of pure spirit of wine , burning in a paper lantern , or other the like close place . first , i think it to be corporeal , divisible , and coextense to the whole body ; and that for two reasons , among many others not the least considerable . one is this ; that many , and divers animal actions are daily observed to be , at one and the same time , performed by divers parts and members of the body : for instance , the eye sees , the ear hears , the nostrils smell , the tongue tasteth , and all exteriour members exercise their sense and motion , all at once . for as much then as betwixt the body and soul of a brute , there is no medium ( both being intimately connexed ) but the members and parts of the body are instruments fram'd for the use of the soul : what else can be imagined , but that many and distinct portions of the soul so extended , do inform and actuate the distinct organs and members of the body ; each in a peculiar manner , respective to the peculiar constitution , fabrique , and office thereof ? the other this ; it is observed also , that vipers , eels , earthworms , and most other reptils being cut into many pieces ; all pieces for a good while after retain a manifest motion , and no obscure sense ; for , being prick'd , they contract and shrink up themselves , as sensible of the hurt , and striving to avoid it . and this probably from hence , that these less perfect animals having their liquors , both vital and animal , of a consistence viscous , and not easily dissoluble or dissipable ; and having their soul , if not equally , yet universally diffused , and all its parts subsisting immediately in those liquors : cannot suffer a division of their body , without division of their soul also ; the parts whereof residing for some time after , in the segments of the body , may perhaps for that time continue to actuate them to motion and sense . it hath been more then once unhappily experimented , that the head of a viper hath bitten a mans finger , and poysoned him too , above an hour after it had been cut off . not by involuntary convulsion of the nerves and muscles of the vipers jaws , such as not rarely happen to animals , in the torments of death ; for those probably could neither last so long , nor so regularly open and shut the mouth , and extend the two fang teeth , by contraction of their erecting muscles : but certainly by an action voluntary , regular and suggested by sense , and perhaps revenge too . whence i am apt to suspect , that not only part of the vipers soul , but anger and revenge also survived in the divided head . for , it is well known , the bite of a viper is never venomous , but when he is enraged : the chrystalline liquor contained in the two little glandules at the roots of his fang teeth , being then by a copious afflux of spirits from the brain , and other brisk motions thereupon impress'd , in anger ( of all passions the most violent and impetuous ) so altered , and exalted , as to become highly active and venenate ; whereas at other times , when a viper is not offended and provok'd , the same liquor is found to be as harmless as the spittle of a man in perfect health . but whether from the dangerous effects of this biting , the dire symptoms that thereupon ensued , it be inferrible , or not , that in the abscinded head of the beast there remained anything of anger and revenge : in my poor judgment 't is very evident from the very act of biting , there still remained somwhat of life , sense , and voluntary motion . which is sufficient to verify my present supposition , that a sensitive soul is divisible and coextense to the whole body it animates . secondly , i think the same sensitive soul to consist of fire , or some matter analogous to fire : and the reasons inducing me to be of this opinion , are many . some i have formerly alleadged , where i discourse of the flame of life perpetually arising from accension of the sulphureous and inflammable parts of the blood , while circulated through the heart and lungs : which therefore i abstain from reciting in this place . others , that have since occurr'd to my consideration , i am obliged here to expose to yours . that the life , or soul of brute animals , is seated principally in their blood ; we are plainly taught even by the oracle of truth itself , the dictates of the divine wisdom that created them : and that blood , and fire subsist by the same principles , viz. aliment and ventilation ; is evident from hence , that a defect of either of these , doth equally destroy both the one and the other . should you here exact from me some description of the essence of fire , i should adventure to tell you , that it seems to be only a multitude of most minute and subtile particles , mutually touching each other , put into a most rapid motion , and by continual succession of some parts , and decession of others , renewed : which conserves its motion , and subsistence , by preying upon , and consuming the sulphureous parts of its subject matter , or fewel , and the nitrous parts of the ambient aer . for , even our sense bears witness , that from the particles of this twofold aliment , sulphureous and nitrous , resolved to the last degree of smalness , and by a most violent and rapid motion agitated , the forms of fire and flame ( which differ only in degrees of density , and velocity of motion ) do wholy result . nor doth the image i find drawn in my brain of the soul of a brute , much differ from this description of the nature of fire . i conceive it to be no other than a certain congregation of most minute , subtil and agile particles , corpuscles or atoms ( call them what you please ) crowded together ; which being , in the very first moment of life , put into brisk and most rapid motion , like that of the particles of fire when first kindled ; do so long conserve that motion , and their own subsistence , as they have a continued supply of convenient nutriment ; sulphureous from the blood within , nitrous from the aer without ; and no longer . for we cannot but observe , that the souls of all brute animals , of what kind soever , stand perpetually in need of a fresh supply of those two sorts of aliment ; insomuch that so soon as the recruit fails , they languish and dye : no otherwise than the flame of a lamp grows weak and dim , and is extinguished , for want of oyl or air . but ( what is very remarkable ) besides fire and life , there is not to be found in all nature any other thing whatsoever , to whose act and subsistence such a supply of sulphureous and nitrous matter is necessary . nor is any other motion in the world , whether it be of fermentation , ebullition , vegetation , or other whatever , besides that of fire and life , subject to be arrested and suppressed immediately from defect of aer . it was not then without very great reason , that our master hippocrates affirmed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the soul is perpetually generated , or made anew : and that aristotle held , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , life it self to subsist by respiration . this you perhaps may judge to be but a faint and imperfect representation of the nature of a sensitive soul. and therefore it is requisite i endevour to render it more lively , by adding a few touches more concerning the hypostasis or subsistence of such a soul ; the life , or act ; and the principal functions , or operations of it . for the first of these three considerables , viz. the subsistence of a sensitive soul ; it seems not unreasonable to conceive , that the soul of a brute doth consist of the very same matter , of which the organical body is formed : but of such particles of it as are select , most subtile , and active in the highest degree . which , as the flower of the whole matter , in the formation of the embrion , emerging out of the grosser mass , and mutually uniting ; first force passages convenient for themselves through the whole compage of the body , and then constitute one continued , thin , and as it were spirituous hypostasis , adequate and coextense to the same . for , so soon as any matter is disposed towards animation ; by the law of the creation ( not by epicurus's fortuitous concurse of atoms ) the soul at the same time , which is called the form , and the body , which is called the matter , begin to be formed together , under a certain species , according to the modell or character impressed upon them . when the more agile , and spirituous particles of the seminal matter , having freed themselves from the other parts of it , quickly assemble together ; and by little and little raising a commotion , stir up , and agitate the grosser particles , and by degrees dispose them into fit postures and places , where they ought to remain and cohere ; and so form the body according to the figure or shape preordained by the creator . mean while this congregation of subtile and active particles , or the soul , which by expansion enlargeth it self , and insinuating her particles among others more gross , and as it were interweaving them , frames the body , is it self exactly conformed to the figure and dimensions of the same body , coextended and adapted to it , as to a case or sheath , doth actuate , enliven , and inspire all and all parts thereof . while on the other side , the same soul , apt and prone of it self to be dissolved , and vanish into aer , is by the body containing it , conserved in its act and subsistence . now according to this notion , a sensitive soul may be conceived to be a most subtle body contained in a gross one , and in all points , of the same figure with it ; or as it were a spectre made up of exhalations , such as some vain , or superstitious heads have somtimes imagined to ascend from , and hover over the graves of the dead , and called them ghosts . for , arising together with the body , out of the material principles of generation rightly disposed ; it doth , as well as the body , receive its determinate subsistence , conform to the idea or type consigned to it by the law of nature . but though the same be intimately united to the body , and every where closely intertexd with all parts of it ; as the warp and woof are interwoven in cloth : yet so fine and subtle are the threads of which it doth consist , that it cannot possibly by our senses be discerned , nor indeed be known , otherwise than by its own effects and operations . moreover , when by any violence done either to itself , or its copartner , the body , the life of this soul is destroyed ; instantly the particles of which it was composed , their mutual cohesion being dissolved , disperse themselves , and fly away , not leaving any the least print or mark of their late subsistence : and the body now destitute of its conserving inmate , the soul , speedily tends to corruption ; which sooner or later , according to the less or greater compactness of the parts of the body , dissolves that likewise into its first principles , or elements . for the second ; it is not obscure , that the existence of this corporeal soul depends intirely upon the act , or life of it : and in this very respect , seems exactly like to common flame , and to that alone ; inasmuch as the substance of both ceases to be , in the very instant it ceaseth from motion , wherein the very life of both doth consist ; nor can either of the two be , by any means whatever , redintegrated , so as to be numerically the same thing it was . from whence it seems a genuine consequence , that the essence , or being of a sensitive soul , hath its beginning wholly from life , as from the accension or kindling of a certain subtile and inflammable matter . to render this yet more plain ; when in the genital matter , swarms of active , and spirituous , chiefly sulphureous particles , predisposed to animation , have met with a less number of saline particles , in a convenient focus ; being as it were kindled , sometimes by another soul ( as in all vivaparous animals ) viz. of the generant , somtimes by their own rapid motion ( as it happens in oviparous ) they conceive life , or break forth into a kind of flame , which thenceforth continues to burn so long as it is constantly fed with sulphureous fewel from within , and nitrous from without ; but instantly perisheth , when either through defect of such aliment , or violence from external agents , it comes once to be extinct . this act of the corporeal soul , or enkindling of the vital matter , is in more perfect animals , such as are furnished with hot blood , so manifestly accompanied with great heat , fuliginous exhalations , and other effects of fire , or flame ; that it is difficult for even the most sceptical person in the world to doubt , that the blood is really in a continual burning , and that life is rather flame it self , than only like it . but in other animals less perfect , and endowed with blood less hot ; though we cannot say their soul is properly flame : yet we may say , it is somwhat very like it , namely a swarm of most subtile , active and as it were fiery particles , or a spirituous halitus : which included in the body , doth move and agitate the denser mass thereof , and inspire the whole , and actuate all the members , and in some with admirable agility , even beyond that of more perfect animals ; as may be observed in some reptils and insects . and that even in these there is a fiery vigor or force constantly acting , may naturaly be inferred from hence ; that while they remain not unactive and drowsy ( as in winter usually they do ) they can no more want the aliments of life , a perpetual supply of blood and aer , than animals of a hotter constitution ; as we shall soon declare . * as for the third and last considerable , viz. the faculties and operations of a corporeal or sensitive soul ; i shall only in the general observe , that so soon as she begin's actually to exist , she first frames for herself a convenient seat wherein to reside , the body ; and then organizeth the same body , making it ( according to the platform or model preordained , and intimated by secret instinct ) in all parts sit and commodious for all uses necessary , as well to the propagation of the species ( for still nature doth , though the soul it self may not , aim at eternity ) as to the conservation of the individual . for which uses she is furnished with many and various faculties or powers ; all which she duly exerciseth , according to the various instincts , and intimate suggestions of her governess , nature , in acts of several sorts ; though all performed in almost one and the same manner , and as it were by the conduct of fate , or eternal decree of divinity congenial to her very essence . to enumerate , and particularly recount all the natural faculties with which the souls of brutes are endowed ; all the various habits resulting from practise and long exercise of those faculties ; is neither pertinent to my present institute , nor easy to be done : because of their almost infinite diversity , respective to the immense diversity of kinds of sensitive creatures . for , as some animals are of a more , others of a less perfect order ; and as they are diversly configurated , according to the several places in this great theatre of the world , in which they are consigned to live and act their several parts : so we see their souls are , by the wise bounty of the creator , instructed with diverse inclinations , faculties , and appeties , directive to the ends to which they were predestined . in a word ; since there ought to be an exact proportion and congruity betwixt every organical body , and the soul that informs and animates it ; and that for that reason , nature seems to have diversified and distinguished the various kinds of brute animals , by an equal diversity of their bodily structures and configurations , easily discernable by the sight : we may even from thence alone conclude , that their corporeal souls likewise are no less various , and endowed with faculties and proprieties answerably different . whoever then shall attempt to enrich philosophy with a perfect catalogue of these so different faculties and proprieties observable among brutal souls ; will find himself obliged , first to compose a better natural history of all sorts of animals , than any we yet have , and then to deliver also a true and full account of the various structures of their bodies , from a comparative anatome of them . a work indeed most desirable and highly delightful , but equally difficult , and laborious ; nor to be performed , i fear , by any single hand . but were it much less difficult ; sure i am , you know my incapacity too well , ever to expect it from mine : and what hath been already said by me here , in the general , touching the nature of a sensitive soul ; is enough to render my first preliminary probable . for , from thence it may , without contradiction to either reason , or observations anatomical , be conceived ( 1 ) in what manner the soul of a brute may be at first produced by accension of the most spirituous particles of the seminal humor , in the womb of the parent , as one flame is kindled by another : ( 2 ) how the same soul then form's the organical body out of the grosser parts of the same seed , after the figure or type predesign'd by the divine protoplast at the creation , whose wisdom directs and regulates it in that admirable work : ( 3 ) how it afterwards comes to conserve , expand and augment itself , as the dimensions of the body are by degrees enlarged , until it arrive at its perfection or standard of growth ; by accension of more and more of the inflammable parts of the nourishment dayly renewed , and converted into laudable blood ; as the flame of a lamp is kept alive by a perpetual accension of fresh parts of oyl ; ( 4 ) how the duration of the body depends intirely upon the subsistence , or perpetual renovation or regeneration of the soul ; and how immediately upon the souls extinction , the body submits to corruption ; no otherwise than as wine dyes , and degenerates into a vappa , so soon as the spirit that preserv'd it in vigour and generosity , is evaporated , or suppress'd . now to the end this corporeal soul , or invisible flame , may the better thus animate the body , and actuate it to sense and voluntary motion ; nature hath most wisely instituted , that her organs , and faculties should all of them be reciprocaly inservient or official each to other , in their acts and operations . for , as out of the grosser parts of the nutritive juice , prepared and elaborate in the stomach and other instruments of concoction , the decays of the solid parts of the body are daily repaired : so are the decays of the soul itself likewise repaired out of the more subtile and spirituous particles of the same juice : which continualy brought afresh to the blood , as oyl to a lamp , and kindled therein , restore both the flame and light of the soul , which would otherwise quickly be consumed , and perish . more expresly ; while the purer part of the nutritive liquor feeds and renews the lamp of life , or flame of the blood ; the most active , and most spirituous particles discharged from that flame , are carried up , and insinuated into the brain : and there recruite or regenerate the other part of the soul , viz. the sensitive . and so the conversion of chyle into blood , is an operation not only consequent to , but in some sort also dependent upon the conversion of meat and drink into chyle : and on the other side , the animal faculty gratefully requites the good offices of the vital , and both as amply recompense the services of the faculty of chylification ; in that the animal spirit confers the pulsific power , by which the heart and arteries drive the current of the blood in a perpetual round , for the reaccension of its inflammable parts ; and the bowels ordaind for concoction of the aliment , at the same time borrow , as their enlivening heat from the flame of the blood , so their virtue both motive and sensitive , from the constant afflux of animal spirits , without out which they cannot duely do their offices . thus you see the brain is beholden to the heart , both to the stomach ; and reciprocally the stomach is assisted by them : and all parts conspire , by contributary helps , to continue the soul in its subsistence , as that again acts perpetualy to the conversation of herself and them . to this , the sensitive soul , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as aristotle not improperly calls it ) is strictly obliged by a twofold inclination or desire , innate or congenial to her . one is that of self-preservation , which she endeavours constantly to effect by being sollicitous for convenient food , out of whose inflammable parts actually incensed , she may every minute redintegrate her own flame . the other , that of propagating her species , or producing , by the same way of accension , other sensitive souls of the same kind ; that so by an uninterrupted succession of her like , she may attain to that perpetuity , which is denied to her single or individual self . and to this end , she carefully selects out of her stock of aliment , matter fit for generation , stores it up in the genital parts , and is possess'd with an earnest longing to transmit the same into a place most commodious for its accension into new souls . for , as it is by natural instinct , that every living creature is from its very ●irth , directed to choose food most agreeable to its nature , and daily to feed thereupon ; aswell that the grosser web of the body may from thence , by insensible addition and assimilation of new parts , be augmented more and more , until it attain to due magnitude , or perfection of stature : as that the finer intertexture of the soul may be , by continualy repeted supplies of spirits , rendred equal and coextense to the body , and inabled to execute all her functions vigorously and effectualy : so it is also from the same natural instinct , that when by that gradual amplification of all lineaments of both body and soul , the living creature hath at length arrived at its full strength and growth , the animal spirits then begin to abound , and swarm in greater multitudes than is necessary to the uses of th' individual ; and the luxuriant or superfluous troops of them , together with a certain refined and generous humor derived from the whole body , are daily transferr'd into the genitals ( natures both laboratory , and magazin for propagation of the species ) there to be further prepared , and formed into the idea of an animal exactly like to the first generant , which afterwards is in the amorous congress of male and femal , transmitted into the womb , therein to receive its accomplishment . having thus lightly described the principal faculties , and innate dispositions of a sensitive soul , as also the fundamental laws of her oeconomy ; it remains only , that we consider the various mutations , and irregular commotions to which she is liable . that the corporeal soul , while as a flame burning within her organical body , she on every side diffuseth heat and light , is herself subject to various tremblings , noddings , eclipses , inequalities , and disorderly commotions , as all flame is observed to be ; this ( i say ) is not obscurely discernable , in the effects of those alterations , which happen chiefly in her more violent passions : though indeed not so clearly and distinctly discernable in brutes , as in men ; in respect they are subject to fewer passions than man is , and want the faculty of speech to express any one of those few they feel in themselves . wherefore that we may in some order briefly recount the most remarkable at least of these turbulent affections incident to the sensitive soul ; we shall shew what alterations she may suffer ( 1 ) from her own proper passions ; ( 2 ) from the temperament and diseases of the body ; ( 3 ) from various impressions of sensible objects ; and ( 4 ) from exorbitant motions of the animal spirits . most certain it is , that the flame of the soul doth not always burn equaly , or at one constant rate ; but now more , now less ; sometimes briskly and clearly , sometimes dully and dimly . for , it is not only enlarged , or contracted , according as the fewel brought to feed it , is more or less in quantity , and more or less sulphureous in quality : but the very accension of it in the heart , though of itself moderate and equal , is yet sometimes so varied by the fannings as it were of the passions ; that one while it blazeth up to a dangerous excess , as it usualy happens in great anger and indignation ; another while it is in danger of being blown out , by suddain and surprizing ioy ; or almost suffocated , by unexpected terror , or astonishing grief . the like may be said of the rest of the passions , or strong affects , by whose various motions the flame of life , like the flame of a candle exposed to the winds , is variously agitated and changed : as will more clearly appear from our ensuing discourse of the passions in particular . nor is it ▪ from the suddain puffs , or impulses of passions alone , that such immutations and inequalities as these proceed . sometimes it comes to pass , that the vital flame by slow degrees , and as it were hecticaly diminished , becomes little , pale , faint and half-extinct ; as may be observed in colder temperaments , in leucophlegmatic bodies , in hydropic persons , in virgins troubled with the green-sickness , and other the like chronic diseases . in which the blood being more serous or watery than it ought to be , yields but little flame , and that too inconstant , and beclouded with fume and vapour ; like that which ariseth from wet and green wood . on the contrary , it somtimes happens , that the blood being immoderately sulphureous , is almost wholly put into a conflagration ; as is frequently observed in choleric constitutions , and feverish distempers , and great debauches with wine . and as by these and such like disorders of the blood , the accension of the vital flame is with respective variety altered : so likewise do the lucid particles that arise to the brain from thence , and constitute the beamy web of animal spirits , become more , or less luminous , and regular , or irregular in their motions . for instance ; from the diminished or restrained accension of the blood , the sphere of the sensitive soul is contracted into less compass than that of the body , and reduced to such narrowness , that it cannot re-expand itself so as to illustrate all the brain , and actuate the whole contexture of the nerves , with requisite brightness and vigour . and on the other side , when the flame of life is much intended or increased ( provided it blaze not to the hight of a fever ) then the whole system of animal spirits thence deradiated , being proportionably augmented , swells to an expansion beyond the limits of the body ; insomuch that a man transported and exu●●ing for great ioy , or puffed up with pride , seems to be inflated above measure , and hardly able to contain himself within the modest bounds of his own dimensions . besides these alterations which the sensitive or lucid part of the soul suffers from the various changes of the vital ; there are others , and those very many , which it receives immediately both from affections of the brain , and nerves , and from external objects making impressions thereupon : which perturb the consistence , and usual order of its parts . for example ; at night , the brain itself , from a too plentifull infusion of the nutrive liquor , as from a gloomy cloud overcast , seems replete with vapours ; so that in sleep , the lucid part of the soul is wholly obscured , and envellopped as it were with darkness . nor is it rare to have eclipses of one , or more of the faculties animal , meerly from some morbisic matter , or gross humor fixed somwhere in the brain , and obstructing the ways of the animal spirits . somtimes these animal spirits are not themselves sufficieiently pure , clear and bright ; but infected and beclouded with incongruous steams , saline , vitriolic , nitrous , and other the like darksom exhalations ; which deform the images of things drawn in the brain , change them into false and chimerical representations , and raise exorbitant motions of the spirits . whence it somtimes comes to pass , that the whole soul undergoes various metamorphoses , and is invested in strange apparitions , and confused with delusory whimzies : as it too frequently happens to men in hypochondriacal melancholy , and madness ; and likewise in drunken fits . and as for the various gestures of the soul , by which respectively to the various impressions of sensible objects , she expresseth one while gladness and pleasure ; another , aversion and offence : it is worthy our observation , that sometimes she is allured outwardly into the organ of some one of the senses , and that she occasionaly crowds herself into the eye , ear , palate , or other instrument of sense , there more neerly to approach and entertain the pleasing object ; somtimes on the contrary , to avoid an evil she apprehends , and decline an encontre with an ingratefull object , she retreats inwardly , and leaving her watches , shrinks up herself , as if she labourd to hide her head from the danger threatned . so that we can scarcely perceive , or imagine any thing without disquiet and commotion : and at the apprehension of almost any object whatsoever , the whole soul is moved , and put into a trembling , and the substance of it variously agitated , as a field of corn is waved to and fro by contrary gusts of winds . nor do these agitations , especially if they be any whit violent , stop at the sensitive part of the soul , or spirits animal ( which i imagine to make a kind of lucid fluidum , subject to undulations or waving motions throughout , upon either external , or internal impulses ) but , as waves rowl on till they arrive at the shore , are carried on , by an undulating motion , even to the vital part glowing in the blood ; and impelling the flame thereof hither and thither , make it to burn unequaly . for , so soon as an object is either by the sense , or by the memory , represented to the imagination , under th' apparence of good , or evil ; in the very same instant it affects , and commoves the animal spirits destined to maintain the pulse of the heart : and by their influx , causing the heart to be variously contracted , or dilated ; consequently renders the motion , and accension of the blood variously irregular and unequal . and thus you see in what manner the two parts of the sensitive soul , the vital flame , and the animal spirits reciprocally affect each other with their accidental alterations . but this you may understand more clearly and fully from the following theory of the passions , where we shall enquire into the reasons and motions of them more particularly . mean while i find my self in this place arrested by a certain mighty difficulty , which though perhaps i shall not be able to overcome , ought nevertheless to be attempted ; not only for its own grand importance , but because without some plausible explication of it at least , all our precedent speculations concerning the nature and proprieties of a sensitive soul , will fall to the ground ; as an arch that wants a key , or middle-stone to support all the rest . it is concerning the knowledge of brutes , by which they are directed in actions voluntary . for , supposing all we have hitherto been discoursing of the origin , substance , subsistence , parts , faculties , inclinations , passions and alterations of a corporeal soul , to be true and evident ( which is more than i dare assume ) yet doth it not from thence appear , what such a soul can by her own proper virtue do more than a machine artificialy fram'd and put into motion . to speak more plainly ; tho it be granted ; that first th' impression made by an external object upon the instrument of sense , doth by impelling the animal spirits inwards , and by disposing them into a certain peculiar figure , or mode ( as the cartesians speak ) cause the act of sensation , or simple perception ; and that then the same spirits rebounding , as it were by a reflex undulation , outward from the brain into the nerves and muscles , produce local motions : granting this , i say , yet still we are to seek , how this soul , or any one part of it , comes to be conscious of sensation , or how it can , by a reflex act ( as the schools phrase it ) perceive that it doth perceive , and according to that perception , is impell'd to diverse acts , directed to an appetite of this , or that good , and somtimes in prosecution of the good desired , to perform actions that seem to be the results of counsel and deliberation , such as are daily observed to be done by several sorts of beasts , as well wild as domestic . in man indeed , it seems not difficult to conceive , that the rational soul , as president of all th●inferiour faculties , and constantly speculating the impressions , or images represented to her by the sensitive , as by a mirrour ; doth first form to herself conceptions and notions correspondent to their nature , and then proceed to acts of reason , judgement and will. but as for brutes that are irrational ; in what manner the perception , distinction , appetite , memory of objects , and other acts resulting from an inferior kind of reason , are in them performd : this , i confess , is more than i can yet understand . some there are , i know , who rather then acknowledge their insufficiency to solve this problem ; have attributed to brutes also souls immaterial , and subsistent after separation from their bodies . but these considered not , that the soul of a brute , however docil and apprehensive , and using organs in their structure very little ( if at all ) different from those in the head of man , can yet have no capacity of arts and sciences , nor raise it self up to any objects , or acts , but what are material : and that by consequence , the same is different from , and inferiour to the rational soul of man , and material . so that instead of solving the doubt , by teaching us , how from a certain modification of subtil matter , there may result such power , which residing in the brain of a brute , may there receive without confusion all impressions or images brought in by the senses , distinctly speculate , judge and know them , and then raise appetites , and imploy the other faculties in acts respective to that knowledge , and to those appetites : instead of this , i say , they have entangled themselves in an absurd error , ascribing to a thing meerly material , a capacity of knowing objects immaterial , and performing actions proper only to immaterial beings . we are therefore to search for this power of a sensitive soul , by which she is conscious of her own perception , only in matter in a peculiar manner so , or so disposed or modified . but in what matter ? this of the soul , or that of the body ? truely , if you shall distinctly examine either the soul or the body of a brute , as not conjoyned and united into one compositum ; you will have a hard task of it , to find in either of them , or indeed in any other material subject whatever , any thing to which you may reasonably attribute such an energetic and self-moving power . but if you consider the whole brute , as a body animated , and by divine art of an infinite wisdom designed , framed and qualified for certain ends and uses : then you may safely conclude , that a brute is , by the law of the creation , or institute of almighty god , so comparated , as that from soul and body united , such a confluence of faculties should result , as are necessary to the ends and uses for which it was made . do but convert your thoughts awhile upon mechanic engines , and seriously contemplate the motions , powers and effects of them . they are all composed indeed of gross , solid and ponderous materials : and yet such is the design , contrivance and artifice of their various parts , as that from the figures and motions of them , there result certain and constant operations , answerable to the intent of the artist , and far transcending the forces of their divided ingredients . before the invention of clocks and watches , who could expect , that of iron and brass , dull and heavy metalls , a machine should be framed ; which consisting of a few wheels endented , and a spring regularly disposed , should in its motions rival the celestial orbs , and without the help or direction of any external mover , by repeted revolutions measure the successive spaces of time even to minutes and seconds , as exactly almost as the diurnal revolutions of the terrestrial globe itself ? and yet now such machins are commonly made even by some blacksmiths , and mens admiration of their pretty artifice long since ceased . if then in vulgar mechanics , the contrivance and advantagious disposition of matter , be more noble and efficacious than matter itself : certainly in a living creature , in a body animate , the powers emergent from a conspiracy and cooperation of so many , so various organs , and all so admirably formed , ought to be acknowledged incomparably more noble , and more energetic . if the art of man , weak and ignorant man , can give to bodies , of themselves weighty , sluggish and unactive , figure , connexion and motion fit to produce effects beyond the capacity of their single natures : what ought we to think of the divine art of the creator , whose power is infinite , because his wisedom is so ? could not he , think you , who by the voice of his will call'd the world out of chaos , and made so many myriads of different beings out of one and the same universal matter ; could not he , when he created brutes , so fashion and organize the various parts and members of their bodies ▪ thereto so adjust the finer and more active contexture of their spirituous souls , and impress such motions upon them , as that from the union and cooperation of both , a syndrome or conspiracy of faculties or powers should arise , by which they might be qualified and inabled to live , move and act respectively to the proper uses and ends of their creation ? undoubtedly he could ; and t is part of my belief , that he did . nor do i more wonder at the knowledge of beasts , by which they are directed in the election of objects , and in the prosecution or avoidance of them ; than i do at their simple perception of them by their outward senses : since i conceive the one to be as much mechanical , as the other , though perhaps the reason of the one , is of more difficult explication than that of the other . when you hear the musick of a church organ , is it not as pleasant to your mind , as the musick is to your ear , to consider how so many grateful notes , and consonances that compose the charming harmony , do all arise only from wind blown into a set of pipes gradualy different in length and bore , and successively let into them by the apertures of their valves ? and do you not then observe the effect of this so artificial instrument highly to excell both the materials of it , and the hand of the organist that plaies upon it ? the like harmony you have perhaps somtimes heard from a musical water-work , as the vulgar calls it ; an organ that plaied of itself , without the hands of a musician to press the jacks , meerly by the force of a stream of water opening and shuting the valves alternately , and in an order predesign'd to produce the harmonical sounds , consonances and modes requisite to the composition , to which it had been set . now , to the first of these organs you may compare a man ; in whom the rational soul seems to perform the office of the organist , while governing and directing the animal spirits in all their motions , she disposeth and ordereth all faculties of the inferior , or sensitive soul , according to her will and pleasure : and so makes a kind of harmony of reason , sense , and motion . and to the other , or hydraulic organ you may compare a brute , whose sensitive soul being scarcely moderatrix of of herself , and her faculties , doth indeed in order to certain ends necessary to her nature , perform many trains of actions ; but such as are ( like the various parts of an harmonical composition ) regularly prescribed ( as the notes of a tune are prickd down ) by the law of her creation , and determined for the most part to the same thing ; viz. the conservation of herself . so that she seems to produce an harmony of life , sense and motion . but this analogy seems to be much greater in brutes of the lowest order , such upon whose souls or natures there are not many types or notes of actions to be done by them , imprinted ; and which according to that common saying of the schools , non tam agunt , quàm aguntur , act rather by necessary impulse , or constraint , than freely ; and of their own accord : than in more perfect animals , whose actions are ordained to more , and more considerable uses ; and upon whose souls therefore more original lessons are as it were prick'd , down ; and to which we cannot justly deny a power of both varying those innate prints , and compounding them one with another occasionaly . which power seems to be radicated in the corporeal soul , by nature so constituted , as to be knowing and active in some certain things necessary to it ; and capable also of being afterward taught , by various accidents usually affecting it , both to know other things , and to do far more , and more intricate actions . all the knowledge therefore these more perfect brutes are observed to have , must be either innate or adventitious . the former is commonly nam'd natural instinct ; which being by the omnipotent creator , in the very act of their formation , infused , and as an indelible character impress'd upon their very principles or natures ; both urges them to , and directs them in certain actions necessary to the prorogation of their life , and to the propagation of their kind . the other is by little and little acquired , by the daily perception of new objects , by imitation , by experience , by mans teaching , and by some other waies : and in some brutes , is advanced to a higher degree than in others . nevertheless this same acquired cognition and cunning also ( how great soever ) doth in some of them depend altogether upon instinct natural , and the frequent use of it . here it would not perhaps be very difficult for me to recount , what sorts of actions done by more perfect beasts , are referrible to their congenite knowledge alone ; what to their acquired alone ; and what to a combination of both . i could also shew how their acquir'd knowledge ariseth by degrees from impressions of new objects , from examples , or imitation , from experience and other adventitious helps just now mentioned . i might moreover explain in what manner the direct images of things brought into the common sensory , produce first imagination , and then memory ; how the same images reflex'd , instantly raise appetite , if they appear good and agreeable ; or aversion , if displeasing and hurtfull ; and how thereupon in the same instant local motions succeed , for prosecution , or avoidance of the things themselves . all these , i say , i might deduce from notions competent to a corporeal soul , and from the powers of a body informed and actuated thereby , both being comparated for such determinate actions by artifice divine ; without bringing into to the scene any immaterial natures ( as some have done ) to solve the difficulties concerning the science or knowledge of brutes . but because these arguments have been already handled by many excellent men , and curious wits , sir kenelm digby , monsieur des cartes , mr. hobbes , &c. and most accurately by dr. willis , in his late book de anima brutorum , and because a further inquisition into them is not absolutely necessary to my design of explicating the reasons of the passions : i therefore shall ad no more concerning them ; but contenting myself with the hints i have given , conclude this section with two pertinent and remarkable clauses . manifest it is , that all brute animals of what kind soever , are by natural instinct alone , as by an eternal rule , or law engraven upon their hearts , urged and directed to do all things that conduce either to their own defense and conservation , or to the propagation of their species . and hence it is necessarily consequent , that in order to their observance of this congenite law , or accomplishment of these two grand ends of their creation , they must all , by the dictates of the same natural instinct , both know , whatever things are convenient and beneficial , whatever are inconvenient , hurtful and destructive to them ; and according to this knowledge , prosecute these with hatred and aversation , those with love and delight . when therefore we observe brutes to distinguish betwixt wholesome and venomous plants , to seek for convenient food , cunningly to hunt after prey , retreat from injuries of weather , provide themselves denns and other secret places for rest and security , travell from one climate to another , and change their stations at certain periods and seasons of the year , to love their benefactors , and fly from their enemies , to court their mates , build nests and other nurseries for their yong , to suckle , feed , cherish , protect and teach them , to use a thousand pretty shifts and artifices to elude their persuers , in fine , to manage all their affairs regularly and prudently , as it were by counsel and deliberation , in order to the two principal ends preordained by the divine wisedom : when we ( i say ) observe all these their actions , we are not to refer them to a principle of reason , or any free and self-governing faculty ( like the rational soul of man ) wherewith they are endowed ; but only to natural instinct , by which they are incited and directed . neither are we to give credit to their opinion who hold , that all such actions arise from a kind of material necessity ( such as democritus fancied ) and without any intention , or scope aimed at by the beasts themselves ; merely from the congruity or incongruity of images impressed upon the organ of the sense affected : as if brute animals were as little conscious of their own actings , as artificial engines are of their motions , and the reasons of them . for we cannot but observe , that brutes , by virtue of natural instinct , perform not only simple acts excited by some one single impression made upon this or that sensory , by an external agent , or object ; as when the scorching heat of the sun in sommer beating upon them , makes them to retire to cool and shady places for refuge : but also many other compound actions , such to which a long series , or chain of subservient acts is required . for instance ; in the spring , when birds feeling the warmth and invigorating ( i had almost call'd it also the prolific ) influence of th' approaching sun ( that universal adjutant of generation ) find themselves pleasantly instigated to their duety of propagation ; then , without any other impulse , or direction , but that of natural instinct , they dextrously , and as it were with counsel and deliberation , address themselves chiefly to that most delightful work . first , with a kind of chearful solemnity they choose , and espouse their mates , all their femals bringing love , obsequiousness , diligence and feather-beds for their dowry . then they seek for places convenient to reside in , and there with skill and art exceeding the proudest of humane architecture , they build their nests . which are no sooner finished , than they lay their eggs therein . upon these in the next place they sit with admirable constancy and patience ▪ untill they have hatch'd them . and that great work done , they in fine with exemplary tenderness and care feed , cherish and protect their young , till they are able to live of themselves . now here , you see , is a multiplicity of actions regularly and with design done in order to one grand scope , or end : such as cannot possibly proceed from simple impressions of external objects . 't were easy for me here to invite you to reflect on the admirable republics of bees and pismires , in which all the constitutions of a most perfect government are exemplified : yet without writen laws or promulgation of right : but the former example is sufficient . i conclude then , that since in all these , the affairs or businesses of brutes are managed and administred always after one and the same manner , without any variety : that is a convincing argument , that the enterprises and works of brutes of this sort , are excited neither by external objects , whose impulse is ever various ; nor by any internal purpose of mind , which is more mutable than the wind ; but by a principle more certain and fix'd , and always determined to one thing ; which can be nothing else but natural instinct . and how far the power and influence of this instinct may extend toward the excitation of the various passions to which the sensitive soul is of her own nature subject and prone ; will appear more clearly from our subsequent enquiry into their proper causes and motions : to which i now hasten ; having thus long detained you in hearing what seems to me most probable and consentaneous to reason , concerning the substance , original , proprieties and faculties of the sensitive soul , common to man with brutes . which was my first preliminary . sect . iii. of the nature origin , and principal seat of the rational soul in man. how neer so ever brute beasts may be allowed to approach to the divine faculty of reason , or discours : yet most certain it is , no one of them hath ever been observed to attain thereunto . for , if we with all favor and partiality imaginable , examine the effects of either their innate , or acquired knowledge , or of both conjoyned , and improved into habits by long practice and experience : yet in the end we shall be forced to confess , that even the most intricate , and most cunning of all their actions , come far short of those that are ordinarily done by man , by virtue of the reasonable soul , wherewith he is by the immense bounty of his creator , endowed . this is a verity so obvious to every man of common sense and understanding ▪ so evident by its own splendor ; that it needs neither arguments drawn from reason to establish , nor examples drawn from frequent observations to illustrate it : especially now after the many excellent discourses thereupon writen by learned men of almost all ages , all nations , all professions . it being therefore unnecessary for me by prolix reasoning to evince , and superfluous by multiplicity of instances to elucidate the vast disparity betwixt the proper acts and operations of a reasonable soul , and those inferior ones of a sensitive : i shall only in brief , and analytically recount to you a few of those many excellencies and prerogatives essential to the former , and by the law of nature incommunicable to the later . the preeminence then of mans reasonable soul is undeniably manifest from both her objects , and her acts. her objects are all things whatsoever , true or false , real or imaginary , within or without the world , sensible or insensible , infinite or finite : for , to all these can she extend her unconfined power of speculation . i doubt indeed , whether it be possible for her in this life , while she is obliged to speculate all things by the help of images , or corporeal representations , to have an adequate , and full cognition of the superexcellent nature of god : but yet it cannot be denied , that she is capable of knowing for certain , that there is such an incomprehensible being as god , and that he is infinite and eternal . i doubt also , whether the mind of man be capable of any true notion of an angell , spirit , daemon or other the like beings which the schools commonly ( how intelligibly , let others dispute ) call immaterial substances ; because i myself can represent to my thoughts nothing but under some certain figure and quantity , which are inseparable from body : and yet who dares deny th' existence of such beings in the world ? to speculate such objects then , as fall not under the perception of any of the senses , is the prerogative of a rational soul : nor can a sensitive possibly have any knowledge of things above the sphere of her own nature ; all her faculties being corporeal , and by consequence limited to corporeal objects , and those too no other than what are perceptible by the senses . her acts also equaly declare her transcendent powers . that act of simple apprehension , which in brutes is imagination , is in man intellection : and the intellect presides over imagination , discerning the errors of it occasion'd by the senses , and correcting them ; yea subliming the notions thereof into true and usefull ones . and as for forming of propositions , by compounding or dividing the simple notions of sensible things ; that power is indeed common to the sensitive soul also , and usualy exercised by her , when an image of some object newly admitted , meets with one or more images either f●●merly stored up in the memory , or at that instant suggested by natural instinct ; and is found associable , or repugnant to them : but yet the same falls incomparably short of that which belongs to the human intellect . which doth not only review all propositions conceiv'd from the phantasy ; but judges also whether they be true or false , congruous or incongruous ; and then orders and disposes them accordingly into trains of notions convenient either to speculation , or to practice . moreover , it restrains the phantasy , of itself instable and prone to ramble through various phantasms ; calls it away from extravagant and useless conceptions , directs it to others more conform to reason , and at pleasure confines it within certain bounds , that it may not divert , or range too wide from the purpose . all which acts give clear evidence , that there is in man a soul superiour to the sensitive , and which moderates and governs all the faculties and operations of it : yea , more yet , which from representations sensible deduces many other notions of things altogether unknown to sense , and which the phantasy is of itself wholly incapable to imagine . for , it understands axioms , or first principles , and that by its own power alone , without recourse to corporeal species : and ( what is yet more noble and sublime ) by a reflex act views itself , thinks that it thinks , from thence certainly knowing its ' own existence , which cannot be either perceived by sense , or imagined by phantasy . whereas neither the sense , nor imagination ( for of these there are no images extant ) can perceive that they perceive , or imagine . to these royal prerogatives of mans rational soul , let us subjoyn the native right she hath to the whole encyclopaedia or zodiac of arts and sciences ; theology , logic , physic , metaphysics , mathematics , algebra , geometry , astronomy , mechanics : which being all ( theology alone excepted ) the products or creatures of mans mind , sufficiently attest their author to be an agent spiritual , admirably intelligent , immaterial , and therefore immortal . now if this be true ( as most certainly it is ) then one of these two assumptions must be so too . either the rational soul of man doth alone perform all offices not only of vnderstanding and discourse , but of sense also , and life ; and so administer the whole oeconony of human nature . or else there are in every individual man two distinct souls conjoined , and acting together : one , only rational ; t'other merely sensitive ; that as queen regent , this as inferior and subordinate . the first seems to me not a little improbable . for , ( 1 ) all acts of the senses , and animal motions , as likewise the passions , are corporeal , divided and extended , to various parts : and therefore the rational soul , which we conceive to be incorporeal , indivisible and finite , seems incapable to cause or impress those motions immediately , or by herself . to me ( i confess ) it seems unintelligible , how an incorporeal agent , not infinite , can physically act in , and upon a gross body immediately , or without the intervention of a third thing ; which though corporeal too , is yet notwithstanding of parts so spirituous , and of a constitution so subtil , as to approach somwhat neerer to the nature of a pure spirit , than solid and ponderous body doth . flame , and light i acknowledge to be bodies ; but yet methinks there is less of disproportion , or disparity betwixt them and a substance purely spiritual , than is betwixt a pure spirit and a gross , heavy body , such as ours is . and therefore in my weak judgment , it is more conceivable that the reasonable soul should have some spirituous , and subtile thing as flame , or light is , viz. the sensitive soul , conjoyned with her , to be a convenient medium betwixt herself and the gross body , to receive her immediate influence , and actuate the body according to her will and pleasure : than it is , that she should immediately move and actuate the body , betwixt whose nature and her own there is great disparity . ( 2 ) as for that nice and amusing doctrine of the school-men ▪ that in man the sensitive soul is eminently contained in , and ( to use their very term ) as it were absorpt by the rational ; so that what is a soul in brutes , becomes a mere power or quality in man : this i think ( as many other of their superfine distinctions doe ) sounds like nothing put into hard words . for , how can it be imagined possible , the eternal law of nature should be so far violated , as that a substance should be changed into an accident ? that the sensitive soul which is corporeal and extense , and which they themselves allow to be actually existent in the body , before the infusion of the rational ; should upon accession of the rational , lose its former essence , and degenerate into a naked quality ? this is ( i profess ) a mystery much above my comprehension . ( 3 ) if it be affirmed , that the rational soul doth , at her entrance into the body , introduce life also , and sense ; and so there is no need of any other principle of life and sense , where she is : then must it be granted , that man doth not generate a man animated , or endowed with life and sense ; but only an inform body , or rude mass of flesh . and how absurd that would be , i leave to your judgement . these reasons discovering the improbability of the first assumption ; what can remain to hinder us from embracing the other , viz. that there are in every individual man , two distinct souls , coexistent , and conjoin'd ; one by which he is made a reasonable creature , another by which he becomes also a living , and sensitive one ? especially since the truth of this seems sufficiently evident even from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or civil war too frequently hapning betwixt these twins , which every man sometimes feels in his own breast , and whereof the holy apostle himself so sadly complain'd . for , this intestine war , seeing it cannot arise from one and the same thing possessed with affections mutually repugnant , and inclining us two contrary waies at once ; argues a duumvirate of rulers reciprocaly clashing , and contending for superiority ; and such too that are as remote in their natures , as different in the modes of their subsistence . upon this war depend all the passions by which the restless mind of man is so variously , and many times also violently agitated , to his almost perpetual disquiet and vexation : and upon the success of it depends all the happiness , or misery of not only his present life , but that which is to come . to enquire therefore awhile into the grounds and reasons of this fatal discord ; will be neither loss of time , nor digression from our purpose . that man then is endowed , as with two distinct faculties of knowing , viz. vnderstanding , and imagination ; that proper to his rational , this to his sensitive soul : so likewise with a twofold appetite , viz. will , which proceeding from his intellect , is immediate attendant of the rational soul ; and appetite sensitive , which cohering to the imagination , is as it were the factor or procurer to the corporeal soul : is the common doctrine of plato and aristotle , to this day read and asserted in the schools ; nor ought it to be rejected . but then it must not be so understood , as if the rational soul herself , which seems to be immaterial , and consequently exempt from passion , were upon every appulse of good or evil objects , subject to all the turbulent affections of desire or aversation : for , this would be manifestly repugnant to the excellency of her spiritual nature , and inconsistent with her dignity and superintendency over the inferiour powers . affections she hath indeed of her own , such as are competent and proper to her semidivine essence . it is not to be doubted , but that in the contemplation of true and good , and chiefly of what is supremely both true and good , the deity ; as likewise in works of beneficence , in the cognition of things by their causes , in the exercises of her habits aswell the contemplative , as the practical ; and in all other her proper acts , the reasonable soul feels in herself a very great complacency : as on the contrary , the want of these doth affect her with as great displeasure . nor is it to be doubted , but our love of god , and all other real goods ; and our detestation of vices and vicious men ; as also all other pure and simple affects arising and continuing without perturbation or disquiet : belong only to the reasonable soul , which ( to use the elegant simile of plato ) seated in a higher sphere of impassibility , like the top of mount olympus , enjoys perpetual serenity : looking down the while upon all tumults , commotions and disorders hapning in the inferior part of man ; as that doth upon the clouds , winds , thunders and other tempests raised in the air below it . but as for all vehement affections , or perturbations of the mind , by which it is usualy commoved , and inclined to this or that side , for prosecution of good , or avoidance of evil : these certainly ought all to be ascribed to the corporeal soul ; and seem to have their original in the seat of th' imagination , probably the middle of the brain . nevertheless , for that the intellect , as it reviews all phantasms formed by imagination , and at pleasure regulates and disposes them ; so it not only perceives all concupiscences , and tempests of passions used to be stirr'd up in the imagination , but also ( while it freely exerciseth its native power and jurisdiction ) moderates , governs , and gives law to them : for these reasons , when the rational soul approves some , and rejects others ; raiseth some , and composes others of those passions , and directs them to right ends ; she may also be said , by such her dictates , to exercise acts of will , as arbiter , and to will or nill those things , which the sensitive appetite desires or abhors by her permission or command . but yet this empire of the rational soul is not so absolute over the sensitive , when this proceeds to appetite , as when it is imployed about the discernment and knowledge of sensible objects . for , the sensitive being much neerer allied to the body , and immediate guardian thereof ; is by that affinity and relation obliged to addict itself altogether to the gratification , welfare and conservation of the same . and that this province may be more gratefull and agreeable to so delicate a governess , she is continualy courted and presented by all the senses with variety of blandishments and tempting delights . so that charmed by those powerful enchantments of sensible objects , and intirely taken up with care of the body , and in that respect prone to pursue pleasures : she too often proves deaf to the voice of reason advising the contrary , and refuses to be diverted from her sensual to nobler affections . yea somtimes grown weary of subjection , she takes occasion to cast off her yoke of allegiance , and like a proud and insolent rebell , aspires to unbounded license and dominion . and then , then it is we feel those twins strugling within us , that intestine war betwixt the flesh and the spirit , that dire conflict of the sensitive appetite with reason ; which distracts one man into two duellists , and which ceaseth not , till one of the combatants hath overcome and brought the other to submission . and ( what is yet more deplorable ) the event of this combat is often so unhappy , that the nobler part is subdued and led captive by the ignoble : the forces of sensual allurements then proving too strong for all the guards of reason , though assisted by the auxiliary troops of moral precepts , and the sacred institutes of religion . when the divine politie of the rational soul being subverted , the whole unhappy man is furiously carried away to serve the brutish lusts of the insolent usurper , and augment the triumphs of libidinous carnality : which degrades him from the dignity of his nature , and cassating all his royal prerogatives , debases him to a parity with beasts , if not below them ; for , reason once debauch'd so as to become brutal , leads to all sorts of excess ; whereof beasts are seldom guilty . yet this is not alwaies the issue of the war. sometimes it happens that the victory falls to the right side ; and the princess overpowring the rebell , reduces her to due submission and conformity . nay somtimes reason , after she hath been long held captive , breaks off her fetters ; and remembring her native soveraignty , grows conscious and ashamed of her former lapses : and thereupon with fresh courage and vigour renewing the conflict , vanquishes and deposes the sensitive soul with all its legions of lusts , and gloriously re-establishes herself in the throne . yea more , at once to secure her empire for the future , and expiate the faults of her male-administration in times past ; she by bitter remorse , severe contrition , and sharp penance , punishes herself , and humbles her traitorous enemy the flesh. and as the war itself , so this act of conscience , this self-chastising affection , being proper to man alone ; doth clearly shew , that in man there are either two souls , one subordinate to the other ; or two parts of the same soul , one opposing the other , and contending about the government of him and his affections . but which of these two consequents is most likely to be true , you may have already collected from my discourse precedent . it remains then , that i give you some account of the opinions , or rather conjectures of men ( for they can be no other ) which seem to me most probable , concerning the origin of the reasonable soul ; concerning the principle seat of it in the body ; concerning its connexion with the sensitive soul ; and concerning the manner of its vnderstanding . for the first ; if the rational soul be a pure spirit . i. e. a simple or incompound substance ; as i have already shewn her proper acts , affections and objects seem to infer , and as most wise men , ancient and modern , ethnics and christians , philosophers and theologues have unanimously held her to be : and if it seem inconsistent with the purity and simplicity of such a being , to be generated by the parents , who are compound beings , as reason teacheth us it is : granting this , i say , nothing can remain to divorce me from that common opinion which holds , that she is created immediately by god , and infused into the body of a human embryon , so soon as that is organized , formed and prepared to receive her . for , as to that grand objection , that the son oftentimes most exactly resembles the father , not only in temperament , shape , stature , features and all other things discernable in the body ; but in disposition also , wit , affections , and the rest of the animal faculties : and therefore it must needs be , that the father begets the rational soul , as well as the body : it is easy to detect the weakness thereof , in the violence of the illation . since all those endowments and faculties wherein the chief similitude doth consist , proceed immediately from the corporeal soul , which i grant to be indeed ex traduce , or propagated by the father ; but not the rational , which is of divine original . for the second , viz. the rational souls chief seat or mansion in the body , tho i cannot conceive how , or in what manner an immaterial can reside in a material , because i can have no representation or idea in my mind of any such thing : yet nevertheless when i consider that all impressions of sensible objects , whereof we are any ways conscious , are carried immediately to the imagination ; and that there likewise all appetites , or spontaneous conceptions and intentions of actions are excited : i am very apt to judge the imagination to be the es●urial , or imperial palace of the rational soul , where she may most conveniently both receive all intelligences , from her emissaries the senses , and give forth orders for government of the whole state of man. that the whole corporeal soul should be possessed by the rational , seems neither competent to her spiritual nature , which is above extensibility ; nor necessary to her empire over all : no more than it is necessary for a king to be present in all parts of his dominions at the same time . and if she be as it were inthroned in any one part thereof ; what part so convenient , so advantagious as the phantasy , where she may immediately be informed of all occurrents in the whole body , and whence she may issue forth mandates for all she would have done by the whole or any member thereof ? i think therefore , i may affirm it to be probable , that this queen of the isle of man hath her court , and tribunal in the noblest part of the sensitive soul , the imagination , made up of a select assembly of the most subtil spirits animal , and placed in the middle of the brain . as for the conarion , or glandula pinealis seated neer the center of the brain , wherein monsieur des cartes took such pains to lodge this celestial ghest ; all our most curious anatomists will demonstrate that glandule to be ordained for another , and that a far less noble use , which here i need not mention . for the third , to wit , what obligeth the rational soul to continue resident in the imagination during this life ; truely i cannot think either that she is capable of , or that she needs any other ligament or tye , than the infringible law of nature , or will of her divine creator : who makes and destines her to reside in the body of man , to be his forma informans ; and gives her therefore a strong inclination to inhabit that her inne or lodging : ordaining her to have a certain dependence , as to her operation , upon the phantasy , so that without the help and subserviency thereof , she can know or understand little , or nothing at all . for , it is from the imagination alone that she takes all the representations of things , and the fundamental ideas , upon which she afterward builds up all her science , all her wisdom . and therefore though the mind of one man understands more , and reasoneth better than another ; it doth not thence follow , that their rational souls are unequal in their natural capacity of understanding and discourse : because the disparity proceeds immediately from difference of imagination , mediately and principally from the various dispositions of the brain . for , when the animal spirits , being either of themselves less pure , subtil and active than is requisite , or hinderd in their expansion and motions , are not able duely to irradiate and actuate the brain affected with some distemper , or originally formed amiss : in such case , the phatasms created in the imagination , must be either deficient , or distorted ; and the intellect being obliged to judge of them accordingly , must be misinformed . hence it often happens , that by reason of some wound , contusion , or other great hurt done to the brain , men who formerly were of acute wit , and excellent understanding , are more or less deprived of those noble faculties , and degenerate into mere fools or idiots . for , the acquiring , and loseing the habit of intellection and ratiocination , depends totally upon the brain and imagination , the corporeal subject thereof : but the intellect it self , since it hath no parts , cannot be perfected by parts ; being from the beginning , and of its own nature , a full and perfect power of understanding . nor doth it , by accession of any whatever habit , understand more : but is it self rather a habit alwayes comparated to understand . and in truth the principal function of the human intellect seems to be this , that it be of its own nature merely intelligent , that is knowing things , not by ratiocination , but by simple intuition . but during its confinement within the body , it is surrounded with that darkness , that it doth not simply , nakedly , and as it were by way of intuition perceive all things which it understands ; but attains to most of its knowledge by reasoning , that is , successively , and by proceeding as it were by degrees . if therefore the organ or instrument , by the help of which the intellect is obliged to ratiocinate , or gradualy to attain to the knowledge of things , be unfit , or out of tune : no wonder if it be not able to make good musick thereupon . concerning the fourth and last thing therefore , namely the manner how this unintelligible intellect of man comes to know , speculate and judge of all phantasms or images pourtraid in the imagination : i can much more easily guess what it is not , than what it is . i am not inclined to espouse their conceit , who tell us , that the rational soul sitting in the brain , somewhere near the original of the nerves belonging to the senses ( as a spider sits watching in the centre of her net ) and feeling all strokes made upon them by the species of sensible objects , distinguishes and judges of their several qualities and proprieties , by the different modes of their impressions . because , the supposition of a percussion , or stroke to be made by a corporeal image , is manifestly repugnant to a faculty incorporeal . but whether or no i ought to acquiesce in that other opinion delivered , and maintained by a whole army of contemplative men , viz. that the intellect knowes and discerns things by simple intuition , i.e. by beholding their images represented in the phantasy , as we see our faces represented in a mirror or looking-glass : truely i am yet to learn from wiser heads than mine . for , though i admire the subtilty of the conceipt , and love not to be immodestly sceptical , especially in matters that transcend my narrow comprehension : yet , to speak ingenuously , i as little understand how intuition can be ascribed to an immaterial , that hath no eyes ; as i do how feeling of strokes can be ascribed to a thing that cannot be touched . nevertheless i will not point blanck deny this latter opinion to be true , only because i cannot perceive the competency of such an act as intuition to the incorporeal soul of man : for , that were to make my scanty reason the measure of truth ; and to confide more in my own dulness , than in the admired perspicacity of so many eminent wits preceding me . wherefore having confess'd my ignorance , i refer the matter to your arbitration : allowing you as much time as you shall think fit , seriously to consider the same ; and in the interim contentedly suspending my curiosity , which hath too often perplexed me . for , hitherto could i never drive it into my head , how those terms of infusion , connexion and intuition can be intelligibly applyed to a spiritual , or incompound essence , such as we conceive the reasonable soul to be : and if i have used them in this discourse , it was rather because i could think of none less improper , than because i approved them as adequate to the notions to which they are vulgarly accommodated . besides , i hold it extremly difficult , not to speak some non-sense , when we adventure to treat of the nature of spirits , whereof we understand so little : and you ( i presume ) will rather pitty , than condemn a man for stumbling in the dark . but i have too long detain'd you upon preliminaries : and therefore deprecating your impatience , invite you now from the porch into the little theatre of the passions , which i design'd to erect more for your divertisement , than study . sect . iv. of the passions of the mind in general . taking it for granted then , from the reasons precedent , that in man , besides the rational soul , by which he becomes a reasonable creature , there is also a sensitive one , by which he is made a living and sensitive creature ; and that this later being merely corporeal , and coextens to the body it animates , is by the law of its nature subject to various mutations : i come in the next place to consider what are the most remarkable of those mutations , and the causes whence they usually arise ; as likewise the principal effects of them upon the body and mind of man. obvious it is to every mans notice , that there is a twofold state or condition of his sensitive soul ; one of quiet and tranquillity ; another of disquiet and perturbation : every man living finding his spirit sometimes calm and serene , sometimes agitated and ruffled more or less by the winds and tempests of passions raised within him . in the state of tranquillity , it seems probable that the whole corporeal soul being coextens to the whole body inshrining it ( as the body is to the skin envesting it ) doth at the same time both inliven all parts with the vital flame of the blood , to that end carried in a perpetual round ( as the vulgar conceive the sun to be uncessantly moved round about the earth , to illuminate and warm all parts of it ) and irradiate and invigorate them with a continual supply of animal spirits , for the offices of sense and motion . and this halcyon state certainly is the only fair weather we enjoy within the region of our breast , and the best part of human life . on the contrary , in the state of perturbation , all that excellent oeconomy is more or less discomposed . then it seems that the same frail soul is so strongly shock'd and commoved , that not only her vital part , the blood , the calm and equal circulation being interrupted , is forced to undergo irregular floods and ebbs , and other violent fluctuations ; but the animal spirits also , impelled to and fro in a tumultuous manner , cause great disorders in the functions of sense and motion ; yea more , by their exorbitant manner of influx into the nerves of the heart and lungs , they move them irregularly , and so contribute to render the course of the blood yet more unequal . nor doth the tempest stop here ; it extends sometimes also to other humors of the body , to the solid parts and members of it , and even to the discomposure of the reasonable soul her self . the tranquillity of the sensitive soul is easily observable in sleep , when the spirits are bound up , or at least at rest ; and very often also when we are awake , namely whensoever the objects affecting the sense , or created in the imagination , appear to import neither good , nor evil to us , and we are no further concerned than barely to apprehend and know them . for , then they smoothly and calmly slide into the common sensory and imagination , and soon pass away without any the least disquiet or commotion of the appetite . the perturbation of it is as easily manifest in all the passions , which are the consequents of desire , or of aversation . for , when any object is represented under the apparence of good or evil to us in particular ; instantly the sensitive soul is moved to imbrace , or avoid it ; and imployes not only the animal spirits , her emissaries , but the blood also , and other humors universally diffused through the body , and even the solid parts too , as instruments to effect her design . more plainly ; when the imagination conceives any thing to be embraced as good , or avoided as evil ; presently by the spirits residing in the brain , and ranged as it were into order , the appetite is formed : and then the impression being transmitted to the heart , according as that is contracted or dilated , the blood is impelled and forced to various fluctuations , and irregular motions : and thence the appetite being by instinct transmitted to the nerves ordained for that use , they cause motions of the solid parts respective thereunto . and this we may conjecture to be the order of motions excited successively in the phantasy , spirits , blood and solid parts , in every passion of the mind of what sort soever . nor can it indeed sink into my dull head , by what other means of mutual intercourse , besides such a quick transmission of spirits first from the brain into the praecordia , and thence back again to the brain , by nerves to that end extended betwixt those sources of life and sense , the great and speedy commerce in all passions observed to be maintained between them , can be effected . but however this admirable commerce may be otherwise explained , it is lawful for us us to conceive , that the sensitive soul , when put into this state of perturbation , doth strangely vary her postures , according to the diversity of motions caused in her : and though that diversity be very great , yet that in all perturbations whatever , she is more or less amplified , so as to swell beyond her ordinary bounds ; or more or less contracted within her self , so as to be less extense or diffused , than usually she is at other times , in her state of tranquillity : as will be exemplified in all the passions we design particularly to describe . mean while it is observable , that sometimes she being affected with joy , or pride , and as it were exulting above measure , doth advance and expand her self , as if she strove to be greater , and to stretch her grandure beyond the narrow limits of the body . whereupon the animal spirits being respectively commoved in the brain , enlarge the sphere of their irradiation , and by a more abundant influx vigorously agitate the praecordia or vital parts , so forcing the blood to flow more copiously into all parts , and to diffuse it self more freely and speedily through the whole body . on the contrary , sometimes being surprised with grief , or fear , she contracts her self into a narrower compass ; so that shrunk up to a scantling less than her usual circuit of emanation , she becomes of too small a size vigorously to actuate the body as she ought . whence the animal faculties drooping as it were , perform their actions either slowly and weakly , or perversly : and the praecordia wanting their due influx of spirits , almost flagg , suffering the blood to remain in their conduits longer than it ought , even to danger of stagnation , and consequently of sudden death . these two contrary motions therefore of contraction and expansion , i suppose to be the two general ones , to which all the various postures of the sensitive soul , when she is perturbed , may be commodiously referr'd : it seeming to me , considering her to be exactly like a flame , and obnoxious to the like accidental mutations , that she is not naturally capable of other besides these ; and that how great soever the variety of such her mutations may be in the vast diversity of passions , yet they are all but several degrees , and divers modes of either her extension , or contraction . this being then supposed , i proceed to the first and general causes of all passions . where i observe first , ( what was only hinted a little afore ) that it is not the simple representation of good or evil in any object , how great soever it be , that is sufficient to raise commotion in the sensitive soul ; for , we usualy without perturbation behold the prosperous or adverse events befalling other men no waies related to us : and therefore it is further required to the moving our affections , that the good or evil apprehended , be by us conceived to concern ourselves in particular , or our friends at least , and near relations , who in this case are part of our selves . secondly , that even that good or evil wherein a man conceives himself to be concern'd , is not always apprehended by him under one and the same ration or aspect ; but variously , aswell in respect of the object itself , as of the subject to which it doth more peculiarly and immediately appertain . of the divers rations under which one and the same object , good or evil , may be apprehended by one and the same man , respectively to the various circumstances thereof ; we shall more opportunely speak anon . and as for those that respect the subject , or man apprehending ; it is worthy our serious remark ; that all good or evil represented to man , doth concern the sensitive soul , either as she is distinct from the body , and abstract from all relation ; or as she is intimately conjoyn'd to the body , and interressed therein ; or finally as she is subordinate to the rational soul. for , though every affect or passion be founded in the corporeal soul , yet it always respects the good or evil of one or other of these three subjects , and is first raised on the behalf of this , that , or the other . wherefore according to this triple relation of the sensitive soul , all passions incident thereto ; may be said to be either physical , or metaphysical , or 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 eff●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 the propriety of those expressions in scripture , which seem to ascribe all our sacred passions principaly to the heart . 3. and as for passions moral ; i refer to their classis all those that are excited in the sensitive soul , upon her perception of such good or evil objects as concern her confederate the body , with which she is most intimately conjoynd , and upon whose welfare her safety doth necessarily depend . concerning these in general , it is remarkable ; that though the sensitive soul hath secret loves and aversations of her own , commonly called ( as we have already said ) sympathies and antipathies ; and though she owes obedience to the commands and dictates of her superior , the rational soul : yet being by so strict a ligue , and as it were a conjugal union affianced to the body , she is strongly inclined to prefer the conservation of that her favorite , to all other relations ; and accordingly to gratify and indulge it even in those things that are prohibited by religion and reason . so that no wonder if she be affected with pleasure , or pain , and with all other passions referible to them , for the prosperous or adverse state of the body . to make this our entrance into the spring-head of all passions somwhat more lightsome ; we are here to recount two fundamental verities , both of so conspicuous evidence , i do not remember , i ever heard them contradicted . one is , that all affects which external objects can possibly excite in us , in respect of the various modes or manners by which they fall under our notice , may be commodiously referred to two general heads , namely pleasure , and pain . for , whatever is perceived by the senses , appears to the soul to be good , or evil , gratefull , or offensive ; and whatever is offered to her under the apparence of good , or gratefull , instantly causeth some certain pleasure in her : as on the contrary , whatever is represented to her as evil , or offensive , as quickly raiseth in her some kind of pain , or trouble : provided ( as was before advertised ) she apprehend herself to be any way concerned in such good , or evil . so that we cannot but applaud the judgment of epicurus and aristotle in constituting but two kinds of passions , namely pleasure and pain : the one calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , voluptatem & dolorem ; the other naming them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , voluptatem & molestiam . the other is , that all the various motions of the spirits and blood , or of the sensitive soul , excited in the various passions , may likewise be conveniently reduced to two general heads , namely contractions , and effusions ; which our master galen , i remember , terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : as they are referred to pain and pleasure . because in pleasure , the soul dilateth herself as much as she can , that is , she diffuseth the spirits , as her emissaries , to meet and receive the good represented to her : and in pain , she on the contrary compresseth or withdraws herself inward , that is , she recalls the spirits toward herself , in avoidance of the evil apprehended . manifest it is therefore , that all corporeal passions have their roots grounded in sense , whereof pleasure and pain ●re two opposite affects : one , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , agreeable and familiar to nature ; ●he other , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , alien and offensive . and that i may , as far as i am able , ●xplain wherein pleasure and displeasure of ●●nce doth consist ; i take liberty to sup●ose , that at first when an object affects ●he sensory with soft and smooth tou●hes , or motions , such as are consenta●eous to the delicate contexture of the ●erves of which the sensory is chiefly composed , or to the internal motions of the spirits therein residing ; it instantly causeth that gratefull sense called delight : as on the contrary , if the object invade the sensory with asperity , or violence , such as hurts the tender nerves thereof , or hinders the natural motions of the spirits therein ; then it produceth that ingrateful sense call'd displeasure or pain . the impression being thus made by the object upon the organ of sense , and thence by a certain motion of the spirits resembling the waving of water , carried on to the brain ; if it be pleasant , it immediately puts the spirits therein reserved , into brisker , but regular motions conformable to their nature and uses : if displeasing , it puts them into confusion . if the impression be light , the motion thereby caused in the brain , soon decayeth , and vanisheth of itself : if strong , the motion is continued from the brain down to the breast , and the heart and blood participate thereof respectively ; and so passion instantly succeeds . but whether this be the true manner of objects producing pleasure , or displeasure of sense , or not , most evident it is , that we have , as no conceptions of things without us in the brain , so no passions for them in the heart , but what have their firs● original from sense . now having in this manner shewn as plainly as i could ( 1 ) what mutations are incident to the sensitive soul ( 2 ) what are the most considerable causes of those mutations ( 3 ) what the most remarkable effects and consequents of them upon the body and mind of man ( 4 ) the differences of passions respective to the various relations of the sensitive soul to the rational , and to the body ( 5 ) that all passions are referible to pleasure , or pain ( 6 ) that all motions of the spirits and blood caused in passions , belong to contraction , or effusion : and ( 7 ) wherein consist pleasure and displeasure of sense : our next work must be to speak sect . v. of the passions in particular . not of all that are incident to the mind of man , which were extremely difficult , if not altogether impossible for me to do . for , seeing the objects that raise pleasure and displeasure are innumerable ; and the various waies or manners by which they affect the sense , and excite motions in the brain , spirits and heart , are equaly innumerable : even those philosophers themselves who have with all possible attention of mind laboured to search out the several sorts of passions , have not been able to take notice but of very few , nor to give names to all those neither . besides , considering of how subtil particles , how fluid and easily moveable a substance , and how delicate a contexture the sensitive soul seems to be composed ; we may soon conceive her to be subject to greater variety of impressions , commotions , fluctuations , inclinations , alterations and perturbations , than can possibly be observed and distinguished even by the most curious . it may well suffice then to enumerate and describe the most remarkable of her passions , such as like so many lesser streams , flow from the two general fountains before mentioned , pleasure and displeasure of sense , or motions begun in the sensory , traduced to the brain , and continued to the heart ; and that are of a more simple nature . which that we may perform with more of order , and less of obscurity ; we are to consider , that the passions receiving their most notable diversity from certain circumstances of time , may therefore be most intelligibly distinguished by having respect to the same circumstances . for , since there are of conceptions three sorts , whereof one is of that which is present , which is sense ; another , of that which is past , which is remembrance ; and the third , of that which is to come , which is called expectation : it is manifestly necessary , that the condition of the pleasure , or displeasure consequent to conceptions , be diversified , according as the good or evil thereby proposed to the soul , is present , or absent . for , we are pleased , or displeased even at things past ; because the memory reviving and reviewing their images , sets them before the soul as present , and she is affected with them no less than if the things themselves were present . so also of things future ; forasmuch as the soul by a certain providence preoccupying the images of things that she conceives to come , looks upon them as realy present , and is accordingly pleased or displeased by anticipation : every conception being pleasure , or displeasure present . this being presupposed we proceed to the genealogy of the passions . when the image of any new and strange object is presented to the soul , and gives her hope of knowing somwhat that she knew not before ; instantly she admireth it , as different from all things she hath already known ; and in the same instant entertains an appetite to know it better , which is called curiosity or desire of knowledge . and because this admiration may , and most commonly is excited in the soul before she understands , or considers whether the object be in itself convenient to her or not : therefore it seems to be the first of all passions , next after pleasure and pain ; and to have no contrary : because when an object perceived by the sense , hath nothing in it of new and strange ; we are not at all moved thereby , but consider it indifferently , and without any commotion of the soul. common it is doubtless to man with beasts ; but with this difference , that in man it is always conjoyned with curiosity ; in beasts , not . for when a beast seeth any thing new and strange , he considereth it so far only as to discern whether it be likely to serve his turn , or to hurt him ; and acordingly approacheth neerer to it , or fleeth from it : whereas man , who in most events remembreth in what manner they were caused and begun , looks for the cause and beginning of every thing that ariseth new to him whence it is manifest , that all natural philosophy , and astronomy owe themselves to this passion : and that ignorance is not more justly reputed the mother of admiration , than admiration may be accounted the mother of knowledge ; the degrees whereof among men , proceed from the degrees of curiosity . now this passion is reducible to delight , because curiosity is delight : and so by consequence is novelty too , but especialy that novelty from which a man conceiveth an opinion of bettering his own estate , whether that opinion be true or false : for in such case , he stands affected with the hope that all gamesters have while the cards are shuffling ; as mr hobbs hath judiciously observed . nevertheless it seems rather a calm than a tempest of the mind . for , in admiration , whereby the soul is fixt upon the contemplation of an object that appears to her new and strange , and therefore well worthy her highest consideration ; the animal spirits are indeed suddainly determined , and with great force , partly to that part of the brain , where the image is newly formed , and partly to the muscles that serve to hold the organs of the external senses in the same posture in which they then are , that so the object may be more clearly and distinctly perceived : yet in the heart and blood there happens little or no commotion or alteration at all . whereof the reason seems to be this ; that since the soul at that time , hath for her object , not good or evil , but only the knowledge of the thing which she admires ; she converts all her power upon the brain alone , wherein all sense is performed , by the help whereof that knowledge is to be acquired . and hence it comes , that excess of admiration sometimes induceth a stupor , or astonishment ; and where it lasteth long , that wonderful disease of the brain , which physicians name catalepsis , whereby a man is held stiff , motionless , and senseless , as if he were turned into a statue . for it causeth that all the animal spirits in the brain are so vehemently imployed in contemplating and conserving the image of the object , that their usual influx into other parts of the body is wholy intercepted , nor can they by any means be diverted : whereby all members of the body are held in a rigid posture , inflexible as those of a dead carcas , or of man killed by lightning . of this admirable effect of excessive admiration , nich. tulpius , an eminent physician of amsterdam , hath recorded ( observ . medic . lib. 1. cap. 22. ) a memorable example in a young man of our nation , who violently resenting a suddain and unexpected repulse in his love , and astonished thereat , became as it were congeal'd in the same posture , and continued rigid in his whole body till next day . immoderate admiration therefore cannot but be , by fixation of the spirits , hurtfull to health . after admiration followeth esteem , or contempt , according as the thing appears great and worthy estimation , or of small value and contemptible . for which reason we may esteem or contemn ourselves also : from whence arise first the passions , and consequently the habits of magnanimity , or pride ; and of humility or abjection . but if the good that we have a great esteem of in another man , be extraordinary : then our esteem is increased to veneration ; which is the conception we have concerning another , that he hath the power to do unto us both good and hurt , but not the will to do us hurt ; accompanied with an inclination of the soul to subject ourselves to him , and by fear and reverence to purchase his favour . all which is evident in our worship or veneration of god ▪ that these two contrary passions ▪ existimation and contempt , are both consequents of admiration ; is inferrible from hence , that when we do not admire the the greatness or smalness of an object , we make neither more nor less of it than reason tells us we ought to doe ; so that in such case we value or despise it without being concerned therein , that is , without passion . and although it often happens , that estimation is excited by love , and contempt proceeds from hatred ; yet that is not universal , nor doth it arise from any other cause but this , that we are more or less prone to consider the greatness or meanness of an object , because we more or less love it . but though estimation and contempt may be referred to any objects whatsoever , yet are they then chiefly observed , when they are referred to ourselves , that is , when we put great or small value upon our own merit . and then the motions of the spirits upon which they depend , are so discernible , that they change the very countenance , gestures , walking , and in word all the actions of those who think more haughtily or meanly of themselves than is usual . but for what may we have a high esteem of ourselves ? truely i can observe but one thing that may give us just cause of self-estimation ; and that is the lawful use of our free will , and the soveraignity we exercise over our passions . for ( as the incomparable monsieur des cartes most wisely noteth ) take away the actions dependent upon our free will , and nothing will remain for which we can deserve to be praised or dispraised with reason : and that in truth renders us in some sort like unto god almighty , by making us lords of ourselves ; provided we do not through carelesness and poorness of spirit , lose the rights and power that royal prerogative of our nature conferreth upon us . wherefore i am of the same des cartes his opinion , that true generosity , which makes a man measure his own merit by right reason , doth consist only in this ; that he both knowes he hath nothing truely his own , except this free disposition of his will , nor for which he justly can be commended or blamed , but that he useth that liberty well : and finds in himself a firm and constant purpose still so to do ; that is , never to want will to undertake and perform all things that he shall have judged to be the better ; which is perfectly to follow virtue . whereas pride , which is a kind of triumph of the mind from an high estimation of ones-self without just cause , expressed chiefly by haughty looks , ostentation in words , and insolency in action ; is a vice so unreasonable and absurd , that if there were no adulation to deceive men into a better conceipt of themselves than they realy deserve ; i should number it among the kinds of madness . but the contagious aire of assentation is diffused so universaly , and hath infected the tongues of so great a part of mankind , that even the most imperfect frequently hear themselves commended and magnified for their very defects : which gives occasion to persons of stupid heads , and weak minds , and consequently of easy belief , to fall into this tympany of pride or false glory . a passion so far different from true generosity , that it produceth effects absolutely contrary thereunto . for , since other goods , besides the virtuous habit of using the liberty of our wills according to the dictates of right reason , as wit , beauty , riches , honours and the like , are therefore the more esteemed , because they are rare , and cannot be communicated to many at once : this makes proud men labour to depress others , while themselves being inslaved to their own vicious cupidities , have their souls uncessantly agitated by hate , iealousie , or anger . the contrary to self-estimation , is humility : whereof there are likewise two sorts ; one , virtuous or honest ; the other , vicious or base . the virtuous , which is properly named humility , consisteth onely in that reflexion we make upon the infirmity of our nature , and upon the errors we either have heretofore committed , or may in time to come commit : and maketh us therefore not to prefer ourselves before others , but to think them equaly capable of using their freedom of will , as well as ourselves . whence it is , that the most generous are also the most humble . for being truely conscious both of their own infirmity , and of their constant purpose to surmount it , by doing none but virtuous actions , that is , by the right use of the liberty of the will , they easily perswade themselves , that others also have the same just sentiments , and the same good resolution in themselves ; because therein is nothing that depends upon another . wherefore they never despise any man , and though they often see others to fall into such errors that discover their weakness ; yet are they still more prone to excuse , than to condemn them , and to believe their faults proceeded rather from want of knowledge and circumspection , than from defect of an inclination and will to good . so that as on the one side , they think not themselves much inferiour to those who possess more of the goods of fortune , or exceed them in wit , learning , beauty &c. so neither do they on the other , think themselves to be much superiour to others , who have less of those perfections ; because they look upon such qualities as not worth much consideration , in comparison of that goodness of will , upon which alone they have a just valuation of themselves , and which they suppose that every man equaly hath , or at least may have . this humility therefore is inseparable from true generosity : and being well grounded , always produceth circumspection or caution , which is fear to attempt any thing rashly . the vicious humility , which is distinguished by the name of dejection or poorness of spirit , proceeds likewise from an apprehension of our own infirmity ; but with this difference , that a man conceives himself to be so far deprived of the right and use of fre-will , that he cannot but doe things against his inclination , and of which he ought afterward to repent ; and believes himself not able to subsist of himself , but to want many things whose acquisition depends upon another . so it is directly opposite to generosity or bravery of mind , and it is commonly observed , that poor and abject spirits are also arrogant and vain-glorious : as the generous are most modest and humble . for , these are above both the smiles and and frowns of fortune , still calme and serene as well in adversity as prosperity : but those being slaves to fortune , and wholy guided by her , are puffed up by her favourable gales , and blown down again by her gusts . nor is it a rarity to see men of of this base and servile temper , to descend to shamefull submissions , where they either expect some benefit , or fear some evil : and at the same time to carry themselves insolently and contemptuously to ward others , from whom they neither hope nor fear any thing . this ague of the soul then , being ill grounded , doth so shake a man with distrust of himself , that it utterly cows him , and keeps him from daring to attempt any worthy action , for fear of ill success : which vice the lord bacon calls restifeness of mind , and falling out of love with ones-self . there is yet another remarkable passion that seem's to belong to humility , and that is shame . which ariseth from an unwary discovery of some defect or infirmity in us , the remembrance whereof sensibly dejecteth us , and puts us for the most part to the blush , which is its proper sign . that it is a sort of modesty or diffidence of our selves , is manifest from hence ; that when a man thinks so well of himself , as not to imagine another can have just cause to contemn him ; he cannot easily be checkd by shame : and as the good that is or hath been in us , if considered with respect to the opinion others may conceive of us , doth excite glory in us ; so doth the evil whereof we are conscious , produce shame . and yet it cannot be denied but that in this discouraging affect there is also some mixture of grief or secret regret , proceeding from apprehension of dispraise : because being ever accompanied with inward displeasure at the defect or fault uncircumspectly discovered , it cools or damp's the spirits , teaching more wariness for the future . the contrary to this , is impudence ; which is contempt of shame , yea and oftentimes of glory too . but because there is in us no special motion of the spirits and heart , that may excite imprudence ; it seems to be no passion , but a certain vice opposite to shame , and to glory also , so far forth as they are both good and laudable : as ingratitude is opposed to gratitude , and cruelty to commiseration . and the chief cause of this vicious insensibility of honor , is founded in grievous contumelies to which a man hath been accustomed in former times , and which he by degrees comes to despise , as of no force to hinder his enjoyment of commodities belonging to his body , whereby he measures all good and evil : thereby freeing himself from many necessities and streights to which honor would have obliged him . this therefore being no passion , we are not concerned here further to consider it . but as for pride and dejection ; that they are not onely vices , but passions too , is evident enough from the commotion of the spirits and blood that discovers itself outwardly in men surprised by them upon any new and suddain occasion . the same may be said of generosity also and humility . for , notwithstanding their motions be less quick and conspicuous , and that there seem to be much less of convenience or fellowship betwixt virtue and passion , than between passion and vice ; yet no reason appears , why the same motion that serves to confirm a conception that is ill grounded , may not serve likewise to confirm the same conception though itbe well grounded . and because pride and generosity consist equaly in self-esteem ▪ differing only in the injustice and justice thereof : they seem to be but one and the same passion originaly excited by a certain motion , not simple , but composed of the motions of admiration , ioy and love , aswell that love which is conceived for ones-self , as that for the thing which makes one to value himself : as on the contrary , the motion that causeth humility , whether it be vertuous or vicious , seems to be composed of the motions of admiration , grief , and self-love mixt with hatred of the defects that give occasion to one to conceive a mean opinion of himself . now what are the motions of the spirits or sensitive soul , that produce admiration and pride ; we have formerly declared : and as to those that are proper to each of the other passions already considered ; they remain to be particularly described in their due places . ¶ as admiration , the first of all the passions , ariseth in the soul before she hath considered whether the thing represented to her , be good and convenient to her , or not : so after she hath judged it to be good , instantly there is raised in her the most agreable and complacent of all passions , love ; and when she hath conceived the same to be evil , she is as quickly moved to hatred . for love seems to be nothing but a propension of the soul to that thing which promiseth pleasure or good to her : and hatred is nothing but the souls aversation from that which threatens pain or grief . by the word propension here used , is to be understood , not cupidity or desire , which is in truth a distinct passion proceeding from love , and always respecting the future ; but will or consent by which we consider ourselves as already joyned to the thing loved , by a certain conception of ourselves to be as it were a part thereof . as on the contrary , in aversation or hate , we consider ourselves as intirely separate from the thing hated . according to these two opposite notions , i should define love to be a commotion of the soul , produced by a motion of the spirits , which inciteth her to joyn herself , by her will , to objects that appear convenient and gratefull to her : and hatred , to be a commotion produced by the spirits , that inciteth the soul to be willing to be separated from objects that are represented to her as ungratefull and hurtfull . of love there are made by the schools two sorts , whereof the first is commonly called amor benevolentiae , love of benevolence or good-will , whereby we are incited to wish well to the thing we love : the other , amor concupiscentiae , which causeth us to desire to enjoy or possess the object loved . but this distinction , if considered without prejudice , will be found to concern onely the effects of love , not the essence of it . for , so soon as a man hath in will joyned himself to an object , of what nature soever it be ; he is at the same instant carryed toward it by benevolence , or ( to speak more plainly ) he in will also adjoyns thereunto what things he believeth conducible to the good thereof : which is one of the principle effects of love , but doth not infer a different species of it . and the same object , if it be judged good to be possessed , or to be joyned to the soul in another manner than by the will alone ▪ is instantly desired : which also ought to be accounted among the more frequent effects of love . whence i conclude , that desire connexed to love , is benevolence : as connexed with hate , it is malevolence or ill will. i add , that as amity or friendship seems to be nothing but constancy of love : so enmity , nothing but constancy of hatred . if then you seek for a more genuine distinction of love , i know not how better to gratify your curiosity , than by entertaining it with that delivered by the most excellent monsieur des cartes in his book concerning the passions ; which i will therefore faithfully recite . love ( saith he ) may , in my judgement , be with good reason distinguished by the several degrees of esteem we have of the thing loved . for , when a man hath less esteem for an object , than for himself , and yet loves it ; his love is no more but simple propension or benevolence : when as much as for himself , 't is amity or friendship ; when greater than for himself , it may be called devotion . by the first , a flower , a bird , a horse &c. may be loved . by the second , no man of understanding can love any thing but men , who are so properly the object● of this passion , that one can hardly be found so imperfect , but he may be conjoyned to another in the most perfect bond of friendship , if that other conceive himself to be truely and sincerely beloved by him , and think him to have a soul truely noble and generous . and as for the last , devotion ; indeed the principal object thereof is god almighty , toward whom there is no man living , who considers as he ought , the incomprehensible perfections of the divine nature , but must be devote ( for , as seneca , deum colit , qui novit ) yet there is a devotion also to ones prince , or country , or city , or to any private person , whom we esteem above ourselves . and the difference betwixt these three sorts of love , is chiefly manifest from their divers effects . for when in each of them the person loving considers himself as joyned and united to the thing loved ; he is always ready to quit or leave the least part of the whole that he makes with the same , to preserve the rest . whence it comes that in simple benevolence , the lover always prefer's himself to the thing loved : but on the contrary , in devotion , he always prefers the thing loved , so far above himself , that he fears not to dye for the conversation thereof , of which noble love there have been glorious examples in men who have voluntarily exposed themselves to certain death , for defence of their prince , or of their city , yea sometimes also for private persons to whom they had particularly devoted themselves . this distinction being admitted ( as in my opinion it well deserves to be ) there will remain no necessity of constituting so many distinct sorts of love , as they are various objects to excite it : seeing there are many passions very different among themselves , and in respect of their several objects , which yet agree in this , that they all participate of love. for example , the passion by which the ambitious is carried on to glory , the avaricious to riches , the drunkard to wine , the libidinous to women , the honest to his friend , the vxorious to his wife , the good father to his children , &c. differ very much among themselves , and yet so far resemble each other , that they all participate of love. but the love of the first four aimeth at nothing but the possession of their peculiar objects ; nor have they indeed any thing of love for those objects , but only desire mixt with some other special passions . whereas the love of a parent to his children , is so pure , that he desires to obtain nothing at all from them , nor to possess them in any other manner than he doth already , or to bring them to a neerer conjunction with himself ; but considering them as parts of himself , seeks their good as his own , yea with greater care than his own , as not fearing to purchase their felicity at the rate of his own undoing . and the love of an honest man to his friends , is also of the same perfection . but the love of a man to his mistress , commonly distinguished by the name of the erotic passion ; is alwaies mixed with desire of fruition . and as for hatred ; though that be directly opposed to love : yet cannot it be distinguished into as many different kinds ; because the difference betwixt evils from which we are by our will separated , cannot be so well observed , as that which is betwixt the goods to which we are by by our will joyned . from what hath here been said concerning love , as distinguishable chiefly by the several degrees of estimation conceived for the thing loved , it may easily be collected ▪ that from love ariseth cupidity or desire , whereby the soul is disposed to covet for the time to come , those things which she represent's to herself as convenient and likely to afford her pleasure . thus we desire not onely the presence of an absent good , but also the conservation of the good that is present : yea we desire likewise the absence of evil , aswell that which is already incumbent , as that which we believe possible to come upon us in the future . for in cupidity or desire of any thing whatsoever , which the soul judges to be wanting to herself ; she alwaies looketh foreward to the time to come . it may be collected also , that though desire cannot be without love , yet love may be without desire of possessing or enjoying the object , otherwise than by the pure embraces of the will alone . and this may be confirmed by observations of the different motions of the soul and spirits raised in these two passions , and the divers symptoms consequent thereunto . for in love , when it is not accompanyed either with cupidity , or with vehement ioy , or with sadness , but continues pure and simple ; the soul being incited to conjoyn herself in will to objects that appear good and convenient to her , and instantly dilated ; the animal spirits are like lightning dispatched from the brain by the nerves instantly into the heart ; and by their influx render the pulse thereof more strong and vigorous than is usual , and consequently the circulation of the blood more nimble and expedite . whereupon the blood being more copiously diffused by the arteries , and more particularly those ascending to the brain , carries with it a recruit of vital spirits newly enkindled : which being there further sublimed or refined , and corroborating the idea or image that the first cogitation hath formed of the thing loved , oblige and in some sort compell the the soul to continue fixed upon that cogitation , and continually to indulge the same . and herein , if i am not much mistaken , doth the passion of love principally consist . for , they who are affected therewith , have their pulse equal ( the spirits that cause it , being immitted into the cardiac nerves with an equal and placid motion ) but stronger and more frequent then ordinary ; they feel a certain agreable heat diffused in their breast ; they find their brain invigorated by abundance of spirits , and thereby grow more ingenuous ; and in fine they digest their meat quickly , and perform all actions of life readily and with alacrity . all which may be ascribed to the free and expedite , but equal circulution of the blood , caused by a copious influx of animal spirits into the heart . whence we may safely conclude , that this grateful passion is highly beneficial to all parts of the body , and conduceth much to the conservation of health ; provided it continue within the bounds of moderation . but if it exceed them , and break forth into a wild and furious desire ; then on the contrary , by degrees enervating the members , it at length induceth very great weakness and decay upon the whole body . for , love accompanied with vehement desire , doth so intirely imploy the soul in the consideration of the object desired , that she retains in the brain the greatest part of the spirits , there to represent to her the image thereof : so that the whole stock of nerves , and all the muscles are defrauded of the influx of spirits from the brain , with which they ought to be continualy inspired or invigorated . whence in process of time the whole oeconomy of nature is perverted , and an universal languor ensueth . and in cupidity , whereby the soul is so effused towards good or pleasure represented to her as certainly to come , as that she is suddainly checked and contracted again by reflection upon the delay of the same ; there occurs this singular , that it agitateth the heart more violently , and crouds the brain with more legions of spirits , than any other of all the passions . for out of desire to obtain what we ardently pursue , the spirits are most swiftly transmitted from the brain into all parts of the body that may any way serve to do the actions requisite to that end ; but above all into the heart . which being thereby dilated and contracted both more strongly and more frequently than in the state of tranquility , quickly forceth up a more abundant supply of vital spirits with the blood into the brain ; aswell that they may there conserve and corroborate the idea of this desire , as that whole brigades of them may be from thence dispatched into the organs of the senses , and into all muscles , whose motions may more especially conduce to obtain what is so vehemently desired . and from the souls reflexion upon the delay of her fruition , which she at the same time makes ; there ariseth in her a sollicitude or trouble , whereby she is checked and contracted again , and the spirits are by intervals retracted toward the brain . so that the more subtil and spiritual blood being with the spirits recalled from the outward parts , the heart comes to be constringed and streightned , the circulation of the blood retarded , and consequently the whole body left without spirits and vigor . let none therefore admire , if many of those men whom lust , or concupiscence , ambition , avarice , or any other more fervent desire hath long exercised and inslaved , be by continual sollicitude of mind , brought at length into an ill habit of body , to leanness , a defect of nutrition , melancholy , the scurvy , consumption and other incurable diseases . nor are you after this so clear manifestation of the great disparity betwixt the motions and necessary consequents of love when pure and simple , and those of love commixt with cupidity or ardent desire of enjoyment , longer to doubt , but that love and desire are passions essentially different ; notwithstanding it be true , that the later is alwaies dependent upon the former . and as for the motions of the spirits and blood in that anxious affect of the mind , hatred , which is directly opposed to love , evident it is , that when the soul is moved to withdraw herself from any object that appears to threaten evil or pain , instantly the spirits are retracted inwards to the brain , and principaly to that part of it which is the instrument or mint of imagination ; there to corroborate the idea of hatred , which the first thought hath formed of the ungrateful object ; and to dispose the soul to sentiments full of bitterness and detestation : so that the while , very few of them , and those too inordinately and by unequal impulses , are transmitted into the heart , by the pathetic nerves , and from this offensive contraction of the whole sensitive soul , and as it were compression of the animal spirits , and subsequent destitution of the heart , it comes , that in this sowr passion alwaies the pulse is made weak and unequal , and oftentimes frequent and creeping ; that cold , mixt with a certain pricking heat not easy to be described , but sensibly injurious to the vital parts , and repugnant to their regular motions , is felt within the breast ; and that even the stomach itself , diverted from its office of concoction , nauseateth the meats it had received , and strives to reject them by vomit . which often happens upon sight of an odious and abominable object . now all these evil effects of hate , give indisputable evidence , that it can never be either gratefull to the mind , or beneficial to the motions of life , upon which health so nearly depends : and this , because hate always hath sadness for its concomitant ; and because by diversion of the animal spirits , partly to assist the imagination , partly to move the members for avoidance of the hated object , it defrauds the blood of its due supplies of spirits and fewel , retards the motion and equal distribution of it , and by that means destroies concoction , incrassates the humors , heaps up melancholy , and by degrees brings the whole body to poverty and leanness . moreover , sometimes this disagreeable passion is exalted to anger , whereby the soul , offended with the evil or wrong she hath suffered , at first contracts herself , and by and by with vehemency springs back again to her natural posture of coextension with the whole body , as if the strove to break out into revenge : and then it is that the spirits are in a tumultuous manner , and impetuously hurried hither and thither , now from the brain to the heart , then back again from the heart to the brain ; and so there follow from these contrary motions alternately reciprocated , aswell a violent agitation , palpitation , burning and anxiety of the heart ; as a diffusion of the blood , distension of the veins , redness of the face , and sparkling of the eyes , together with a distorsion of the mouth ( such as may be observed in great indignation , and seems composed of laughter and weeping mixt together ) grinding of the teeth , and other symptoms of anger and fury . it is not then without reason physicians advise men to decline this passion , as a powerful enemy to health in all but such as are of a cold , dull , and phlegmatic temperament ; because it inflames first the spirits , then the blood , and when violent , it puts us into fevers , and other acute distempers , by accension of choler , and confusion of humors . and i could furnish you with examples of some whom this short fury hath fired into perpetual madness , of others whom it hath fell'd with apoplexies , others whom it hath thrown into epilepsies , rack'd with convulsions , unnerved with palseys , disjoynted with the gout , shook with tremblings , and the like : but that the books of physicians are full of them . here before we proceed to other consequent passions , it is fit to make a short reflexion upon hatred , that i may verify what was only hinted in the precedent enumeration of the evil effects thereof , viz. that it is ever accompanied with sadness . concerning this therefore i reason thus . forasmuch as evil , the proper object of hate , is nothing but a privation ; and that we can have no conception thereof without some real subject wherein we apprehend it to be ; and that there is in nature nothing real which hath not some goodness in it : it follows of necessity , that hatred , which withdraws us from some evil , doth at the same time remove us also from some good to which the same is conjoyn'd . and since the privation of this good , is represented to the soul as a defect or want belonging to her : it instantly affecteth her with sorrow . for example ; the hate that alienateth us from the evil manners of a man with whom formerly we have been acquainted , separateth us likewise from his conversation , wherein we might find somthing of good : and to be deprived of that good , is matter of regret and sorrow . so in all other hatred , we may soon observe some cause of sorrow . ¶ to the excitement of desire in the soul , it is sufficient that she conceive the acquisition of the good , or avoidance of the evil represented to her as to come , to be possible : but if she further consider whether it be easy or difficult for her to obtain her end ; and there occur to her more reasons for the facility : then there succeeds that gentle effusion or tendency of the soul toward the good desired , which is called hope or expectation of good to come . whereas on the contrary , if the greater weight be found in the other scale , and she apprehend the thing desired , to be difficult ; she is immediately contracted , and coold with that ungrateful passion , fear , which is expectation of evil to come . and as hope exalted to the highest degree , is changed into trust , confidence or security : so on the contrary , fear in extremity becomes desperation . again , if this contraction of the soul by fear , be suddain and profound , and the evil expected very great ; then is the passion called terror , dread and consternation , which sometimes is so violent , as to cause exanimation or suddain death . if the soul , upon apprehension that the good desired , is not indeed absolutely impossible , but highly difficult for her to obtain ; or the evil feared , is not altogether impossible , yet extremely hard to be avoided ; persist in her contraction : she is daunted or cowd into that ignoble weakness called pusillanimity or cowardise . but if after her contraction at first , she exserting her strength , spring forth as it were , and with vehemency dilate herself , to surmount her fear , and overcome the difficulties apprehended : then is she reanimated as it were , or fortified with the noblest of all passions , courage or boldness , or bravery of mind , which makes her contemn all obstacles to her attainment of her end , whether it be the acquisition of good , or declination of evil ; and which ( when it is not a habit or natural inclination ) seems to be an ardor or flashing of the sensitive soul , disposing her to act vigorously , and without fear , toward the vanquishing of difficulties that stand betwixt her and the scope she aims at . and of this animosity , emulation is a species , whereby the soul is disposed to attempt or enetrprise difficult things , which she hopes will succeed happily to her , because she observes them to do so to others . but then it is to be distinguished from simple animosity by two proprieties . whereof one is , that it hath not only an internal cause , viz. such a disposition of the spirits and body , that desire and hope may have greater power in impelling the blood in abundance to the heart , than fear or despair can have in hindering that motion : but also an external cause , namely , the example of others who have been prosperous in the like attempts , which creates a belief in us , that we also shall be able to conquer the difficulties occurring afwell as those others have done . the other , this ; that emulation is ever accompanied with secret grief , which ariseth from seeing ourselves exceeded or excelled by our concurrents . but simple animosity wants both example for incitement , and grief for alloy . but both these passions equaly depend upon hope of good success . for , though the object of audacity be difficulty , yet to animate us to contend bravely with that difficulty , we must be possessed with a strong hope , or certain belief , that we shall at length attain our end . yet this end is not the same thing with that object ; for , there cannot be both certitude and despair of the same thing at the same time . so when the roman decii rushed into the thickest troops of their enemies , and ran to certain death ; the object of their daring was the difficulty of conserving their lives in that action , for which difficulty they had nothing but desperation , being resolved certainly to dye : but their end was , either by their example to inspire courage into the roman army , and by them to obtain the victory they hoped ; or to acquire posthume glory , whereof they were certain . if therefore even in this action that was in itself desperate , courage were grounded upon hope ; we may well conclude , that it is alwaies so . from the reasons we have alleged of hope and fear , it is evident , that we may have those contrary passions excited in us , though the event of the thing expected no way depend upon our selves . but when we proceed to consider the event as altogether , or for the most part depending upon our own counsel , and perceive a difficulty to arise either in our election , or execution of the means whereby to obtain our end : then there immediately follows a doubting or fluctuation of the mind , whereby we are disposed to deliberate and consult ; and which is indeed a species of fear . and this wavering , while it retains the soul as it were in a doubtful balance betwixt two actions which are offered to her election ; is the cause that she performs neither , but takes time to consider before she determineth which to do , for fear of erring in her choice . which fear , if moderate and under the command of prudence , is always of good use ; in that it serves to prevent temerity or rashness : but in some over-cautious persons , it is so vehement , that though but one thing occurr to be done or omitted by them , it holds them too long upon the rack of suspence , and hinders them from proceeding to action . and in this case , the passion is excess of doubting , arising from too ardent desire of good success , and weakness of vnderstanding , which hath indeed many confused notions , but none perspicuous and distinct concerning the means to effect its design . if during this irresolution , we have determined the liberty of our choice , and fixed upon some one action in order to our end ; and the event be not answerable to our expectation : presently we are affected with that disquiet of mind , which is named by the greeks , synteresis ; by the latins , morsus conscientiae ; and by the french , regret ; which yet doth not ( as the precedent passions ) respect the future , but present or past time ▪ this remorse of conscience is no other but a kind of sorrow , arising from a scruple interposed , whether what we are doing , or have done , be good , or not . and it necessarily presupposeth dubitation . for , if we were clearly convinced that the action we are doing , is realy evil ; we should certainly abstain from doing it : because the will is not carried to any thing , but what hath some shew of goodness in it . and if it were manifest , that what we have done , is realy evil : we should presently be touched not with simple regret , but with repentance . for , as the good we have done , gives us that internal acquiescence or satisfaction , which is of all other passions the sweetest : so on the contrary , the ill we have done , punisheth us with repentance , which is of all passions the bitterest . having in this manner discovered the originals and distinct proprieties of these two opposite passions , hope and fear , with their genuin dependents ; it may not a little conduce to the illustration of what hath here been briefly delivered concerning them , if we more expresly describe the divers motions of the sensitive soul and spirits that constitute their formal reasons , so far at least as those motions are observable from their respective characters or effects . in hope therefore ( which we defined to be a gentle and sweet effusion or expansion of the soul towards some good expected to come ) if we be possessed with an opinion , that the thing desired will shortly come to pass ; i conceive that presently the animal spirits , which before were imployed as emissaries , to contemplate the image of the object , returning toward the soul , give notice of the approach of the guest expected : and that thereupon the whole soul composing herself by expansion to receive and welcome the same , sets open all the doors of the senses to admit more freely all the good belonging thereunto ; retains the imagination fixt and intent upon the gratefull idea thereof ; and by copious supplies of spirits dispatched into the nerves of the heart , so invigorates and quickens the pulse thereof , that thereby the blood is more briskly sent forth into the outward parts of t he body , as it were to meet the expected thing . whence it is , that when we are full of hope , we feel a certain inflation both within and without in our whole body , together with a glowing but pleasant heat , from the blood and spirits universaly diffused . but if during this comfortable emotion of the soul , there occurr any suddain cause of doubt or fear ; she is instantly checked and coold into an anxious retraction of herself , and a sinking of the spirits , so that the motion of the heart becomes weaker and slower , and the external parts grow languid and pale . for , in fear , the sensitive soul , which was before expansed , being surprised with apprehension of approaching evil , and willing to decline it , immediately withdraws herself into her retiring room , and shrinks up herself into herself ; at the same time recalling her forces , the spirits , to her aid , and compressing them . if the fear be exalted to the degree of terror , and the evil seem impendent ; then at the same time the spirits are suddainly recall'd from the outguards , the pores of the skin also are shut up by strong constriction ( as if the soul would obstruct and barricado all avenues against her invading enemy ) whereby the hairs are raised an end , and the whole body is put into a horror or shaking , after this , if the passion continue , the whole army of spirits being put into confusion , so that they can not execute their offices ; the usual succors of reason fail , and the powers of voluntary motion become weak ; yea sometimes , by reason of a resolution of the nerves and sphincters of the gutts and bladder , the excrements themselves are let forth involuntarily . from this damp obscuring the lucid part of the sensitive soul , there quickly succeeds an eclipse also of the vital . for the influx of the animal spirits from the brain into the cardiac nerves being intermitted , the motions of the heart must of necessity be renderd weak , and insufficient to maintain with due vigour and celerity the circulation of the blood : which therefore stopping and stagnating in the ventricles of the heart , causeth fainting and swooning by oppression ; and sometimes ( where the passion is hightned into consternation also suddain death . and from this arrest of the blood in the heart , by strong constriction of the nerves thereunto belonging ; we may with reason derive that same anxious oppression , and chilling weight which men commonly feel in their breast , when they are invaded by violent fear ; and upon which the most acute monsieur des cartes seems to have reflected his thoughts , when he defined consternation to be not only a cold , but also a perturbation and stupor of the soul , which takes from her the power of resisting evils that she apprehends to be neer . this fear , when it excludes all hope of evasion , degenerateth into the most cruel of all passions , desperation . which though by exhibiting the thing desired as impossible , it wholy extinguish desire , which is never carried but to things apprehended as possible : yet it so afflicts the soul , that she persevering in her constriction , either through absolute despondency yeelds up herself as overcome , and remains half-extinct and entombd in the body ; or driven into confusion and neglect of all things , contracts a deep melancholy , or flyes out into a furious madness ; in both cases , seeking to put an end to her misery by destroying herself . on the contrary , when fear gives place to hope ; and that hope is strong enough to produce courage ; thereby to incense the soul to encounter the difficulties that oppose her in the way to her end : in this case she first dilates herself with great vigor and celerity , breaking forth as it were into flashes of efforts ; then instantly diffuseth whole legions of spirits into the nerves and muscles , to extend them , in order to resistence or striking with all their forces ; and uniting all her powers into a brave devoir to overcome , undauntedly pursues the the conflict . hence it comes , that the breast being strongly dilated and contracted alternately , the voice is sent forth more sounding and piercing than at other times ; as if to sound a defiance and charge at once : the armes are raised up , the hands constringed into fists , the head advanced into a posture of daring and contempt of danger , the brows contracted , and the whole face distorted into an aspect full of terror and threatnings , the neck swoln , and most other parts distended beyond their usual dimensions . all which symptoms evidently arise from a copious and impetuous effusion of animal spirits from the brain , and of blood from the heart , into the outward parts . ¶ from this concise explication of the motions of the sensitive soul , the spirits and blood , that constitute the passions of hope and fear , with their dependents , animosity and desperation , the clue of our method leads us to the fifth classis of passions . the consideration of good present , and belonging to us in particular , begets in the soul that delight which we call ioy : wherein consisteth our possession of that good , which the impressions of the brain represent to the soul as her own . first i say , that in this delightful commotion doth consist the possession of good ; because in truth the soul reaps no other fruit from all the goods she possesseth : and when she takes no delight or joy in them , it may justly be said , she doth no more injoy them , than if she did not at all possess them . then i add , that the good is such as the impressions made upon the brain represent to the soul as hers ; that i may not confound this joy whereof i now speak , and which is a passion ; with joy purely intellectual , which enters into the rational soul by an action proper to her alone , and which we may call a pleasant commotion raised by herself in herself , wherein consisteth the possession of good , that her intellect represents to her as her own . tho realy so long as the rational soul continues conjoyned with the sensitive , it can hardly be but that this intellectual joy will have the other that is a passion , for its companion . for , so soon as our intellect observes that we possess any good , though that good be so far different from all that pertains to the body , that it is wholy unimaginable ; yet presently the imagination makes some impression in the brain , from whence followeth a motion of the sensitive soul , and of the spirits , that exciteth the passion of joy. of this so gratefull affection there are divers sorts , or ( to speak more strictly ) degrees . for , as various circumstances may intervene , and cause the soul to be more or less affected with her fruition of the good she possesseth : so may we distinguish various differences of the passion itself . to be more particular ; as the good she possesseth , is great or small ; unexpected , or long desired ; durable , or transitory ; and as reason moderateth the appetite , or suffers it to be unbridled : so it comes to pass , that the effusion of the soul , and consequently the pleasure is greater or less , permanent or momentary , immoderate or temperate , &c. and hence the kinds of more remiss joy are call'd complacency , iucundity , gladness , exhilaration : and those of more intens , rejoycing , exsultation , triumph , boasting , transport or ecstasy , laughter , &c. by the same reason , as the evil that causeth the opposite passion of grief , is in the present great or little , suddain or foreseen , long or short , and the like : so are there excited various kinds or degrees of trouble or grief ; and accordingly the passion is distinguished into discontent , sollicitude , vexation , sadness , sorrow , affliction , misery , lamentation , weeping and howling . all which belong to grief , which is an ingrateful languor of the sensitive soul , wherein alone consisteth the incommodity that hapneth to her from evil or defect , which the impressions made upon the brain , represent to her as her own . for , besides this , there is also an intellectual sorrow proper to the rational soul , which is not to be placed in the number of the passions , tho for the most part it hath for its adjunct the passion of sorrow ; by reason of the most strict conjunction betwixt the two souls in this life . as the good or evil present , being represented as belonging particularly to ourselves , produceth joy or grief in us : so when good or evil is proposed to us , as belonging to others ; we so far concern ourselves therein , as to judge them worthy , or unworthy of the same . if we judge them unworthy of the good that is hapned to them ; that raiseth envy in us : if we think them not to deserve the evil that is befallen them , then we are affected with pity or commiseration , which is a species of sorrow , and the contrary to it is hardness of heart , proceeding either from slowness of imagination ( for men of dull capacities are generally less apt to pity the calamities of others ) or from strong opinion of our own exemption from the like sufferings , or from that inhuman temper of mind which the grecians call misanthropia , hatred of all or most men ; or finally from despair after long adversity , whereby the mind being grown as it were callous or brawny ( as seneca expresseth it ) is apt to conceive , that no evil can come to it , greater than what it hath been accustomed to undergo . on the contrary , they are more than others propens to commiseration , who think themselves very weak and obnoxious to adverse fortune : because representing to themselves anothers misfortune , as possible to happen to themselves also ( for the evil that happeneth to an innocent man , may happen to every man ) they are easily moved to pity , but more out of love of themselves than of others . and yet it hath been ever observed , that men of the most generous and heroick spirits , such who having by brave resolutions , and habitual magnanimity , elevated their souls above the power of fortune , and so could fear no evil that she could bring upon them ▪ have nevertheless been prone to commiseration , when they beheld the infirmity of others , and heard their complaints , because it is a part of true generosity , to wish well to every one . but the grief of this heroick commiseration is not ( as the other ) bitter , but like that which tragical cases represented in a theatre , produce , it is placed more in the sense , than in the soul itself which at the same time injoyeth the satisfaction of thinking that she doth her duty in sympathizing with the afflicted . and the difference betwixt the commiseration of the vulgar , and that of generous minds , doth chiefly consist in this ; that the vulgar pittieth the misery of those who complain , as thinking the evil they suffer , to be very grievous and intollerable : but the principal object of generous pity , is the imbecillity and impatience of those who complain n ; because men of great souls think , that no accident can fall upon a man , which is not really a less evil than the pusillanimity of those who cannot endure it with constancy ; which seneca intimateth ( de tranquillitate anim● , cap. 15. ) where he saith , neminem ●●ebo sientem ; nam suis lacrymis efficit , ne ullis dignus sit : and though they hate the vices of men , they do hate not their persons , but only pity them . manifest it is therefore , that in some , commiseration is nothing but imagination of future calamity to our selves , proceeding from the sense of another mans calamity ; as it is defined by mr hobbs : in others , a species of grief , mixt with love or benevolence toward those whom we observe to suffer under some evil , which we think they have not deserved ; as it is defined by monsieur des cartes . manifest it is likewise , that the contrary passion , envy , is a sort of grief mixt with hate , proceeding from our sense of prosperity in another , whom we judge unworthy thereof . a passion never excusable , but where the hatred it contain's , is against the unjust distribution of the good that is envied , not the person that possesseth it , or that distributed it . but in this corrupt age , there are very few so just and generous , as to be free from all hate towards their competitors , who have prevented them in the acquisition of a good which is not communicable to many at once , and which they had desired to appropriate to themselves ; though they who have acquired it , be equally or more worthy thereof . when we reflect our thoughts upon good done by our selves , there results to us that internal satisfaction or acquiescence of mind , which is a species of ioy ; calme indeed , and serious , but incomparably sweet and pleasant ; because the cause of it dependeth upon nothing but our selves . but then that cause ought to be just , that is , the good upon which we reflect our cogitations , ought to be of great moment : otherwise the satisfaction we fansy to our selves , is false , and ridiculous , serving only to beget pride and absurd arrogancy . which may be specially observed in those who esteem themselves truely religious , and pretend to great perfection of sanctity , when in reality they are superstitious and hypocrites : that is , who because they frequent the temple , recite many praiers , wear short hair , observe fasting-daies , give alms , and perform other the like external duties of religion ; therefore think themselves to be arrived at the highest degree of purity , and to be so far in the favor of almighty god , that they can do nothing that may displease him , and that whatever their passion suggesteth to them , is of holy zeal ; though it not seldome suggesteth the most detestable crimes that can enter into the heart of man , as the betraying of cities , assassination of princes , extermination of nations , only because they follow not their fanatique opinions . and this delusion seems to be the daughter of internal acquiescence grounded upon an unjust cause . again , to excite this most comfortable passion , it is requisite that the good act upon which we reflect , be newly done by us : because that constant satisfaction or self-acquiescence which alwaies is a concomitant and certain reward of virtue , is not a passion , but a pacific habit in the rational soul ; and is therefore call'd tranquility and quiet of conscience . on the contrary , from our remembrance of an evil act by us committed , ariseth repentance , which is a branch of grief , alwaies most bitter , because the cause of it is only from ourselves : but then this grief is allayed by expectation of amendment , or returning into the right way to good ; which is referrible to ioy. nor doth the bitterness of this passion hinder it from being of excellent use in our life , when the action whereof we repent , is realy evil , and we certainly know it to be so : because in such cases it strongly inciteth us to doe better in the future . but it is not universaly profitable . for it is no rarity for men of weak and timorous minds to be touchd with repentance of actions they have done , tho they do not certainly know those actions to be realy evil , but only believe them to be so , because they fear lest they be so , and if they had done the contrary , they would have been equally disquieted with repentance . which is an imperfection in them well worthy commiseration : and they ought to repent of such their repentance . when we observe , or recall to mind good performed by an other , tho not to ourselves ; we are thereby moved to favour the doer : because we are by nature inclined to like and love those who doe actions that we think good , althouh from thence nothing of good redounds to us in particular . favour therefore is a species of love , accompanied with desire of seeing good to happen to the person whom we favour ; and somtimes with commiseration , because the adversity that falls upon those whom we think to be good , makes us the more to reflect upon their merits . but if the good done by another upon which we reflect our cogitations , hath been done to vs ; then to favor is adjoined gratitude : which likewise is a kind of love , excited in us by some action of another , whereby we believe ▪ that eithe●●he hath realy benefited , no● at least intended to benefit us in particular● and accompanied with desire to shew ourselves thankful to 〈…〉 therefore this passion of gratitude 〈…〉 excells simple favour in this , that it is grounded upon an action which concerns vs : so hath it far greater force upon the mind , especialy in men of noble and generous natures . the contrary hereunto is ingratitude , which notwithstanding is no passion ( for nature , as if she abhorr'd it , hath ordained in us no motion of the spirits whereby it might be excited ) but a meer vice , proper to men who are either foolishly proud , and therefore think all benefits due to them ; or fottishly stupid , so as to make no reflexion upon good turns done them ; or of weak and abject minds , who having been obliged by the bounty and charity of their benefactors , instead of being gratefull , prosecute them with hatred ; and this because either wanting the will to requite , or despairing of ability to make equal returns , and falsely imagining that all are like themselves , venal and mercenary , and that none doth good offices but in hope of remuneration ; they think that their benefactors have deceived them ; and so deprave the benefit itself into an injury . hatred then being an adjunct to ingratitude ; it follows that love must attend on gratitude , which is therefore alwaies honest , and one of the principal bonds of human society . on the contrary , when we consider evil committed by an other , tho not against us ; we are moved to indignation : which is a species of hatred or aversion raised in us against those who do any thing that we judge to be evil or unjust , whatsoever it be ; somtimes commixed with envy , somtimes with commiseration , somtimes with derision ; as having its object very much diversified . for , we conceive indignation against those who doe good or evil to such who are unworthy thereof ; but we envy those who receive that good , and pity those who suffer that evil . and yet in truth , to obtain good whereof one is unworthy , is in some degree to doe evil : and to do evil , is in some sort to suffer evil . whence it comes , that somtimes we conjoyn pity , somtimes derision to our indignation , according as we stand well or ill affected toward them whom we observe to commit errors . and therefore the laughter of democritus , who derided the folly , and the tears of heraclitus , who bewail'd the misery of mankind , might both proceed from the same cause , indignation . but when evil is done to ourselves , the passion thereby kindled in us , is anger : which likewise is a species of hatred or aversation , but different from indignation in this , that it is founded upon an action done by another with intention to hurt us in particular ; and in this , that when it hath proceeded to a determination of hurting him who did it , it passeth into revenge ; whereas at first accension , the passion is no more but excandescence or suddain heat of blood . the desire of revenge that for the most part accompanieth anger , whether it aim at the death , or only at the subjection of our enemy ; is indeed directly opposed to gratitude ( for this is desire of returning good for good , and that , desire of requiting evil with evil ) as indignation is to favour : but incomparably more vehement than either of those three affections ; because the desire of repelling harm , and revenging our selves , is a part of natural instinct necessary to self-preservation , and so of all desires the strongest and most urgent . and being consociated with love of ourselves , it affords to anger all that impetuous agitation of the spirits and blood , that animosity and boldness or courage can excite : and its assistant , hatred , promoting the accension of the choleric or more sulphureous parts of the blood as it passeth through the heart , raiseth in the whole mass thereof a more pricking and fervent heat , than that which is observed in the most ardent love , or most profuse ioy. now as men inflamed with this violent passion , or ( as seneca calls it● short fury of anger , differ in point of temperament ; and as this or that of the usual concomitants of it , is more powerful than the rest : so must the effects thereof upon the body be likewise various . and from this variety men have taken notice chiefly of two sorts of anger . one , that is quickly kindled , violent at first , and discovers it self visibly by outward signs : but performs little , and may be easily composed . and to this , they are most obnoxious , who are good-natur'd , i.e. who are inclined to goodness and love . for , it ariseth not from profound hatred , but from a sudden aversion surprising them : because being propens to conceive that all things ought to proceed in that manner which they judge to be the best ; whenever they see others to act otherwise , first they admire , and then are offended ; and so what would be to others matter only of indignation , to them proves cause of anger . but this commotion is soon calmed , because the force of the sudain aversion that raised it , continues not long : and so soon as they perceive that the thing for which they were offended , ought not to have commoved them to passion ; they suppress their displeasure , and repent of it . the other , that wherein hatred and grief are predominant , and which though at first it hardly betray it self by external signs , unless by the suddain paleness of the countenance , and trembling ; is notwithstanding more impetuous within , secretly gnaws the very heart , and produceth dangerous effects . and to this pernicious sort of anger they are most subject , who have prou● , cowardly and weak souls . for , so much the greater doe injuries appear , by how much the better opinion pride makes men to have of themselves ; yea and by how much greater value is put upon the things which the injuries take away : and these things are alwaies so much the more valued , by how much the more weak and abject the soul is ; because they depend upon others , but the generous put little value upon any thing that is not dependent upon themselves . when we consider what opinion other men have of us , the good which we believe to be in us , disposeth us to glory , which seems to be composed of self-estimation , and ioy ; for to see ourselves well esteemed by others , gives us cause to have a good esteem for ourselves : and on the contrary , the evil we are conscious of , forceth us to shame , which is a sort of modesty or humility , and self-diffidence ; for ( as we have formerly observed ) who thinks himself above contempt , will hardly be humbled to shame . these two passions , glory and shame , tho directly opposite each to other , doe yet agree in their end , which is to incite us to virtue ; the first by hope , the other by fear : and that we may make a right use of them both , we are to have our judgment well instructed what actions are truely worthy praise or dispraise ; lest otherwise we be ashamed of virtuous actions , or affect glory from vices ; as it happeneth to too great a part of mankind . thus have we at length recounted all the passions of this our fifth division , and deduced them successively from their several causes or occasions , in that order wherein their most remarkable diversity seemd to us most easily distinguishable . but now because some of these passions are simple , others composed ; and that to our more clear understanding of the nature of both sorts , it is necessary to enquire more profoundly into the motions of the sensitive soul and spirits that constitute their essential differences : it remains that we yeeld obedience to that necessity , so far forth at least , as to explain the motions proper to that couplet of more simple affections , ioy and grief ; the two points in which all human actions end ; and to that most violent one , anger . in ioy therefore , which is a delightful commotion of the sensitive soul as it were triumphing in her fruition of good or pleasure ; i conceive that the animal spirits being in great abundance , but with a placid and equal motion , sent by the nerves to the heart , cause the orifices thereof to be opened and dilated more than at other times ; and so the blood to be imported and exported more copiously and freely : and that by this means , from the blood are brought into the brain a plentious supply of new spirits , which extracted out of the purest and most refined parts of the blood , are most fit to confirm the idea formed of the present good in the imagination , and so to continue the soul in her pleasant emotion . hence probably it is , that in this most agreeable passion , both the pulse is alwaies made equal and more frequent , tho not so intense and strong as in love ; and a certain gratefull heat is felt , not only through the lungs and all the breast , but through all outward parts of the body ; from the diffusion of the blood in full streams into them , which is discernible even by the florid purple colour wherewith they are suddainly tinged , and by the inflation or plumpness of all the muscles of the face , which is thereby rendered more serene , sweet and cheerful . easy therefore it is to infer , that as this passion is most congruous to the nature of the corporeal soul , so are the corporeal motions that accompany and characterize it , most profitable to health ; provided they be moderare . for , this commotion and effusion may be so vehement and suddain , that the soul may become weak , and unable to rule the body , or to actuate the organs of speech , yea swooning , and death itself somtimes follow profuse and insolent joy. so lacon chilo , an eminent philosopher , suddainly expired in excessive joy , beholding his sonne a victor in the olympic games . so sophocles the tragedian also , and dionysius the tyrant died of a surfet of suddain joy. the reason whereof seems to consist , not in a vehement effusion and dissipation of the vital spirits , and a destitution of the heart consequent thereunto ; as fernelius would have it ; because the faster the blood is effused through the arteries from the heart , the swifter must it return to the heart through the veines , so that the heart cannot be totaly exhausted and left destitute of blood : but rather in a surcharge and suffocation of the heart by too redundant an afflux of blood . for , upon extraordinary dilatation of the floud-gates of the heart by immoderate joy , the current of blood both out of the vena cava , and from the arteria venosa , may pour itself with so much violence , and in so great a quantity , into the ventricles thereof , that the heart , unable to discharge itself soon enough of that oppressing deluge , by retruding its valves , may be suffocated , its motions stopped , and the vital flame in a moment extinguished . for certain it is , that in the state of health , the blood is not admitted into the heart beyond a certain proportion : nor can that proportion be much exceeded , whatever the cause be that maketh an apertio portarum there , without manifest danger of life . among the signs of this delightful passion , 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 of the left into the aorta or grand artery ; the diaphragm , being by abundance of animal spirits immitted through so many nerves proceeding from the aforesaid plexus , briskly agitated is by nimble contraction drawn upwards ; and so making many vibrations , doth at once raise up the lungs , and force them to expell the blood out of their vessels into the arteria venosa , and to explode the aire out of their pipes into the windpipe ; and this by frequent contractions of their lax and spongy substance , answerable in time and quickness to the vibrations of the midriff . and then because the same intercostal nerve , which communicateth with the nerve of the diaphragm below , is conjoyned above also with the nerves of the jaws and muscles of the face ; thence it is , that the motions of laughter being once begun in the brest , the face also is distorted into gestures or grimasces patheticaly correspondent thereunto . and this is the most probable account i am able at present to give of the occasions and motions of passionate laughter in general : nor can i at present think of any more plausible conjecture concerning the reason of the admirable laughter of ludovicus vives , than this ; that in him the nerves inservient to the motion of the midriff , might be after such a peculiar manner contrived and framed , as easily to cause quick and short reciprocations thereof , upon the pleasant affection of his imagination by the grateful relish of his meat , after long abstinence , which doth alwaies highten the pleasure of refection : but we have insisted too long upon the motions of ioy. in the contrary whereof , viz. grief or sorrow ( which we have above described to be an ingrateful languor of the soul , from a conception of evil present , moving her to contract herself , that she may avoid it ) the animal spirits are indeed recalled inward , but slowly and without violence : so that the blood being by degrees destitute of a sufficient influx of them , is trasmitted through the heart with too slow a motion . whence the pulse is rendered little , slow , rare , and weak ; and there is felt about the heart a certain oppressive strictness , as if the orifices of it were drawn together , with a manifest chilness congealing the blood , and communicating itself to the rest of the body . from which dejecting symptoms it is easy to collect , that this dolefull affection , especialy if it be vehement and of long continuance , cannot but infer many , and grievous incommodities to the whole body . for , besides this that it darkneth the spirits , and so dulls the wit , obscures the judgment , blunts the memory , and in a word beclouds the lucid part of the soul : it doth moreover incrassate the blood by refrigeration , and by that reason immoderately constringe the heart , cause the lamp of life to burn weakly and dimly , induce want of sleep by drying the brain , corrupt the nutritive juice , and convert it into that devil of a humor , melancholy . no wonder then if in men overcome with this so dismal passion , the countenance appears pale , wan and liveless ; the limbs grow heavy and indisposed to motion , the flesh decays and consumes through want of nourishment , and the whole body be precipated into imbecillity , cachexy or an evil habit , languishing and other cold and chronic diseases . all which the wisest of men , king salomon , hath summ'd up in few words in 17 chap. of his proverbs , where he advertiseth , that a sorrowful spirit drieth up the very bones . and yet notwithstanding , it is very rarely found , that from grief either long and obstinate , or violent and suddainly invading , any man hath fallen into a swoon , or been suddenly extinguished . which i am apt to refer to this ; that in the ventricles of the heart , tho but very slowly commoved , there can hardly be so smale a quantity of blood , but it may suffice to keep alive the vital flame burning therein , when the orifices of them are almost closed , as commonly they are by immoderate grief . somtimes this bitter passion is signified by a certain uncomely distortion of the face , somwhat different from that of laughter , and acompanied with tears ; somtimes only by sighs : by sighs , when the grief is extreme : by tears , when it is but moderate . for as laughter never proceeds from great and profound joy , so neither doe tears flow from profound sorrow ; according to that of the tragedian , leves curae loquuntur , ingentes stupent . nor is weeping the pathognomonic or infallible sign of grief , for , all tears are not voluntary ; every light hurt or pain of the eyes causing them to distill against our will : nor all voluntary ones the effect of grief . some weep for sudden joy joyned with love , especialy old men : some when their revenge is suddainly frustrated by the repentance and submission of the offender ; and such are the tears of reconciliation . some again weep out of anger , when they meet with a repulse or check of their desires , which causing them with regret to reflect upon their own weakness and insufficiency to compass their wills , affects them with displeasure , and dissolves them into tears , as if they fell out with themselves upon a sudden sense of their own defect : and this kind of weeping is most familiar to children and women when they are crossed in their wills and expectation ; as also to revengefull men , upon their beholding of those whom they commisserate , and their want of power to help them . notwithstanding the occasions of weeping be thus various , yet since tears are frequently both an effect and testimony of sorrow , the nature and motions whereof we have now attempted to explain : it can be no impertinent digression , to inquire further into their original or sours , and the manner how they are made to flow , when we are willing to signify our present sorrow by shedding them . as for the fountain therefore whence all our tears flow , and the matter whereof they consist ; the succesful industry of modern anatomists hath discovered , that in the glandules placed at each corner of the eyes , there is either from the blood brought thither by the arteries ( as the vulgar doctrine is ) or ( as i , upon good reasons elswhere delivered , conceive ) from the nutritive juice brought by nerves , separated , and kept in store a certain thin , clear and watery humor , partly saline , partly subacid in tast ; the use whereof is aswell to keep the globes of the eyes moist and slippery , for their more easy motion ; as to serve for tears when we have occasion to shed them . and to this some have added , that because there are certain branches of nerves ( like the tendrels of a vine ) incircling the vessells leading to and from those glandules , and by their tension somtimes constringing them : therefore it is probable , that when the serous humor is too abundant in the blood brought into the brain , the same is by the arteries ( whose pulse is quickned somwhat by the pressure of these nerves ) brought more copiously than at other times , into those glandules , and after its separation , there detained from returning by the veins , that are likewise streightned by constriction of the same nerves . whether this ingenious conjecture be true or not ; certain it is , that the matter of tears is the same with the liquor of the lymphae-ducts , and that they flow from the aforesaid glandules , which are therefore named lacrymales . and as for the manner of their expression from thence in some passions of the mind ; the most rational account i have hitherto met with concerning it , is this . when any occasion of weeping occurrs , and affects the sensitive soul ; instantly the ventricles of the heart , with all the praecordia , are by the blood in abundance brought into them , more than usualy crowded and distended , and the lungs also stuffed and inflated , so that they cannot perform the action of respiration but by sobbs intermixed ; and the midriff , to give room to such distension of the heart and lungs , is pressed downward , with a more intense contraction alternately succeeding ; which great depression and brisk contraction being repeted , is the efficient cause of sobbing . and at the same time the air being with difficulty admitted into the lungs , by reason they and the midriff are so exceedingly distended , and with no less difficulty exploded again by the windpipe : thence comes that whining sound of crying and howling . to this affection of the vitals , the parts of the face also , being distorted into a sad and mournfull aspect , exactly correspond : because the nerves which contract the praecordia , have a communion of continuity , and cooperate with those which are inserted into the muscles of the face , and which compose it into the postures of weeping and laughter in passion . nor doth the disorder cease here , but extend itself to the upper region also , to the brain , where the spirits being put into confusion , and the arteries surcharged with too great an afflux of blood from the oppressed heart ; the palace of the soul itself is brought into danger of a purple deluge . for prevention whereof , the nerves incircling and binding the trunks of the arteries in many places , strongly constringe them ; so that the commotion of the blood is much repressed , the liquor thereof ( in the beginning of the passion highly rarefied ) suddainly condensed , and the serous part of it being put into a flux , is transmitted into the above mentioned glandules of the eyes , there placed and destined by nature to receive it . and then because these glandules are in like manner constringed , and as it were squeez'd by certain nerves that are of the same original and community with the pathetic nerves of the face and heart : the serous liquor is expressed out of them through their excretory channels leading to the corners of the eyes ( most accurrately described , with their uses , by that diligent anatomist nichol. steno , in a singular treatise ) and forced to distill in a shower of tears ; the strong contraction of the membranes investing the whole brain , concurring to that expression . the same may be said likewise of the shedding tears for ioy. for in suddain and great ioy conjoyned with admiration , the sensitive soul very much expanding herself , and diffusing the animal spirits ; the blood is sent from the heart in great abundance to the brain , so as to distend the vessels that contain it : which being soon after strongly contracted again by the same soul withdrawing herself inward , ( as if she feared a dissolution by so ample an effusion ) the blood is in a sort put into a flux or melted , and the serous part of it separated in the glandules of the eyes , and thence by constriction of the nerves squeezed forth in tears . this being supposed , it will not be difficult for us thence to infer , that infants and old men are indeed more prone to weep than those of middle age : but for divers reasons . old men for the most part weep out of love and ioy together ; because both these affections causing a great effusion of the sensitive soul , and consequently a large apertion of the orifices or sluices of the heart ; must therefore ( especialy where they are conjoyned ) cause also a transmission of the blood from thence to the brain in great abundance : and the blood being generaly more thin and diluted with serum in old men , must yield more matter for their tears . but infants commonly weep out of mere sorrow and vexation , such as is not accompanied with the least of love : because the contraction of the soul and nerves caused by sorrow , expresseth out of the blood ( which is alwaies abundant in children ) brought by the arteries to the brain , a sufficient quantity of serum to replenish the glandulae lachrymales , and supply the sourse of their tears . there remains yet that other sign of sorrow , which doth usually accompany it when it is profound and extreme ; and that is sighing ; the cause whereof is very much different from that of weeping , though both proceed from grief . for , the same occasion that moves us to shed tears , when our lungs are stuffed and distended with blood ; provokes us also to fetch deep sighs , when they are almost empty , and when some sudden imagination of hope or comfort opens the sluice of the arteria venosa in the lungs , which sorrow had lately contracted . for , then that little blood that remained in the lungs , in a moment passing down through that pipe into the left ventricle of the heart ; the ambient aire instantly rusheth by the mouth into the lungs , to replenish that place the blood had left free : and this great and quick repletion of the lungs with aire , is what we call sighing . you have now heard what conjectures seem to me most consentaneous to reason and anatomical observations , concerning the corporeal motions excited in those two eminent passions , joy and sorrow , with their usual adjuncts , laughter and weeping : be pleas'd to hear also a few words touching the more violent motions proper to anger , which i have promised next to consider . that the effects of this most vehement commotion of the sensitive soul are various , not only as the occasion or injury is conceived to be greater or less ; but also according to the various temperaments of persons , and to the diversity of other passions conjoyned therewith : is obvious to common observation , and we have already hinted . and from this variety it is , that men have distinguished anger into harmless and dangerous , or simple heat of blood , and thirst after revenge : assigning moreover to each sort its proper signs or characters observable in the outward parts of the body , and especially in the face . for some when they are angry , look pale , or tremble ; others grow red , or weep : and the vulgar judgeth the passion of the first sort to be much more dangerous , than that of the other . whereof the reason may be this ; that when we either will not , or cannot shew our resentments , and revenge otherwise than by our change of countenance , and by words ; we then put forth all our heat , and exert all our force at the very beginning of the commotion ; so that the blood being in this sudden effort copiously effused from the heart into the face . and there detained a while by constriction of the veines by those branches of the fifth pair of nerves that are inserted into the muscles of that part ; we are forced to appear in the scarlet livery of shame , that is , to blush out of indignation and regret or grief at the unworthy affront . and sometimes the first emotion of desire to vindicate our selves , together with commiseration of our own want of power to revenge more effectually , causeth us also to shed tears . but they who on the contrary , reserve themselves for , and strongly resolve upon revenge in time to come , grow deeply sad and pensive at the present ; as conceiving themselves thereunto obliged by the nature of the injury done to them , and casting about in their thoughts how to accomplish their revenge : and all this while the sensitive soul persisting in her contraction and revocation of the spirits inwards , there is no extraordinary , nay but little diffusion of the blood outwards . and sometimes they also fear the evils that may ensue from the revenge they intend ; which strikes them into paleness , shivering and trembling : the sensitive soul being then distracted betwixt the contrary motions of desire of revenge , and of fear of the ill consequents thereof ; like a sea beaten by two contrary winds . yet after this first conflict is over , when they come to execute their revenge , then fear giving place to rage , they soon grow the more inflamed and daring , by how much the colder they were during their deliberation : as in fevers that invade with cold and shivering , the following heats are alwayes most ardent and unquenchable . you see then how the motions , and consequently the efforts and effects of this violent passion may be diversified even by diversity of other affections conjoyned therewith . for in the harmless and blushing or weeping anger , there is alwayes a mixture of shame and self-pity ; which by allaying the desire of revenge , helpeth much to check and moderate the commotion of the blood ; and therefore such anger seldom lasteth long , and is more easily composed : when on the other side , in the pale and trembling , but dangerous anger , there is first deep indignation , then fear , and at last furious persuit of revenge ; by which the blood being most violently agitated , and the sulphureous parts of it all kindled into a flame , is not to be calmed and reduced to temper , unless by the pleasure of revenge , or by triumph in the submission of the enemy , or by the cold damp of repentance . for prevention of which most bitter passion , by moderating our anger ; i think my self in charity obliged to conclude this argument with an excellent moral remark of monsieur des cartes . although the passion of anger be in itself usefull , in that it inspires us with vigour and courage necessary to repell injuries : yet the excesses of no other passion are with greater care and caution to be shunned . because by perturbing our judgment , they often induce us into those errors , whereof we ought afterward dearly to repent : yea somtimes they hinder us from repelling injuries so safely and honourably , as otherwise we might , if we were less commoved . but as nothing doth more increase the flame of anger , than pride : so ( i am perswaded ) nothing can more abate and restrain the excesses of it , than true generosity . because while generosity makes us to have but little value for all things that may be taken from us ; and on the other side , to prize above all temporal things , our liberty and empire over ourselves , which is lost when we are capable to be hurt by an other : it makes us with contempt alone , or at most with indignation to revenge those injuries , with which weaker minds are wont to be offended . ¶ being now at length arrived at the end of this my divertising exercise , wherein i proposed to my self to inquire into the occasions , causes , differences , motions and effects of the most powerfull and remarkable of all the passions , by which the mind of man is apt to be perturbed ; so far as my weak understanding assisted by reading and meditation would permit : before i lay aside my pen , i find it requisite to advertise you briefly of two things , one whereof may conduce to your more easy comprehension of what i have hitherto delivered concerning the more general differences of the passions ; the other may serve to my exemption from the censure of the illiterate . the first is , that of all the passions recounted and described in this impolite discourse , there are only six that seem to be simple and principal , namely admiration , love , hatred , desire , ioy and grief ; which are therefore said to be simple , because they consist of only one single act or commotion of the sensitive soul disturbed with the apprehension of things whether real or imaginary . for , as to all the rest ; either they are but various species of those simple ones , or they result from divers mixtures and combinations of them ; being therefore named mixt passions , because they consist of more than one act or motion . if therefore i have chiefly considered the nature , motions , and principal effects of the six simple or primitive passions ; contenting myself only with a brief genealogy of the compound or derivative , as sufficient to direct your cogitations to the various mixed commotions whence they result : it was only lest i might abuse your patience by undecent repetitions , or oppress your mind with too great multiplicity of particulars , which is none of the least impediments of science . the other is , that notwithstanding the excellency , and singular vtility of the argument whereof i have treated in this discourse ; yet seeing my design in composing it , hath been partly to render my present solitude less tedious to my self , and chiefly to give you some testimony that i convert not my leisure into idleness : you ought not to frustrate my confidence of your secrecy , or to expose my defects , by communicating these papers to others . not to philosophers , least they find nothing new in them but my lapses . not to the vnlearned , because they are incompetent judges of truth or error , especially in such philosophical enquiries ; more addicted to barbarous contempt of knowledge in others , than to confess ignorance in themselves . to these therefore ( you may be most assured ) i am not ambitious you should recommend this treatise , wherein is contained nothing that can either please , or reform them . i know it is no less difficult to teach them the art of regulating their exorbitant passions , than it is to bring them to prefer the severe dictates of reason , to the flattering suggestions of sense ; or to convince them , that realy nothing is pleasant , but what is also honest ; nothing very desireable , but the right use of their freedom of will ; nothing formidable , but the evil they themselves commit . i know , that in the vulgar , religion is fear ; constancy , bruitish obstinacy ; zeal , pride ; friendship , interest ; and virtue itself but dissimulation . i know also , that the multitude is not led by merit , but carried headlong by prejudice , to praise or dispraise : and that they are more propens to malignity and detraction , than to charity and candor . the vulgar then , and all that herd with them , i exclude from my studies ; lest by perversely interpreting them ( as they do all things ) they should interrupt my tranquility , which i value infinitely above their favour , and wherein i endeavour to find a happiness , which neither their hatred , nor the iniquity of fortune shall take from me . that i may find this the sooner , i now and then entertain myself with serious reflections upon my own defects , as the only impediments that have hitherto hindered me from attaining unto it : and among the rest , i hold my mind longest fixed on this following meditation : which i therefore freely impart to you who are my friend , both because i think it may be of equal use to you also , by helping you to moderate your affections to the transitory things of this shadow of life ; and because the precedent discourse will perhaps be somwhat the less imperfect , after it hath received so pertinent a conclvsion . that all the good and evil of this life depends upon the various passions incident to the mind of man ; i need no other document than my own dearly bought experience : which hath too often convinced me , that while i out of weakness suffered my self to be seduced and transported by the ardor and excesses of my affections , i have fallen into errors , that have more dejected my spirit , than a long succession of infortunes could ever doe ; and from whence i could not expect better fruit , than that of shame , sorrow and repentance . notwithstanding this , i ought not to be so unjust , so ingrateful to nature , as to transfer the blame of such errors upon her ; as if she had been less careful than she might have been , to secure man from infelicity : only because she thought fit to make him obnoxious to so great a multitude of inward perturbations . no , i ought rather to remember , that among all of them , there is no one but hath its vse , and that a good one too : provided we rightly imploy the forces nature hath given us , to keep it within the bounds of moderation . and it may suffice to natures vindication , that reason obligeth me to acknowledge , that her design in instituting our passions , was in the general this ; that they might dispose and incite the soul to affect and desire those things , which nature by secret dictates teacheth to be good and profitable to her ; and to persist in that desire : as the same commotion of the spirits that is requisite to produce them , doth dispose the parts of the body also to those motions that serve to the execution of her will. and hence doubtless it is , that they who are naturaly most apt to be moved by passions , have this advantage above others of duller and grosser constitutions , that they may ( if they will ) tast more of the pleasures belonging to the sensitive soul : but then again they are likewise thereby more exposed to drink of the gall and wormwood of pain and remorse , when they know not how to regulate their passions , and when adverse fortune invades them . i am confirmed then , that because man is constituted propens to passions , he is not therefore the less perfect , but rather the more capable of pleasure from the right use of the good things of this life : and by consequence , that nature by making him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hath therein signalized both her wisedom and indulgence . but had he not been more perfect , if it had pleased his creator to endow him moreover with such excellency above all other animals , as might have secured him from committing errors through the violent instigation of his passions , whenever they should incite him to desire and persue things not realy , but onely apparently good for him ? certainly no. for it is not only impious , but highly absurd , to imagine that god can be author of our errors , because he hath not given to us an understanding omniscious : for it is of the formal reason of a created intellect , that it be finite ; and of a finite intellect , that it extend not itself to all things . but that man should have a will unconfined or extensible to all things , this indeed is convenient to his nature : and it is a transcendent perfection in him , that he can and doth act by his own will , that is freely ; and so is , by a peculiar prerogative , author of his own actions , and may deserve praise and reward for them . for no man praiseth a watch , or any other self-moving engine made by art , for performing the motions thereby designed ; because those motions necessarily result from the figure and construction of its parts : but the artist himself deserves praise , because he framed the engine not by necessity or compulsion , but freely . so we by the same reason deserve the more by well doing , that is by embracing truth , because we do it voluntary or by election ; than we should , if we could not but do it . when therefore we fall into errors , occasioned by our passions ; the defect lieth in our own act , or in the use of our liberty , not in our nature : for that is the same when we make an erroneous judgement of things represented to us , as it is when we make a right judgment . and although almighty god might , if he had thought good , have given so great perspicacity to our understanding , as that we could never have been deceived : yet by what right can we require that privilege from him ? true it is ( i confess ) that among us men , if any hath power to hinder this or that evil , and yet doth not hinder it ; we accuse him as cause of it : and justly too , because the power that men have one over others , was instituted , and committed to them to that end , that they should use it to the restraining of others from evil . but there is not the same reason why we should think god to be author of our errors , only because it was in his power to have prevented them , by making us superior to deception : for the power that god hath of right over all men , is most soveraign , most absolute , most free . and therefore we are obliged to ascribe to his divine majesty , all possible praise and thanks for the good gifts he hath out of his infinite benignity been pleased to bestow upon us his creatures : but we have no pretext of right to complain , because he hath not conferred upon us all things that we conceive he might . besides , although the intellect of man be not omniscious ; yet is it not so narrow , so limited , as not to extend to the conduct of his unlimited will , in the election of good , and avoidance of evil ; and consequently to his exemption from error by the violence of his passions . for , first , by virtue of his understanding , man is capable of wisedom , which is alone able to teach him how to subdue and govern all his affections , and how to dispense them with such dexterity , as not only to make all the evils they produce , easily tollerable , but even to reap internal satisfaction and joy from all . and secondly , it is evident from the very nature of our passions , that they cannot carry us on to any actions whatsoever , but only by the desire they excite in us : and therefore if we can but direct that desire to right objects , that is to things realy good ; we may by that alone prevent our being deceived , that is our being carried to evil actions by violence of our passions : but that right reason is of itself able so to direct our desire arising from passions , is manifest from the known utility of moral philosophy , which prescribeth certain rules to that end . i will conclude then , that i commit errors in passion , not because i am naturaly prone to passions , nor because i want an omniscious understanding : but only because i make not a right use of that finite indeed , yet sufficient vnderstanding god hath given me , in the conduct of that cupidity my passions excite in me . that i may therefore be henceforth better able to make use of my understanding as i ought , in such occasions ; it highly concerneth me to enquire in the next place , into the origin of that error , to which the cupidity accompanying our passions , doth most frequently expose us : for , that being once known , will be the more easily avoidable . this error then doth arise ( if i mistake not ) from hence ; that we do not sufficiently distinguish those things that depend intirely upon ourselves , from those that depend upon others , as to their events : it being a general rule , that desire is alwaies good , when grounded upon certain knowledge ; and on the contrary alwaies evil , when founded upon some error . now as to things that depend upon ourselves alone , that is upon our free-will ; to know them to be good , is sufficient to assure us we cannot desire them too fervently : because to doe good things that depend upon ourselves , is to pursue virtue , which cannot be too fervently desired , nor can the event of our desire of such things possibly be unhappy , because from the conscience that by desiring them we have rightly used the freedom of our will , we receive all the satisfaction we expected . but alass ! the error that is too commonly committed in such cases , lieth not in the over fervent , but in the overcold desire . and the best remedy against this defect , is to free the mind as much as is possible , from all other desires less profitable ; and then to endeavour clearly to understand , and with due attention to examine the goodness of the thing that is represented as worthy to be desired . as for the things that are altogether independent upon vs ; however good they may be , yet we are never to desire them vehemently : not only because t is possible they may never arrive , and so vex and torment the mind so much the more bitterly , by how much the more eagerly they have been desired ; but chiefly because by preoccupating our thoughts , they withdraw our study from other things whereof the acquisition depends upon ourselves . and against these vain desires there are two general remedies ; whereof the first is true generosity ; the other , a firm belief of , and tranquill dependence upon providence divine . for , that noble and heroic habit of the mind , which is called generosity , and which seems to comprehend all other virtues ; though it animateth men to great and honorable enterprises , doth yet at the same time restrain them from attempting things which they conceive themselves incapable to effect ; inspiring courage , not temerity . then by teaching , that nothing is either more worthy of , or more delightful to a spirit elevated by the love of virtue , above the vulgar , that to doe good to others ; and in order thereunto , to prefer beneficence to self-interest : it makes us perfectly charitable , benign , affable , and ready to oblige every one by good offices , when it is in our power so to do . again , being inseparable from virtuous humility , it makes us both to measure our own merits by the impartial rule of right reason , and to know that we can have no just right to praise or reward , but from the genuin and lau●●ble use of the freedom of our ▪ will. and from these and other the like excellent effects of this divine virtue , it is that the generous attain to an absolute dominion over their exorbitant passions and desires . they conquer iealousie and envy , by considering , that nothing whereof the acquisition depends not wholy upon themselves , is realy valuable enough to justify their earnest desire of it . they exempt themselves from hatred towards any , by esteeming all as worthy of love as themselves . they admit no fear , by being duely conscious of their own innocency , and secure in the confidence of their own virtue . they banish grief , by remembring that while they conserve their will to doe good , they can be deprived of nothing that is properly theirs . and anger they exclude , because little esteeming whatsoever depends upon others , they never yeeld so much to their adversaries , as to acknowledge themselves within the reach of their injuries . it is not then without reason , that i fix upon generosity , as one of the universal remedies against our inordinate cupidities . and as for the other , namely frequent reflection upon providence divine ; this doubtless must likewise be of soveraign efficacy to preserve us from all distempers of mind . for , it establish us in a certain perswasion , that it is absolutely impossible that any thing should come to pass otherwise than this providence hath from all eternity determined : and consequently , that fortune is but a chimera , hatch'd in the brain out of an error of human understanding , and nourished by popular superstition . for , we cannot desire any thing , unless we first think the same to be some way or other possible : nor can we think those things to be possible , that depend not upon us , unless so far as we imagine them to depend upon fortune , and that the like have hapned in times past . but this opinion proceeds only from hence , that we know not all the causes that concurr to single effects . for , when a thing that we have apprehended to depend upon fortune , and so to be possible , succeeds not : that is a certain sign , that some one of the causes necessary to make it succeed or come to pass , hath been wanting ; and consequently , that the same was absolutely impossible ; as also that the like event , that is such a one to the production whereof the like necessary cause was wanting , hath never come to pass . so that had we not been ignorant of that deficient cause , we never had thought that event to be possible , nor by consequence ever desired it . we are therefore utterly to renounce that vulgar absurdity , that there is in the world a certain power called fortune , that makes things to happen or not to hapen as she pleaseth : and in the ●oom thereof to establish this great verity , that all things are directed by divine providence , whose decree is so infallible and immutable , that excepting those things which the same decree hath left to depend upon our will , we ought to think , that in respect of vs , nothing doth or can come to pass , that is not necessary , and in some measure fatal : so that we cannot without error desire any thing should come to pass otherwise than it doth . but forasmuch as our desires for the most part extend to things that depend neither wholy upon us , nor wholy upon others : therefore we ought in them to distinguish exactly what dependeth intirely upon ourselves , that so we may extend our desires to that alone . and as for the rest ; though we ought to look upon the success as fatal and immutable , lest we place our desire thereupon : yet ought we also seriously to weigh and consider the reasons that suggest more or less hope , that they may serve to direct our actions accordingly . for reason requires we should follow the more probable and safe way to our end : and when we have done so ; whatever the event be , we ought contentedly to acquiesce in this , that we have done what our vnderstanding judged to be best . and truely when we have learned thus to distinguish providence divine from fortune , we shall easily acquire a habit of directing our desires in such a manner , that because the accomplishment of them depends upon ourselves only , they may alwaies afford us full satisfaction . but doe we not here intangle ourselves in great difficulties , by endevoring thus to reconcile this eternal preordination of god , to the liberty of our will ? we doe , i confess ; but conceive withall , that we may disentangle ourselves again , by remembring , that our vnderstanding is finite , but the power of god by which he hath from eternity not only foreknown all things that are or can possibly be , but also willed and preordained them so to be , is infinite : and then that it is enough for us , clearly and distinctly to know that this infinite power is essentialy in god ; but too much for us so to comprehend the same , as to see in what manner it leaveth the actions of men undermined and free . for of the liberty or indifferency that is in us , we are all so conscious within ourselves , that there is nothing we can comprehend more evidently , more perfectly . and it were absurd , because we cannot comprehend one thing which we know to be of its own nature incomprehensible to us ; therefore to doubt of another which we do intimately comprehend , and by daily experience find to be in ourselves . again , since we thus know most certainly , that all our errors depend upon our will ; is it not wonderfully strange that we are ever deceived , when no man is willing to be deceived ▪ 't is so indeed ; but nevertheless the problem seems capable of solution by considering , that it is one thing to be willing to be deceived , and another to be willing to give assent to those things wherein it hapens that error is found . and though there be no man , who is expresly willing to be deceived : yet there is scarcely any , who is not often willing to assent to those things wherein error is , unknown to him , contained . yea it often falls out ; that the very desire of attaining to truth , causeth those who do not rightly know by what way it is to be attained , to give judgment of things they do not clearly perceive , and so to err . so that the summe of all this perplex and intricate matter is this , that error ariseth from our assent to things whose truth or falsity , good or evil , we have not clearly and distinctly discerned . for , since god cannot without impious absurdity be imagined to be author of deceipt , the faculty he hath given us of perceiving and discerning , cannot naturaly tend to falsity : as neither can our faculty of assenting , that is our will , when it extends itself only to those things that are clearly perceived . whence it follows , that to direct our desires aright , our main business must be to imploy our vnderstanding or faculty of discerning , strictly and attentively to examine and consider the goodness of the objects , before we determin our will upon them : wherein doth chiefly consist the use of all moral wisedom , and whereupon great part of our temporal felicity dependeth . but do not i here propose a lesson very hard to human frailty to learn ? is it not extremely difficult thus accurrately and calmly to examine things , when the imagination is vehemently commoved by the object of some more violent passion , and the judgment strongly surprised ? i acknowledge it to be difficult indeed : but this difficulty hath its proper remedy , namely premeditation and deliberation . i find in myself ( and so do all men , i believe ) that the motions raised in my blood by the objects of my affections , doe so promptly follow upon the first impressions made by them in my brain , and from the mechanical disposition of the organs of my body , though my soul contribute nothing toward their advancement , but continues indifferent ; that all the wisedom i can call to my assistance , is not sufficient to resist and arrest them . and others there are , i know , who being naturaly propens to the commotions of joy , or of commiseration , or terror , or anger ; have not the power to refrain themselves from swooning , or tears , or trembling , or heat of blood , whenever their phansy is vehemently assaulted by objects apt to excite those passions . nay , as if all mankind were equaly subject to the same defect , it is held for a maxim , that the firs● motions of our passions are not in our power . and yet notwithstanding , this so universal defect is not incurable by premeditation and care . when therefore we first feel any such strong commotion of our blood , we ought to be premonished and to remember , that all things that offer themselves to the imagination , respect only the deception of the reasonable soul , and to perswade her that the reasons which serve to recommend the object of her passion , are far more firm and considerable than in reality they are : and on the contrary , that those which serve to discommend it , are much weaker and less considerable than in truth they are . and when passion comes at length to perswade us to do those things whose execution admits of any the least pause or delay : we must remember to abstain from giving judgment concerning them , much less assent to them , and to avert our cogitations to other things , untill time and quiet have wholy composed the commotion in our blood . finaly , when heat of passion inciteth us to actions that allow little or no time for counsel or deliberation ; in this case we are to convert our will chiefly upon following those reasons that are contrary to what that passion suggesteth , although they appear less valid . so when an enemy invades us unexpectedly , that suddain occasion permits us not to take time for deliberation whether of the three is best , to resist , to submit , or to fly . here therefore , when we feel ourselves surprised with fear ; we should endeavor to avert our thoughts from the considerat●on of the danger , and fix them upon the reasons for which there is greater security and honor in resistence than in flight : and on the contrary , when we perceive ourselves to be by anger and desire of revenge provoked to rush turiously upon him who assaults us ; we must remember to think , that it is great imprudence to precipitate ones self into manifest danger , when safety may be obtained without infamy : and where we are inferior to the aggressor in point of strength , there we are likewise to consider , that it is better to retreat honorably , or to consent to terms of submission , than like a wild beast to expose ourselves to certain death . this therefore i ought to prescribe to my self , as a third pancreston or vniversal antidote against the incommodities impendent from passions ; viz. to give myself time for deliberation , where the occasion will allow it : and where it will not , there to convert my thought chiefly upon the reasons that contradict the suggestions of my passion : and alwaies to remember that the reasons that offer themselves to recommend the object of my passion , are not realy so valid and considerable , as my imagination represents them to be . nor doth this counsel seem difficult to be put in practise , especialy by considerate men and such who are wont to make serious reflections upon their actions . but what need i thus perplex my thoughts in searching for medicins to mitigate the violence of passions , when there is one singular remedy infallibly sufficient to secure us from all the evils they can possibly occasion , and that is the constant exercise of vertue ? for , seeing that the internal commotions of the reasonable soul touch us more neerly , and by consequence are much more prevalent over us , than the affections of the sensitive , which though different from , are yet many times conjoyned with them : most certain it is , that all the tumults raised in the sensitive , have no power to perturb the tranquillity of her superior , the rational , provided she have reason to be in peace and content within herself ; but serve rather to augment her joy , by giving her occasions to know and delight in her own perfection , as often as she finds herself much above any the least discomposure or disturbance from them . and that she may be thus content within herself , she need do no more but intirely addict herself to the love and persuit of virtue . for , whoever hath so lived , that his conscience cannot accuse him of ever neglecting to do those things which he judged to be best ( which is exactly to follow the conduct of virtue ) this man doth from thence receive that intellectual joy and satisfaction , which is of such soveraign power to make him happy , that the most violent commotions of his affections can never be of force enough to perturb the tranquility of his soul ; and which being the summum bonum of human life , is not to be attained ( as seneca from his oracle epicurus most judiciously observes , epist. 23. ) nisi ex bona conscientia , ex honestis consiliis , ex rectis actionibus , ex contemptu fortuitorum , ex placido vitae ac continuo tenore unam prementis viam . nor is there indeed any other internal satisfaction or joy belonging to the rational soul , but what she thus formeth to herself out of herself ; and what can therefore be no more interrupted than she can be destroyed : the assurance whereof made the fame seneca say ( epist. 27. ) sola virtus praestat gaudium perpetuum , securum : etiam si quid obstat , nubium modo intervenit , quae infra feruntur , nec unquam diem vincunt . and these , my dear friend , are some of those philosophical considerations upon which i sometimes reflect ( as i lately told you ) as universal and efficacious remedies against vain desires suggested by our passions , and the various evils to which they usualy expose us . which now you have with so great patience heard ; 't is fit i should gratefully resign you to a more profitable conversation with your own thoughts , which i know to be for the most part imployed in the study of things noble and worthy your excellent wit. but first , lest you should think i do it somwhat abruptly , and by omitting to prescribe also special preservatives proper to the excesses of each particular affection , end this discourse before i have finished it : suffer me in a word to advertise you , that i make this omission , not from incogitancy , nor out of weariness , but only for your greater benefit . for , being of opinion , that the ethicks of epicurus are ( after holy writ ) the best dispensatory i have hitherto read , of natural medicines for all distempers incident to the mind of man : i conceive , i may do you better service by recommending that book to your serious perusal , than by writing less accurately of the same most weighty argument . this therefore i now do ; not doubting but that in the morals of that grave and profound philosopher , you will find as good precepts for the moderating your passions , as human wisedom can give . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a59161-e10840 article 1. first supposition , that a sensitive soul is corporeal . art. 2. two reasons of that supposition . art. 3. second supposition , that the substance of a sensitive soul is fiery . art. 4. because life is s●ated principaly in the blood ; and can no more than fire subsist without perpetual aliment and ventilation● art. 5. because it seems to be first formed of the most spiritual particles of the same seminal matter , of which the body it self is made . art. 6. a sensitive soul imagined to be of the same figure also with the body wherein it is contained . art. 7. that the existence of a sensitive soul doth , as that of flame , depend intirely upon motion . art. 8. that the first operation of a sensitive soul , is the formation of the body , according to the modell preordained by nature . art. 9. a recapitulation of the premises . art. 10. the faculties and organs of a sensitive soul , reciprocaly inservient each to other . art. 11. a two fold desire or inclination congenial to a sensitive soul ; viz. of self preservation , and propagation of her kind . art. 12. to what various mutations and irregular commotions a sensitive soul is subject from her own passions ▪ art. 13. from the temperament and diseases of the body . art. 14. from various imp●essions of s●●sible object● , and exorbitant motions of the animal spirits . art. 15. the various gestures of a sensi●ive soul , respective to the impressions of external objects variously affecting her . art. 16. an enquiry concerning the knowledge whereby brutes are directed ●● actions vol●ntary . art. 17. the knowledge of brutes , either innate or acquired . art. 18. that brutes are directed only by natural instinct , in all actions that conduce either to their own preservation , or to the propagation of their species : not by reason . art. 19. nor material necessity . notes for div a59161-e15340 art̄ . 1. the excellency of a rational soul. art. 2. manifest from her proper objects . art. 3. and acts. art. 4 ▪ life and sense depend not on the the rational soul of man. art. 5. and therefore he 〈◊〉 to have also a sensitive soul. art. 6. that there are in every individual man two distinct souls coexistent , argued from the civil warr observed betwixt them . art. 7. the causes of that warr . art. 8. wherein somtimes the sensitive appetite prevails . art. 9. and sometimes the rational . art 10. that the rational soul is created ▪ immediately by god. art. 11. the resemblance betwixt father and son , imputed to the sensitive soul. art. 12. the rational soul seated in that part of the brain which serves to imagination . art. 13. and there connexed to the sensitive by the will of her creator . art. 14. where how she exerciseth her faculty of judging of the images of things formed in the imagination , seems to be inexplicable . notes for div a59161-e18940 art. 1 ▪ a two-fold state of the sensitive soul. viz. of tranquillity . art. 2. and perturbation . art. 3. the first , most observable in sleep , and when objects appear indifferent . art. 4. the other , manifest in all passion . art. 5. that in the state of perturbation , the sensitive soul va●●●th her gestures , by contraction or expansion . art. 6. we are not moved to passion , by good or evil , but only when we conceive the same to concern our selves in particular . art. 7. all passions distinguished into physical , metaphysical , and moral . art. 8. what are passions physical . art. 9. what metaphysical . art. 10. and what moral . art. 11. all passions referred to pleasure or pain . art. 12. and all their motions , to contraction and eff art. 13. wherein consist pleasure and displeasure of sense . art. 14. a rehearsal of the heads handled in this section . notes for div a59161-e21730 art. 11. why men have not been able to observe all passions incident to the sensitive soul. art. 2. the passions best distinguished by having respect to the circumstances of time. art. 3. admiration . art. 4. which causeth no commotion in the heart and blood . art. 5. and yet is dangerous , when immoderate . art 6. estimation and contempt . art. 7. both consequents of admiration . art. 8. that there is no just cause for a man to have a high value for himself but the right use of his free-will . art 9. pride . art. 10. humility ▪ virtuous ▪ art 11. vicious or dejection of spirit . art. 12. shame and impudence ▪ art. 13. that pride and its contrary , abjectness of spirit , are notonly vices but passions also . art. 14. love and hatred . art. 15. defined . art. 16. love , not well distinguished into benevolence and concupiscence . art. 17. but by the various degrees of e●●imation . art. 18. that there are not so many distinct sorts of love , as of objects to excite it . art 19. hatred less various than love. art. 20. desire , alwaies a consequent of love. art. 21. but not alwayes concomitant of it . art. 22. the motions of the soul and spirits in love , and their symtoms . art. 23. the motions of the soul and spirits in desire . art. 24. the motions of the spirits and blood in hatred . art. 25. hate alwaies accompanied ▪ with sadness art. 26. hope and fear . art. 27. pusillanimity and courage . art. 28. emulation , a species of magnanimity . art. ●● . confidence ▪ and despair . art. 30 ▪ doubting . art. 31 ▪ remorse and acquiescence art. 32. ▪ the motions of the soul and spirits in hope . art. 33. the motions of the soul and spirits in fear . art. 34. the motions in desperation . art. 35. joy. art. 36. the various degrees of ioy and their names . art 37. the various degrees of grief , and their names . art. 35. envy and pitty . art. 39. generous men most inclined to commiseration ; and why . art. 40. commiseration , a species of grief mixed with benevolence . art. 41 ▪ envy , a sort of grief mixed with hate . art. 42. acquiescence of mind , a kind of ioy. art. 43. repentance , a species of grief , but allayd with somthing of ioy. 〈◊〉 44. ●avour . 〈◊〉 45. gratitude . art. 46. indignation . art. 47. anger . art. 48. two sorts of anger ; one , harmless the other revengefull . art. 49. glory and shame . art. 50. the motions of the soul and spirits i● ioy. art 51. laughter . art. 52. the occasions of laughter . art 53. laughter out of indignation . art. ●4 . a rare example of involuntary laughter . art. 55. a conjecture concerning the cause thereof . art. 56. the motions and effects of sorrow . art. 57. sighs and tears . art. 58. whence tears flow . art. 59. how they are expressed . art. 60. the reason of weeping for ioy. art. 61. why infants and old men are more 〈◊〉 prone than others to shed tears . art. 62. the reason of sighing and sobbing . art. 63. the motions and symptoms of anger . art. 64. ●xcess of anger , to be avoided ; and that chiefly by the help of true generosity . art. 65. that of all the passions hitherto considered , only six are simple ; the rest mixed . art. 65. reasons against publication of this discourse . notes for div a59161-e34870 art. 1. that all the good and evil of this life depends upon the passions : art 2. which yet were instituted by nature as incitements to the soul. art. 3. that we are prone to errors , not from want of an omniscious understanding : art. 4. but from our ill use of that understanding we have , in the conduct of our desires suggested by passions . art. 5. that all errors to which the desires excited by our passions , expose us , arise from hence , that we doe not sufficiently distinguish things that depend intirely upon ourselves , from those that depend upon others . art. 6. and that they may be prevented by two general remedies , viz. generosity . art. 7. and frequent reflections upon providence divine . art. 8. which utterly excludeth fortune , but leaveth us at liberty to direct our desires . art. 9. how we may expedite our selves from the difficulties that seem to make the decree of divine providence irreconcileable to the liberty of our will. art. 10. how it comes that we are often deceived by our will ▪ though we are never deceived with ou● will. art. 11. a third general remedy against error occasioned by inordinate passions , viz. premeditation and deliberation . art. 12. a fourth universal remedy , viz. the constant exercise of vertue . art. 13. the study of epicurus's morals recommended man without passion, or, the wife stoick, according to the sentiments of seneca written originally in french, by ... anthony le grand ; englished by g.r. sage des stoiques. english le grand, antoine, d. 1699. 1675 approx. 480 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 152 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a50023 wing l958 estc r18013 12601088 ocm 12601088 64170 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a50023) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 64170) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 963:6) man without passion, or, the wife stoick, according to the sentiments of seneca written originally in french, by ... anthony le grand ; englished by g.r. sage des stoiques. english le grand, antoine, d. 1699. g. r. [16], 282, [3] p. printed for c. harper and j. amery ..., london : 1675. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. table of contents: p. 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never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng emotions. 2007-01 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2007-01 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-11 john pas sampled and proofread 2007-11 john pas text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion man without passion : or , the wise stoick , according to the sentiments of seneca . written originally in french , by that great and learned philosopher , anthony le grand . englished by g. r. london , ●rinted for c. harper , and j. amery , and sold by them at the flower de luce , and at the peacock , both against st. dunstan's church in fleet-street . 1675. the translator to the reader ▪ it is no small encouragement to read good books , and search out such company as may lead us to the knowledg of our selves , and the practice of vertue and goodness ; ( so much despised in this age ) since happy is the man that getteth ( that ) wisdom , and the man that obtaineth ( that ) understanding : the merchandize of it is better than the merchandize of silver , and the gain thereof than fine gold. she is more precious than rubies , and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her . i am much obliged to a learned divine ( whose company , by accident , i had for some hours , in passing to my house in the country ) for recommending to me a book so full of treasure and advantage ; having received much satisfaction , and ( i hope ) benefit , by the rational & plain instructions which abound in every section : leading to a discovery both delectable and salutary to the vertuous ; but increasing the guilt of men , that forsake the paths of vertue , to walk in the ways of the vicious ; who , though inwardly convinced , will not easily be brought to be publick approbators of such austere principles , which are evidently proved to be natural , by the practice of the heathen , strangers to the written law , and those powerful aids of grace , promised for asking . if nature herself can do so much , what may not be done if grace be called to her assistance . the author , in his excellent epistle dedicatory , * saith , that if profane things might be touched without offence to the sacred , and if there be no danger of incurring the censure of the faithful , by publishing the doctrine of the heathen , he thought it no matter of scruple to set forth the most difficult of their paradoxes ; and to bring a man to light , who , though he had not yet appeared to the world , was nevertheless the wonder of all ages . antiquity paid him reverence , but hardly believed he could ever have birth ; it gave him praises , but ●●nied him honors ; and , ste●fast in unbelief , left posterity in doubt , whether a man could be rendred sociable , that was not subsistible in nature . from whence it came to pass , that some modern philosophers placed him in the rank of fabulous things . the excess of his merit caused their incredulity : and fancying that he could never appear but in imagination , thy would afford him no other subsistance , but such as men assign to idle conceits and chimeras . the common people , who judg of things by outsides , who condemn prodigies because they comprehend them not ; and own nothing for possible , that is beyond their reach , might well be always of the same opinion , if they had not the great example of this wise stoick now on the throne , ( which men despaired to find in the retirement of philosophers ) to undeceive them . reader , thou shalt find in this treatise reason , and examples sufficient to convince thee of the truths therein asserted : howbeit thou must be put in mind , ( i find it in my self too true ) that a curious garden neglected is not only very troublesom to bring into good order , but to keep it well requireth a skilful and diligent hand . nature will be carefully attended and observed by him that will reap her fruits : heaven it self suffereth violence , and the violent enter it by force . all things yield to hard labor , heaven and earth do favour the vertuous , and hate the vicious man ; and he , in his right mind , is odious to himself . what peace , content and glory is it then to be vertuous ? what shame , self-horror and confusion to be vicious ? if it be not in our power to choose whether we will tell a lye , commit adulteries , murders , thefts , debaucheries , &c. we may fairly plead to our conscience and the judg , before whom all flesh must appear , that we could not avoid the commission of those crimes : our laws were also horribly unjust , which punish transgressors , parents ought not to correct their children , and good men are guilty of folly and vanity in giving others wholsom counsel ; and why should not men receive as much content and satisfaction from a vicious as from a vertuous action ? but if it be in our will to live vertuously , and we do not well employ this excellent talent of nature , it is but just it be taken from us , and to be denied the assistance of grace : thus we are left without excuse , and our destruction is of our selves : but if we do what we can , who shall doubt of gods acceptance ? the author's preface : though truth be common to all men , and her beauty create no jealousie ; though she be reverenced of the blind , as well as the clear-sighted , and depend as little on time to be made known , as upon the senses to make herself the beloved of many ; albeit she be infused into the minds of all mortals , and the change of climates alter not her nature , that she be as unvariable at rome as at athens ; * and that customs , which overtop our laws , be not able to abolish her maxims . yet experience teacheth that nothing is less known upon earth ; and that philosophy which ought to conduct us to her , hath disguised her , turning all her resemblances to an idol , and confounding her shadows with her substance , hath caused received opinions to pass for so many truthes . * the stoicks thought it no injustice to be singular , nor the severity of their doctrine an opponent to reason ; and though their sentiments were raised above the common pitch ; that they were not therefore less true : that vertue which they reverence in their wise stoick , seemed to them too just to dishonour their profession . they are not ashamed to defend a party that had all vertuous men on their side ; and they feared they might shew a doubt of his merit , if they made difficulty to engage with that school , which protected him . the peripateticks built their science on the multitude of their scholars ; and , leaning on the opinion of the people , they affirmed that what was generally received could not be faulty . they say , that zeno left them not , but out of caprice ; that his precepts differ not from theirs but in mode of speech ; and that he had never thought of erecting his particular school , but for the envy he bore to polemon , that filled his mouth with those proud words , which caused the separation 'twixt him and other philosophers . so that truth , which cannot be divided by any number of auditors , nor changed by custom of countries , is found unhappily shared between two different sects , and as if she had abandoned her own nature , she is in a manner constrained to countenance an error , because she sought not to be popular ; for the multitude of disciples is no infallible sign to authorize the peripatetick doctrine . a man is not blameable because his antagonist hath a bigger train then himself . the number of adherents is often a mark of error ; and , as some orators ( to their shame ) will defend the worst causes , the most ridiculous opinions have some approbators . truth is sufficiently victorious , when good men receive her ; the number of pretenders augment not her glory ; and , being disinteressed , she seeks not to please many . if the stoicks be not then cryed up , if they seem to be less in the right then their enemies , if they have not that credit that maketh their adversaries insolent , they must attribute this misfortune to the severity of their profession . that vertue which should gain them admiration , hath procured them envy ; and , as the rigor of the gospel hath rendred christians odious to turks and barbarians , the gravity of zeno's school hath made the stoicks despicable to other philosophers . but notwithstanding the strenuous endeavors of malice to discredit their sentiments , yet did they gain some followers ; the wisest of the antients have taken their part , and if we believe a historian of our age , pliny , tacitus , plautus and others profess no other doctrine but what they fetcht from their school . doth not tertullian maintain a great number of their paradoxes ? and our judgment must be grown weak , not to observe that they principally compose a great part of his works : clement of alexandria , is he not a stoick in all his writings ? doth not he render the mysteries of christianity familiar to us by their doctrine ? and doth he not lead the faithful to a vertuous life , by the discourse of these wise heathens ? * being therefore seconded by so many illustrious doctors , i thought i could not go astray by walking in the stoick paths ; and that i might boldly undertake to demonstrate , that a wise man may live without passions ; since those great men have forbid them . if i serve not my self of their arguments in this work , it is because i pretend not to write as a divine , but as a philosopher , and labour to prove my undertaking , rather by reason then authorities . i declare then with seneca , that reason is mans real good , and his only advantage : that the goods of the body , and of fortune , are not in his power , and that without searching for riches out of himself , he may find his happiness in his vertue . after this i descend to the description of passions in general , where i shew plain enough ( i think ) that they are not born with us , that sense and opinion are the principles ; that they are useless to vertue , and that man cannot serve himself of them without becoming their slave : then i come to the particulars , where , after having characterized them , i discover the weakness of pleasure , the ingratitude of desire , the injustice of fear , and the cowardise of sorrow . if i am somewhat prolix in the front of the several discourses , i judged it not needful to say any thing for my self in that point , lest my excuse should not turn to my advantage , by causing others to interpret that to be a perfection , which is the greatest of my defects . discourse i. the stoicks defence against passions . never was calumny more insolent then when she set upon the reputation of the stoicks , discrediting their doctrin , to diminish their innocence , and by a practice as malicious as self-ended , exhibited an information against vertue , that she might the better attack those who pleaded her cause . passions ( which are but the diseases of fools ) were the pretext : and seeing that those famous philosophers went about to suppress them , as the monsters of humane nature . forbiding the wise man ( they intended to represent ) any use of them , as concluding from their disorders did arise all our evils : this backbiteing enemy procured them foes , to take vengeance on those pretended injuries , and dealt with orators to perswade us , that passions were no less then perfections of the soul , making not only apologies but elogies for them ; and of these were formed a party who design'd their ruin . for hardly had this generous sect taken root , their weighty paradoxes made impressions upon the most solid minds , and the most clear sighted grown doubtful that truth might be on their side , seeing they lighted us to her with so much majesty ; but she was surrounded with as many adversaries as philosophers ; all who were not stoicks , became their enemies , and as that hero in the fable , they fought with monsters from their first original . the academia which might be called the mother of good manners was their first persecutor , using them as rebels because their principles were different , and fearing least the growth of these might be their overthrow , they laboured to make them appear to the judgments of men , as persons diseased in the spleen and hypocondrium every apes face in plato's school had a fling at them , all his scholers became masters of art in the mistery of calumny : and as they could not make an accomodation between these mens maximes and their own soft opinions , they represented them for vainglorious extravagancies , as full of guilt , as to them they seemed ridiculous . the lycaeum afforded them as few good offices as the academia , and aristotle by his fox-like war , laboured no less for their ruin then did pythagoras by his bare faced opposition . for although these philosphers agreed not in opinion , their principles different , the thoughts of the younger not agreeing with the tenets of the elder brother , yet may the former boast of routing his enemy by succouring his adversaries , defending his own cause by pleading for the arabes against the stoicks , and passing from the school to the study , imitated those polititians , that cunningly employ the weapons of the factious subject , to suppress the rebels of their government . for although this philosopher gained every where disciples ; drew princes to his school by the curiousness of his discourse , put athens to silence , and all her citizens into a disposition to erect his statues in the chief places of their city : yet did he judge that to affirm his doctrin it was needful to throw down that of his antagonists , the shadow of an enemy being ever dangerous in that state where novelty is affected ; who ever will be absolute in government seeks his own preservation by the rout , his victory by the death , and his safety in the sepulture of his adversaries . if plato were more just then his disciples , and for being more divine could judg more reasonably of their opinions , he was not more valiant . if he shewed less of passion at their defeat , he had not resolution enough either to follow or defend them ; for he that dives deep into the writings of this sublime philosopher , will see , that if he be their panegyrist , he is not of their party : if he reverence their vertue he despairs of ever reaching it . if he be inamoured with their perfections , he is an enemy to that severity that bears them company , and if he have conceived a high esteem of their doctrin , he wants courage to imbrace it , his theater confesses that so high a vertue draws his respect rather then his love , and that she is too severe in her philosophers to make her of the number of his beloved . some other modern philosophers , more zealous for their ruin , are not content with the credit of this acknowledgment , but much more vain then those whom they accuse of vanity , worship their own conceits , esteem their own judgments above their teachers , and as if all their words were oracles , they appeal from their master 's to the esteem of their own opinions , they stick not to say that pride is the soul of all stoick actions . that the praise they expected was the motive , and that the hopes they had to out live their funerals , was the moving cause . now , although i take part with the stoicks , and herein approve only the opinions that have some agreement with seneca's , i forbear not to value socrates , to be a friend to plato , and to honour truth from the lips of her adversaries . nor can i easily believe that these combating authors ever had it in design to blast the stoick reputation , and to purchase glory by their dishonour ; but i rather perswade my self that they preferred their own satisfaction before the truth , seeking to content their own humors rather then their conscience ; and governed by self love , that blinded them , they were less careful to be truths champions , than to appear eloquent disputants : or else ( which is most likely and doth most hide their infirmity ) as satyrical matters are more fertile than elogies , we are ingenious in slanders and tardy in praises , invectives are more pleasing to our minds than panegyricks , so it may be said that they contrived errors where with to charge the stoicks , made formal monsters to assault them , and mixing the art of poetry with the liberty of orators , they invented faults to delight themselves in the publication thereof . for what color was there , that the stoicks should be judged guilty for leaving the academia , and forsaking their masters party , to side with truth ? who can lawfully accuse them of insolence for courting of vertue themselves and procuring her the love and admiration of others ? is it no temerity to proceed against philosophers after the manner of rebels , for taking nature and reason to be their guides ? is it a crime to aspire unto goodness ? and can a man be condemned as unjust , because he endeavours to be more vertuous then his companions ? and yet this is the crime of the stoicks they are guilty because they desired to be better than others , their instructions are suspected , for being too austere : their life is odious for being too much retired , and their disciples at this day are accounted but asses , only because they would approach too near the perfections of angels . it 's true , that those , who discourse of principles from the consequences they produce , and who judg a cause by the number of the counsel that plead it , can hardly figure to themselves that zeno's school was once the most famous , seeing it hath yet brought forth only fantasmes : the felicity wherewith it fed her disciples hath produced but an imaginary happiness ; and the wise man , they promised us , so many ages past , hath only appeared in idaea . they add that this sect was surely ill grounded , since it could not preserve its innocence in its uprightness , since it found the period of its glory in the funerals of its authors , and was constrained to borrow the pen , of one of its disciples , to keep up the memory of it's ancient greatness . it 's true that if seneca's works had not recovered it , and if he had not given it by his eloquence that splender , which time and the malice of the envious ravisht ▪ from it , their precepts had been buried in silence , and their paradoxes had been to us unknown . we might have laboured at this day for the name of him that began it , and all historians had been to seek in teaching us to whom aristotle was obliged for the ground of his quarrels , whether to the modesty of zeno , or the confidence of the cynicks . these reproaches are not without some color of truth , and as those , who form them , are prejudiced by passion , it may be said of them , that they are as wise as these hot heads , that some times utter oracles and think it not . for although i am concerned for the honour of my teachers , and that it be more my advantage to speak after their manner , then to accomodate my self to the weakness of their enemies ; yet i confess with them that the wise man whom they place so near to their gods , and whom the academy sets so little distant from fabulous matters , hath not yet appeared but in their writings , and if some men have built him temples , none are yet found that have loaded his altars , but with wishes , for his birth . also that wise roman , unjustly condemned for comparing his vvise man with iupiter , and for uniting in his person the infirmities of a man with the powers of a god , doth not pretend so much to an original as a copy and he that examineth well the sense of his words , will confess that he proposeth only the idaea , and seeketh to conduct us to the object by the glass of representation . when fabius formes an orator , shews him the art of perswading , teaches the way to enamel his discourse , to swell his periods for the elevation of his meaner thoughts . when he disguiseth truth or untruth by ironie , causeth toombs or statues to speak by apostrophy , runs to pretended revelation for a crafty pratling , wherewith to deceive his auditors , calls for hyperbole to put a gloss upon vices or diminish true vertues ; and inventeth a hundred modes of speech to set out the flourish of his stile . it may be said that he hath attained the art of good expression , is become the father of rhetorick , brought her forth that taught him to speak , and displayed all the artifices of an accomplished orator . nevertheless it must be confest that this good speaker is not yet brought forth , and he that is so well described in his works hath neither yet mounted the pulpit , nor pleaded at the bar. who will then admire that this wise stoick hath not yet appeared , that his glories should forerun his birth ; that he should be at age before he be of years , and that he should become both the favorite and the admirer of vertue , before he could be acquainted with her ; seneca's honour is not small that he raised him to such a pitch as his rivals cannot look up to , without envy , and made him the shame of the peripatick , after he had been the wonder of the cynicks . a conquerour is not accounted rash for projecting designs which he could not bring to pass ; or for imploying heroick vertues in the gaining of an ordinary victory : valour would be disrobed of splendor , if limitted ; if her endeavours were restrained by the laws of prudence , and she always obliged to walk within the circle which morality hath prescribed her . how convincing soever this reason be , yet doth it not satisfy the most obstinate , and although the peripateticks agree with us , that it is not more impossible for seneca to bring forth his wise man , then for fabius or cicero to form a perfect orator , yet can they not comprehend how this wise man can be without passion ; that he should be a man and not pertake of his faults , and be ingaged in the body , and not feel it's infirmities . they affirm , as do their masters that these motions are natural to us , that it is not in our power to hinder their birth , that they are the seeds of vertue , and that as speech and gesture make the best parts of an orator , passions are the auxiliaries that nature hath given us to make us active and virtuous . that whilst the spirit shall be united to the body , whilst the angelical part shall share with the bestial , and the soul be constrained to negotiate with flesh and blood ; she will find disturbances . that these infirmities of the soul are the subject of her merit , and victories , and that it is necessary that man should fret and fear , rejoyce and be afflicted , if he will be just , and prudent , temperate and valiant ; for by their discourse vertue would be without employment if she had not these monsters to fight with , and this illustrious habitude that may be termed the life of wise mens actions , would languish if she had not these insurrections of the sensitive appetite to exercise her vertue but who sees not at first that this discourse striketh at the principles of morality , abaseth vertue to a dependance upon her slaves , and permitteth rebels to intrench upon her power by insinuating the utility of enemies , that destroy , under pretence of ayds and succours , and i am of socrates mind , and dare affirm with him that whilst the soul informs the fools head , she will be forced to conceive passions , and whilst she hath no higher apprehensions then the common people , she will be constrained to fear an ill accident , to form enterprizes , to hope well of them , desire wealth , and to regret its loss . but if she view all these objects with indifference , receive fortunes ill looks with as much constancy as her good offices . if without trouble she see death represented on the face of that body she animates , if she consider her own goods with the same eye that she beholds the wealth of her neighbour , if she care not for pain , and place her contentment in the possession of vertue , what service shall passions do her ? to what end shall she desire treasures since they make her not happy ? why fear evils since she owns not that there is any evil but vice , whose arrival she may prevent by the bare acts of her will ? why should death afright her , since she finds her advantage in it ? why should she call anger to the vengeance of an injury , since she slights it ? and why should she draw joy from fortunes smiles , since she places her happiness in a good conscience ? passions are then of no use to the wise , it is the weak and sensless that resent them , and if we consult those very people that have shewed them any countenance , they will confess with us , that they are rather friends to vice then vertue , more guilty then innocent , and more proper to foment then to allay the disorders of our soul. and yet will any believe that vertue must be idle unless she proclaim war against monsters ? and that this noble faculty must pine away , unless she fight to subject the rebellious , and to range the factious into reason ? she is , without doubt , too generous to derive her glory from the destruction of so weak enemies . she judges her self well enough employed , when forming the ornaments of our soul , and slighting the insolence of her slaves , she is busied about making us accomplished and vertuous : when the sun finisheth his course , when he withdraws from our horizon , that his absence causeth our nights , and seeking another part of the world to enlighten , he is not less powerful then when making our shadows to fly away , he guildeth the tops of our hills , and produces the enamel of our gardens and meddowes . but as he draws not his light from our darkness , it is hot in other parts though we feel it not ; and he is as absolute a monarch in the antipodes as in affrica . so vertue forms not her glory from our disorders , nor is she less active when she treats with her lovers then when she combats vice , and dissipateth passions . discourse ii. that it is mans happiness to live according to the law of nature . the oracles of old have so little coherence with their name and the events that followed them , are so different from their promises , that it may be doubted whether the divels that pronounced them , ever really aspired to divine revelations , whether they strove not to appear more malicious then powerful ; and whether they had it not as much in design to flatter the credulity of the supersticious , as to chastize the vanity of philosophers . for who so examineth well all their proceedings shall easily see that their words are void of sincerity : and as the fox that puts the changes upon hunters , they wind us into their uncertainties , and lead us into danger , when they make shew of carrying us from it . if they promise the husband-man a happy harvest , if they flatter conquerors with the rout of an enemy , if they assure lovers of a reward for their constancy , and if they engage the merchants to seek strange lands to gain estates , they are then as much impostures as when they instruct philosophers ; teach the proud to moderate their ambition , prescribe rules to the covetous to satisfy their avarice , and show men vertues which themselves cannot practice . in short all they reveal is faulty : and nothing hath yet departed from apollo's temple , which became not a lye or was a kin to impossibility . the pythians were the ruin of most monarchs , those oracles weakened the most proud empire of europe , and their predictions were more destructive to romes common wealth , then the revolt of her subjects , the faction of the seditious , the ambition of her generals , or the oppositions of her enemies for relying upon the fidelity of their words ; their captains neglected the advantages they usually had upon their adversaries , and taking the victory for granted , they disposed themselves more to triumph then to fight , to be masters of the field , then to contest for it . those philosophers that consulted them , for the conduct of their affairs succeeded no better then the chief commanders , and those who boasted of having peeped into all the secrets of nature , discovered the rules of policy and unfolded the paradoxes of morality ; were astonished to find themselves novices in the school of wisedom , and though they remembred all their instructions they could not comprehend their meaning , or give an assured interpretation to words that seemed to them at first so intelligible . but of so many maxims as proceeded from the mouth of these apes of the diety , they judged none more dark then that which commanded them to know themselves : these two words run them into despair : they saw all their knowledg limited by those few syllables , they readily confest their ignorance since they were strangers to themselves , and that they ceased to be philosophers whilst they had neglected to learn how they should become such . it 's true that physick came to succour the academia , and by an undertaking that surpast her strength , did endeavour to teach what had been long unknown ; for as if truth had lain hid in the entrailes of our body , and to discover its parts were a sufficient information of its defects and prefections , she invented the diffection of this wonderful fabrick , she found out the instrument to sound its sores ; she opened the veins to draw out the corruption of the blood : employed the lance to scale its vlcers , and to get the stone from the reins , she thought that by observing our diseases , the nature of our constitutions would be discovered , that the knowledg of the pains that beset us would be their cure , that learning would be attained by sight of our maladies : and it would be sufficient to know that the gout prickt the nerves , ophtalmy ( or inflammation ) fixt it self in the eyes , the quinsey swelled the throat ; the stone raged in the bladder , the colick rended the inward parts , and the feaver discharged its fury upon the radical moisture ; to discover from so many miseries the state of his condition . but finding these endeavours of none effect , that this was but the unfolding of the meanest part of man , that there was in this house of flesh a heavenly guest undiscovered , and that this body , so much considered , was but the instrument of his operations ; the design of thus knowing our selves she soon laid aside , the diseased whose sickness could be but half discovered , was given over and much ashamed that so much had been undertaken , she resolved that a knowledg which was dispaired of being found out by anatomy , should be turned over to the philosophers . but these insted of reflecting on our corporal disorders , to study the traffick held between the body and the mind , to consider that the more noble part of themselves was clogged with mire , that the chains by which they were united made their miseries common to both , and that contrary to natures order the slave did often invade the soveraignes right . they busied themselves in observing the advantages of the soul : they left the maid to court the mistress ; and wholy dazled with her perfections , they made her a temple , and therein placed their chiefest good . hence arose all the disputations that separated the philosophers , for each one exercised his reason upon this , according to his own apprehension , and built a felicity as himself fansied : and as they were ignorant of themselves they made war against each other , without knowing the ground of the quarrel they sought for happiness , but could not find it . they writ her praises , and knew not wherein she consisted , and if they did discover that she was grafted in some part within them , they knew neither the name nor the nature of it . epicurus who imagined that his soul was terrestrial , her nature not different from that of his body ; and though her operations were more excellent , yet that she proceeded from the same matter , sought amongst the beasts wherewith to render himself happy , and making an idol of his body , placed his felicity in voluptuousness . aristotle , who is politick in all his works , and so well knew how to reconcile philosophy to the humor of the monarchs of his time , did fancy that mans felicity was not separable from the goods of the body and of fortune : that his happiness was unperfect if he were not as healthy as powerful ; and that content consisted in friends to converse with , subjects to command , and children that were as well heires of our vertues , as of our estates . if it be no school treachery not to side with so learned a master , and if a man run not the hazard of being censured by his schollars for taking reasons part , and pleading senecas cause , i think it may be said such thoughts are too mean to form a disciple of christ , and that his words are too little generous to make an ordinary philosopher . for who shall imagin that things out of our power should make us happy ? and that fortune , which is but a chimera should dispense the favours which are the recompences of vertue . wherefore should we build our happiness upon riches ; since our minds are the magazines of true wealth , and why should we expect that from strangers , which we may bestow upon our selves ? nature is too liberal to deny us our desires : she is too noble to refuse us a gift which she preserves for us in the cabinet of our soul : and her guide is too faithful to carry us astray from that good to which we aspire . those that so much cry it down have not known the advantages of it : and had they studied to become as reasonable as eloquent , they would have confessed with us , that she is not less a teacher of the faithful then a soverain to the polititians , and the mistress of philosophers . vertue is her workmanship , born in her bosome , and so obedient a daughter , that she followes her counsels in all her actions . just men own her for their mother , they pay respect to her orders , when ever she commands ; and as her laws are descended from heaven , they fear to offend him that ruleth there , by hearkening to other counsels then hers . morality which boasteth of governing men in their actions of aiding them in their needs ; of defending them against evil accidents , of combating vice , of teaching us vertue , and of making continency and modesty familiar to us mortals , is useless to them that observe nature , all the precepts of morality have yet produced but paper vertues ; and if they have at any time formed a philosopher or a monarch , the success is more to be attributed to their own good inclinations then to the soundness of those maximes . there are some nations that avoid vice and follow vertue , without the help of this moral guide ; who having not instructed them , are yet so wise as to conquer their passions , root out voluptuousness , limit desire , resist sorrow , and despise riches . our country people may lawfully dispute the reward of constancy with the most cloudy browed philosophers , and i know not whether those disciples of nature do not inspire those famous doctors , with the love of temperance and justice . they are vertuous without art , they laugh at fortunes disgraces , they look for death without terror , and being perswaded that it is but a passage to life , they receive it contentedly . they endure poverty without complaint ; they practise vertue without violence , they bear sickness with patience , and without runing to morality for advice , they become patient , just and couragious . if their valour be not so splendid as that of conquerors , it is not therefore less real ; and if their sobriety be less published then that of our strictest monasticks ; it produceth not fewer chast and continent persons . and even st. austin , though an enemy to the vertues of the heathen , attributing ( with much heat ) all to grace , and seeming to grant nature nothing , that all might be owned to the assistance of jesus christ , is astonished that sin which brought all our senses into a cloud of error , darkened our minds , depraved our wills , and poured into our souls the seeds of all vice , could not choak the inclination we have for that which is good : that we should be naturally just after our fathers revolt , and guilty as we are , we should retain a love for vertue , and a hatred for her contrary . some of his disciples doubted his arguments , they could hardly comprehend how that which makes the fountain of our crimes , should be the original of our good deeds , and that , against those inclinations which he maintains , she often brings forth perfections instead of monsters . they admired that the first men that succeeded in adams sin , should become righteous by conversing with nature , that they should put laws in practice which they never read off , and by consulting this prudent mother , they should conceive a reverence for their creator , compassionate care of their subjects , and an affection for their equals . methinks it is not very hard to clear all these doubts , and without stumbling at the difficulties they lay down , it may suffice to propose them a dilemma , to shew them the truth by day light . for after adam's fall it must be , that either god forsook his works , or that he knew nature potent enough to do well , without the aid of written laws . if to augment the guilt of the first man ; or diminish the rigor of his punishment , you represent god infinitely offended ; who justly denies his assistance to adams descendants , be careful that you do not equally question both his providence and his mercy , and remember , that you cannot take from him the care of his creatures without offending his bounty . but if you believe , that nature is impotent in the exercises of vertue without particular grace . that man in the state of sin hath more inclination for vice , then vertue , that the one is natural to him and the other a stranger . where are those commandments that brought him back to his duty ? where are the written laws that decided his doubts ? where the promises and threats for reward of the righteous , and punishment of the wicked ? it must then be concluded , that nature is not so corrupted , but that we may draw some advantage from her . that though we be guilty , there remains something of our innocence , and , with a little labour to keep her in breath , we may avoid vice , practice vertue , and triumph over our passions . discourse iii. continuation of the same subject , and of the advantages of reason . though nature be the common mistress of philosophers , though the cynick sect , morose as they are , court her as well as the academia ; and may boast that plato was her lover and the wise roman her slave ; nevertheless they that carress her , set her out in such different shapes , and the formes they give her , are so disproportionable the one to the other , that it may be doubted whether they knew what they describe , or whether they do not imitate those jealous suitors that disguise the perfections of their beloved , to divert their rivals . some have thought her gentle and easy to be intreated , that much art was not needful to gain her ; that such as were faithful to her obtained her , and that a constancy of life was the way to possess her . they affirm that to keep her laws , we need but an even temper and that contrary to the humor of vicious men , that delight in change , it was enough to will and not to will the same thing . some others , a little more elevated , derive her original from heaven , they distinguish not her author and her self , and mistaking the effect for the cause , perswaded themselves , that following her documents , they might become the children , rather then the slaves of the gods whom they worshipped . they changed the name of god into that of nature , adored his power in his shaddow , and imagining the world to be eternal , they mixt the creator with the creature . these were the two opinions of the ancients , and consequently suspicious to those that esteem their good works but splendid sins , and the greatest part of their thoughts matters of crime . nevertheless they are not very far distant from the truth , and by a little light brought in to unmist them , they may easily pass for articles of our faith , and maximes of our religion . saint ambrose explains the former , to be of the number of the faithful , he wills us to have but one resolution . that our endeavours correspond with our first undertaking , and that we learn of the painters not to varnish without preservation of the first lineaments . the other seemeth so reasonable to them of that party , that they think it needs no authority to support it , and if clement of alexandria had not laid forth his eloquence to render it probable , it is sufficient to know that nature is a law more ancient then adam , that men reverence her decrees , that it is she that governs the universe , directs the inhabitants , and that all creatures found therein , own her for their soveraign , to judg that she merits not a meaner title then the daughter of the diety . if the novelty of these opinions put doubt upon the truth of them , if we could run the hazard of becoming infidels by favouring the sentiments of the heathen , yet should i not be afraid by embracing the doctrin of chryssippus , to stray from the common consent of divines or by reserving to nature her own benefits , think my self injurious to the religion i profess ; for placeing the felicity of man in his own nature , viz. his reason i concern my self in the glory of god and the honour of nature , and as i shew her to be so obedient to her father that she observes all his laws , i make it appear that reason is so submissive to her mother that she followes all her dictates . so that it may be said without offence to those grand doctors , that reason composeth mans real good , that his felicity consisteth in the use of it , and that to live happily , a man need but be conformable to the councels of reason . to apprehend this learning well , we must suppose ( with seneca ) a great difference between the reason of the wise , and the judgment of other men : for as this is but a bare opinion that ariseth from our flesh , which erects her empire in the senses , and hath no other considerations but what proceed from the meanest part of a man , she seeks nothing but sensuality , and prefers the desires thereof , before those of the soul , and as a grateful child , speaks ever well of the parent , opinion is a thing so much fixt to the earth , that her desires are limited there , and her thoughts are so little generous , that she seeks for no other goods but what our common sense hath set a price upon . the honour she pretends to , is fickle and vain , her resolutions uncertain , her counsels dark , and she passeth judgment expertè . if some times she have good intervals , and being hurried by the vanity of the objects which she pursueth , she wing her self towards heaven yet those agitations are so short and inconstant , that they last but a few moments . she is presently stagering , if what she desireth agree not with our flesh . she gives the title of error to our choicest thoughts , and pleasing her self with novelty , she soon rallies her counselers and makes them appeal from their first advices . but reason is the daughter of heaven , her extraction augments her excellence , and if some philosophers may be credited , she is a proportion of gods essence , an effusion of his being , and an expression of his greatness . trismegistus thought her formed of his substance , a branch of the diety , and as the sun shooteth forth his light without diminution of his power , god produced reason from himself without weakening his nature . these bold words , though they seem to destroy our faith , by which we know reason to be a part of our soul , produced by time , yet it cannot be denyed but that she is an image of the diety , having the characters of the almighties greatness and that ( without thinking it robbery ) she imitates those perfections that render him ( onely ) worthy of adoration . they also which could not comprehend the adorable mistery of the incarnation , who doubted whether the divine nature were compatible with ours , and whether he that was begotten from all eternity , could become man by time , made no difficulty of apprehending that god allied himself to our soul by reason , and that he communicated daily with our spirit by means of this his image . indeed this production seemeth to be his legitimate daughter , since she hath so much share in his glorious qualities , being heiress of his perfections , and bestowing upon our souls the same advantages which she hath received from her father . for besides that she representeth the plurality of his persons by the trinity of his powers , and sheweth us , without confusion , the unity of his nature in the division of the faculties whereof it is composed . reason makes her so unchangeable in goodness that she never forsakes her when once she hath owned her , repentance never succeeds her wishes , her counsels are as just as her designs : and she is assured she shall keep her innocence so long as all her thoughts please her , and that she consult her in all her undertakings . so that reason is the most excellent part of us , her glory maketh all our felicity : and a philosopher said truely , that if the spirit were the soul of the body , reason was the soul of our spirit . she is also the most majestical part of the soul : and if any philosophers were found so rash as to deprive her of that quality , they might boast of having destroyed her , by doing violence to themselves . those who value a man by the abundance of his treasures , who judg of his blood , by the long continued line of his ancestors , and place his good fortune in the beauty of his mannors , his gaudy apparel , and the number of his servants and slaves that surround him , do plainly discover that they never knew nature , and that they have been ignorant that these gifts which they so much prize , are favors that god for the most part vouchsafeth to his enemies . but to know well the excellencies of a man , & to proportion his esteem to his merit , he must be viewed in his shirt : strip him of all that splendor that dazles our eyes : consider him without those ornaments that set off his body , and press the plummet to the depth of him , to be informed whether reason hath preserved her priviledges in him , if she have not suffered her self to be abused by common opinion , if passions have not deceived her , and if she have not permitted forraign commodities to prejudice the productions of her own countrey , to cheat her subjects , and debauch her ministers . i acknowledg with our divines , that reason is weakened and conceiveth proud designs , that her lights are darkened by sin , and that she is subject to illusions since her revolt against god. i confess that the soul since her disobedience , is light in her undertakings , and embraceth falshood for truth , that she often sides with vice , and seldom takes part with vertue . to enlarge upon these defects , and to add to her own disorders the tyranny of her body , i do know that they agree not , that this earth plays the rebel against the sun that enlightens it , and that overwhelming the laws of nature , the mistress becomes often the captive of her slave : briefly , i know that in her operations she hath need of the organs of this tyrant , seeing with his eyes , hearing with his eares , judging of the diversity of tastes by his tongue , and that she would be condemned to perpetual ignorance , if these parties concerned undertook not to inform her of their knowledg of colors , of sounds , of the softness and hardness of objects ; how be it these disorders destroy not her good inclinations : she is undistracted in her misery , the advantages she had in her innocence are not lost by her fall ; and although she be thought blind , she can yet find out the truth in the midst of sensual illusions . she is so generous in all her enterprizes , that with a little care to redress her , she gives us fresh assurances of her fidelity : those remains of light that are yet in her since the state of innocence , put her in mind of her first glories ; and although she be guilty , she is yet righteous enough not to commit any thing unworthy of her birth . her disobedience caused her submission : she knows god after she hath offended him . she emplores his aid when she remembers her contempt of his commandments , and as she findeth her self bound to restore what she hath robbed him of , she obligeth the soul to acknowledg him her only soveraign . the messengers she sends abroad for forraign intelligence , cannot deceive her unless she please , their falshoods make her prudent , and if they be cunning enough to give her false informations , they are neither so powerful nor industrious as to perswade her into the belief of them . that prison that surrounds her cannot arrest her thoughts . the diseases that weaken her body , cannot touch her : and as if she held no commerce with the earth ; she remains at liberty in the midst of her fetters , and keeps her health in an infected habitation . if passions are able to obstruct her operations , if they can cool that fire that makes her act as a commander in chief , they are not able to put it out : and if sin have disfigured this living image of god , it hath not been able to deface her first lineaments , the impious perceive her in their debaucheries , if their mouth protect them , reason condemns them , if the night favour their crimes , the sun laies them open : and it 's but small comfort to have companions in sin , when they find every where a witness to accuse them , a judg to condemn them , and the executioner to punish them . reason is then man's only benefit : he must use it to climbe heaven , he must consult it to govern his life , and if he do but hearken unto her , he shall be vertuous , and tame the most insolent of his passions . discourse iv. that a wise mans happiness is not built on the goods of the body . some modern philosophers seem to wonder that the least of all causes , should , in our actions , be of the greatest use . that the end which subsisteth but in idaea , should be the motive of all our works ; and that that which hath so little share in all humane productions , should be so necessary a midwife to bring them forth . they build their opinions upon aristotles discourse , and as they learn of him , that that which hath no being must needs be barren , and that nothing can be drawn from it but what is imaginary , they conclude , that seeing the end is nothing in substance , and that its being depends on our intelects , it can conceive nought but chymera's , and bring forth nothing but conceited apparitions . others somewhat more ingenious , do say , that its subsistence is not so sensible as that of the matter ; that its manner of operation is different from that of the form , and efficient cause ; and that when this unites the soul with the body , and maketh them agree in one , the end doth but figure out idaea's ; and form imaginary resemblances . nevertheless convinced by the deductions of the first of philosophers , they avow that if the end be not the more noble of the four principles , she is how ever the most necessary : and that if she make less shew then her companions , she hath so much the ascendant of them , as to make their operations suitable to her designs . true it is that all our projects would be monstrous if our intentions prevented not their birth : and nature , that is so regular in her works , would commit nothing but debaucheries , if she directed them not to the end appointed by her maker ; as goodness is the most illustrious object of morality , and all that is there intreated of , tends to the acquisition thereof , we are not to wonder if all men seek her , if the guilty as well as the innocent court her : and if she often procure her self real lovers , by the bare appearance of goodness . when a tyrant oppresseth his people , ransacks his neighbours countries , depriveth the innocent of liberty , and to enlarge his frontiers , intrencheth upon those bounds where wise nature had limited his authority , policy which is always self interessed , excuseth all these disorders by pretext of a greater good : and the advantages she hopeth for , by weakning the subject , and ruining the enemy , seem considerable enough to justify such iniquities when a criminal is accused , and brought before the judg , finding himself engaged to shew innocency in the matters layed to his charge ; he borroweth a good countenance to excuse himself : and as there is no man so impious , as in his crime , purely to intend evil , he throweth his offence upon the sincerity of his intentions . goodness is so natural to man , that he cannot loose the love of her : and when ignorance hides her truth from him , or that opinion cheats him in the search of her , he forbears not to scuffle for her , and to catch at all her resemblances . the academia that made profession of understanding her essence , is of this an evident proof : for designing to form a felicity that should surpass all our desires , they invented happinesses , that have hitherto only bore the name . they would have it to consist in the health of the body , that pleasure should be its inseparable companion ; that fortitude should have no other employment , but to defend and preserve its healthful state , and that beauty , which is but the feminine ornament , was part of a wise mans felicity . as experience taught these disciples that health was a fountain that watered all the parts with her perfections , that its comliness consisted in a good intelligence with the elements ; and that all the favours of nature lost their splender in an infirm body , they set up health as the principle of their felicity : they averred that to live happily it was necessary to have a sound body ; and that all our other faculties were useless to us , when the visage had lost its color , and the members their strength , and when the food , that was for our nourishment , became offensive to the eyes . they compared health to a calm sea : they would have it , that as this favored the alcyons in laying their eggs , and in bringing forth their young ; the other assisted the conqueror in the obtaining of victories , princes in the conduct of their subjects , artificers in their labours , orators in their praises of vertue , and philosophers in outbraving their misfortunes . that it was health that charmed the disturbances of our life , and that we should be condemned as eternally miserable , if this did not sweeten the travels of our pilgrimage , and change part of our miseries into delights . if these philosophers had well studied the nature of man's chief happiness , and not ransact the flesh for matter wherewith to content the mind , i perswade my self , that in seeking to be happy , they would have put some difference between their own felicity and that of brute beasts : and that distinguishing their own condition from that of impious persons , they would have learnt that that which entertaineth vice , & nourisheth all our passions , could not be a principle of their felicity . for albeit that sin be familiar to us , that we bear the seeds thereof in our souls , and that to will the commission of it be sufficient to make us guilty . mean while it is never more dangerous then when it meets with aids to second it , then when it causeth our advantages to serve its designs , and when by the health of our body , it throws infection into our souls . there are some men that know not what vertue is till they become impotent in vice : sickness must disable them , to cure them of sin ; and they would never call to mind that hell may be one day the place of their punishment , if the enflaming feaver did not feed upon their intrails . others there are that owe their innocence to the absence of health : their method of life would be always criminal , if they were not sometimes infirm , and if some violent agitations did not overthrow their designs , they might be ranckt in the number of dissolute persons . as health is a benefit as frail as dangerous , god bestows it but on few , the men of great action have been ever much concerned : those high enterprizes that have disturbed the whole world , have afforded them little rest , the violent eruptions of their spirits , weakned the activity of their bodies : and if to be in health were to be happy , it might be concluded , that wise men are miserable the one half of their lives . beauty is but a result of health , and as subject to decay as the principle to alteration ; yet have we some philosophers that love her , that present her with praises , after vows of affection , and by a blindness , the more blamable for being voluntary , fancy her to be the second part of their felicity , they call her the mate of vertue , they describe her to be divinely animated , and will have it , that she doth not less influence the souls of wise men , then the imagination of fools . to hear them discourse , she is the delight of all our senses : and although she be the most pleasing object of our sight , yet is she the ravishment of our eares in the recital of her perfections . if we believe some heathen , the gods themselves , behold nothing here below more glorious then a face on which they have bestowed their favours , and men draw not more vanity from any thing what ever , then to find themselves inriched with a benefit , that appears without difficulty and may be enjoyed without envy . for she exerciseth so absolute a dominion upon humane conceit , that she converts all that behold her into lovers : the persecutors of the innocent , are friends to her : and more happy then vertue it self , she hath not yet found an enemy to make war against her , nor envious persons to bespatter her perfections . do but see her , and you love her : when you have once seen her , you cannot be her enemy : and her allurements are so potent , that she takes us from our selves , at her very first appearance to our eyes . but alas , who is there that may not easily discern that so fading a perfection cannot make us happy ? and that a benefit , which hath all its glory from our opinion , is too light to satisfy our desires , too little solid to stay our hopes , for what can there be shewed us upon earth , more frail then beauty ? or what is there more to be slighted then a face , whose charms are only in the eyes of them that are taken with it , and which oweth the greatest part of its dazling flashes , to the blindness of its adorers ? those famous beauties that have put the most ingenious of the poets into a sweat , and suck't so many praises from his pen , in excuse of the disorders which they have caused in the world , are not so much the works of nature as his witty inven●ions : and if the love he bare to corinna had not disturbed his mind , helena had been at this day without admirers , and penelope without gallants . to be in love , is to have sore eyes : and if passion did not often cajolle mens fancies , in favour of them they adore , it might be said that love had long since had no buisiness in the world , or that if he had made new conquests the fools head must have been the seat of the war. beauty is so frail , that she cannot be kept a few years , and what art soever women use to preserve her , they must resolve to become ugly , if they will grow old . that clearness which contributeth to her splendor , advanceth her ruin : the sun which gives her a dazling quality , disfigures her . time who is her guardian is her mortal enemy . the body that sustains her puts her to death , and if some times the strength of constitution prolong her ruin , it is but to reserve the spoils for the meanest of her maladies . to draw reason from the proud mistresses of beauty , that tyrannize the spirits of indiscreet men , and to be avenged of of the evils wherewith they afflict their martyrs , it is not needful to negotiate with death to cast pale colors into their faces , to employ the nails of a she rival to deface their most curious features , or that some strange accident should carry away the off-sets , which they value more then their lives : 〈◊〉 of an ague or feaver hath force enough to overthrow these charming adversaries ; their choicest complexions yeild to disordered seasons : the rose forsaketh their cheaks when it feels the cold ; and as there is no distemper that is not able to change their comeliness , there is not any beauty but may become the scorn of her slaves . but if sickness did not attack these beauties if the seasons were sufficiently constant not to alter their hew , and if the injurious air had any respect for their perfections , yet time , which periods empires , would not spare them ; in prolonging their days , he would diminish their beauty , and by a strange , but ordinary metamorphosis , he would change the proudest of natures works , into monkees and baboons . the sun when he sets , hath charms that attract the consideration of the curious : the pleasant raies which he sheddeth at bidding us good night , are our shepheards delights ; and astrologers observe that his withdrawing lights are not less beneficial to us , then when he apears again in our horizon , and rides triumphant over our heads . the latter season hath her pleasures : if she carry in commodities in one hand , she brings equal advantages in the other . she is the expectation of the husband-man , and the reward of the vine keeper ; and if she drive the people from the hills and open countrey , she fills their cellars with wines the garners with corn , and the barns with fruits of the harvest . but when women look towards age , when their hairs assume the colour of ashes : when wrinckles furrow their foreheads , when their eyes betake themselves to the faculty of casting pearls , when their cheeks incline to their chin and when those two milky mountains become one double bag full of blood , they are no more desired by men : then they seem horrible to their lovers ; they which courted them before now hate them , and as if all those lines in their foreheads , were so many marks of their indiscretion , they shun the sight of them , as of the most frightful monsters of nature . also those that understand well the nature of beauty , consider her as a remote advantage , and esteem the fruit more then the possession , they are content to see her on the faces of their beloved ; and knowing that her quality is too inconstant to make them happy , they give her freely up to those soft ladies , that seek only to be beautiful . but of all that made so great accompt of the benefits of the body . i meet with none less reasonable , then they who joyn them to voluptuousness , and who believed , that to live happily , it was necessary that pleasure should make the last perfection of their felicity . for although health be but an even temper of the body , though the concord which proceedeth from the mixture of the elements be a pure effect of their good understanding , and that the vigor of the body have its dependance on the heat and humidity of the blood , yet the good offices which health rendereth unto her land-lord are considerable enough to gain some reputation in the schools . for it is she that preserves his comliness , which accommodates the interests both of body and soul , which gives him strength to contest with the diseases that beset him , and in the opinion of aristotle , it is a treasure surpassing all the riches of the earth . if beauty have her frailties , if her empire last but few days , and if after she hath triumphed over a small number of slaves , she become the spoil of old age or of death , she hath perfections which procure her reverence , the reasonable creatures worship their creator in his image , vertue serves it self of her in communicating with her lovers , and as if the splendor of beauty augmented the majesty of vertue , she takes pleasure to employ her , when she acts the soveraign in the hearts of the sons of men. but pleasure is infamous , in what shape soever she be drest . she is ashamed to apear in publick ; they who protect , condemn her , they seek for darkness to possess her and knowing that she is as common to the beasts as to us ; they blame her in all their discourses she is of so malignant a humor that she turneth all our delights to remorses or punishments . she courteth not vertue but to corrupt or seduce her . if she give her slaves a smile , 't is but to deceive them , and more cruel then tyrants she paies respect to her enemies and gives death to them that are her sworn faithful servants . yet have we found philosophers who have pleaded for her , and forceing vertue to take her for a handmaid would afterwards perswade us that the mistress and this maid held a very good correspondence . epicurus , that sage professor of delights imagined that man was born to enjoy her . that pleasure ought to be the seasoning of all his actions , and that after he had paid his honors to vertue , it was lawful for him to aspire to the enjoyment of her slave . as he makes her to assist at her triumphals , he will have her the constant companion of her labours : in all her occupations he renders her assistance necessary , he is of opinion that fortitude it self would fail if the pleasure which she expects from the rout of an enemy , did not spirit her to battel : and that temperance would be little concerned for the regulation of our passions , if she were not spurred on as well by delight as utility . in fine he sayeth that pleasure to a wise man is no dishonorable companion , that the slave might be courted without wrong to her mistress ; and that the conversation of dissolute women was not more unsuitable to philosophers then zenos disciples amongst the academians . i know that seneca labours to justify this opinion in some part of his writings : and having arraigned the sence given it by them of the party , he forms the authors apology . as if he had been of intelligence with epicurus rather then with truth , he takes part with him against his adversaries , he asserteth that the pleasure whereof he treateth is modest , that her humor is not less austere then that of vertue , and that if she put on the pleasing ornament of a more cheerful countenance , it is but with less difficulty to gain her mistress a greater number of lovers . i should readily subscribe to this opinion , and it were sufficient to know that it proceeds from seneca , to receive it with reverence . but as most men abuse it , they run to his doctrin for a justification of their disorders ▪ and supported by his approbation they believe it is lawful for them to hunt after sensualities ; i find my self engaged to explain his meaning and to unfold to the disciples of epicurus , that seneca is not of their party , though some words have run from his pen to their advantage . if he give a favorable explication of their masters meaning , they owe it to the greatness of his civility : he gives him combat too often , to approve the most sordid of his opinions and when he shews them the weakness of pleasure , and the merit of vertue , he lets them sufficiently know that he employs all those discourses , but to perswade them to slight the maid that she who is her soveraign may receive their honors . as this is the only mistress to whom he paies reverence , he is concerned for her glory , and he would think it a betraying of his courage , if he should reconcile her to an enemy whom she dispiseth . he cannot suffer that she who is content in affliction , joyful in the midst of torments , who laughs at fortune and triumphs over those evil accidents that strike terror into the most stout hearted men , should become the consort of an effeminate , who grows pale at the sight of a misfortune , who sinks under the assaults of distempers , and who turneth the most pleasing delights of vertue into the severest of her own torments to shew us that they are unequal companions , he declares vertue to be eternal , and that pleasures last but for a moment , that the one is generous but the other sordid , that the one hath its residence in the soul , but the other in the body , that the one is insatiable , but the other always attended with content . in fine that to affect voluptuousness is to have lost our understanding , and to be more sensual then beasts in making the felicity of rational creatures to consist in pleasures . discourse v. that the goods of fortune cannot make a wise man happy . those that proportion their esteem of things by the rule of gain , and who judg of their value by the pleasure or credit which may arise from them , do wonder that in the stoick schools , vertue only should be valuable , and that honors and wealth which they deem so necessary to humane life , should in their discourses pass for indifferent matters ; they are so wilfully linckt to the interests of the flesh , that they study only to content that , and they would not be thought to be so ignorant of the nature of goodness , as to allow that title to any thing in which the body hath no share . for albeit that vertue have charms sufficient to enamour us , that her beauty invite us to court her , and that the felicity which she promiseth to all her lovers be considerable enough to stir up all men to be her suitors ; yet can they not resolve to seek her , her benefits seem to them not sufficiently splendid to engage their affections , they affect not a mistress whose portion will not set them out in the world , and dispising all the joys that attend the possession of goodness , they have recourse to the benefits of fortune , the better to establish their conceited happiness . morality that examiner general of the price of all things , which stateth so just an equality between our corporal advantages and the goods of fortune , seemeth to favor their conceits , when she promiscuosly confoundeth them with vertue , when she calleth the soveraign and her vassals by one and the same name , when she averreth all gods works to be perfect , and giving an earthly construction to the words of that famous man moses , she bestows the quality of goodness upon all that the creators bounty hath made . so that according to the fancy of these philosophers , the earth hath nothing which bears not the character of perfection in its forehead and if we except sin nature hath nothing , how hurtful soever to us but may be accounted good in their sense . but the stoick philosophy , which is as much elevated above that of aristotle , as the valor of women is beneath the courage of the hero's , alloweth nothing to be good but vertue , she cannot endure that that which countenanceth the vicious in sin , should be called by that name , and that we should serve our selves of that which may be imployed to destroy rather then to promote vertue . most rich men have made themselves guilty by wealth , and those famous criminals that at this day are the shame of their posterity , might have passed for innocent persons , if gold had not executed their wicked designs . if we believe the most learned of the apostles , riches are the root of all evil , and the ruin of all our vertues . it is mony that hath invented all our crimes , taught children to attempt upon the life of their parents , and to procure the death of them that brought them into the world. it was this that shewed the covetous to oppress the innocent , to ruin families , rob the church and make bare her alters . it was this that tempted friends to break their faith , and subjects to sport with princes heads . it was this that furnisht incontinent persons with matter to gratify thier lusts , to deprive women of their chastity , and their husbands of their lives , in fine wealth hath over turned kingdoms , confounded families , and ruined private men. but if gold were not the cause of all this confusion in the world , if innocence were not persecuted by the covetous , and if justice were not corruptible by an insatiable desire of wealth , it would still be fatal to mankind . and to oblige us to disesteem so dangerous a weapon it may suffice to know , that it faileth not either to destroy or to wound us . pride and fear are its inseperable companions : these passions which seem rather to be contrary then different , become agreed to plague the avaricious , and teach these terrestrial souls that they cannot be wealthy without being miserable . for if by means of their treasures , they design to make their houses vie with kings palaces if by gold they procure favor at court , if their enemies become their slaves , and if they share in all those delights that compose the felicities of the happy men of this world , they grow insolent , and extracting vanity from the magnificence of their buildings , the luxury of their aparrel , and the number of their attendants , they are not less injurious to their inferiors , then troublesome to their equals . but if a disgrace surprise them , if fortune cease to cajole them , and if experience teach them that wealth hath wings , that a tyrant may seize their estates , and that fortune , of whom they were borrowed may demand payment when she pleases , they tumble suddenly into fear , their lofty humor is changed into dejection they fear the future by the accidents already befallen them ; and their cares for preservation , swallow up all the delights which before filled them with vanity . riches are so dangerous to man , that he can hardly possess them without guilt , and their use is so seemingly necessary that he cannot easily resolve to quit them for fear of being miserable : his rest is incompatible with the possession of mony , he ceaseth to be satisfied when once he hath attained wealth , and as he knoweth that ambuscades are laid for that metle of which he hath formed his idol , he is no less afraid of the familiarity of his friends , then the power of princes , and the hatred of those that envy his prosperity . he suspects the embraces of her who is in his bosome , the reverend approches of his children puts him into doubts ; and knowing that gold hath caused children and wives to betray their love and obedience to husband and father , he feareth and stands upon his guard to both . they then that seek their content in abundance meet with self chastisements and convinced by the distractions that attend it , they are constrained to acknowledg with the stoicks that a forreign advantage , having no price but what our own fancy gives it , and which cannot be purchased without the loss of our inward peace or our innocence , is not capable of making us happy . as honor is vain , most commonly the recompence of vice , and inseparable from wealth , it must create no wonder if the effect be as empty as the cause , and if she loose that title so often as she forsaketh vertue , to adorn her enemy . the great pomp of princes is not an infallible token of their justice , their actions , which would merit punishment in the person of their subjects , are recorded to their praise ; and if success favor their enterprizes , they never fail of orators to magnify their wisedom turn their crimes into vertues , call their murders victories and their usurpations legitimate conquests . the fighting of a single duel , deserveth chastisement in a private gentleman ; but a king is never more esteemed , then when he sacks whole cities , plunders provinces , depopulates kingdoms , and converteth the most flourishing realms of the earth into enhabitable countries . but without busying my self about mans injustice , and to shew that honor is not always the price of good behaviour , and that she is oftner the portion of crime then the reward of goodness , it is enough to consider that even they which so highly extol her , do confess that she is but a forreign commodity , which is as little at our service as her companion wealth , and that as the one is a dependant of fortune , the other subsisteth in popular opinion , which caused some who had seen the vanity thereof to look out for more solid principles to build honor upon , and finding by experience that so fickle a judg would not be long in love with one and the same thing , they searched the ages past for pillars to support this light structure . observing then that envy raked not in the ashes of their ancestors , that their reputation was no more the babe of chance , that fortune bare reverence to their valor , and men to their memories , they boasted of their birth , they thought the grandeurs of the progenitors would render their off-spring illustrious , and being heires to their wealth they ought to partake in the glory of their actions . they sought for natural reasons to justify these conceits , they maintained that gentility had no less power upon its descendants then yeomandry , and that as the one bequeathed their ruddy complexions to their children ; and as some diseases were hereditary to whole families , the other might lay claim to the honors that had made their predecessors so famous upon earth . but surely these succeeded no better then the former , and if the principles from which they fetch their reasons seem to be less weak then the opinion of an interessed populace , the good they contend for is so little related to the felicity of man , that they cannot assign it the least share without being ignorant of nature . for besides , that nobility hath often her original from the enormity of her ancestors crimes , that those titles of which the sound carrieth so much ▪ awe are most commonly the recompence of homicides or adulteries , and that we find not many men arrived at dignities by law ul ways , nor without suffering a thousand affronts in the obtention : and that gold ( which is the principle of all court sins ) is at this day the creation of dukes , marquises , earles and barons . this advantage of being highly descended hath so little stability , that it often cometh not to the heirs , and causeth persons of quality to own themselves more obliged to fortune for their gentility then to them from whom they received life . we find some parents that cannot reckon any but plebeans among their children , these eagles have yet only brought forth daws ; and although the root were allied to kings and consuls , yet do they dispair that ever their branches will revive the memory of their grandeur . the laws which establish the heirs of families , and often force the father to make his first born master of his revenews , cannot give them the faculty of conveighing gentility to his successors . if nature permit him to love the son , she allows him not the transmission of his fathers honor ; this benefit is above the affection as well as out of the power of the parent : and in vain do some men pretend to the glory of their ancestors , since it was not in their power to bequeath it them . vertue is the only advantage of the nobility , it is she that puts a difference between them and the plough-man and in the judgment of plato , she is the only inheritance which they may purchase to themselves without obligation to fortune . all those pictures and figures that adorn the closets and gallaries of princes , all those combats they set forth with so much art , all those generals which are represented at the head of victorious armies , and all the pomp wherewith their triumphs are accompanied create no nobles : those great men did not live for our honor . death that terminated their conquests , hath preserved their praises , and it is vertue must make us their heirs before we lay claim to their honors : what ever hath preceded us is not ours , and we cannot lawfully covet a benefit which is the fruit of their valor , and not the testimonial of our own deserts . discourse vi. that vertue alone maketh a wise man happy . in my opinion seneca never shews less of partiality then when he condemneth his enemies , and without transgressing the law of nations , he becomes judg in his own cause , his sentences are so just , and his decrees so equitable that no appeal can lie without violation to truth . for as no man is willing to make the price of his peace the purchase of his happiness , and as they who aspire after felicity , aim at matters of real content , and not at bare appearances that seduce or corrupt us , it followeth that corporal advantages are too fickle to stay our desires , and that the favors of fortune are too inconstant or defective to satisfy our minds , that vertue only is the ultimate end , that it is she that is able to satiate our hopes , and that what ever is not of intelligence with her is not to be admitted into the composition of a permanent happiness . his principles are so manifest , and his arguments so solid , that they are not to be opposed without offending the justice of the cause he pleadeth for . every one desires to live happily , and makes it his business to arrive at a condition that may fully answer his hopes : but as men commonly suffer themselves to be surprized with vulgar errors , and as the maximes of the world become the rules of their actions ; we must not wonder if they never attain the felicity they erroniously hunt after , if for the most part they go astray from the proposed end , and if they tumble into calamity when they expected the height of happiness : they are always so unfortunate in their choice , as to pursue the shadow for the substance : they are deceived by the gay things that surround her and more unhappy then the poet 's tantalus , they stray from the good they seek , and fly from the felicity they pursue . for whereas the fairest fruit of a happy life , is the tranquillity of the mind , and a confidence which the sincerity of our conscience gives us , they aspire after goods that disturb her rest , they wish for honors that streighten their liberty , they desire riches which torment them , and by an inexcusable error they take the causes of their disquiet to be part of the effects of their greatest happiness . they do acknowledg that to be vertuous is sufficient to secure us from misery , that this excellent quality which distinguisheth wise men from fools , is their fortress against the accidents of fortune , and that they need but temperance to be triumphant over voluptuousness , and courage to oppose the mischances that assault them , yet can they not be perswaded that vertue alone can make them happy , they distrust her power as well as her merit , and affirm that a quality whose habitation is only in the soul , and hath no trading with the matter can make but the one half of a felicity . they will have the body satisfyed as well as the mind , that pleasures shall never be from it , that ease maintain its comlyness , that it equally share with the soul in joy , and would think themselves ignorant of the nature of their chief good , if they brought not into the composition the advantages of simonides , the delights of epicurus , and the honors of periander . to the stoicks it is not hard to oppose this opinion , and their reply is so rational , that to judg of the clearness of their cause and the weakness of their enemies it is sufficient to hear them speak , for as these excellent men own no good but vertue , and set no esteem but upon the operations of mans more noble part , they prize not the advantages that are forreign to him , the pomp and delights that attend them attract not their admiration , as they know that the flesh agrees not with the spirit , they would be ashamed to confer the priviledges of a soveraign upon a slave , that warreth against her . they assert with much reason , that it s not possible to be made happy by what we possess not , that a benefit to make a man happy , must be in his power , and that felicity depends so much on our will , that we may bestow it upon our selves when we please . for how can a man place his happiness in works which are not his own ? magnify himself in treasures that fortune may pull from him ? and draw vanity from honors , which subsist rather in them that pay , then in them to whom they are paid . but vertue , that 's within him , she is the only advantage he possesseth : and if we may use the words of senecas enemies to confirm this truth , she is the sole benefit that will not forsake him when he hath lost his children , when death hath ravisht his friends , when ruin hath defaced his pleasant seats and when oppression or tyranny hath seized his revenues . what ever belongs not to him is subject to loss ; philosophy allows nothing to be permanent but the possession of this ; that fortune which bruiseth scepters in the hands of kings , spares her empire , and this blind fantastick which takes pleasure in reducing the gods of the earth to the condition of the meanest bondmen , hath not yet bin able to make her miserable . but as she is the whole felicity of her lovers , she wills that they be satisfyed with her delights only , and permits them not by courting of outward appearances to turn those things , which may divert her love , into objects of their affections . to speak truely all the things which we love with so much passion , have nothing of certainty but the miseries that attend them : the toil and labours we undergo to obtain them , the fear of their loss after such troublesome acquisition , the cares we employ to secure them , the grief we resent when they are taken from us , are not so much the evidence of our wants , as of their own malignity , and it is not less easie to resolve , whether poverty with its incommodities , be more supportable then abundance , with all its inseparable torments . but vertue is a benefit as solid as delightful , her favors are above fortunes reach , and although she despise the wealth of the avaricious , the pride of the ambitious , and the pastimes of the incontinent , she doth nevertheless satisfy the desires of all her real suitors . she is their happiness as well as their glory ; the excellency of vertue needs no off-sets , and she is so jealous of her lovers , that she will not admit their addresses to any thing else when once they have chosen her for their mistress . for if she alone make not a wise man happy , and if any thing else can be found in nature to dispute her title and quality , who should resolve to love her , since a man must often put himself in great hazard to obtain her ? who would be faithful to her , since she rejects what we esteem , and cannot inrich us but by teaching us to be poor ? those alliances which are so essential to governments to preserve them in peace , and so useful to families to maintain their concord , would be burthensome to men if any doubt could be put upon that principle of vertue , the shepheards would drive her from their huts , as well as kings from their court , and remembring that friendships are often contracted by the loss of the goods of the body and of fortune , they would cast off a vertue that instead of procuring them benefits strips them naked ; strength would be odious to conquerors , she who hath so often trampled upon the subdued world might complain of the want of assistants , and though she be powerful enough to attract admirers , few would be encouraged to fight battels , or attack the enemy at the hazard of their lives and fortunes . gratitude would be vexatious , if we were to exercise it at the loss of our estates : and she who teacheth us that it is more glory to give then to receive , would cease to be our delight , if opinion could perswade us , that that which we return is part of the good deed , that we must beggar our selves to make satisfaction to the good offices of a friend , and that the same vertue which raised us that friend , is not sufficient to acknowledg his favors . but to stay no longer about raising the price of vertue above the goods of the body and of fortune , who sees not that man is too generous a creature to lodg his felicity in such perishable commodities , and which cannot establish him in their possession without making him the most unhappy of all created beings ? for if he believe that to live contented he must feed himself with delicate meats , and seek wherewith to awaken his dull appetite in the diversity of messes , the beasts that brouze the grass of the field will in nothing give way to him , they eat with more delight then he , they tast the superfluities of the earth with more pleasure , then do the gourmandizers of ragousts and admirable sauces , and that hunger which seldom forsakes them , makes all they eat delightful . if he will imagin that to be happy , he must swim in fleshly delights , and turn voluptuousness top-side-turvy to find matter wherewith to divert his sensualities the savage creatures have the advantage of him , and take in pleasure with more delight then he . the use they make of it is not seconded with repentance or shame , and as their desires are more regular then ours , they perform the acts of nature without weakning themselves , and beget their like , scarce loosing any of their own substance . but if man will place his glory in the perfections of his body , and will conclude that the benefit of his senses contributeth to his felicity , he will be constrained to acknowledg that the irrational creatures are therein more excellent then he . the sight is more peircing in eagles , the tast more faithful in monkies , the feeling more delicate in spiders , and the smell more certain in the vulture . to make judgment then of the dignity of a man , the way is not to enquire if he ransack sea and land to adorn his table , if his meats be curioussy cooked if he be served in gold and crystal , and if all the objects that knock at the doors of his senses afford him delight . if he can sum up princes for his kindred and alliances , if he be commander of divers countries , if he be as potent at court as powerful in his own house , and if his name be no less famous abroad then among his neighbours . but whether he be vertuous , whether the purity of his conscience be the effect of that chearfullness which appeareth in his countenance , and whether he hath not any affections but what are conformable to nature and reason . these two guides are so faithful that he cannot stray by following them , and that vertue which they lead us to , is of her self so rich that the possession of her is alone sufficient to vie advantages with the nobility , empires with monarchs , wealth with avaricious persons , and pleasures with voluptuous men. for it is she that draws us towards our maker , that restores us to our ancient dignities , that leads to the principle from whence we proceeded , and that after we have learned to be his imitators here upon earth , will make us his friends in heaven . discourse vii . that the moral vertues of the heathen are not criminal . nothing is more natural to man then the desire of knowledg , it is the first passion that occupies his soul ; fooles are attainted with it as well as the wise , and he that should go about to cure all that are sick of this disease , would reduce them to a worse condition then they that are deaf and blind . for it is knowledg that teacheth men arts and sciences , that entertaineth learned men with the miracles of nature , that disabuseth the ignorant of their errors , and stirs up philosophers to the discovery of truths which they knew not . but she is so unsteady and her humor hath so little coherence with the objects she hunts after , that she makes game of all she meets with and she is so violent in her pursuits , that no man hath yet been seen that was able to resist her fury . it is a worm that gnaweth in every ones brain , an itch that ( without respect of persons ) tormenteth both the wicked and the vertuous , a sickness that unites joy and sorrow in the person of them that have it , and he that knoweth her nature will confess , that nothing is more common in the world then this distemper , we find nothing more unjust , nothing more insatiable : she undertakes voiages and runs over all the earth , to find out some novelty , she takes upon her to know the secrets of nature , and to unfold by what artifice this common mother bringeth forth gold in the indies , by what vertue she hardeneth water into crystal , and converts the dew of heaven into pearles , by what means the adamant attracts the needle with one side , and expulseth with the other , and that being bruised in peices it preserveth a quadrangular figure , and hath on each side a different vertue . she ascends the heavens without the mediation of evil spirits , there she examines how the sun forms the measure of time , how he divides the seasons ▪ and proportioneth his circular motions ; she contriveth perspectives to discern his magnitude , she draws him to a descent that she may look into the matter whereof he is made , and without fear of being singed with his heat , or blinded with his brightness , she climbeth his globe to judg of his nature . we find men now adays so curious that they reverse the method of time to satisfy their desire of novelties , they rise by night to lay wait for the moon in her course , her borrowed light is not without charms powerful enough to attract their affections : and though the poets make her the mistress of rest , she becomes often the tormentor of astrologers and curious persons ; they descry clouds in her , which ( if you believe these ingenious artists ) are nothing less then new worlds , wherein they describe cities , provinces , and governments , and without giving themselves the trouble of telling us which of the apostles preached the gospel there , whether the roman pontiff be head of the church in those worlds , whether the spirit and water compose their baptism as they do ours , they multiply temples and form a communion of our saints with those planetary inhabitants . this diligent curiosity admitteth of some pardon , because she hurts only such as give way to her surprisals , they are tormented by the same vanity by which they were tempted and it may be said that the error and blindness that attend it , are the cure of an evil of which they were the cause . but we find some men , who daring to act the petty gods , are curious in nothing but the discovery of other mens faults , all their study tends to the sounding of their neighbours conscience , they descend to the depth of their souls to peep into their designs , and prouder then the evil angels , they prie into the secrets of that court whereof god hath reserved the knowledg to himself alone , although they are ignorant themselves yet will they judg of other mens intentions , notwithstanding they are slaves to their own passions , their reasons must be admitted for the pure doctrin of the gospel , and setting up a heathenish vertue of their own inventing , they unworthily confound it with the crimes and sins of christians . if i am no molinist , if i confess that i understand not that competent or midway knowledg by him found out , if i boldly assert the uncontrolable freedom of the creator in all his operations , if i own no other knowledg in him but what had the ancient divines for approbators , if i cannot endure that his power should be rendred weak or imperfect , and that it should be made dependant on second causes in its working , yet do i not therefore approve all the doctrin of his adversaries : they are too rigid in most of their opinions to invite me into their party ; and how much soever they are flattered in the justice of their cause , let them protest that they undertake but to discover the confusion that sin hath wrought man into , and the necessity of the grace of jesus christ to restore him : they seem to me too severe when they at once pass the sentence of condemnation upon all good works of the heathen , and allow none to be upright or sincere but such as proceed from faith. for if vertue be nothing more then a habitude acquired by multiplied acts of reason , and if reason be a law of god imprinted in our hearts , who shall believe that man becometh guilty in following this guid ? that he merits chastisements by living according to his instructions ? & that vertue , who is always innocent , should be nothing different from vice , for not being elevated by faith , and justified by the grace of the son of god ? sin may have ravisht our original righteousness , but it hath not been able to rob us of natural purity ; if it were potent enough to corrupt our nature , it was not sufficiently powerful to destroy it ; and if he that committed the first crime were absolutely able to bring all his children into that revolt , he may boast of not having made so many guilty as unhappy successors . the sickness they have contracted , hinders not the performance of healthy actions , we may exercise vertue though we be fallen from our excellency , we may love god , although we be born his enemies , and as birds do walk though their wings be clipt , we may perform actions that are good according to nature , although not meritorious without grace . the example of the patriarcks is of this a convincing proof , their life was pleasing to god , although they were guilty of their fathers crime , they became his friends without any reconciliation , they eschewed evil before the sacraments had healed their wounds , and to speak after the language of the great doctor of the gentiles , they observed his commands before they knew any of his laws . to speak properly all christian instructions are but so many commentaries upon their lives , which being written for our learning , we become vertuous by imitating their actions : if holy men have taught us piety , it hath been by consulting these primitive doctors , and even in st. austins opinion , that vertue which renders to every one his due is not so much the effect of opinion , as the product of nature and conscience , we can tell what vertue is before we are taught it , and we have an abhorrance of vice though we never saw its deformities . when god almighty commanded man the observance of his laws , he made use of termes so plainly simple that the casuists are at their arts end about the explication thereof , it was enough to give us the knowledg of his will without adding the reason of it , he knew it to be a sufficient justification of his decrees against the transgressor to say thou shalt not kill , and thou shalt not commit adultery , for the law of nature prohibiting impudicity and homicide , he employs but few words in the publication of the two most important of his commandments . when cain had persued the criminal tract of his fathers offence , when he had committed the first murder upon his brothers person and when passion had armed him with weapons to bereave him of life , whom by the law of nature he was bound to love and cherish , the scripture observes that he was both witness and judg against himself , that he condemned himself to death before he was accused , his crime became both his punishment and tormentor : and without having yet received any written law forbidding parricide , he confesseth that his sin was too great to be pardoned . as the law of nature is not one thing in those first men , and another in the heathen ; as both one and the other are governed by the same principles , and as conscience is a faithful indifferent judg in both , they condemn sin and approve its contrary , they are dejected after a crime committed , and rejoyce in well doing , they know that the one estrangeth them from god , and that by the other they draw nigh unto him , and without having any other guide then reason , they know by the end proposed to themselves the innocence or guilt of their actions . if then all their vertues were false , and if all their good works were real sins , i do not see why they should not indifferently afflict themselves in the commission of vice and the practising of vertue , why they should not complain that being created free agents , they are constrained to commit offences against their will , that they are made guilty for observing the law of nature , and that they are condemned to everlasting punishments for succouring their neighbor , serving their country , for taking armes in defence of a good cause , and putting their lives in hazard to prevent the ravishing of women , the robbing of the fatherless , and the oppression of the innocent . this doctrin seemeth so rational to them that maintain it , that they judg it needless to borrow any arguments from divines to make out the truth of it , and if the council of trent had not censured the contrary opinion , it were more then sufficient to shew that jesus christ delivers it to his apostles , and gives it authority by his gospel , that all christians might be obliged to imbrace it . when he teacheth his disciples how to walk amongst the pharisees , he exhorts them to follow their instructions : though he condemn their practice , he directs them to esteem their doctrin , though he forbid : them the imitation of their manners , and invites them to reverence their precepts , though he charge their actions with a thousand reproaches . as we commend the vertue of an enemy , and prefer a publique good above a private hatred , he distinguisheth their good works from their sins , he approves their vertues and detests their vices , and putting a difference between the works of god , and the practice of vicious men , he commends the words that proceed from their mouth , and blames the hidden malice of their hearts , and the scandal which they caused unto others . this truth is so constant , that to consult the ancient fathers , is sufficient to confirm her adherents in their belief ; and though st. austin seem to be of a different sentiment , yet in many parts of his writings he forbeareth not to approve it . he ascribes the flourishing of rome's common wealth to the justice of her laws ; he asserts that the uprightness of her subjects had subdued more enemies then the courage of her commanders , that they possest the most famous empire of the world as the reward of their vertues ; and that though god would not make them the companions of angels in heaven , because they were infidels , yet he gave them the command of the whole earth , because they were vertuous . when he writes to marcellus , he declares himself openly to be of their party : he delights in representing to him the price of civil vertues , since they attract such glorious rewards : he assures us they are not criminal , since they may be admitted to honors in heaven ; and that being christianized by the powerful excellency of faith , they translate their lovers to the franchisement of that city whose soveraign is truth , whose law is love , and whose duration is eternity . these two places discover his thoughts ; and who ever shall well examine his words will confess that he mixeth the vertues of the romans with their sins , because they had no regard to the glory of god , and that they proposed ends to themselves , which for the most part were faulty and unlawful . i know that in his opinion , that act cannot be holy which is not accompanied with charity ; that all the good inclinations we have for commendable things cannot make us truely vertuous , if they be not informed by grace , and that nature and reason must implore the celestial succours , if they will perform works worthy of eternal glory . nevertheless i cannot conceive how that all who walk not in these steps should become guilty , that a man should be accounted disobedient to his maker without transgressing his laws , and that without being accused by his own coscience , he should justly be condemned to those torments that are only the portion of sinners and wicked men . if all these reasons be not prevalent enough to convince a jansenist he will at least hereby be obliged to acknowledg that it is not so much an error as an incivility , not to be of his opinion , and that that which hath been examined by the most skilful divines , approved by the most famous academia's of europe , and authorized by a councel , may be written without danger , and maintained without fear of being charged as factious . the second treatise of the nature of passions in general ; discourse i. what the nature of passions is , and in what faculty of the soul they reside . that self love which caused so strange a disorder among the angels in heaven , which separated the first man from his creator in the terrestrial paradice , and which taught his descendants to aspire to the soveraignty of their fellow creatures in other parts of the world , appeared in nothing more artificial then in the dividing of philosophers , in distinguishing their opinions and wills , and that after they had all retained one and the same inclination ; for truth caused them to betake themselves to divers ways to find her out . if truth be a common mistress if she yeild to all that court her , and if as the sun , she enlighten all that come into the world , yet self love cannot indure that all men should seek her by one and the same method , it debaucheth the minds of its suitors , and begets quarrels amongst them about her nature , and though it be not less blind then unjust in its conclusions it permits us not to follow any other advices for the discovery of truth , then our own . aristotle had never abandoned his masters party , if he had not been preoccupied by this passion ; and all those philosophers which at this day toil to prove his doctrin , would be silent , or would speak but one and the same language , if this monster ( self love ) had not invented specious terms to explain his meaning and establish his fond imaginations . all those sects that are daily brooded , are but sprouts of that self complaisance , and the gospel which containeth so many misteries under the plain simplicity of words , would at this day have none but poets for interpreters , if pride had not corrupted some male-contents , and put the pen into the hand of some ( i know not what to call them ) ignorant men , to mangle and disguise the sense thereof . we delight so much in self opinion that no mans judgment is valuable but ours , and truth it self is unpleasant to us even in the mouth of our friends , if it be not cloathed after our fashion , and obstinated by passion that blinds us , we admire only our own conceipts , and will esteem no opinions but our own . few or none are willing to be accompted , ignorant every one aspires to the contrary quality , we strive rather to be knowing then vertuous ; and socrates that spent his life in observing the different inclinations of men had some reason to say , that if in a multitude we should only call for the artists by the calling they profest , none would appear but those of that profession , but that if the judicious and prudent should be summoned to come forth , there would be none of the assembly but would hold up his head . self conceipt is so natural to man , that it may be said to be inseparable . this quality is the principle of all his actions ; he always contemplates himself with great delight , and if interest oblige him sometimes to reflect on the vertue of his neighbour with a disguised admiration , we are assured that he considereth his own parts with perfect satisfaction . this truth appeareth evidently in the present subject every one defines the faculties of the soul according to his fancy . all those different idea's thereof formed in the writings of modern authors , are no less the proofs of the diversity of their designs , then of their opinions ; and that matter which hath been most examined in the schools is at this day the most intricate and unknown . some have thought that passion was not so much the act of the soul as of the sensitive appetite , that she was partaker with the cause from whence she proceeded , that she stirred it not up , and that she was not at mans command but so far as the acts that occasioned it depended upon his will. to confirm this their opinion , they confounded voluptuousness with the operations of the angelical matter ; they say , that the one works the other to perfection ; that pleasure was always the companion of her labors ; and that passions being ever busied in the disturbance of her rest , could not properly be comprized under the notion of action . others , whom i esteem not more plausible , but because they teach a doctrin more common , describe passion by the effects she produceth : they attribute the alterations of countenance in them that are under her subjection , to her violent proceedings ; they will have it that the soul is not less agitated when she fears and is afflicted , then when she loves and hopeth , and that men make not a different construction of one and the same thing , and one man of another but because they are animated by different affections . in fine , they conclude passion to be nothing else but an emotion of the sensitive appetite , excited by the apprehension of good or evil which chiefely busieth it self in disturbing the body contrary to the laws of nature . if this definition be common , if all philosophers allow it , and if all aristotles disciples engage to defend the principles thereof , yet methinketh it may be rejected without offence to its authority , and it ought not to be thought strange , that being of the roman philosophers judgment , i abandon the grecians party , to maintain the opinion of the stoicks . for as i hold with them , that passions are not natural to man , that sense and opinion are the causes thereof , and that their abode is rather in the will then in the imagination , i must of necessity forsake his doctrin and ( against my humor betray my own sentiments ) to continue faithful to the most puissant enemy of that only philosopher that in other things i honor . passion then in stoick terms , is nothing else but a violent motion of the soul against reason , caused by the apprehension of good or evil contrary to the inclination of nature . i say that it is a motion that violently assaults our reason ; for although passion perform its last act in the will , although it have its conception in the reasonable faculty , and may in some sort be called by her mothers name , yet for that the principle is corrupted by opinion , and this soveraign seduced by her unfaithful senses , the school of the stoicks have commanded her to forgo that quality , and to bear the name of natures enemy , and reasons bastard . she works a change which is against natures laws : for as this common mother is constant in all her actions , her productions regular , and brings forth nothing but what is as perfect as useful to her children , so she abhors all debaucheries , she rejects all those motions that war against her inclinations , and she cannot endure to have succors assigned her that deprave her workmanship , and conspire her disorder or her ruin . as this definition is different from that of other philosophers , and as the fidelity that i have vowed to the stoicks obligeth me to abandon their opinions , it must not be wondered if i consent not to them in the cause from whence passions do arise , and if , after i have discovered them to be of no use to vertue , i consider them as the depravations of the mind and the will. for if the residence of passions as most modern philosophers will have it , be in the meaner part of the soul , and that the imagination only informed by the species she draws from the senses , stirs up the sensitive appetite ; i do not see how a man could afflict himself for the loss of his honors , and inrage himself for the ruin of a benefit which the senses perceive not ; and that before passion can make a man take resolutions of vengeance his mind must represent the matter to him as infamous , and the will abhor it as injurious to his person . there is such a subordination in the faculties of the soul , that the inferiors seldom or never stir but according to the motion of the superiors : and as souldiers obey their commanders , or as the higher sphear is followed by all them that are subalterne ; so reason and the will engage the sensitive appetite to side with them , and cause it to embrace all as good , which they approve , and to reject all as evil which they condemn . so then we must conclude with seneca that passions reside in the will , it is there that all the operations of the soul are perfected ; and the same powers which form our sins & crimes , comprehend our affections and desires . for by the principles of this learned philosopher , our passions are not bare motions that arise from the appearance of good or evil which receive their succors from the imagination , and finally stop in the inferior part of the soul ; but productions of the mind , sentiments of the rational faculty , and , to use the stoick language , opinions that deprave the mind and corrupt the will , perswading them to be approvers of their advices , and to follow their irregular motions . also st. austin , who i look upon in this matter as senecas warrant , intermixeth our passions with our rational appetite , he giveth but one name to the cause and to the effects , and well knowing that we have no passion but what is in the will , he assures us that the most dangerous motions of the soul , are but so many affections which draw their good or their evil from the objects to which they have respect , our desire , according to the words of this great doctor , is nothing but a will to an absent good which we pursue with much earnestness , our hope is but a will to a good that flatters us and which we impatiently expect , and fear and sadness are but wills , of which the one opposeth the evil that threatens us , and the other the mischief which we already feel , contrary to our good liking . so that the matter must get into the will before a man can be said to be in passion ; and pleasure could never seize our wishes if the will were not consenting ; neither would our desires make such extravagant fallies out of the fort , if the will did not bear them company in the pursuit of the benefits we hunt after . upon the authority of this great man , i think it can be no error to declare for the stoick party ; and their enemies are obliged to allow their sentiments unless they will contradict the opinion of the most solid and most enlightened of the fathers . discourse ii. of the number of passions according to the stoicks . let monarchs be absolute in their territories , let their orders in council pass for laws ; and let the publication of their edicts be sufficient to require obedience in the subjects , let flattery perswade them that they are the gods of the world , that they hold their power from no earthly soveraign ; and that the dominion they exercise over the people is nothing less then the mark of their independance ; yet those that understand the nature of goverment consider them rather as slaves then free-men , they call them the tutors , not masters of their subjects , and demonstrate , that as private interest rules the fathers of families , that which we call publick , commands kings and potentates . for indeed , be it that they treat with their neighbours , be it that they assist their allies , be it that they govern peacably their conquests , be it that they defend them that implore their protection , and take up armes to relieve the oppressed from tyranny , and the innocent from distress , self interest is the end of their labors as well as the aime of their designs , and when they prefer the good of their subjects or the preservation of their neighbours before their own private contentment , it may be said that the same is but a tendency to the encrease of their empire , or at least to the securing of their own kingdoms . that which is practized at court is but the constant exercise of the schools ; and cicero's testimony of philosophical affaires is significant , when he declares that to govern well , kings should become philosophers or philosophers kings . for if these be truth's combatants , if they lay new foundations , if they form new arguments wherewith to establish the most probable methods , if they return to the principles which they had once forsaken , and if by a liberty permitted in the schools , they invent new explications to disguise the sense of their adversaries meaning ; they are rather governed by interest then the incitements of justice , they seek not so much to instruct the world as to be admired of men , they labor more to glorifie their own fame , then to edifie their disciples . when they declaim against the reasons that support the doctrin of their predecessors , it is that they hope for reputation from the novelty of their opinions , or heighten their own credit by vanquishing the sentiments of their teachers and antagonists . this truth appears evident in the subject of passions , and if we examin well the design of those that describe them , it must be owned that they are divided among themselves touching their number : those that find it their advantage to engage with aristotle , and rather to leane upon his authority , then upon the strength of his arguments endeavor to perswade us that they are in number eleven , that nothing is to be added to or diminished from that division , and that they are not to be multiplyed without mixture of superior species , nor retrencht without wrong to their diversity . to ground their opinion , they seperate the soul into two faculties , whereof one draws her name from desire , and the other from anger . in the first they place those passions that are least violent , and in the other them that are never at rest . for they will have it that the six contained in the concupiscible appetite are divided , that some are but little employed and others active , that some are sordid , and others generous , that some wander abroad , and the other satisfied with their domestick entertainments . in fine they tell you that love follows the inclination of the body which tendeth to his center , that desire is the moveing orbe , and that joy represents him a place of content and rest , that hatred resembles that aversion which he discovers , when he is placed in an uneasy condition ; that flight imitates those earnest endeavors used to get out of trouble and danger , and that sadness respects the dislike that appears upon a violent detention therein . but they inform us that the five passions that are placed in the irascible powers , are all impetuous , resembling the heavens , ever in motion , that they create combats and scorn to retreat , and that as they look upon good and evil as difficult , they can delight in nothing but agitation , nor love any thing less then rest . the truth is dispair is wretched , anger is out rageous , hope is negligent of the things she possesseth in aspireing to what she expects , fear runs to meet the evil , afflicts it self before it come , and audacity finds its divertisement in peril and dangers . they divide all these different qualities , and establish their number according to the diversity of their objects . for say they when the soul moves she has generally good or evil for her object , and that begets love or hatred : she either considereth them particularly as absent , and that 's desire or present , and that 's joy or pleasure . when the evil she hates , makes her already feel his incommodities , they commonly call it dolor , or else vexation : and when he 's absent and though remote enough yet producing horror , they change his name into that of flight . then if good be her object and she find it uneasie to acquire , and that maugre all the difficulties that surround it , she promise her self the possession , they name it hope , when she sincks under the evils that attack her , they give it a contrary title , and call it despaire . when the mischief she judgeth hard to repulse , torments her , and when she bustles to overcome it , they call it anger ; and when it barely threatens and the soul employs her dexterity to prevent or give it battel , it assumes the name of fear or audacity . some others who are indebted to vain glory for their eloquence , or to the affection they bear st. austin for straying from the common opinion of philosophers acknowledg but one passion , they assure us that love only is the disturber of our quiet , and that our pleasures our paines , our fears and wishes , our hopes and despaires , are but so many different shapes which love assumes when he feels an evil or swims in content ; when he pursues what delights him , or fears what is contrary to him , and when he promiseth himself some felicity , or looseth the fancy of obtaining it . although i have a venerable value for the favourers of this opinion , and that the reasons wherewith they lay their foundation be sufficiently solid to command my esteem , yet it seemeth to me as if they had not throughly examined the nature of love , when they make him the author of despair and hatred , when they imagin that the most generous of our passions should become the fountain of the most timorous and violent : and that how ever they cannot make flight and anger bear the name of love , without confounding the cause with its effects . for as love is a disposition of the soul , resideing in the will , and as sorrow and fear , desire and hope are passions of the inferior part of the soul , that immediately or mediately are loves attendants ; i think according to the rigor of reasoning we ought not to give them the same name , and that it is to injure the most noble of our passions , to bestow his characters upon those wild and savage effects that have no coherence with his nature . but without staying to contend this opinion , and to shun the uncertainties that arise from peripatetick divisions and to avoid the incumbrances that enclose the unity of other modern instructors , i conclude with st. hierom , that there are but four principal passions which comprehend all the rest , of which some have respect unto good and evil as present , to wit pleasure and grief , and the two other as absent , namely fear and desire . this distinction is not hard for them to prove who place aversion and despair under fears , and who for avoyding multiplication in unnecessary matters , reduce hope audacity and anger under desire . all the difficulty that can arise from this division , is that it seemeth lame , that it comprehends not all the motions of the soul ; and that by the distribution thereof made by this doctrin , the two fountains love and hatred , have no share in those great agitations . this objection that in aristotle's judgment hath so much seeming weight , concludes nothing in the opinion of seneca , and it may suffice them that hold too violently with aristotle , to know that love and hatred are not so much passions of our soul , as natural inclinations and aversions which we have for good and evil in general . these sentiments are so powerfully ingrafted in our soul ; that it is not possible to divorce them ; we are carried to what is good by motion of nature alone , and we abhor what is evil , without being thrust from it otherwise then by the inclination we naturally have to preserve our selves . the will it self , as much a soveraign as she is in her operations , works according to nature when she tends to her own perfection ; she ceaseth to be indifferent when she regards her chiefest good , and in the opinion of the witty doctor when she respects her felicity , she is no more at liberty then a heavy body that runs to its center , or then beasts that hasten to the springs of water when they are thirsty . it is true that she indeed is absolute in her dominion , she can suspend her motion when the imagination offers her a pleasing object , and she can shun or embrace a thing for which the mind hath conceived an aversion . but then this good which she seeks must be peculiar , and rather her divertisement then her felicity : for if her glory consist in it , she steers to that by a natural motion , she approves it without choice , and she loves it without having it in her power to make election . thus may we exercise reason upon the subjects of love and hatred , and assert that they are not so much passions of the soul as impulsions of nature , which engage us to pursue that which is good , and fly from its contrary . discourse iii. that passions are not natural to man. plato , who seeks truth among poetical fables , and draws the strongest of his arguments from the most wild fancies of the ancients , doth , in my opinion , at no time more dexterously oppose the impiety or sordidness of that age , than when he renders vertue a stranger to mankind , engaging socrates to dispute her advantages with his jupiter , and proves that she is not so much the portion of heaven or of nature , as the daughter of the mind and the will. his discourse is shaped according to the ordinary proceedings of the world , and the same maxims that preserve kingdoms and states , justifie his reasons , and confirm his doctrine : for if vertue , saith he , be natural , and the country where we are born , or the climate under which we live , be sufficient to make us vertuous , rewards in common-wealths are idle things , the commendations given to them that deserve them are unjust , and all the laurels and crowns wherewith the heads of conquerours and kings are adorned , will not be so much the testimonials of their justice or valour , as the marks of their nature and good fortune . from whence he concludes , that vertues are voluntary , that they owe their birth to practice , and that perseverance which endureth grief , and laughs at fortune , is the chief principle . though passions be opposed to vertues , and their humour rather contrary than different , though some are insolent , and others modest , some irregular , and others innocent , some contend to subject the soul to the body , and others to make the body servant to the mind ; yet they proceed from one and the same spring . vertues and passions have one common mother , and though they have different objects when they are agitated , their birth is nevertheless from one and the same faculty of the soul : for to joyn the strengh of reason to the authority of this great philosopher , and not to undervalue the ingenuity of his logick for proof of a moral conclusion , if passions were born with us , and if nature taught us to desire and fear , to grieve and to rejoyce , we must of necessity infer , that all these motions are good , that we may follow them wheresoever they lead us , and that we cannot err in treading the steps of a guide , who instructs us no less in particular than in our general actions . now the peripateticks confess that they are neither good nor bad , that they are capable of good or evil , and that they may serve as well to vice as vertue : it must be then concluded that they are not ingrafted upon our soul , since they violently oppose the works of nature , since they make war upon her inclinations , and seldom form any enterprise but to corrupt or destroy her . nature is so regular in all her productions , that she brings forth nothing superfluous , she abhors monsters no less than excesses , and when her prodigies come to light , which cause so much astonishment in the minds of men , it may be said that she is rather passive than active ; indeed where shall we find any thing of excess in the creation ? this sage mother is determined in her operations , she produceth nothing but by limitations as just as necessary , and if we often find inventions , or take up customs to exceed , it is when we become tyrannical or rebellious . but passions delight in excess , the bounds prescribed us by reason irritate them ; foreign aids must be called in to stay their disorders , and if virtue be not employed to vanquish or tame them , we should see nothing in the world more monstrous and frightful than a man possessed by those evil spirits . as the juris periti account that law unjust which is not common , that a prince would offend against equity if he made not his edicts universal , and that those commands are to be had in jealousie wherein the legislator doth not indifferently tie all his subjects . philosophers hold that nature ought to be common , that she ought to be equally distributed to all men , and that as the reasonable soul is intire in all the body , and undivided in each part , she ought also to communicate her perfections and infirmities to all the nations upon earth : mean while we find some persons subject to passions which others know nothing of , and of so many men as are contained in a province or state , few shall we see that are agitated by one and the same motions . ambition which tyrannizeth over conquerours is not the plague of all mankind ; if some are found to aspire to grandeurs , we see others that despise them ; if some hunt after honours , others have them in derision ; and if some will reign over their fellow creatures , others find their content in obedience : the hunger of wealth is not the passion of a whole city ; some citizens fill their coffers , but there are others that draw vanity from expence : gain renders not every man avaritious , and if some amongst them build all their hopes upon their treasures , we find others of them that take pride in their disdain . envy is not so much a contagion as a peculiar evil ; if some persons have been observed to make war upon vertue , we have seen whole nations that have built her temples , and orators that have presented her with elogies . as powerful as love is , he hath not yet been able to subdue an intire kingdom , the most perfect beauties have gained but few lovers , and those faces that have thrown so many flames into the hearts of generals of armies , were not able to touch the affections of their souldiers . now if all these perturbations of the soul were natural , they would be found equally in all men ; the objects and the sense would not make a different impression upon their imagination , as these two causes are necessarily active , they would every where propuce the same effects . 't is then an error , saith seneca , to imagine that passions are born with us , and that these children of opinion proceed from the marriage of the soul with the body . nature hath not allyed us to vice , she may boast of having brought us forth vertuous , though we were conceived in sin , the greatest part of our disorders ow birth to our education ; and when passions seduce our judgments or deprave our will , it must be said that they follow not so much her inclinations as our evil manners . we impute them to nature because we despair of cure , and fancy them to be necessary in as much as they favour our crimes , excuse our errors , and authorize our injustice . to support all these truths it 's needless to make pillars of seneca's inductions , or to draw maxims from aristotles reasons which confirm them , it is sufficient only to consider man in himself , to judg that passions are forreigners , and to teach us from the generosity of his nature how great an enemy he is to them . for what is there of a more quiet nature than man , and what more furious than love ? this famous tyrant takes force from all things that oppose his designs , difficulties encourage him , impossibilities encrease his impatience , that modesty which preserves the chastitity of women redoubles his strength , and that council or reason which ought to regulate or allay his fury , renders him obstinate in his pursuit . man is a lover of rest , and audacity finds its contentment in turbulence ; the one submits to the conduct of prudence , and the other is governed by temerity , the one seeks to avoid enmity , and the other takes pride in creating of adversaries , and the one delights in things facile to acquire , and the other engageth in nothing but matters difficult or impossible to compass . nothing upon earth is more affable than man , and nothing do we observe more savage than anger ; it is a fury that breaths nothing but vengeance , a plague that throws division among friends , and a monster , who more cruel than the tyger and panther turns his weapons upon himself , when he cannot force satisfaction for injuries done him . compassion , which seems so sutable to mans disposition , is not less troublesom to his rest than anger , she afflicts him with evils that touch him not , she makes the chastisements of the vicious his punishment ; she looks upon the suffering , and considers not the crime , and more unjust than hatred , she would bribe justice ( if possible ) to deliver the guilty person and the murtherer from his sword. in fine , passions are mans domestick enemies , and unfaithful souldiers , who , undertaking to defend him and keep him in action , trouble his government , abolish his empire , corrupt his reason , disorder his will , and throw confusion into all the powers of his soul. it 's true , we meet with some men in the world whom nature seemeth to have produced to give the lye to this opinion , and whose inclinations constrain us to believe that passions are grafted in the soul ; for we see some so effeminate that a word puts them into a rage , a sincere reprehension irritates them , and in what method soever you deal with them their anger or indignation is not to be avoided . some from their youth are sordid , they affect wealth almost before they know what it is , and it would be more easie to change the face of a negro into the colour of his teeth , than to pull out of their hearts the desire of heaping up riches . others are naturally bashful , as often as they speak in publick they blush , and what art soever is used to make them confident in company they cannot hinder shamefacedness from altering their countenance . it is not hard to answer these objections , and whoever is at the trouble to examine the nature of passions , will be constrained to acknowledg that nothing is proved though much be said . for , to proceed in order , anger is not that first motion that arises at the appearance of an evil , and which oweth its original rather to the infirmity of the body than to the strength of the mind , but that fury of the soul which by aristotle is stiled rational , that motion which hurries us to take vengeance , and invites us to contrive the ruine of him that hath offended us . all those other emotions that prevent the judgment cannot properly be called passions , and when they trouble or seize the soul , it may be said that she resents but produceth them not , and that she rather suffers than operates . generals of armies have been seen to swoon at the approach of battel , commanders to grow pale at the sight of an enemy , souldiers to tremble in putting on their armour or their head-piece , and all that valour wherewith they were animated could not hinder them from beginning their victories with quaking , and their triumphs with signs that brought their courage into question . the most eloquent of orators found himself often taken with these surprizes , and he was astonisht that his discourses should chase fear from the minds of his auditors , and that his reason should not be strong enough to drive apprehension from the possession of his heart , to hinder fear from bereaving him of his strength , to prevent his hairs from standing on end , and to oppose his tongues cleaving to the roof of his mouth when he was to speak . but all these sudden changes are but corporal , and surprizes which borrow their aids from the temper and constitution of the body . if riches make some men covetous , it is after the judgment is seduced : nature hath produced nothing in the whole universe that is able to stir their desires , she hides the gold in the entrals of the earth , she leaves us nothing but the sight of the heaven and the stars , and knowing that this mettle might corrupt them if she discovered it in its splendor , she caused it to grow among the sands and the dirt , to the end they might despise it . true it is that bashfulness seemeth more natural to man than avarice and anger , and that he is become impudent and insolent that altereth not his countenance after the commission of a fault or an incivility : but this timorous passion is only the daughter of the body , the mind hath no share in her production , and if the novelty of a thing occasion it , the cause thereof is the leaping of the blood about the heart : hence old men rarely blush , the furrows in their front seldom receive a foreign colour , and when heat declines their heart , it ceaseth to send into the face that innocent vermilion that makes the countenance of children so amiable . as this motion is a pure effect of the bodies temperature , our players could never yet get her to appear upon the stage , and the most ingenious of them despair at this day of adorning the countenance of their actors with this curious colour . they represent us sadness with all her shagrine humors , and as silent as she is , they find inventions to counterfeit her follies . they shew us fear upon a pale face , and imitate all her actions so well , that they seem to tremble , grow wan and fall into a swoon . love is the ordinary subject wherewith they entertain their spectators , and the smallest apes-face of the society can act the gallant , the suitor and the mad lover ; but none of them have yet been seen that could act the shame-faced person , and if some few have learned to stoop the head , abase the voice , and to look downwards ; we hardly observe any that have been able to call for blushes to testifie that the applauses given to them , or the reproches thrown at them , were unpleasing . but as passions depend on us , it must not be wondered , if they be counterfeited with so much ease , if they can become sad and angry , audacious and desperate , when they please ; and that consulting the mind and opinion of which they are formed , they represent all those outward signs which passions discover upon the bodies of such as are possessed by them . discourse iv. that the senses and opinion are the two principles of passions . among all the advantages which man disputeth with other creatures , and which beget him so much reverence in them of his own species , philosophy owneth none more glorious then that of knowledg , and although she be interressed when she pleads her cause , she believes not that the praises given her are any thing but due debt , she stiles her the only felicity of them that possess her ; she makes her the image of the diety , maintains that it is she that lifteth man into heaven to contemplate there the perfections of her author : and though she know that her body have need of health to preserve her , she is assured that her soul wants nothing but knowledg to participate of his eternity . by these mens discourse this quality is as immense as absolute present every where , including all differences of time , coexistant with all ages ; and having regard to the original , nature and end of every being , she finds nothing in the univers that can confine her but eternity , and he only that is infinite . man is a lover only of what is good , and as free an agent as he is , he suffers evil with violence , the senses that seduce his imagination reverence his will , they cease to provoke him when the understanding hath shewed him that the thing she seeks is not suitable to him ; and if sometimes she discover a displeasure , it is because she hath suffered her self to be deceived by the senses , or disordered by false opinions . but nothing escapes mans curiosity , he will not be a stranger to any thing in nature , the most hidden things stir him to make diligent search after them , and if he find that the avoiding of evil is the beginning of his felicity , philosophy perswades him that knowledg is a part of his chiefest happiness . by knowledg indeed he imitateth the immensity of the creator , by his mind he is present in all places of the world , he flies into heaven , and descends into the depths of the earth , without leaving his closet , and drawing an universal notion from all particular things he comprehends all creatures , and becomes a true microcosme by the multitude of his idaea's . to conclude , in knowledg consisteth all his glory , she is the most useful of his perfections , and if physicians learn of her to cure diseases , states-men to govern , and judges to distinguish the innocent from the guilty , wisemen confess that to her they owe all their prudence , soldiers their conduct , monarchs their justice , and philosophers the conquest of their passions . happy should we be if we were instructed by no other guide then this , and more fortunate then conquerors , we should not need to give battel to gain the victory of our passions . all their disorderly motions would be submissive to us , we should prevent their fury by the knowledg of the benefits they hunt after , and the evils they abhor : and having no traffick with the people for their opinion in this matter , they would obey reasons orders . but the greatest of our misfortunes is that we go to the ignorant for counsel , we rely upon unfaithful sentinels , and against our own judgments , give credit to the senses who cheat and abuse us . for generally their reports are false , and though they be obtained by knowledg , it is very rare if they do not ingage us in error . they are blind guids that carry us a stray from truth , under colour of leading us to her , windows by which falshood gets into our understanding , and interressed counsellors who always plead the cause of the objects which please them most . as the soul becomes often a slave to the flesh , takes the noise of sounds for realties , and judges by their reports of things without her , it must not be wondred if she be cheated in her distinctions , if she make blind and precipitate judgments , and if forgetting her own grandeur , she fight under the banner of her slave . for seeing these treacherous ministers of her goverment deal falsely with her , plead always in favor of the body , and slighting her counsels , follow the inclinations of their fleshly companion , she sides with them , she lets her self loose at their instigations , and solicited by their importunities who present her the objects , she pronounces her fiat to all that they judg useful and pleasant . from this unjust disorder arise our passions , and of so many motions as interrupt the quiet of our souls , we find not any , that taketh not his original from some one of our senses , love is the son of the sight , the eye conceives him before the heart , and though he terminate his conquest by the will , yet he always gives battel by the look , the poets were assuredly mistaken when they represented him as blind ; and they rather had regard to the effects then to the original , when they cover his eyes with a muffler . for those lights which nature hath given us for our conduct , are the common messengers of this furious passion , that which ought to discover the defects of a face hides its imperfections : and by an unpardonable ingratitude the most splendid members of the body darken the soul , from whom they receive their light . desire ever begins by the eyes or the eares , wealth corrupts not our minds but after infection of the senses , and man would seldom form any wishes , if he were born deaf and blind . hope owes his original to them , the advantages wherewith he is flattered are not so much principles as accidents , and the imagination could never dazle our understanding with their splendor without the intermediation of those organs . these are they who conceive envy , who make him consider the goods of his neighbour with grief , who cause his joy to arise from other mens misfortunes , and make them confess that their felicity is able to create their torment . in fine , these faithless ministers are the fountaines of all our disquiet , and love which is the most common of our passions would want slaves , hope would be without lovers ; and envy without martyrs , if these blind guids did not prevent our imagination , seduce our judgment , and deprave our will. if sense begin our passions , opinion gives them perfection , and if those give us the objects disguisedly , these always deceive us in their choice . for opinion being but the picture of reason , and a common noise that gathers authority from the encrease of those that approve it , she deceives us by semblance of judgment , and without examination of her reasons she would have us to esteem all for just that is approved by many . as she is concerned for priviledges of the body , she is always of that party , and as she is of an earthly original all her motions and inclinations partake thereof . we are not then to think it strange if they which follow such a guide never arrive at generous things , if they stray from the truth in the greater part of their sentiments and if discerning things no otherwise then through that false glass ; they embrace an error for its contrary . for as the multitude are not so happy in their opinions as to know how to judg favourably of vertue or reason ; and although all the men of whom they are composed have the same thoughts , it hinders them not from falling into extravagance and error , the more to be lamented for being common . they affect only such things as are vain or useless , they reject good and embrace evil , they applaud what they ought to shun , and condemn what they ought to love . also with much reason in my opinion doth seneca compare the case of the vulgar to the condition of fools , or mad-men , saying , that the greatest part of mankind were not less extravagant then they which have lost their senses , and that there was but this difference between the phrenetick and the vulgar , they were actuated by folly or madness , and these by false opinions , that the disease of the one was a corporal effect , and the distemper of the other an infirmity of the mind , that the one arose from the abundance of blood or gall , and the other from the weakness of judgment , and that the one came from a disordered temperature , and the other from an ill governed reason . indeed , what is there more extravagant then a man who rejects the truth to embrace the noise of a biassed and interressed multitude ? who departs from his own reason to be guided by their example ? and who despiseth all the counsels of reason to take the advice of one that is blind and ignorant ? for from this corruption proceeds all our faults : hence we take the objects to be other then they are , hence we are deceived in our choice , and abused by the value , or disesteem that others have of it , we call for our passions to effect or avoid it . to shun then all these disorders , and to hinder these turbulent motions from acting without our leave , the mind must reign as soveraign , he must prevent the seditions that may ▪ arise in the sensitive appetite , he must command the imagination to act nothing in his goverment without his warrant , and that she take care that false opinions seduce not his reason , or abuse his authority . in fine the mind must imitate those oppressed people who deliver themselves from tyranny by the destruction of the authors , he must prevent the birth of passions by the overthrow of false opinions , which are the causes and originals thereof . discourse v. that passions cannot be of use to vertue . although superstition be an enemy to religion as well as to impiety , though the one contemn god , and the other own him not aright , and though one make vanity of his error , and the other be cheated in his election , yet have there been orators that have given her commendations , some philosophers have pleaded her cause , and some kings who ( by a policy altogether extraordinary ) have received her into their goverment . titus livius labored to perswade posterity that she was of use in a common-wealth , that she was serviceable to monarchs in the conduct of their subjects , and that to keep under a rebellious or insolent people , it was often sufficient to get them inspired with the fear of the gods , and the apprehensions of chastisements . that she it was that procured them faithful ministers , that kept the nobility in awe , that allayed the wild humors of the body politick , that brought the factious to reason , and caused their persons throughout their dominions to be reverenced as the gods of the earth . in fine , that it was she that supported rome in its minority , and that the worlds first common wealth was more beholding to the superstitions of numa for her preservation , then to the wisdom of her counselors or the valor of her captains . although passions be almost as direful to man as ▪ vice , and that there is but this difference between these two enemies of his rest , the one makes him guilty and the other depraves him , the one infects his will , and the other disorders his reason , yet the whole body of modern philosophy sticks not to approve them with elogies , and of so many sects into which it is divided , we find only the stoicks that declare war against them . all aristotles disciples applaud them , they make them the exercise of vertue , and call them the aides of nature , they will have them the common favors bestowed upon all man-kind , and they think they do not well prove the necessity of them unless they seek them in the person of the son of god. they say that man would be without motion if without passion , that it is necessary he should love and hate to avoid being as insensible as rocks , that he cannot be active but by their motion : and that all his advantages would be of no use to him , if he called not these domestick soulders to undertake his conquests , and to preserve him from enemys that both threaten and assault him . that it were to deprive him of life , to spoil him of his affections , that they are a part of himself , and that , as we see no man but loves fertility in his fields , we can find none that would prefer the sterility of his soul before the most generous of his productions . that all our vertues pine away if they be not animated by their fire , and that the best ordered enterprizes would prove fruitless , if these faithful souldiers undertooke not the charge of their execution . for they affirm that fortitude without anger is weak , and that she that laughs at tortures , brags of assaulting death , and makes little of all the terrible things of this world , becomes spiritless if this passion do not warm and give her courage . prudence borrows the greatest part of her lights from fear , and he that should rob her of this succour would acknowledg her to be left as blind as feeble . temperance is letted in governing her desires , in moderateing pleasure , in appeasing the seditions of hope , in allaying grief , and in swallowing up fear . in fine , that it is to destroy all our vertues to deprive them of their employments , and to condemn them to perpetual idleness , to strip them of the subject of their combats and triumphs . where , say they , will be their victory if they have no enemy to vanquish or tame ? and with what justice shall they compel so many commendations from our mouths , if they must always wallow in rest ? for if it be a vertue to restrain anger , to submit affection to reason , to limit our desires , to be moderate in hope and sadness , how can he be vertuous that is without passion ? victorious without enemys to conquer ? and how should reason be a soveraign in her kingdom if she have no subjects to command ? some men are so much the enemys of their own happiness , that they boast of their torments , they invent curious words to make them necessary ; and by an obstinacy so much the more unjust as it is universal , they will have us esteem that as the principle of all our generous actions , which is the fountain of all our disorders . they are not unlike men troubled with the itch , who delight in scratching the sore that infects their fingers , they cherish ulcers which poison them , they abet the faction of tyrants that oppress them , and by a kind of superstition , they excuse their defects , and allow them benefits which they have not . i know that among the lawiers a common erronious custom passeth for a law , and that an opinion received of many is often a sufficient warant to make it run for a currant truth among the vulgar spirits , yet am i not afraid to oppose it , and supported by senecas authority , i shall endeavor to demonstrate that passions are not of more use to vertue then poisons and venemous things to our health . for to shun all the bumbast of orators and to set forth nothing unworthy of that roman philosopher ; who shall perswade himself that man must necessarily be the vassal of his slaves ? that he cannot be active without their help ? that all his enterprises must depend upon their advices ? and that he must hold his authority over a number of rebells that despise his soveraignty ? who shall believe that a wise man cannot be valiant , unless he be possest of anger ? and that to give his enemy battel or rout his adversaries he must be heated by the most furious of his passions ? that he cannot be prudent except he be fearful , and that he must of necessity borrow aid of the most cowardly of his attendants wherewith to establish his good fortune , and to guard himself against future evils ? that he cannot be provident for his family without being avaricious , nor govern his children , command his subjects , nor put his house in order without tormenting himself about that which may happen in the future ? passions are not so submissive as to obey the authority of reason , and they are of too ambitious an humor to quit an usurped empire : they resemble those conquerors that rarely loose the appetite of dominion . they do also disguise their tyranny , they employ artifices to render themselves acceptable , they oppress us under colour of succours , and never cease to humor us till after they have violated the laws of reason and abused his power . for when the soul has once admitted them , and that of strangers she permits them to be her domesticks , she is no longer able to set them bounds , they contemn her goverment , they seize her throne , they become obstinate in rebellion ; and , by an injustice not easy to express , they oblige their soveraign to take laws of them . therefore to preserve the liberty of the mind , and maintain the rights of reason , these seditious intruders must be allowed no entrance , and we must imitate those prudent governors that suffer not their enemies to approach their borders under pretence of friendship and assistance . for if the soul permit them a share in her authority and mistrusting her own strength , she call in these forreign troops to opose or defend her against her adversaries , she then ceaseth to be an absolute monarch , these pretended friends turn tail , become revolters , they stir up parties to bereave her of her scepter , they disturb her judgment and her rest , and having stript her of her lights , they constrain her to take them for counsellors and to follow their inclinations . this tyranny would be tolerable if it lasted but a few moments , and we might draw this comfort from our misery to learn from their ill usage the difference between liberty and slavery . but these rebells have so many artifices , that they cause their martyrs to love them , the torments wherewith they afflict them cannot procure their hatred , they will entertain them although they know they are abused by them , and , by an humour which they would hardly wish to their enemies , they take delight in the conversation of executioners that torment them . for though passions be fickle yet are they obstinate , they resemble those accidents that are not to be destroyed without ruining the subject wherein they reside , they are like ungrateful guests that take possession where they are entertained , and are of so malignant a nature that they never leave those men that permit them to be their counsellors . they are souldiers that will not be disbanded but by death , ivy of which the duration is equal with the wall that supports it , and diseases , against which physicians have yet found no remedy . what can then be more irrationally said then to affirm that man who is at liberty in all his actions , had need of so many monstrous beasts ? that he cannot perform generous things without their assistance ? and that those which ought to obey him must prescribe him laws ? a man must have lost his judgment to run to his ruin for safety , and believe that his weakness can afford him strength , that treachery will bring him ayds , truth a lie , and health a multitude of diseases . passions are too mutinous to render us any good service , and they are too much mans enemy to labour for his felicity . i will admit that they sometimes disguise their malice , that they raise a kind of contentment in his soul , that the most generous stir up the courage of the more sordid , and that the more modest do curb the insolence of such as are most savage : but all these good effects are produced by the war that is among themselves , from their different inclinations , from a conspiration of some against others : and , by a quite different method of working , some become charitable to their companions because their humors agree not . but you will say , do we not see that they are often of use to us ? that they sometimes fight vertues battels , and employ endeavors for her defence which beget admiration ? truly that which seemeth to be the reason of their necessity gives us the suspition of their imperfection , their good offices create a jealousy ; and who so knows well their nature will confess them to be hypocrites , and that they force their own inclinations so often as they take up armes in vertues quarrel . they resemble that famous murtherer that preserved the life of a tyrant in designing to take it from him , and who breaking an impostume that threatned him with death , became his cure , intending to be his executioner . for if they oppose vice , if they side with vertue , and if they employ their arts to preserve the rights of reason , they betray their own disposition , they commit good without premeditation , and , like unto stormes that accidentally conduct the ship into her port , they guide us to vertue intending to turn us into a contrary path. no man in his right mind will conclude venims to be wholsome for having removed a sick-mans distemper ; and he that would be an approver of tyranny in a kingdom because it hath suppressed seditions reduced the people to subjection , united different interests , and banished rebellion and disorder from the bowels of the state , would no less contradict the rules of policy then the dictates of reason . we see some physicians who expel one evil by another , who cure an ague with poison , and dissipate the pestilence by sweating which often procures it , and who allay the smarting pain of the gout with medicaments more proper to augment the torment . a feaver did once so inflame the brain of a general that it made him undertake the conquest of a kingdom , which in his sober mind he durst not have thought on ; and in the late wars with flanders , france had a mareshal who was seldom in action without first having liquored his resolutions either for life or death . but who shall believe that these several sorts of cures or undertakings can turn us to accompt ; and that it is not more advantageous to man to bannish then entertain such methods for his conduct ? it is a great unhappiness to find no cure but in distempers & to be obliged for the recovery of health , to have recourse to destructive remedies . that man would be suspected of folly that should counsel the mariners to set sail in a hurry-cane , and go about to perswade them that to make a prosperous voiage , they must stay for storms and tempests . but they that would render passions so necessary to man are not more unreasonable , they furnish him with rebellious aids , who violently oppose his authority , ministers of state who contemn his power , and treacherous guids that prove as bad commanders as common souldiers . nature has sufficiently armed us in giving us the weapon of reason , and i know not that we can call passions to our assistance without equally accusing her of imbecillity and blindness : for which way so ever we consider our selves we must be deemed miserable creatures , if we cannot be safe without the help of our adversaries , and if we must undertake no enterprize but with squadrons of mutineers who dare to dispute all our commands . for to judg of their malignity by their effects , and to learn from their operations the confusion of their nature , if we be willing to succour our friends in their streights and if we know by what we learn in natures school that we are bound to relieve our parents in want , and our allies under oppression , covetousness will forbid it ; if we know that we ought to arm our selves in defence of our country , fear disswades us from it , if we remember that we have vowed fidelity to the companion of our life , and that we cannot frequent dissolute women without offending our conscience or our honor , lust will authorize this sensuality . if we know that tyranny is odious , that usurpation is unjust , and that we cannot seize the territories of our neighbours without breach of reputation , ambition will furnish us with excuses . so that all the succours that some would assign us for our defence are the sources of all our disorders , and man would hardly ever commit an injustice if passions were not his tempters . this discourse runs the peripateticks into despair , and the strength of senecas arguments is to them so irresistable that they are constrained to have recourse to logical distinctions , to arm themselves against his assaults . for though they agree with us that the excess of passions is dangerous , that they cannot be employed without loss of liberty , and , that we cease to act as men when they get possession , yet they affirm them to be useful if moderated , that they may be formed into vertues if we know how to manage their humors , and that it is sufficient to render them profitable to us , if we do but correct that fury which accompanies their violent comportment , that physicians prepare poisons and venims , and as nature qualifies the disposition of the elements , it is the work of morality to reduce passions to a mediocrity , and stripping them of their extravagant temper to convert them into wholsom motions fit for our service . what have you said ignorant philosophers ? in what school have you been taught that nature is impotent , if she take not passions to her assistance ? with what confidence dare you render my wise man a dependant of his slaves ? what advantage do you give him above other men , if he have but a little more courage then the greatest cowards ? if he be but somewhat more chast then the most unclean ? something more temperate then drunkards ? a little more modest then the ambitious ? and but somewhat a better governour in his family then the prodigal and avaricious persons ? a man is not to be accounted healthy because he is only subject to extraordinary diseases , to be deemed a sound person because his maladies are but small , and he not able to exercise the functions of life but by helps that destroy it . a wise man must as well be without passions as free from vices , and exempt from that which may render him miserable , as from that which may make him guilty . if small offences disturb his conscience , passions , how much soever moderated , interrupt his rest ; if inflammations hurt his sight defluxions weaken it , if the lethargy stupify his senses , the fumes which assault his brain disorder him , and if extravagancy succeed the height of feavers , weakness is always left behind when their fits are abated . so that as to judg of a sound body all infirmities must be removed from it , likewise all passions must be banisht from the soul to make judgment of her tranquillity . discourse vi. that no man is more miserable , than he that is subject to passions . i never well apprehended how human policy could lawfully authorize subjection , seeing she is so irksome ; and how aristotle could render her natural , since all men so much detest her . those that first laboured to introduce her into the world saw their designs opposed by all the nations of the earth , and they were taught to their cost , that subjects were not to be acquired without becoming their tyrants or their slaves : the romans could not endure her in their government , they sought out all imaginable methods to preserve their freedom , and although they equally made glory of subjecting both friends and foes , they would not consent to the choice of a sovereign to command themselves . they invented a new mode of government to secure them from servitude , they made their empire elective , they annually created two emperors , and , to avoid the vexatious name of subject , they ordained that those to whom they committed the management of their affairs should take upon them the title of consuls and not of lords and monarchs . man hath in him ( i know not what to call it ) something so sublime that he cannot endure violence , he imagineth servitude to be the greatest of his evils , and he is so great a lover of liberty that he often prefers a dishonourable freedom to an advantageous bondage . that human prudence that regulates things present by the knowledg of things past , teacheth monarchs to stand upon their guard with subjects , and lets them know that they are to make the calculation of their enemies by the number of their vassals : as she cautioneth kings against the treachery of new conquered countries , she bids them be jealous of all that serve them , she shews us men in history that have steeped their hands in their masters blood for a remedy against their slavery , and others that have set kingdoms on fire with a pretence of freeing them from tyranny . in fine , liberty hath so many charms that so often as we are deprived of it , we deem our selves unhappy , and its contrary is so burthensom , that believing our selves free-born , and therein equal to the most mighty princes of the earth , we are sufficiently stirred up to be delivered from it . indeed this latter condition is very odious , and it 's not without cause that the greatest number of men would rather die free under an apparent slavery , than live as bondmen under a visible liberty . nevertheless it must be owned that this evil comes not near the miseries that we endure from passions , and the empire of these insolent usurpers is less supportable to man than the hatred of the envious , the rage of tyrants and the violence of his enemies : for if these torment or persecute him , they exercise their fury but on his body , they cannot with all their malicious cruelty ravish the liberty of the most noble part of himself : if they assault his innocence , if they deprive him of his friends , if they cast him into irons , and if they attempt upon his very life by injurious usage , his soul preserves her authority , the fetters that restrain her slave touch her not , and she acts with so much facility , that it may be affirmed she is never more ingenious than in affliction . but passions disorder both , they extend their oppressions beyond the body , they deal with the soul as men with their slaves , and without regard to grandeur , they exercise their violence upon all her faculties . they puff out the light of his understanding , they corrupt his will , they seduce his judgment ; and , by a power not much inferiour to magick art , they throw illusions into his spirit to trouble his mind . if men account exile cruel because it separates us from all the delights of our own countrey , who will not own that the tyranny of our passions is the most severe of our torments , since they violently take us from our selves , deprive us of the power of reason , and rob us of that liberty which the most unfortunate retain under a load of irons ? fortune , which hath set up that unjust distinction amongst men , and created lords and vassals , hath no influence upon passions ; as she abandons great men to the fidelity of their servants , she commits the meaner sort to the discretion of their superiours , and she is so little absolute in her government , that we often see the slaves give laws to them that command : some find ways to be their masters companions by the assiduity of their services , and others have been made free for their fidelity : some others are comforted in their bondage that they have but one master to satisfie , and do easily perswade themselves that an ordinary ingenuity will serve to please a mans humor with whom we daily converse . but the passionate are subject to so many tyrants as they have passions , the agreement we hold with them provokes their displeasure , our submission renders them insolent , our fidelity augments their fury , and they are never more cruel than when we observe their orders , or obey their commands . sometimes bondage is rather to be chosen than liberty , and there be some slaves that would not change conditions with their masters : for though these impose upon their liberty , and permit them not the disposing of their goods , or their persons , yet must they be charged with the care of providing for them , they are responsible for their miscarriages , they must take an account of their actions , and buy with money that authority which they exercise upon their wills ; so that their pretended dominion amounts to a specious subjection , and they ought not so much to be stiled their lords as their atturneys and their stewards . but passions are ever savage , they form nought but evil designs against their subjects , they increase their wounds instead of giving ease , they violently over-run vertue and liberty together , and abusing all their faculties , they make their conditions equal with the damned : sometimes they give them looks so frightful that the earth hath nothing more terrible or more insolent , and anon they leave in the soul such a fear and grief that nothing is more unhappy . their evil entertainments have procured them the hatred of all philosophers , and even they who out of respect have countenanced the vice of their wise man , would not permit that he should be subject to passions . those to whom servitude is irksom may apply themselves to flight for their deliverance , and forsaking the masters whom they serve , betake themselves to countries where their pursuits cannot reach them : if the persons with whom they live be difficult , or if the law of the place admit no affranchizement , they may remove into another , and seek that liberty in foreign dominions which they could not obtain in the land of their nativity . but they who serve passions carry always their masters with them , into what part of the world soever they travel they cannot hide themselves from them , and so unhappy is their condition , that they cannot sheer clear of them without danger of sinking their vessel . if they abandon their habitations , if they throw themselves into the arms of princes for protection , and if all the provinces they pass thorough , be so many sanctuaries and places of freedom , yet are they shackled , they carry their fetters with them , they remain slaves even in the very bosom of liberty , and the tyrants under whose command they are listed are so outragious , that they spare them as little abroad as at home . all that pleases the sense stir up their grief , and that which would cure a sick man , is matter of their punishment . for if in their travels they observe spacious countries , if they measure the height of hills , if they fix the eye upon the current of rivers , if they contemplate the flowers of pleasant meadows , and meet nothing in their way but what imploys or diverts their fancy , they rather charm than heal their torments , and do not so much deceive their thoughts as their eyes and ears . by an unhappiness that shews the misery of their condition , they often convert their remedies into poisons , and change the objects of their divertisements into subjects of their grief . the sight of remote lands puts them in mind of their own countreys , the cities through which they pass represent them the places where they began to suffer , the inhabitants seem to discourse of the passages of their former life , the things and beauties they find there awaken their desires ; and although they are far removed from all that can anoy them , they forbear not to conceive love , hatred , joy and grief . what greater punishments can be inflicted upon criminals than to expose them to the will of so many tormentors ? and what more cruel vengeance can be drawn from an enemy , than to see him a slave in places of the greatest freedom ? tormented in the arms of rest ? and unhappy amidst all that which ought to deliver him from it ? who is not toucht with compassion to behold alexander when he cuts the ocean , when he traverseth all the parts of the world , when he enters the indies , when he makes war upon the persians , when he had conquered asia , when he turns kingdoms upside down , and makes the limits of the ocean the frontiers of his empire ? for if he command his army , he obeys a multitude of his passions which act the tyrant with him , if he vanquish his enemies by the sword he is overcome of his vices , and if he be the only monarch of the earth , he is the subject af ambition , anger and impudicity . one while he bewailes the death of a favourite whom his own hand had massacred , another while he laments the loss of a captain which he left in the heat of the battel ; one while he retires into solitude to entertain his misfortunes , another while deceiving his enemies he is contriving the conquest of a new world , and he whom flattery perswaded to be the god of the earth , tacitly confesseth that he is the most miserable of all men . who judgeth not hannibal very unhappy , when he forsakes the command of his souldiers to be made obedient to his love ? and when in the midst of a victorious army brought back from thrasymene , he could not defend himself from the allurements of a strumpet ? all that warlike glory which he had acquired in battel could not divert his affection , and the thought of triumphs that were preparing for him is not powerful enough to disswade him from laying his arms at the feet of his captive slave ; her beauty ravisheth his soul , and stops in a passage where a hundred thousand men durst not have attended his approach without terror . from these two examples it is not hard to conclude , that passions debase us , that we cannot treat with them without becoming their slaves , and that we must of necessity renounce our liberty when we obey such insolent masters . to prevent then this shameful servitude , a wise man must take reason into his counsel , he must stay till she has examined the nature of the objects that present themselves before he let in love or hatred ; and he must conclude nothing touching their perfections or defects , till this sun have inlightned his will , and have approved or forbidden the pursuite . discourse vii . that a wise man may live without passions . i wonder not that man should be so miserable , since he himself is a conspirator against his own felicity , since he makes vanity of augmenting natures defects , since he takes pride in his own miseries , and emploies all her benefits to make himself unhappy or guilty . those that have exercised their eloquence in decifering corrupted nature , thought it sufficient to be the sons of adam to render us disobedient , that the sin of that first revolter against his god , was the spring of all our evils , whereof passions became the children after they had been the mother , and that man never committed an unjust act but by the instigation of concupisence , which becomes the chastisement thereof . although the authors of this doctrin be to me very venerable , and though the opinion which they maintain be approved by all christians ; nevertheless , i perswade my self that they will not absolutely deny to allow me , that we derive not all our defects from his crime , that we may as well bewaile the perfections which we still retain as those we have lost , and that we find orderly motions in our bodies which are rather arguments of the excellency of the soul then the defection of nature . some men would be innocent if heaven had not honoured them with favors , their rare qualities occasion their misery , they are poor because they are too rich , they run themselves into dangers by being too much enlightened , and they engage not in error but by being more perfect then others . what ever renders a wise man accomplisht makes them miserable , they anticipate misfortune by their foresight , their memories call to mind the injuries done them , their wits are busied about useless or hazardous things , and all their qualifications become pernicious or disadvantagious . to augment their own miseries and add to natures defects voluntary errors , they take counsel from the noise of the people , they regulate their lives by their reports , they act but by their example , and they approve all for reasonable that hath many approbators , and not that wherein truth most consisteth . likewise they who have made so many invectives against the sin of our first father , have almost depraved the whole stock of man-kind , by endeavouring to explain the most difficult principle of our religion ; and have taught them undesignedly , to justify their defects and to form excuses for their lewdness . for if that inhumane father , say they , have bequeathed us death with our being , if he have made us slaves by the loss of his innocence , if the passions which arise in our soul be the effects of his rebellion , if they be as inseparable as our members , and if we cannot shun their surprizals but by the aids of grace ; who shall resolve to labour their conquest , seeing they are born with us , and proceed from the conjunction of the soul with the body , since the seeds thereof are in us , and that that grace to which they have recourse , is a bounty which god only bestows upon his favorites ? to avoid then all these complaints it must be owned that human nature is not so depraved as they describe her , that she yet retains some remains of her purity , and that man hath still a power to combat vice , follow vertue , and conquer his passions . when those famous men that laid the foundation of romes empire , would instruct their subjects by their precepts or reform them by their laws , they rather disordered then settled them , they taught them crimes of which before they were ignorant , and they made many guilty persons in designing to keep men innocent . parricides , saith seneca , first began in rome by the prohibition thereof , the punishment threatned to those that should be found so monstrous inspired them with cruelty ; men became barbarians when they were forbidden to be inhumane , and they feared not to murther them from whom they had received life , after the law had informed them that such a sin might be committed . so that those men must be enemies to nature who throw all their faults upon her infirmities , and we must deny that we often employ our perfections to procure our own unhappiness . this truth appears evidently in the subject of this discourse . we render passions which are but the pure effects of opinion and the will , to be the productions of nature , we fancy that they are born with us , and we conclude from our weakness , that a wise man cannot defend himself from them but by a miracle . in fine , we deem all things difficult which we fear to undertake , and judging of other mens strength by our own , we take all for impossibilities which we our selves cannot perform . also i am of senecas judgment , and do maintain with him , that there is as much difference between the stoicks and other philosophers as between men and women : and as these two sex are necessary for the building of families and states , the one is born to command and the other to obey . for let epicurus be commended , let his disciples protect him , and let them ransack the body of morality to shape excuses for his opinions , yet it must be owned that he has made no scholars but slaves , and that when he designed to create philosophers , he innocently formed vicious and impious persons . aristotle father of the academia , is not more vertuous then epicurus , though he seem more reasonable , for he makes but bastard wise men , he moderates the violence of their inclinations to render their conduct easy , and allowing them ordinary distempers he hath taught them that they cannot be healthy unless they have infirmities , that they cannot become liberal without covetousness , that to be valiant they must have the help of ambition , and that vertue would be of no use to them , if they had not passions to execute what she projects . this opinion seems so little generous to zeno's disciples , that they cannot forbear vigorously to oppose it , and seneca has condemned it for so unreasonable a tenet , that he thinks he pleads vertues cause so often as he is ingaged in the combat . where , replies he , is the freedom of the wise man , if he may not act but by the intermediation of his passions ? if he be obliged to fly to their counsels , and if he must borrow of them all the forms of his government ? reason is unthroned so soon as she admits an alliance with them , and their communication is so pernicious to her , that she cannot lend them an eare without insensibly mixing with their party . for when she hath once admitted them , they do what they will , and not what she permits them , they follow their own inclinations , though she contend for the conquest , and they become in the end so insolent or so wild , that they violently constrain their soveraign to yeild to their discretion . for this cause he judgeth that the only means to be delivered from them , is to prevent their assaults , and attack them before they threaten , and according to the rules of policy , provide that those who are yet but forreign enemies , become not our domestick tyrants . it availes not his adversaries to fly to natures imperfections for a reply , and to say that reason is become blind and weak , since she suffered her self to be seduced by the serpent . this reply , though true , proves nothing in morality , and whatsoever foundations they draw from divines to support it , yet must they confess that it makes not so much for reason as for faith. for again saith this wise roman , if reason be not strong enough to hinder passions from making excursions into her dominions , how will they have her to keep them in order when they have entred her territories ? if she sink under their violence when she is disposed to expect them , how shall she be able to give them laws when she is become their captive ? and if she cannot repulse enemies at the gate , how shall she repel their fury when they have gotten possession ? we must then infer either that a wise man may prevent their assaults or that he cannot moderate their inclinations , that he can hinder their sudden swellings , or that he cannot stay their disorders when they have made head. tranquillity is one of the qualifications of a wise man ; men cannot rob him of it till he change his condition , and he may boast of happiness so long as he preserves it : but passions violently bereave him of it in every of their assaults , and he ceaseth to be his own when he has any thing of dispute with them . he is their slave without being conquered he mourns in opposing them , and he is constrained to part with the most precious of his benefits , so often as he takes resolution to fight them . for be they never so well moderated they cease not to disturb his quiet , they throw dissention among the parties that compose it , and they so much occupy his mind , that nothing is left him but a weak and languishing liberty . the peripateticks are not so just as to abate him any of his evils for the elevation of his grandeur : they render him subject to all the maladies of the soul , they allot him all passions , to vanquish or tame : and without considering that many times one violent evil is preferrable to a multitude of wasting diseases , they will that he have fear , but it must be moderated , that he be spurred by ambition but it must be restrained , that he form desires and hopes , but they must be limited , that he be moved by anger , but it must be easy to recal , and that he have love and audacity , but they must not run into folly and fury . but who doth not easily see that this tyranny strikes directly at his liberty , that these motions howsoever moderated annoy his peace ? and that it would be more easy to conquer one powerful enemy then give battel to a multitude of smaller adversaries at one and the same time . vertue is so delicate in this point , that she could never yet suffer passions to be assigned her for companions , as she knows that they hold intelligence with vice , she rejects all their proffered services , she believes that he unjustly-tryumphs that owes victory to any thing but his valor ; that he is unworthy the name of conqueror , if he may be reproached that in the combat he mixt cowardize with his courage , and did not overthrow his enemy , but because he was somewhat fearful and imprudent . she is jealous of all their labors , she will have no souldiers that esteem their own counsels more then her commands , and she would think it injurious to her own grandeur to make use of their services . truely what art soever hath been used by humane prudence to allay their fury the method of reducing them to reasons obedience is yet to seek , and which way soever they be considered it wants dexterity to subject them to her empire . as we find no animals that yeild obedience to this soveraign , and as the tamed hearken as little to her counsels as the wild ; so , man hath no passions that will obey his commands , they make head to oppose his decrees , they conspire to lessen his authority , and by a faction as unjust as insolent , they dispute the government he pretendeth to have over them . their nature resembles that of the tygre and lyon , which never forsake their savage humor , which are as ravenous in the house as in the forrest , and can never be so well tamed , but they return to their first fury when least suspected . in fine , passions are faithless subjects , and domestick enemies , with whom a peace is no less to be feared when war and persecution . but to return to my matter , if passions be inevitable , and if all our prudence be too weak to prevent the assaults of fear , the attacks of grief , the snares of love , and the surprizals of anger upon our will , who can assure himself of staying their carreer , and of obliging them that prepare for battel without our leave to proceed no farther then we shall direct ? one of these two extreams must be chosen , either to stiffle them in the cradle , or resolve to become their slaves : to give them battel before they make head , or resolve to surrender our liberty : to deprive them of means to gather their forces , or take up a resolution to submit to their violence . for as those things which stir them up are without us , and the good and evil which they respect are not in our power , they imitate the nature of the objects that employ them , they encrease according to the causes whereof they partake , and they become more violent or moderate , according as things seem pleasant or dissatisfactory ; desire redoubles his strength when hope appears of his party , and flatters him with the possession of the benefit he hunts after . fear is augmented when the apprehended evil shews it self with more then ordinary horrors , or when working her own misery , she describes it more terrible then it is . what i have said of desire and fear may be applyed to all our passions , and as they arm without our command , and the objects that support them depend not of us , it must be confessed that it 's not in our power to bring them to reason , to moderate their fury , or hinder their running into excess . it 's a sort of folly to think that we have an enemy at our command whose insolence we may suppress , and to imagine that that governor is able to keep rebels in awe , who was not prudent enough to prevent their taking up of armes , putting into the field , and forming an army to offer him open battel . although this arguing be bold yet it is unanswerable even in aristotles opinion , and they that would enervate it must have recourse to their own weaknesses to lessen its force . they say it is very difficult for a man to gain so absolute a power over himself , as to command all his inclinations , to see beautiful faces , and to be insensible of love , to look upon a threatening evil , and not to fear its arrival , to have treasures laid before him , and to have no desire to them , to be injuriously and despitefully used , and not to let anger arise , to have his pleasant edifices destroyed , his lands violently forraged , and his goods plundered , and he not afflicted . such favors are only bestowed upon beatified persons , we must be separated from humane commerce to obtain them , and we must mount the heavenly mansions to consider the glories of this world with indifference , and to behold all the revolutions that are wrought in it without disturbance . if this objection be the chief foundation of the contrary opinion , yet is it not very strong but in shew , it reproves our practice , but diminisheth nothing of our abillity , it declares the faults of fools , and hides the perfections of wisemen , and without survaying mans nature , it excuseth his sordidness and considereth not his advantages . man is naturally generous , he hath not yet attempted any thing but what his industry hath overcome , and all those difficulties which the academia opposed to his undertakings , have only served to augment his glory and admire his courage . the most wild and savage passions have yeilded to his power , and all that fury wherewith they were animated , could not hinder his constraining them to the obedience of his laws ; his power is equal to his will in this point , from his own courage he obtains what ever he desires to execute , and all his faculties are so subservient , that he hath often drawn services from them , that seemed impossible to nature . some humorists have refrained smiling , and pursuing their resolution have banisht from their countenance that pleasant property which distinguisheth us from other creatures . temperance hath taught others to suppress their appetites , and hath so much forced their own inclinations as never to tast wine . some have defended themselves against the violent assaults of love , have had in derision all those pleasant faces that have made so many idolaters in the world ; and have so much conquered themselves as to become masters of a passion that hath all men for slaves . there have been others that have so far commanded themselves as to live without sleep , and have made watching so familiar to them as that they have not been seen to close their eye-lids . in fine , man is absolute in his goverment , he hath not undertaken any thing which he brought not to perfection , difficulties have discovered his strength ; and we have seen nothing so irksom which he hath not surmounted when he joyned perseverance to his courage . the labors then which he ought to imploy to gain this perfection , ought not to divert him from so glorious a design , and without hunting for many reasons to prompt him to it , it will suffice that he reflect upon his own life to be taught , that it is as easy to conquer as to moderate his passions . the greater part of his actions are real punishments , all that he does is mixt with disquiet ; and i know not but it might be more easy for him to live without passions , then to act what he daily performs . for what is more delightful then a vertuous vacation , and what is more toilsom then anger ? what is more tranquil then clemency , and what more turmoiling then cruelty ? continence begets content , but love is unsatiable , modesty loves to be at quiet , but desire delights in trouble , humanity is quiet , but confidence is ever busied . in fine , vertue is treatable with sattisfaction , but passions are not conversable without hazard of conscience rest or liberty . from all these discourses it 's not difficult to conclude , that a wise man may be without passions , since they are not natural to him ; since sense and opinion are their springs , since their services are dangerous , and that he cannot employ them in his necessities , without injury to his liberty or courage . the second part , of passions in particular . the first treatise . discourse i. of the nature of joy. pleasure hath made so deep an impression on the minds of men , that few there are that plead not her cause ; the philosophers that condemn her in their writings pursue her in their studies , and in private they make love to her whom publickly they persecute ; the severest of them court her , they are easily overcome of an enemy that entertains them with nothing but delights ; and they confess they are not valiant enough to resist the charms of a mistress whose perfections are proclaimed by so many famous authors , and who adorn her with so many reasons to invite men to seek her . epicurus whom we may call the panegyrist of pleasure hath so beautified her in all his works , that men have not scrupled to declare themselves her lovers , being informed of her advantages , and they thought they might lawfully consecrate their affections to her in whose service all vertues are employed , and to whom all passions are slaves . if we give credit to the most eloquent of orators , that philosopher never made any thing so glorious in all his writings , and he discovered himself much captivated by her love , when he permitted his pen such ridiculous extravagancies , so disadvantagious to his honor . for he creates her the queen of vertues , he sets her on a throne so glorious as he can hardly afford his gods to be equal to her ; he places all those noble habitudes at her footstool , he gives them in charge to observe all her commands , he forbids them to undertake any thing without her order , and he fancies that vertues are sufficiently honoured when he assigns them employments in her service ; he directs prudence to be careful of her preservation , to prevent all things that may annoy her tranquillity , and to use her utmost skill to strengthen her power . he commands justice to be liberal in her favor , to divide estates with discretion , not to let her suffer an injury , and to make all men her friends by doing good to every one . fortitude must defend the body against grief , she must not suffer that choice companion with whom she commonly makes her abode , to be assaulted by sickness ; and if she cannot totally hinder it , she must , at least , endeavour to moderate the rigors thereof by the remembrance of past delights . temperance must regulate her inclinations , prescribe the seasons , quantity and quality of her meat and drink ; and must so use her to sobriety , that she must abhor debaucheries , and love nothing but what is easie to acquire . but above all , care must be taken so to correct the qualities of the elements of which she is composed , that one entrench not upon the other , that grief or anger discompose not the constitution , and that health , in which her greatest happiness consisteth , be no way interrupted by diseases . the erection of so unreasonable an empire alarm'd all philosophers . they that had before allowed pleasure a seat in their schools , could not now suffer so unjust an usurpation ; and judging it to be the most insolent act of a shameless man to put vertue under the subjection of her enemy , they all made head against the author ; and although they had no other weapons but tongue or pen wherewith to assault him , yet did they charge him with so many reproaches , that his disciples are at this day in despair of procuring his justification . true it is that aristotle makes an excuse for him , when he mixeth delight with human actions , when he makes joy the companion of our occupations , and assures us that pleasure is not less useful to the body than necessary to the mind . that joy sweetens our toyls , recruits our tyred vigor , administers comfort to the miserable , and gives us all those advantages which other passions promise us . that nature stands in need of refreshments , that she becomes weary by continued labours , and that she must be comforted by divertisements , if we expect renewed services from her . he adds , that the enjoyment of a benefit becomes irksom if it be not attended with delight , and that it is an abuse of our faculties and sense not to employ those aids that nature hath given us to bring our travels to perfection . in fine , that joy is natural to us , that she is nourished with us from the cradle , that she is mixt with all the actions of life , and that it is a self-cruelty to employ her otherwise than that common mother intended . i know that this doctrine is not to be condemned without being accounted stupid or savage in the peripatetick opinion , and that it is a kind of temerity to attempt the destruction of a passion whose lovers are all the poets , whose panegyrists are all orators , and whose advocates are most of the philosophers . yet must we declare that in seneca's principles she is of no use to vertue , that vertue is too generous to seek her satisfaction out of her self , that she is happy in her own deserts , and esteems it even a dishonour to look upon pleasure as her end , and to use her as a means to accomplish it : likewise those that make love to her pretend to no other rewards but the enjoyment of her self ; they esteem themselves happy enough when they can obtain her ; and though death or envy be sometimes the price of their fidelity , they cannot be perswaded to forsake her . but then their motive is unlike that of other men ; for besides that these undertake nothing but what they are hurried to by their self-interests , setting up pleasures for the recompense of their labors , and love not vertue but because they hope to find delights among her attendants ; they lay hold on benefits that are but such in show ; and , abused by common opinion , they seek their felicity amongst things that are the causes of their sorrow . some imagine that wealth is able to procure their happiness , and leaning upon the esteem that most men make thereof , they promise themselves pleasure by the acquisition of riches . others are pleased with honors , and perswading themselves that praises are often the fruits of vertue , they place their felicity in airy titles . some are so sensual and effeminate as they affect only infamous or superfluous things , those feasts that were invented for their recreations become their whole imployment : they take delight in the conversation of dissolute women , and they would deem their lives miserable if they should be deprived of those objects that flatter their tast or their lust . some others more generous aspire to grandeurs , they draw vanity from the multitude of subjects , and as if their felicity encreased by the number of their slaves , they please themselves only in the sacking of towns , in the ruine of countries , and in the conquest of kingdoms . others there are that vainly boast of their learning , they employ the fairest part of their life in contemplating natures wonders , they think there is nothing more noble than the knowledg of their essence ; and although they cannot but know that such skill will not render them more vertuous , yet cease they not to lodg their felicity in it . but all these delights have so little coherence with innocence and tranquillity , that we cannot engage with them without losing the one and hazarding the other ; their brevity is an evident mark of their fallacy , and seneca said most truly that as intemperance charmed the misery of drunkards by a delightful madness that lasted for a moment , so those objects afford divertisement only to make men the more sensible of sorrow when the vanity that attends them is discovered . to make judgment of a mans happiness we must know if he be of an even temper in all his actions , if his joy be as constant as the vertue from whence it proceeds , if he change not his resolution with the variety of objects , and if he preserve the same measures in time of prosperity as in the state of adversity . a wise man ought to imitate the stars fixt by god almighty in the firmament , he ought to consider the sublunary revolutions without alteration , and the evil that assaults him ought no more to discompose him , then the splendid favors of fortune to swell his mind . it must not then be wondered if the stoicks maintain so fierce a war against pleasure , since they find it void of reason ; if they condemn the use thereof since it runs always to excess ; and if they banish it from the court of their wise man , since it most commonly proceeds from causes as unjust as imaginary . for , to speak properly , opinion is the fountain , this fantastick which seduceth our understanding , corrupts our will , and disguising the nature of the objects , leads us into delights that either abuse or make us guilty . for which cause zeno thought it no offence against truth , to describe joy , an inclination of the soul against nature , occasioned by the opinion of a delightful thing , that seemed to afford us content : for what advantages soever aristotle invents to feed our delights , it must be said that opinion is their mother , that the objects are the authors , that the principle , and their use would never please us if we were not perverted by the report that opinion delivers of them . from thence it comes that a sick man takes delight in things hurtful , that a vicious man rejoyceth in debauchery , that a lover takes pride in his servitude , that princes build their glory upon the honors given to them by their subjects , and that the vainly curious make idols of flowers , pictures and images . likewise we see that when the mind becomes disabused , that truth succeeds the outward shews , and that reason discovers all these pleasures to be but the effects of opinion , and the employments of sick or idle persons , they soon alter their minds ; that which before flattered their sense , they now despise , those grandeurs that limited their pretensions become void of charms to stay their desires , they cease to admire dangerous beauties , and they finally turn persecutors of them whom before they adored . saint austin in his confessions is astonisht that god should be satisfied with his own felicity , that his will should be unchangeable , and that one and the same essence should always be the cause of his happiness : that the angels should be eternal in their affections , that their love should be as constant as their knowledg , that they should be inseparably knit to the subject of their glory , and that man only should delight in change , that the injoyment of benefits which he hath violently purs●ed should become nauseous to him , and that he should so much love novelty , as often to convert his greatest pleasures into torments . some philosophers thought they had satisfied this doubt , by alleadging that man drew his inconstancy from the heavens , and that being composed of a mixt body , which is always in agitation , he cannot but partake of its qualities . some others have thrown this defect upon nature , they say that his condition is incompatible with rest , that his greatest content is in variety , and that as he is seldom in one and the same mind , it ought not to seem strange that his temper so often differs . but what reasons soever they assign , we must conclude with seneca , that opinion is the only cause of this inconstancy , that it is she that alters his resolutions , that runs his understanding into error , that makes him approve what himself condemns , and perswades him that without sinning against his own judgment , he may prefer a greater before a smaller benefit . discourse ii. that the love of beauty is an enemy to reason , and that it is not so much an effect of nature as opinion . be silent lascivious poets , profane no more our altars with your false divinities , this god to whom you sacrifice is but the work of your own frothy imagination , and this monarch whom ye make to have so great a dominion upon earth is but a chymera by you formed , to lead us into the paths of vice , or to authorize your own extravagancies . forbear the abasement of your own grandeur to magnify the power of an imaginary tyrant . forsake your excellent art of rhyming , if you cannot make verses but to seduce us ; and finally learn from reason that that love whose frequent victories you proclaim is but the destemper of mad-men , and the passion of indiscreet persons . it will henceforth avail you nothing to dedicate temples to this false god , to make all the kings of the earth his slaves , to subject all your gods to his government , and to load him with all the titles which the extravagancies of antiquity invented to distinguish the immortal diety whom they worshipped . all those delightful lies are now out of credit , it belongeth no more to the impious to speak your language , and it must be the loss of conscience and reason to become either your disciple or protector . what is there in fact more ridiculous then for an idle prattler to make heaven a partner in his debaucheries , to excuse his crimes by the example of his gods , to give in their incests for bail to his adulteries , and setting up love as superior to his jupiter , perswades us that he is transmitted into a swan to enjoy callisto , that he is changed into a bull to ravish clytemnestra , and that he is tempted to assume the form of a satyre , the better to act the part of a buffoon . we may say that malice is arrived to an extrem , when infamous things do not only divertize us , but delight us , when vices become our manners , and that we increase our miseries by the remedies that should be their cure . love is not so pleasing a passion as to invite men to erect him altars , and they have plainly discovered that they knew but the meanest part of his nature , when they went about to make him the glory and delight of lovers . for although the other motions of the soul be irksom , that their violence quarrels reason , and that their humor be not less opposite to justice then temperance , yet have they this advantage upon love , that they allow us respite , and that after having made us feel their fury , they leave us in a condition wherein we tast a kind of rest . desire doth not always torment us , and so soon as hope makes but shew of leaving him , he falls a sleep . sorrow doth not always throw us into despair , and by giving her but the least assistance you may draw her from her abasement . anger , that wild and untreatable passion , is not always in the persuit of vengeance , she will take her ease when she hath troubled us a while , and when she has gnawn the bit she is at quiet . but love will grant us no cessation , he persecuteth his slaves at all times , his favors are as fatal as his disgraces , and it is not easy to judg whether his scorns or his carresses be most dangerous . those beauties for which men languish , are the cause of all their miseries , if they flatter their hopes they encrease their flaming desires , and they tumble headlong into insolence and extravagance if they answer not their expectations . the liberty which that glorious sex vouchsafeth to man to approch their persons proves as pernicious as their commands not to presume to come into their presence , they fight against the one and are vanquisht by the other ; and our condition is so miserable , that we cannot practise them without being their slaves , nor endure difficulty to obtain their favors , without becoming their martyrs . what greater torment can an enemy be condemned unto , then to love a creature that derides or makes her triumphs of his liberty ? what greater cruelty can be invented then to make men idolize a mistress that either maintains her rigor , or perseveres in her kindness ? both one and the other are as dangerous as dishonorable : and if a man be unjust to bestow his affection upon a person that disdains his adaddresses , he is mean spirited when he submits to her who ought to obey him . likewise they that discourse most solidly of loves essence , are in doubt to believe that it is natural to man , they assure us that there is another principle in him which the art of physick hath not yet discovered , and that a passion which overthrows the order of nature cannot be of her production : for , say they , if love be born with us , it must be common to all men ; that the objects by which some are insnared ought to make impression on the minds of others , that the shame and infamy that attends it ought not to divert them , and that by a necessary conclusion , one woman should have all men for suitors , or one man should have all women for mistresses . but because the inclinations of men are different , that one and the same object procures love and hatred to divers persons , and that one views with indifference what another beholds not but with admiration . they infer that love is not natural , that opinion is the mother of this diversity of wills , who represents us things other then indeed they are , and makes us conceive a love for that which is unworthy of it . those faces to whom heaven hath not been liberal in favors , are not altogether freed from suspition , some men fall in love with baboons in feminine habits . uncleanness is sometimes as ugly as shameful , and it is not more ordinary for the deformed to love , then common for the beautiful to be courted . all the parts of the body unite when they are employed in the work of nature , the senses that are uncapable of conduct , constrain their assistance to succor or enlighten her , and the faculties of the soul are so subserviant to her , that they always abandon their private differences to execute her orders . but love dispiseth all her precepts , weakens her vigor , corrupts her inclinations , opposeth her dictates and by a fury as blind as unjust poureth confusion into all her dominions . never is man less reasonable then when he is seized by this passion , and he never appears more indiscreet then when he gives ear to his counsels or admits his suggestions . the most noble of his habitudes vanish at the appearance of this tyrant , his courage flags , his counsels are uncertain , his strength transmutes into temerity , and having no thought for any thing but the subject of his passion , he becomes as useless to his friends as burthensome to himself . the poets had some reason to feign that their jupiter intermitted his own felicity when he descended from heaven to be a companion of women , that the conversation of creatures so little valuable , debased his condition , that the empire of love was incompatible with his person , and that he did necessarily cease to be a god so often as he subjected himself to his slaves . although these wise prattlers might think that their god was unchangable , and that they had more in design to publish the power of love , then to make him a soveraign of the diety to whom they paid divine adorations ; yet may it be said that this fable is become a real truth upon earth , and that the passion which they feigned to prescribe laws to their gods , swallows up mankind , and guides the inclinations contrary to their nature . he is so powerful upon their minds that he changeth all their faculties , he makes the fearful audacious , he inspires the niggard with liberality , he engageth the most generous to serve in vile and ridiculous actions , he abaseth the proud , he makes wise men carry fools baubles , and by a new metamorphosis he turns dunces into poets and orators . but as these are strained disguises , which ought to be rather attributed to the force of fancy , then to the power of the thing loved , they easily return to their first inclinations , they renounce their amours to pursue what is more suitable to their humors , they become at last the persecutors of those beauties which before had made them idolaters : for as soon as the sun of reason begins to dart forth his lights , that the judgment examins his first decrees , and that the will acknowledgeth his errors , then he learns without much preaching , that love is imperious , that he cannot be obeyed without hazard of liberty , that a man is a slave so soon as he becomes subject to his laws , and that kings ought to think of laying down their crowns from the hower that they become amorous . let plato exercise his oratory in favor of love as much as he will , let him make it the governor of arts and sciences , and let him give it , if he please , the glory of having submitted the whole earth to his empire , he shall be constrained to acknowledg that it is the most sordid and the most blind of our passions , and that he must have lost both his sense and his reason that becomes his advocate . for what can be shewed us more unworthy of a man , then to subject him to a woman , to make him forsake his understanding to follow her fantastick humor , and to creep so far into her dominion , as to have no desires but what are hers , no resolutions but what proceed from her lips , nor any authority but what is confirmed by her decrees . sometimes , as if the beauty he adores were a diety , he grows pale in approaching her person , he trembles as often as he sees her , his tongue gets the cramp , when he would speak to her , and his soul distracted with excess of the passion , can form nothing but nonsensical and imperfect words . we must truly say that love is an enemy to nature , since it violates all her laws , changeth the constitution of the most noble part of her workmanship , and that leaving him in a condition where he hath no more the command of himself , he can undertake nothing that is not ridiculous or irregular . to avoid them all these disorders , and to defend our selves from the tyranny of so malignant a passion , reason must timely prevent his assaults , and we must consider before we engage with such an enemy , that the object to which he would draw us is not in our power , that it is a benefit that cannot contribute to our felicity , and that the greatest beauties are heavenly presents placed upon womnes faces , only to punish the folly of indiscreet and curious persons . that this delightful proportion of parts is an advantage of as small continuance as of great danger , that it 's a flower that fades in few days , and a favor of nature , to which all the accidents of life may prove injurious . in fine , that beauty is but a sun that borrows all his vertue from our opinion , and which would be void of light if it drew not it's splender from our blindness . indeed , if love had not found the way to put out mens eyes he had long since been a king without subjects , we should have been no more souldiers listed under his command , those who fight under his banners would become his greatest enemies , and they would disdain to prostitute their affections to a mistress whose chiefest excellence is nothing but what she hath borrowed from the vain esteem of foolish men . but love knows so well how to disguise her defects , that he sees not any thing in her of which he raiseth not the price , he makes her apparent blemishes to pass for currant perfections , and though she be often endued but with ordinary charms , he forbears not to give her excessive praises . he ravisheth the lilly of her whiteness to colour her face , he steals the blush of roses to embellish her cheeks , he dims the glistering of the stars to increase the brightness of her eyes ; and to hear him speak of her , nature hath nothing wonderful in the creation which is not summed up in her person . he resembles those idols that have eyes and see not , he sees notable defects , but observes them not , and although his sight be continually fixt upon her face , yet can he not discern her spots from her perfections . mans condition were very deplorable if this passion were without remedy , and if the fountain whence it springs were as necessary as common . but as it draws its original from opinion its duration is equal to that which supports it : the same cause from which it hath its original stifles it , and lovers most commonly find the cure of their distemper in the cause that procured it . some have conquered their amours by seeing their mistress in a morning undrest ; those whom they beheld in the day time as goddesses , seemed monsters at the escaping from their beds , they could no more consider their aspects without disdain , and they began to learn without the consultation of philosophers , that women owe their glory to the splendor of ornaments , and the greatest proportion of their beauty to the opinion of their slaves . others have prevented the love of this sex by that of arts and sciences , they have withdrawn their senses from pleasure to employ them in the contemplation of nature , and , charmed by the attractions of truth , they preferred the study thereof before the possession of the greatest beauties of the earth . the consideration of the shortness of the pleasure has made others treacherous to their own affections , and they became the enemies thereof by the remembrance of the pains which they caused them to suffer : they could not resolve any longer to cherrish a mistress whose conversation furnisht them with nothing but shame and repentance ; and who after a moment of divertisement plunged them into a condition equally shameful and unhappy . alexander the great was cured of this evil disease by ambition , the desire of fame begat him the title of continent , as his valor did that of conqueror of the world , and in st. austins sentiments , it 's not easy to decide whether he was prouder when he fought against himself or when he gave battle to his enemies . but every one sees that reason is more effectual then these several ways of curing this distemper , that she is more absolute in man then ambition ▪ that her power is beyond that of curiosity , and that she that regulates all his actions may more easily become the soveraign of love , then opinion and covetousness . for as mans will is free he may cease to love when himself pleaseth , he may recover his liberty as often as he looseth it , and even as to love a thing he need but will it , so to chase away the desire of it , it is sufficient not to will it . discourse iii. that learning is vexatious and the pleasures of knowledg are mixt with grief , danger and vanity . philosophy owns nothing in nature more glorious than her self , all her participants take share in her grandeur , and although she suffers not her suitors to draw vanity from their applications , she dares commend her self without fear of offending against the good manners she makes profession to teach them . the delights she promiseth to such as court her , seem to her too innocent not to attract their love , and she concludes that a man must be without courage or without reason to refuse her his affection , when he has discovered her merit . she is so noble in her pursuits that she is busied only in the contemplation of the chiefest good , and she is so delightful in her employments that her conversation is never without satisfaction ; for besides that she is the companion of vertue , that she shews us the secrets of nature , that she lifts us up into heaven to inform us of her wonders , and that she anticipates our felicity by the knowledg she gives us of our future happy estate , she fills the soul with content , she unites our spirit to the object which it seeks after , and opening wide the gates of truth , and disclosing all her charms , she seemeth to transport us from darkness to light , and from bondage to a glorious liberty . the contentment which man receiveth from the enjoyment of other things is always imperfect , the frailty of their nature threatens him with their deprivation , the crimes that usually follow it make him doubt their possession , and the difficulty he meets with to preserve them leave him but a mixt satisfaction of fear and grief . but understanding is a benefit which fortune cannot reach , the oppressors that rob him of his wealth cannot touch it , it remains with him when his goods and honors are sled away , and a wise man may boast of being happy so long as he preserves it . the utility of wisedom gives place in nothing to the contentments she promises , and if she have attractions to draw our love , she hath benefits to satisfy the hopes of her suitors . the prince of orators is not deceived when he stiles her the nurse of young men ; the stay of the aged , the succour of the afflicted , and the protector of the vertuous . he assures us that religion would be doubtful if she were not enlightened by knowledg , and that necessarily the spirit must disunite from the senses by understanding , to conceive her misteries ; that their is nothing more dangerous in a state then an ignoramus who emploies himself in explicating that doctrin that is above his reach , and that a kingdom looks towards it's ruin when philosophers cease to command , and the people to obey them . but though antiquity make so high an esteem of knowledg , and that the honors she bestowed upon the ancients obliged them to give her such glorious titles , yet the professors of divinity make her the most rigorous of their torments , and the most ingenious among them have confest that her pains surpass her pleasures ; and the labours that must be undergon for her , do much exceed the delights she affords us . her greatest business is to entertain us with matters as vain as useless , all her instructions are little more then eloquent words invented by subtilty to amuse us , and doubtless , a man is not much wronged , if he be denied that learning which he may be ignorant of to his advantage , and which he cannot know without danger . truth is so gentle that she permits all that court her to take her by the hand ; not to despise her , is sufficient to be admitted into her presence , and as the sun imparts his light liberally to all men , she comunicates freely to all those that seek her : she is obscure only where science hath bemisted her . those tracts which art hath beaten to come at her have made her inaccessible , that which ought to conduct us to her , has turned us out of the way , and man is assured to miss her so often as he emploies learning to find her . nature had endewed us with more ready helps to become better ; she hath fixt our felicity to our will , as she condemns all those habitudes which fill our heads with wind , she approves no skills that direct us not to vertue , she rejects all that sublime knowledg whereof the learned make their boast . she esteems them the inventions of ease , and delights which after having a while entertained our fancy leave us in dispair of finding her . those arts which we stile liberal , are but the pass time of youth , school-boys must learn them , and a man is not to converse with them any longer then while he is uncapable of more excellent knowledg . for if they be the beginning they are not the end of his studies , if they make part of our apprentiship , they are not to be our employment : and if they help to make us knowing , they contribute nothing to our vertue . also seneca acknowledgeth but one science that leads us to wisdom , that teacheth us modesty with the art of good expression , and that putting us into a state of liberty , at once inspireth us with the prudence of politicians , the valor of conquerors , and the constancy of philosophers . but she is so excellent that she admits no rival , she endures not inferior allies , and she would think it a treason against her own grandeur if she should vouchsafe them her company . as the designs of princes are not formed from the wild opinions of their people , and as commanders banish from their counsels those advices which conduce not to the end proposed , vertue rejects all that is not for her purpose , she retains but what is necessary ; and as she esteems it an injustice in a covetous man to wish for superfluous riches , she concludes that it would be a kind of intemperance in a wiseman to desire the knowledg of more then he needeth . we must not judg of the wisdom of a man by the multitude of things he hath learned ; religion takes offence when we study her mysteries rather for knowledg than reverence , she commands that practice should be the end of our travels , and she permits us not to be of the number of them who spend their whole lives in the search without the love of truth . when god placed man in the terrestrial paradice , he inspired him only with the knowledg of things needful for him , although the favors wherewith he honoured him were excessive . he limited his science , he would not he should learn what could not profit him ; and , in the opinion of tostatus , he sent him not the animals made of corruption to give names unto , but for that the knowledg thereof was not of use to him , too much learning is always insolent , and edifieth not ; as we find no conquerors that are not proud , we see no learned men that are not puffed up , divines can tell us that the proud angels strayed not from their duty but by having too much knowledg . aristotle was of opinion that the famous men of old were often guilty of fantastical actions , that they made small sallies which were little different from great follies , that their extasies surpast the strength of their reason , and that they could bring forth nothing above ordinary men which was not akin to fury . those great wits which antiquity puts amongst the number of prodigies , have not always been the wisest men , their works are not irreproveable no more than their lives , if they have written some things worthy of honor , they have left us others as ridiculous , and their disciples confess they had intervals in which they were not more reasonable than mad men . although this language be opposite to the common opinion of the people , and that the benefits of knowledg oblige men to give it reverence where ever they find it , yet i think it not hard to draw them to the contrary sentiment , and to obtain their assent , that the knowing men at this day are but delightful dotards who act the fool by authority , and teach impertinencies with approbation . for what is it that our professors of learning do when they instruct us to define all things by their chiefest attributes , to separate their nature from their properties , and , by the aid of propositions infer that vertue is a gender , that justice and prudence are the species , and that vertue is separable from temperance , but that temperance is not to be divided from vertue ? what profit do we reap from these formalities ? of what use is it to know how to compose a formal discourse ? to reduce an argument to an impossibility ? to frame sophisms to ensnare the unlearned ? and to use dilemma's and inductions to surprize the unskilful ? what advantage can we hope from the knowledg of natural philosophy , to be informed that the earth is solid , that god by his power can separate the form from the matter , that he unites at his pleasure two substantial forms into one compound , and directs the substance to produce a third by the intermediation of accidents , to which he communicates his efficacy ? what serves it us to discover the influences of the heavens , to know that the planets are corruptible , that the sun is a mixt not a pure element , that the stars are void of life , and that the whole earth is but a point compared with the firmament that surrounds it ? in fine , what advantage do we acquire when we are taught by divines that god is infinit ? that the unity of his nature agrees with the trinity of his persons ? that the father begets the son from all eternity ? and that the holy spirit proceeding from the father and the son hath the communication of their perfections ? were it not better that all the arts were banished the schools , than that they should entertain us with so many unedifying things , that they should teach us to regulate our wills rather than our fancies , and how to live vertuously , rather than to dispute well ? were it not to be wisht that logick , by which we flourish our harangues , by which we examine the property of speech , and which boasteth of laying open truth by the subtilty of arguments , taught us to reform our manners and to reject all these vain amusements of the mind , which benefit a wise man as little as they are troublesome and insignificant to the simple . were it not better that geometry , taught the rich to bound his desires , to divide a proportion of his revenues amongst the poor , than to shew him the art of taking the contents of his parks , the height of his palaces , and the extent of his lands ? were it not to be desired that the professors of divinity would discover to us the way to love rather than define the creator , and instead of informing us of his essence , and labouring to make us conceive the mysterious trinity of his persons by the unity of his nature , to teach us the ●wful adoration of him whom we are not able to comprehend , and to make us forgo all that is dearest to us in the world , to be united to him , who alone ought to possess all our affections . but the delight of all arts is the pleasure of discourse , they are swallowed up of the words that compose them , they are the minds diversion ▪ and not the employment of the will , they polish our speech , and our actions remain unrectified , and all the witty things they propose are but to divertize their lovers ; so that the greatest part of our sciences are properly but specious trifling imaginations , and i do not think that he could offend the learned , who should define knowledg to be the dreames of them that watch , and dreams to be the knowledg of them that sleep . these defects in knowledg would be tolerable , if other more dangerous consequences did not follow them , and that after having held their martyrs in hand with things that fall out to be of little use , they did not make them impious or insolent . for as she is of an imperious humor , suffers no opposition , pretends to understand all things , and would no less be thought to dive into the mysteries of faith than into the secrets of nature ; she is made use of to uphold vice , and is conversant about what has most of shew , and not about what hath most of truth , and , by an injustice contrary to that of idolatry , she employs the most sublime part of her skill , to bring in question or to overthrow the maxims and principles of religion . but not to discredit knowledg without authority , is it not she that hath so often changed the face of christendom ? did not philosophers become the first hereticks ? did not the ages of the greatest learning lean more to atheism than to religion ? and was the church ever more dismembred than when ecclesiasticks undertook to raise arguments upon her dignity and decrees . the diversity of their opinions stifled that charity which ought to have united her , and they ceased to be christians when they were become learned men , the desire that possest them of out-arguing their antagonists made their designs scandalous even to the heathen ; and those men of darkness were sufficiently enlightened to see that they who were looked upon as the pillars of the church , robbed her faith of assurance , her doctrine of evidence , and her councils of authority . doth not all europe complain at this day of the art of physick ? are not her remedies as cruel as hazardous ? the disputes of her doctors , have they not been the destruction of the greatest number of them that are gone down to the chambers of death ? do not physicians make traffick of human bodies without being arreigned at the tribunals of justice , when forgoing the instructions of their masters , they try the experience of new medicines at the price of our lives ? and see we not daily that they send death to their patients with the drinks that ought to cure them ? the churches and church-yards are full of their victims ; the marbles that cover them publish nothing but their injustice ; and if the stones , under which they lie were not insensible , they would openly accuse them of temerity and ambition : they would proclaim to all the world that they are deprived of life by using too much means to preserve it , that art hastened their sepulture , and that the multitude of medicaments was the only cause of their death . so that science which was invented to divert or comfort us , is turned into our chastisement , and it were to be wisht for the common good , that as she is banisht from amongst the turks and barbarians , she were also unknown to christians . for as she maintains that the cause from whence she proceeds is infallible , she becomes obstinate in her determinations , she approves of no waters but what are drawn from her own fountain , and building upon the certainty of her own authority , she from thence formeth consequences no less dangerous than to her they seem evident . in fine , knowledg is an immortal evil , her fury is without bounds , her malice exceeds the limits of time , and she is not less pernicious to man in the discovery of false doctrine , than when she invents reasons to intice him to defend or imbrace it . discourse iv. that the buildings and gardens of grandees are not so much the inventions of necessity as vanity . although in the precedent discourse , i declare war against philosophy , and by arguments drawn from senecas authority do discover plain enough the vanity and deceipt thereof , yet should i think it an offence against that justice so religiously observed in the schools , if i permitted not her adherents to stand up in her defence , and to make their appeals from that condemnation , to plead her cause , and bringing their bill of review , to set forth her perfections to cover her defects . her advantages are so considerable that we must be ignorant of her merit if we slight her too much , and reason must forsake us if we esteem not the most noble and most delightful of her rational productions . some have thought that we owe all our felicity to the observation of her maxims , that our glory consisted in her enjoyment , and that if our life were sustained by the aids of the gods , we became vertuous by the help of philosophy . in fine , they were not afraid to declare that we were more obliged to her then to nature which gave us being . that if we received this from heaven , we obtained vertue from that , and that a vertuous life being much above that which we hold in common with the beasts , we were more beholding to her instructions then to the bounty of the gods , if they were not as well the authors of knowledg as of life . it is easie to confirm this discourse by the grandeur of her employments , and to judg of the excellency of her nature by the different effects of her operations in the world. for although the most glorious of her exercises tend to the discovery of truth by her lights , to teach us the adoration of god as our soveraign , and to respect our neighbours as members of our selves . though she take upon her the care of instructing princes , of leading their subjects in the paths of obedience , of shewing fathers how to educate their children , and of furnishing states-men with those excellent rules by which to retain the people within the lemits of respect , and to make themselves dreaded of their enemies : yet would she think her labours ineffectual to their purpose , if she had not first allured them from their caves and forests , to give them the discipline of good manners ; and preserving to every one their right , taught them to erect houses , castles and citadells . indeed it 's she that invented architecture , that contrived the first mansions , and who raised sumptuous palaces for kings after she had built huts and cottages . ti 's she , saith an illustrious stoick , who taught our forefathers to mix sand and lime , to square marbles with iron , to hew timber with steel , to erect walls by aid of lime and plummet , and to spread lead and copper upon our houses . the proud buildings which at this day we behold with so much applause are the operations of philosophy , the architects that raised them are but the ministers , and what industry soever they have emploied to polish them , they stood in need of her rules both to begin and to finish them . we must be ingrateful not to honor her for so many good offices , her use binds us to esteem her , and it would be a kind of obstinacy to remain her opponent after having learnt how necessary she is . nevertheless by the principles of seneca we must say that she was not more successful when she found out the art of building , then when she formed the figures of sillogismes , and that she was not less fatal to man when she taught him to build palaces , then when she instructed the logicians to deceive the simple by sophistries , the physicians to commit homicides without punishment , and the lawyers to rob men of their estates and good name without fear of chastisement . indeed the mansions of great men are not always the retirements of innocence ; vice there reigneth commonly by authority , and what care soever the superintendant takes to preserve them from disorder they cannot in such families hinder the commission of those crimes which in huts and cottages are unknown . theives take the advantage of their woods and coverts to surprize the harmless unguarded traveller , the domesticks lead a disorderly life , the masters spend their time in play and riot their servants become lazie , their stewards grow rich , and their lords poor , and the frequenters of such houses , insensibly become vain and insolent . it is with families as with cities , the greatest are commonly the most vicious ; because men live in palaces more at their ease , they do not therefore lead more vertuous lives , vice attends plentiful tables , and be it that liberty or abundance facilitates the way to sin , experience sheweth that they who enjoy them seldom escape undepraved . but we likewise see , that divine justice gives commission to the works of great men to become their tormentors , they tremble in the midst of their palaces , they are afraid of death under the covert of their guilded ceelings , the cleft of a wall puts them into a fright , the clattering of a shutter drives their courage to a non-plus , and they fear their days to be at an end every time the wind breaks a pane of their windows , or puffs up a tile from their roof . the places of safety are not secure to them , and they are as much amazed to see the tapistry slip from the wall as if an earthquake had violently thrown up the foundation of their dwelling . how much more happy do i esteem the condition of our forefathers , who neglecting the art of building , contented themselves with the lodgings that nature had made them , those chambers which she had indented in the rocks served them for places of retreat , the open fields were their floores , a large heap of earth cased with moss , was their bed , and as vanity had not yet taught them the art of adorning their dwellings , they retired to the caves of the earth as to the places of their recreation . if they found a necessity of building houses , art had no share therein , the earth without opening her bowels , served them for foundations , mud mixt with straw was the matter , the spoiles of trees furnisht the roofs and covering , and two forked poles interlaced on each side supported the whole structure . the small accomodations that secured them from the outragious influences of the weather , were also their defence against ravenous beasts , and they lived more happily in those their huts , then princes do at this day in their glorious palaces . for they were free under straw and moss , and these are bondmen upon thrones of gold and ivory ; they found the contentment of happy men in their poverty , and these meet with the miseries of the damned in their plenty . though they possess all things , yet are they never satisfied , and it seemeth as if heaven had granted them the temporal blessing of abundance , only to render them eternally miserable . those men that were ignorant of the use of noble structures , who lived in woods and forrests , who built not but to defend themselves against the intemperatures of the air , past their time with content , their nights were not interrupted with vexatious thoughts , they awakened as chearful in the morning as they contentedly laid themselves down to rest over night . our cares commenced with the art of building , the edifices that enclose us ravish our rest , and it may be said we became unhappy , when knowledg perswaded us to forsake our dales and cottages to inhabit palaces and lordlike houses . a wise man that knows the vanity of our structures , despiseth them , he useth houses as places of refuge , not as apartments to dwell in , he looks upon them as fortresses invented by necessity to warrant him from injurious seasons , and without being concerned for the matter whereof they are composed , he lodgeth his felicity in his vertues and in his conscience ; he esteems his habitation sumptuous enough , when he hath vertue for his guest , he considers the mansions of noble men as the sepulchres of the living , he calls them the retreats of men that know how to hide themselves but not how to live , and whose spirits are mean enough to love their prisons , but wanting courage to despise them . they who delight in gardens are not more excuseable ; and what pretext soever they lay hold on to authorise their practice , they cannot escape the censure of philosophers . the pleasures which these men boast of tasting in such exercises , seem not to them sufficiently pure and innocent to rob them of their time ; and though they have promised to themselves great advantages by their fruits or beauty , yet could they never intice those reasonable men to approve such employments . they pass the sentence of blame upon them for that they conclude them unserviceable to wisdom , and they inveigh against their authors , because they entertain us only with things vain and forreign . socrates , who so perfectly understood the injustice and sordidness of our divertisements , banisheth this employment from his school , he prefers the city before the country , he adviseth his scholars to be citizens and not peasants ; and well knowing flowers and trees are speechless things , he perswades them by his own example not to consult those tutors , who if they be able to recreate their eyes , cannot satisfy their ears . i know that the romans made esteem of gardens , that the most famous amongst them made such their abode , that they disingaged themselves from the care of the empire to exercize a gardening life , and that a great number of their wise men retired to such places , the better to apply themselves to the study of philosophy . i know that the curious walks and plots of gardens , are friends to the muses , that the refined wits take pleasure in them , that the greatest part of those works we admire at this day , had their conception there , and that their shady retirements have often been of more use to the learned then the schools and conferences . there i know that the poets composed those verses that animated many men to glorious actions , that the orators there made their panegyricks in vertues favor , and that philosophers there taught us quietly to attend our change , to resist misfortunes with a resolution , and to expect death without fear . but i also know that gardens were made but for diversion , that they are the ordinary employments of insignificant men , and that the greatest number of such spend their time therein but for recreation . some are so linckt to them that they make it their whole business ; they pass away all their life in the observation of party coloured flowers , they form and contrive spacious walks only for delight , they invent mazes and labyrinths only to have the pleasure of being at aloss ; and if they adorn them with murmuring rivers , and reflecting fountains , it is but to renew their pleasures , to be charmed into a sleep by the noise of the waters that run from them . they spend a proportion of their revenues to buy onyons , they turn merchants of forraign plants , they value nothing but what was unknown in the gardens of their ancestors , and they would never be content if they thought they had not comprehended in their ground all the rarities that the earth produceth . what an extasie of joy are they in , when their garden has brought them forth a new flower , when a tulip is curiously streaked , when an emony is finely doubled , and that a pinck hath delightfully coloured her leaves with the mixture of bloud and milk ? but then again how are they distasted when the worms have got into their onion beds , when the sun hath withered a plant which they had carefully cherished in a curious pot , when the wind or the cold has kill'd a young wall tree ? we shall see some as much afflicted for these losses as others for a kingdom , and i cannot tell whether they would not better bear the death of the dearest of their friends , then the miscarriage of a fine tulip , or a curious emony . what more vexatious occupation could curiosity have invented to torment us , then to affect us with the art of gardening , to exercize a mans care to preserve flowers , and to convert the most innocent of recreations into matters of grief and vanity ? if then heaven have permitted us the delight of gardens , let us use them as places of refreshment , and not as retreats for idleness , let their shady beds and seats serve to unweary us , not to sleep in , let their obscure arbors put us in mind of the habitations of the dead , and not serve to act our private debaucheries in , and let all that we there meet with serve modestly to divert , not to employ us . let us not bid more for things then they are worth , let us judg of the beauty of our gardens by the report of wise not of curious men , and let us learn of them that all these odoriferous stars which we so much esteem , are but party colored knots of grass : and , to use the words of a greek-poet , zephyrus breaths , that last a few days and flatter our sight the better to make us bewail their loss , when they have changed their glory into corruption . discourse v. that the gaudiness of apparel discovereth the impudicity or pride of them that use it . man hath so great an affection for that which is good , that he cannot forgo the desire of it , the impious seek it , in their dissolute actions , the damned who live altogether in despair , wish for it , and they cannot forbear to hope the injoyment of that which is not possible for them to possess . as the presence of good is the cause of happiness , the absence thereof procures their torment . the impossibility of obtaining abates not their desires , they are constant to it in the midst of their punishments , and what pains soever they take to loose the love of it , they cannot banish it from their will , without the extremity of violence . they love god though they be his enemies , and they reverence his excellence in the person of his children , though they are not any more in a condition to communicate with him . this violent passion is an evident proof of their wants ; they affect what is good because they are indigent , and they desire not their creator but because he only is able to supply their necessities . although the love we have for beauty be not so natural as that which we bear to goodness , that the one be affixt to our substance and the other attend upon our will , that the one be an inclination of nature ; and the other but an effect of opinion , it is therefore not less universal , and i know not if there be any nation under heaven that have not therewith been attainted . the meridionals who banish formal courts and reveling from their assemblies , despise not gay cloathing , they put on rich apparel so oft as they desire to be seen in publick ; and deeming that their vestures set off the beauty of the body , they array it with their choicest ornaments . they set tufts of feathers on their heads , they fix diamonds and pearls to their ears , they dress the skins of beasts to cover them , they set off the blackness of their bodies by the whiteness of fish bones , and as if the pomp of their apparel made their persons more honorable , they draw vanity from the costliness of their attire . this passion , though guilty , is not by them condemned as criminal , she hath some qualities that make her glorious , her manner of operating is a copy of that of the diety , and adding to the body a beauty which before it had not , she gives us to understand that our seeking to her is not so much the mark of our indigence as of her liberality . she beautifies the body as the temple of god , and she is of opinion that she pays respect to the divine power within it , so often as she bedecks it with forraign ornaments . the politicians who boast of state conduct , imitate nature in this point , and as she distinguisheth the animals male from female by exteriour marks , they beget a difference of persons by the diversity of garments . they array kings in purple that they may seem the more majestical to their subjects , they give robes to senators as tokens of their employments , they separate the nobless from the yeomandry by the fleece and the garter , and they will have it that ornaments shall be as well the rewards as the signs of valour , but this judicious manner of cloathing is at present out of use , opinion hath abolished the motive . at this day we apparel our selves only for shew , the noble men wear their ornaments only out of vanity , and as the low estate is despicable , so the common people put on genteel habits only to dissemble their condition . it is hard now adays to distinguish a merchant from a gentleman by his apparel , one cloath covers them both , and if it were lawful to judg of the quality of a man by his garb , i know not whether ordinary persons would not often prefer a citizen before a knight . the citizens wives are as exquisitly drest as our ladies , the pearls and rubies which were formerly the ornaments of princesses , now magnify their necks and fingers ; the indies have nothing precious but it 's to be seen about their bodies : and some amongst them are such flebergebits that their attire must not be inferior to the rings and jewels of dames of the greatest quality . but as the one and the other are inexcuseable they will not be angry if i place them together , if i make it appear that they cannot adorn themselves without sinning , and that they become not less suspected of impudicity then pride , so often as they bedeck themselves to excess . nature doth so much resemble truth , that nothing upon earth can corrupt her : art which brags of being her ape , could never debauch her works , that purple which makes a king and the cowl that makes a hermite , alters not his face , and what artifice soever industry emploies to raise or abase it's beauty , she is not able to disguise the air and lineaments thereof . we see some women so charming that they dart love into men in despite of the rags that cover them ; and some are by nature so ill proportioned , that all our court inventions cannot render them pleasing , the splender of their attire encreaseth their defects , and they are never more deformed then when they are best accoutred , all that should set them off makes them ugly , and they cause their beholders to confess , that if ornaments do sometimes diminish the graces of the beautiful , they always augment the imperfections of the unhandsome . ladies , if this principle be true , and if experience constrain you to own it , though with some difficulty ; wherefore waste you so much time in your attire ? what is that spanish red with which you force your cheeks and lips to blush good for ? and of what use are all those jewels which rattle at your ears ? if you are deformed all these ornaments increase your defects , your faults are more visible when they approach the glory of your attire , and you carry nothing of less use about you then that which you employ to hide your unhandsomness . i know that you will fancy your selves to be beautiful , and that it would be an offence against that civility which you imagin to be due to your sex , not to think as you do . but if you believe it , why do you betray your own judgment by your practice ? why seek you after ornaments to adorn you , and thereby silently confess that ye are unhandsome , seeing ye have need of a forreign beauty to set off your own : innocence and purity are enemies to disguises , impurity and unworthyness seek coverts and off sets : things decent suffer not concealment , and a woman becomes doubtful of her own perfections when once she calls to her jewels and her silks for their assistance to purchase the vain title of beautiful . it 's true that what some of the most witty of the sex have to say for themselves is ingenious ; for they plead that it is to please their husbands , and as their happiness consisteth in the enjoyment of their good graces , they ought to employ their utmost skill to obtain and preserve them . but they forget that in designing to preserve the love of a man , they loose the favor of god , that in contenting their husbands , they beget impudicity in others ; and these committing adulteries upon their faces , they are the cause of unlawful desires . what a folly is it for a woman to prefer a bastard complexion to her own ? to drive nature from her cheeks by vermillion , and forfeit her own judgment for fear of her husbands censure ? it must be concluded that they esteem themselves deformed , since they falsify their own faces , and that they are first unpleasant in their own eyes , since they seek matter out of themselves wherewith to delight others . in fine , all that they alleadg for their excuse , tends to their condemnation , and without a formal philosophical process they may easily be found guilty by their own arguments . for if they be handsom , wherefore do they disguise themselves under so many different forms ? and if they be unhandsom , why do they betray their defects by smug pots and ornaments ? this dilemma puts the less extravagant to a nonplus , those that are not become shameless do own that they cannot adorn themselves without sinning , that their attires offend their conscience , as well as their honor , and that if adultery be odious because it is a violation of chastity , the luxury of apparel ought to be abominated , for that it corrupteth our nature . those christian ladies that lived in the primitive church , were far from this vain humor of apparel ; they despised outward ornaments because they were the testimonials of sin , they never clothed themselves without consideration of their mothers nakedness , and as they were chast and penitent , they would not make use of attires that should not put them in mind of her disobedience . they thought they were going to their own funerals , so often as they were obliged to dress themselves ; and making judgment of the misery of their condition by the greatness of the punishments inflicted on them they believed themselves condemned to dye , because they were constrained to carry about them the marks of their crime . being the daughters of eve , they were content if their shame were but covered , a peece of cloath served for that ; they thought it a sin against justice to be more richly clad then their parent , and glorying in the meanest of their apparel , they taught the dames of our days that there is no beauty but that of vertue , no comely white but that of purity , no lovely red but that of shame-facedness , no handsome or graceful behaviour but that of modesty . if the women of the world would take the pains to consult their guides upon this subject , and if these had candor enough to lay open their injustice , as they have sordid flattery to hide it , they would long since have learned that they cannot have recourse to artifices without fowling their conscience , and that they become guilty so often as they make use of gaudy attire and painting to set out their earthen vessels , and to imbellish their complexions . t is not to be a christian , saith the learned tertullian , to falsify the work of that god whom we pretend to adore , to preprefer fraud or art before that simplicity which he teacheth us , to cheat a man under pretence of pleasing him , and to disguise the face with design to ensnare him . doubtless our vain women must have given themselves up to the tempter , since he hath so much power over their will , since he draws services from them so disadvantageous to their own salvation , and hath so much the ascendant of their understanding , as to induce them to break the oath which they made in the day of their baptism . for if they will look back into that , they shall find there that they dedicated their liberty to the son of god , they promised to be his spouses , they protested the renounciation of all worldly vanities , and to have respect unto his commandments at the hazard of their lives . yet as if the corruption of the times gave them a dispensation from that oath of fidelity , they despise his laws , they oppose their own wills against his commands , and making a mock of the simplicity of his doctrin , they walk in all the paths that are contrary to it . we permit not our servants to hold correspondence with them against whom we stand at defiance , that souldier is chastized that keeps intelligence with the enemy , and it is a punishable crime in an army , to go out of the camp to parly with an adversary . and yet our christian women are not afraid to consult the divel , who is their common enemy , they take pride in being his disciples , they prefer his advices before the counsels of jesus christs , and without being sensible of the hazard they run of their salvation in following so dangerous and malicious a guid , they are content with a tutor that instructs them in impudence , vanity and prostitution . let those that idolize them bring what reasons they can for their excuse , they are not able to acquit them of sin , their intentions cannot be innocent , they are sufficiently guilty when they begin to delight in gaudy attire ; the aversion they have against keeping at home renders them suspected , those courtships and revels with which they are pleased , bring their pudicity in question ; and i might say that they cease to be vertuous from the time that they desire the company of men to see and to be seen ; beauty is exposed to temptation , it is an advantage as dangerous to them that enjoy it , as to them that behold it , and it sufficeth to know that she is of no use to the angels , that she brought a scandal into heaven , that she caused the second sin in the world , to perswade women to neglect , and men to disesteem it . the second treatise . of desire . discourse i. of the nature of desire . as a wise mans content is from within , he finds his felicity in his own breast , he draws his confidence from the sincerity of his conscience , and discovers nothing upon earth that is able to satisfie him but his own vertue , it ought not to be wondered if he reject his passions , and if after he hath examined their nature and properties , he finds them as disadvantageous to his rest as useless in his conduct . their ill usage has procured his hatred , and he drives them not from his soul , but because they breed seditions and disorders . the discourses which the peripateticks have formed to undeceive seneca in that belief , could not perswade him to receive them into his service , and what excessive commendations soever their writings have afforded them they could not bribe this generous spaniard , they hinder him not from declaring war against them ; and he considers them as the evil spirits that set themselves in opposition to vertue , as tyrants that conspire her ruine , and insolent subjects who brave her authority and despise her government . posidonius , who was not famous amongst the ancients but because he sided with the stoicks , thought he pleaded the cause of his gods as often as he opposed their adversaries , when he exhorted his disciples to scorn their assistance , and when he proved , by reasons drawn from morality , that passions were but the diseases of mad men , and the opinions of the ignorant . to hear this philosopher's discourse , the earth bears nothing more miserable than a passionate man , and , in his opinion , to restore vertue to her dominion , we need but banish her enemies which are our passions . this sentiment for being somewhat severe , is no opponent to reason , we find philosophers at this day who maintain it in the schools , and are not afraid to incur the censure of some divines by defending the doctrine of infidels . seneca blameth love for that he is always interessed , because he seeks his own advantage in the object he hunts after , because he respects fortune and not the person , and for that his duration is no longer than while he is fed by pleasure or profit . he condemneth fear because she is umbragious , she hastens our misfortunes by her foresight , she is tormented before the afflictions touch us , and unites the present with the future to make us unhappy . he opposeth sadness because she is injurious to mankind , she wounds his body , she troubles his understanding , and is not less offensive to one and the other in her moderation than in her excesses . but he is never more animated against passions than when desire would be admitted into employment , and he demonstrates by reasons as evident as efficatious , that he cannot lawfully act any thing for us : and that that man must not give him any business who will not hazard his liberty and rest . to apprehend this doctrine well , we must suppose with zeno , that no action can be good which is not agreeable to nature : in the morals of this great philosopher , whatsoever strays from this universal law is vicious , and a man cannot boast of being vertuous any longer than he governs himself by her rules . for as all her instructions are divine , she ordains nothing but what is equitable , and every man ought to obey her , that will not set himself to overthrow the purpose of her author . kings , who are the gods of their people , are subject to her laws ; among christians we accuse them of sacriledg against god , who transgress her ordinances ; and no man becomes guilty of their violation , but he is deemed a monster in the judgment of all men . the justice of her laws renders such as offend against them more guilty ; as she is the disciple of truth , we cannot violate her commands without offending her master . what ever issues not from this spring is vicious , and we may be assured of falling headlong into danger every time we shut our eyes against this light. from hence it comes that philosophers maintain so bloody a war against desire , because he slights her precepts , he is insatiable in his pursuits , and contrary to nature , who is content with little , nothing but infinity must be his bounds ; philosophy , as ingenious as she is , hath not yet found the way to give him satisfaction , he is insolent notwithstanding her precautions , the remedies which she hath composed to heal him , have only served to enflame his feaver , and she is not cleared of the imputation of having taught him to long for excessive things , by permitting him to seek after supposed necessaries . for as he is ambitious he always meditates new conquests , the riches he already enjoys content him not , he aspires to them that are out of his reach ; and as if he were immortal and infinite , he gains new strength from that which one should think should stifle him . a man who thinks of nothing but what yet is to be received , easily forgets what he hath already obtained , he ceaseth to take pleasure in present enjoyments , and having all his thoughts bent upon the future , he confesseth that he is needy in the midst of his wealth . but his poverty proceeds from his ingratitude , he is indigent because he is unthankful , and he is not miserable but because he slighteth the benefits he hath received , to hunt after the things which he expects . an ambitious man was never seen to be content with his condition , he languisheth under the hopes of renued grandeurs , those which he already enjoys are but the ladder by which he climbs , he looks upon them which are above him and not upon those of a meaner state ; and he hath less pleasure to see many behind him , then disquiet to behold one before him . his desire encreaseth with his power , and as he considers not from whence he came , but whither he tends , it permits him not to stop in that to which he had imprudently aspired . a lascivious person loves diversity , he stays not long upon one beauty , one and the same object delights and displeases him in a few days , and as if his love made him lose her allurements , he forsakes her to seek another . a covetous man is never satisfied , he resembles the bottomless pit which swallows all ; the wealth which he gathers augments his appetite , and who so could sound the depth of his thoughts would see that he wisheth for the death of all men , that he might become master of their treasures . the study of our own inclinations is sufficient to confirm these truths : we never lose the desire of augmenting our estates , we can hardly believe that we have wealth enough , our fortunes displease us when we make comparison with our neighbours . sometimes , by a strange humour , we deem the favours that are done us to be injuries , and , suffering our selves to be surprized with suspition , we think our selves offended , when the things given us are not correspondent to our expectations . this disorderly passion caused the death of the first emperor ; that valiant prince was massacred for not being able to satisfie the desires of his adherents ; the pride and covetousness of his friends were more fatal to him than the rage of his enemies , and he saw himself pierced thorough the sides in the midst of the senate , by those whom he had obliged but was not able to satiate . although he managed his conquests liberally , and reserved nothing to himself but the power of dividing the spoils amongst his souldiers , he could not render them content because they altogether demanded that which one could but wish for . if a man who desireth be insatiable , he is not less inconstant ; and though he covet all yet is he irresolute in his designs . he changes his wishes according to the objects that present , he abandons a real good , to choose one that is but such in shew ; and as he is at liberty in his will , he expaciates himself upon all that he fancies to be of use or delight to him . the hope of a fresh advantage stirs up his faculties , and raising diversity of desires in the reasonable appetite , he is so much the more inflamed as he meets with difficulties in the obtaining . the good of another appears to him attended with more charms than those which himself possesseth ; and it sufficeth him to apprehend that a thing is out of his power to make him affect it . for as he is unlucky in his choice , and seldom finds that benefit that fully contents him , he esteems what he hath not , he doubts of the reality of what he enjoys ; and , being not much taken with it , he easily forsakes an ordinary benefit to aspire after a better . our desires have so much coherence with the things we covet , that they follow all their motions , they alter their humors when these change their faces , they abate of their violence when these lose any thing of their advantage ; and , by a contrary faculty , they encrease their eagerness when these put on new beauties . from thence it cometh that we commonly differ from our selves , that our last resolutions make war upon our first designs , that we aspire to the things which we despised , that repentance succeeds our vows , and that we are as little satisfied in prosperity as in a low estate . but although that the objects feed our desires , that they are the first causes of their agitation , and that they may bear the imputation of our disquiet and disorder , yet have they need of opinion to procure the esteem of men ; their charmes are not powerful enough to seduce the understanding without our own approbation ; and they would make but light impressions upon us , if that fickle counsellour were not retained for them . all those advantages which we so much prize have nothing praise-worthy but our own admiration , they are not valuable but because we esteem them so : wealth and honours are not in vogue but because they are reverenced of the common people , and men would never become proud and covetous , if they hearkened not rather to the bruit of the world than to the instructions of nature . in most of our sentiments we are unjust , we measure the worth of things by other mens reports , we seek them because they are esteemed ; and , to say all in few words , we commend them not to love them , but we love them because they are commended . also the stoicks define desire to be an eruption of the soul towards an absent good , upon which opinion hath set a price , and which she hunts after contrary to the laws of nature . for what dexterity soever morality makes use of to keep him in order , he is equally blind and insolent . he is inexorable to vertue , he despiseth her maxims , and is so much an enemy to reason , that he always forsakes her party to joyn with her adversaries . though hope be the succour of the miserable , she is nevertheless unjust ; she abandons solid benefits to seek after perishable advantages , she promiseth what she cannot perform , and against natures oeconomie she affords nothing more delightful than perpetual agitation . audacity which is a desire of combat , is not more reasonable , she undertakes things above her strength , she atacketh danger and knoweth it not , and she often precipitates her self into destruction , designing it for her enemy . anger is a pestilence to nature , she maintains enmity amongst men , she looks upon the offender and not the offence , and as she is as savage as proud , she torments her guests before she gives them vengeance for the outrage they have received . but as the calamities which these three passions bring us into are too great to be comprehended in this discourse i , have assigned them the three last of this treatise after i have shewed in the two following the injustice of desire in ambition and covetousness . discourse ii. that the desire of greatness and wealth , plungeth men into misery and sin. soveraignty is so ancient and her conduct so necessary to government , that she is not to be dissolved without sending nature back to the chaos , she is the only pillar of human affairs , the line that unites all the parts of the common-wealth , and the vital spirits which animate all the members that compose it . for , as man is a friend to society , and that society cannot subsist without peace , as peace followes union , as union is inseparable from good order , and as good order cannot be without dependance nor dependance without authority . policy hath happily invented government , she got the people to be subject to magistrates , she placed princes at the head of the nobles , and according to that instinct that is common to all men , she made servitude necessary to us , and obedience delightful . isaac , who is lookt upon in scripture as the model of politicks , thought he did esau no wrong when he commanded him to obey his younger brother : this preference according to the words of philo was not so much a maladiction as a testimony of his love , he satisfied the divine justice by hearkening to the solicitations of his wife ; and knowing that a man that lives by his weapon is subject to many passions , he judged he might appoint jacob to be his governor without injury to his primogeniture . it was with this reason that the roman common wealth justified her usurpations ; that she perswaded the world that her conquests were lawful , since their empire became beneficial to the people whom they overcame , and that giving them philosophers to instruct them in vertues , they made their subjection of greater advantage to them then their liberty . that as the body obeys the mind , and reason commands our passions , they alleadg that the weaker ought to submit to the stronger , cowards to valiant men , and the less perfect to the more accomplisht . this feeble argument hath made so strong an impression on the spirits of ambitious men , that they thought they might lawfully aspire to greatness , that the desire of honors was not so much a mark of pride , as of generosity ; and that the most excellent thing in this world might be sought after without scruple . they affirmed , with much reason , that man was born to command , that nature had given him extraordinary parts for that purpose , and that as she had granted strength to wild beasts to offend or defend , policy to some to avoid the hunters , and swiftness to others to fly from their enemies ; she had : placed in man a generous spirit fit to command , which delighted in dignities , and which esteemed all things below himself but government and empire : in fine , that the passion that made him affect greatness was natural to him , that soveraignty was approved of all nations , that the son of god proposed it to his disciples , when he promised they should sit upon thrones judging the tribes of israel . but what colourable reasons soever are formed by historians and orators to excuse the desire of greatness , they cannot deny but that it is fatal to the ambitious ; and that if it be not always sufficiently unjust to render them guilty , it is too extravagant not to make them unhappy . for besides that they aim at that which is out of their power , that they are enclosed with enemies that oppose their designs , that they see themselves often deceived in their hopes , that their friends forsake them ; and that they are forced to confess , by the travels that attend their projects , that it is no less difficult to arrive at dignity then to preserve it . besides that , envy is inseparable from their condition , that men often conspire against their persons ; that their subjects hate them , and that their equals suspect them : they endure miseries that give the lye to the opinion of the world , the honors they hunted after with so much earnestness , procure their disquiet ; and , by an inevitable misfortune , they meet with grief amongst those things from which they expected their joy and felicity . fear assaults them at every turn , they suspect the countenance of their friends as well as the looks of their enemies , all that approach them create their jealousies ; and , by a suspition that discovers their calamities ; they have often an apprehension of the valour or vertuous comportments of their successors . they are afraid that they which are one day to sit on their throne should contrive their ruin ; and as they know that the people delight in novelty they fear least their children should becom their soveraigns . indeed , goodness is not the object of the love of all men , if some reverence it in the person of their prince , others grow weary of it , or despose it . what integrity soever kings bring to the throne , they become guilty enough by reigning long ; and it 's sufficient to know that they have successors , to render them odious to their subjects . the vulgar are so fantastical in their affections , that their greatest constancy lasts but a moment , they hate the blessing which they enjoy , they desire it when it 's expected , and never truly esteem it but when they have lost it . what contentment can a man have amidst so many apprehensions ? what felicity can he tast in the government of an ungrateful people , who are never satisfied with his conduct , who expect his death every time he is indisposed , who wish it under the shaddow of enlarging their liberty ; who find fault with the favors they have obtained from him , and magnify them only which they expect from his heirs ? without doubt these reasons made augustus think so often of a retreat , and which inspired him with the despicable thoughts of an empire , which exposed his actions to censure , his safety to hazard and his life to perils . for although he gave laws to the greatest part of the world , held the roman fortune in his hands , and saw the wisest senat upon earth pay reverence to his commands , yet he sighed after retirement , he ceased not to request the senat for leave to surrender ; his most serious speeches ended with these pleasant expectations , and he stiled that his happy day that should strip him of his dignities . he had learned , by a long experience , how toilsom a publick charge is , how many hazards were to be undergone to obtain it , and how many cares were required to preserve it ; having been often obliged to arm himself to tame his subjects , give battels to supplant his competitors , and bring armies into the field to warrant him from the surprizes even of his friends . how often was he seen constrained to abandon his frontiers , to march into sicilia , travel into egypt , carry armies ( yet covered with roman blood ) into asia , to bring the factious to obedience ? when he is busied in reconciling the alpes , when he is drawing the rebels to their duty , when he is making slaves of his enemies , and is projecting new conquests , beyond the rhine and euphrates , even then they contrive plots against his person , they prepare weapons in the city of danube , for his assassination : and , he that was coming triumphant from the subduing of all the rebels of his state , finds himself designed for death by a band of seditious men . hardly had he escaped these ambuscades but his own daughter , attended by a company of young gallants whom she had gained by her prostitutions , renewed his fears , and by alarms that seldom gave him rest , threatned to send death to him , through the thickest of his guards that surrounded him . thus being wearyed with the dignities of an empire , and tired with a load that exposed him to so many dangers , he seeks for rest , and charmed his misfortunes with that hope : he conjures the senat to discharge him of this burthen , and , by an imbecillity affixt to the condition of kings , he supplicates that of others , which himself could vouchsafe to all the slaves of rome . he shunned the court as the enemy of innocence , and sought for solitude as the habitation of rest , and the mansion of vertue . he knew that men could not reign without being unhappy or guilty , that the hatred of the people or the displeasure of god were the ordinary portions of monarchs ; and that as they could not command well without the dissatisfaction of men , they could not govern unjustly without attracting the anger of god. with what authority soever kings are flattered , they never can be said to be absolute in their governments , they are obliged by the civil right as well as their subjects ; and if they have power to establish laws , they are not permitted to violate them . their liberty is an illustrious bondage , they can do but one half of what they desire , though they pretend their power to be equal to their will , they can scarce do any thing for being able to command all things : and an orator told trajan excellent well , that if it were a mark of great felicity in his person to be able to do what he desired , it was an act of grandeur to command no more than what was just . authority destroys not justice , and a prince renders himself incapable of governing his subjects , from the time that he discredits his laws by his own actions . though it be easie to conclude from all this discourse that greatness is a state of servitude , and that that puissance that attends it is as deficient as dangerous , yet are there but few men that do not seek it , and who care not for becoming guilty or miserable , provided they may but appear to be great . the ages past , have shewed us some so degenerated as to violate all laws for the obtaining of govenment ; who have mounted the throne by murders , who were not afraid to commit a homicide to acquire a kingdom , and who held it for truth that if it were in any case lawful to pervert justice , it was to be done in matters of state , and to arrive at command . the poets who in their fables have so wittily described the inclinations of men , observe well that an ambitious man must needs be insolent , since he spared not the blood of his nearest relations , that a kingdom was dearer to him than his gods and his children , and that he often sacrificed the one and the other to the flames , to bring his designs to pass . polinices , whose tragical story we read of , was of this humor , although his mother assured him that he could never arrive at the command of others without renouncing of his own liberty , that a kingdom was a laborious bondage , that a scepter was not so much a heavenly favour , as amark of gods anger ; and that it was sufficient to inform him that cadmus and his heirs had been unhappy , to purge him of so evil a distemper as the desire of soveraignty : he made her this answer , that he was resolved to be superiour , that the misfortunes of his ancestors frighted him not , that death was no terror to a man that despised it , and that he was not careful what his end should be , provided he might but die possest of a scepter and diadem . that divine spake wittily , who said that ambition was charity 's ape , that the most insolent of our passions imitated the most excellent of our vertues , and that their manner of acting had much resemblance , though their motives were different . charity , saith that eminent doctor , is patient , and suffereth generously the injuries done her for the love of things eternal , and ambition passeth by affronts to arrive at the honors of the earth ; charity is merciful , and distributeth liberally of the riches she possesseth ; ambition slights them , and esteems only those she aspires after ; charity endureth pain and death in defence of the truth , and ambition shuns no combat for the establishment of her own glory . both believe and hope all things ; and amongst all their resemblances this difference only is discernable , that the one pursues that which is good , and the other hunts after that which is evil ; that the one makes her lovers to become the disciples of jesus christ , and the other causeth her martyrs to be the slaves of satan . indeed who shall believe that a man who makes war upon his neighbours , who breaks into the frontiers of his allies , who violates the sacred bounds of nature , and tramples under foot those alliances which that wise mother hath made among the nations of the earth , to arrive at the accomplishment of his designs , is not possest of an evil spirit ? who shall think that a prince , who is never content with his fortune , who drives the blessing of peace out of his territories , who prescribes no limits to his desires , who esteems nothing unjust but what he cannot compass , is not a slave to the devil and a martyr of vanity ? who shall judg that a man who descends into the seas , who traverseth all parts of the terrestrial globe to gain a piece of earth , can be in his right mind , and can be other than his own enemy , and the tyrant of the people whom he hath conquered ? pride hath nothing of justice but her own miseries , and without the invention of punishments to chastise her , to leave her to her self is sufficient to make her unhappy : for although all the passions strive to afflict her , hope to seduce her , fear to perplex her , grief to distract her , and anger to throw her into precipitous battels ; she cannot obtain what she desires from the vanquished . if she make them her vassals she cannot procure their love , and what art soever she employ , she cannot oblige those freeborn men to give her their affections or venerations . the desire of riches for being more common amongst men than that of honors , is not more reasonable : for if that be insolent , this is impatient , if ambition render men arrogant , covetousness makes them sordid ; if pride make impious proselites , avarice begets idolaters : and in seneca's morals it is difficult to resolve , whether we become more guilty by pretending to be above our equals , or when we make a god of that metal , which we ought to place among things of the meanest consideration . it must be confest that this passion is in some sort natural to us , that our parents taught us the use of it from our infancy , and that recommending to us the acquisition of gold and silver , they have left us the desire thereof for our inheritance . for although men are seldom in one mind , that novelty robs us of that happiness , and that we change our opinions as often as the objects vary ; yet is it certain in this point that gold is profitable to man , that it assists him in his wants , that it opens him the gates of publique employment , and that he raiseth his fortunes by honorable alliances . private men who are governed by publique example , pay it respect , they wish it to their children ; and as if heaven comprehended nothing more precious then gold , they convert it into presents and offerings for their gods. in fine , the possession of wealth is so advantageous , and want is accompanied with so many calamities , that she is become the scorn and fear of all men : the poor hate her as well as the rich ; and without seeking for a mans greater faults , it is enough to know that fortune hath used him ill , to make him odious to such as frequent him . if all the nations upon earth have entertained these opinions , they are not therefore the more reasonable , and nothing makes them more suspected of deceipt , then the great number of their approbators . for as the people are equally blind and of interressed judgments ; they commend wealth as the only ornament of life , and in their fancy heaven cannot make a better demonstration of favor towards them then by tumbling treasures into their laps . but truly , it were to be wisht that they who seek them with so much eager affection , would consult with the rich ; and that they would insinuate themselves into the conversation of these splendid slaves , to be taught by them the disquiet and restless torments which they find inseparable from their possessions . without doubt they would soon change their desires ; and i know not if they would not make vows to hinder the obtaining of any part of that which they had so earnestly sought after . all those benefits they so much admire are good but in shew , the comforts they promise are more faulty then specious ; if they promise honors they make payment in torments ; and they resemble those savage beasts which can neither be caught nor kept without hazard . likewise , when they come to themselves and consider the deplorable state of their condition , they cannot retain their teares , they complain that their affection hath been the cause of their chastisement , that they find more trouble to preserve their treasure then to get it , and that they are become miserable by having obtained what they demanded . but that which increaseth yet more their punishment is , they dare not disclose their miseries , they hide what they cannot discover without shame or danger : and be it the remorse of unjust gotten goods , or the trouble they find in their enjoyment which tyrannizeth them , they grow pale at the sight of gods judgments , they tremble at the thought of the threatning evil spirits , of the accusing angel , of friends to whom their deeds are detestable , and of the rigorous judg who is to condemn them . it is then without cause , avaricious men ! that you take so much pride in your riches , since they procure you so much torment , and that by the aid thereof you promise to your selves the accomplishment of all your designs ; since you cannot enjoy them without becoming their slaves : you would be your own masters , if they were not yours , you might make use of your own advantages , if they were not in your power ; and , to say all in few words , you might be freemen if you were not laden with abundance . learn , from the travels you suffer your own infelicity , that you serve , in stead of commanding your own covetous appetite ; and that as saith the scripture ye are men that can desire but know not how to possess riches . discourse iii. that audacity is of no use to wise men in assaulting or defending of evils . never do orators appear more splendid then when they describe the lives of conquerors , when they give renown to their valor , when they admire their conduct , when they represent them in combat with their enemies , and when they render them triumphant over fortune and death . it seemeth as if they exceeded themselves every time they recount their battells and victories , and that they design their own commendations in magnifying their victorious souldiers . for of all the advantages they find in their persons , none so much stirs their eloquence as their courage , they pass by all their other qualities to render this valuable ; and if sometimes they find a necessity of bestowing some praise upon them also , it is with so much faintness , as is easie to conjecture that the notice they take thereof is but because they would not be reproached with being ignorant of any of their endowments ; when they speak of their justice they cloath it in such ordinary language as puts the reader in doubt , whether they ever knew the merit thereof , they discourse of their clemency as if it were always mixt with meanness of spirit and inconsiderateness ; and although science be the most excellent ornament of monarchs , yet amongst them it is accompted but as the exercise of cowards , and the employment of idle persons . a man must have nothing but valor to make him the subject of their elogies , he must be guilty of murthers to merit their esteem , and must be as little sparing of his own , as of the life of his enemies to deserve the honor of their commendations . as audacity is the cause of all these effects , she draws admiration from all men ; historians never mention her but with veneration , philosophers recommend her to their disciples ; and poets are so much concerned for her honor , as to assure us that if kings be indebted to fortune for the happy successes of their armies , they owe the original of their victories to the bold attempts of their captains . in fine , they affirm that without her aid we become faint hearted , that all our actions borrow their splendor from her strength , and that a man is no longer to be esteemed then whilst he is hardy and adventurous . the mind of man is so depraved , and the vulgar opinion hath so much corrupted him , that he values nothing but those things which procure him worldly glory , he finds nothing delightful but what is beyond the common achievement , ordinary vertues affect him not , and by an obstinacy full of imbecillity , he considers not so much the prudence of a general as the defeat of the enemy , he speaks of a victorious captain with admiration , he swells his praises into volumes ; and as if the honor of a commander consisted in seeking battells , in routing armies , in razing cities , in desolating countries , he strains his industry to the highest pin to compose his panegyrick . but surely he doth not in any thing discover his blindness more then in this subject , the badness of his cause disparageth his judgment : and to proceed to condemnation without a formal examination of his intentions or motives , let it suffice to know , that all the employments of audacity tend to the ruin of our fellow creatures ; that undauntedness which invented or procures them is too much defective in justice to make them warrantable , and she whom we adore as the mother of noble attempts , is too fatal to the sons of men to be obeyed without danger . for what did she ever do in the world that turned not to the dishonor of the conqueror , or the disadvantage of the vanquished ? was she ever seen to be moderate in combat or modest in victory ? was she ever merciful to the innocent in assaulting the guilty ? do not all kingdoms complain of her injustice ? and had we ever heard of revolts and treasons , murders and parricides , if audacity had not therewith inspired the rash and cowardly ? vice would at this day be covered with darkness , if this passion had not taught us to bring it to the light ; infamy would be a stranger to society if it were not mixt with unclean persons ; no uncomely action would appear there , revenge would be as little practiced as homicide ; and with reason we may doubt whether sin had ever been publickly acted if audacity had not opened the way . all the crimes which we read of in history , and which we yet detest in our age , had no other author but this passion : all philosophers assign her to be their mother , to her they attribute all their malice ; and although they own man to be sufficiently inabled , to contrive evil designs ; yet they assure us that he would want resolution to execute them , without being animated by her incitements . if we believe a certain orator , 't is she that throws division amongst states , that inspires the ambitious with tyranny , that prompts lascivious persons to acts of violation , that incites coveteous men to theft and rapine , that desolates kingdoms ; and that making small accompt of whole armies , causeth monarchs to loose their kingdoms , and subjects their liberty . for who shall believe that julius cesar had ever attempted the roman government , if he had not been as hardy as ambitious ? who shall think that alexander had ever aspired to the universal soveraignty , if he had not been ridden and spurred as well by his courage as amibition ? the one and the other are guilty before men for unwarrantable undertakings ; and they are not lookt upon as monsters in history , but for that they suffered themselves to be commanded by the violence of a passion that overturns all natures laws . they likewise became , the terror of all mortals , dreaded they were by all forreign nations , the arrival of their armies hath often caused their enemies to fly , their progression put the whole world to a stand , their own souldiers were afraid of them as well as their adversaries , and seneca doubted whether their valor were more fatal to their enemies or to them of their own party : the one had vowed the ruin of his neighbours , and the other the destruction of his own country ; the one caused greece to groan , and the other threw horror into the city of rome , the one trampled upon kings , and the other made breach upon the rights of the most famous common wealth of the world. but all those disorders own no other principle then audacity ; if ambition were the occasion , boldness was the principal cause , and that desire of vain glory in alexander and cesar , had remained unknown or ineffectual , if it had not called this complice to its assistance . but for fear of being deemed partial in this subject , and that i be not blamed for dareing to condemn a passion that hath received so much commendations in the writings of philosophers , i agree with them , that her undertakings are sometimes generous , she assaults death without fear , she is the only passion which beholds evil with stedfastness , and which dares undertake to oppose and overcome it . for , though fear be prudent , she is not couragious , she looks not upon evil so much to meet , as to avoid it , she draws her confidence from her amazement , and if she sometimes admit reason of her counsel , it is rather to prevent then to expect it's arrival . anger is ever concerned , she doth not so much consider the affront as the vengeance , and the hope she hath of obtaining satisfaction alays her grief , and affords her content . but audacity seeks the evil directly , she offers him battle in all places , and , without regard to the hazards that surround her , she thinks her self sufficiently honored when she obtains commission to assault and fight him . although this discourse be true , and not easily rejected without being ignorant of the advantages which this passion is master of above his companions ; yet doth it not prove any thing in the stoick doctrin , and it 's easie in their opinion to demonstrate that her enterprizes are as useless to the wise as her attempts and combats . for as they acknowledg no evil but vice ; and that which the vulgar do so much dread , passing with them for an indifferent thing , they have no need of other helps to surmount it then reason , this enemy is always in their power , the will which formeth can stifle it , and even as a man , to be innocent , need but will good , so it is sufficient to will evil , to make him guilty or vicious . it is not then without cause if i banish audacity from my wise man , and if i permit him no use of her upon any occasion , since she is so unjust , and if i judg her of no use to his government , since he owns no enemies he hath to fight with but himself , nor other monsters to assault but vice. a true philosopher must be valiant , but neither rash nor fearful ; let him be as little under the command of passion as of fortune , let him judg of things according to reason , and let him not fear danger as a coward , nor seek it as an audacious person . discourse iv. that hope is ungrateful , fearful and uncertain . there is nothing in the world more hid , nor any thing more evident then time , it is the labyrinth of the learned . astrologers , who from the motion of the stars on which they gaze , calculate their duration , are at this day in a laborious sweat to express what time is ; and if there be some philosophers in our age that disagree not touching it's subsistance , we shall hardly find any that differ not about it's nature . if they allow it to be the measure of all human things , the rule of rest as well as of action , and that the sun and the moon were ordained by the creator for the division of days , years and ages , yet they differ in describing their property , or defining their essence ; and do consider them with formalities so remote the one from the other , that they put us in doubt whether they be not void of other reallity then the witty conceipts of the describers . the most ingenious of our divines wittily confounds time with that motion that measures it , he asserts that nothing is to be discovered in the one , that is not to be observed in the other , that the imagination or the mind begets all the difference , and if natural philosophers give them divers names , they cease not to be one and the same thing . from hence it comes to pass that his disciples seperate it from aristotles reports , look upon it as a bastard extention , banish it from the number of things subsisting in nature , and render it so much dependant on the body , be it in action or at rest , that they confess it hath no dilatation without it . some cannot imagin that it hath any real parts , since those of which it is composed admit it not , that the past is irrecoverable , that it ceaseth to have any subsistance in nature when the present succeeds it , that the memory must be employed to fetch it back , and that when we have made her use all her skill , all she can do is but to entertain us with an imaginary time . neither can they conceive how the present can compose it , since it is but an individual point , an instant that separates the praeter from the future , and a moment that flies from us as often as we think we have it , for it runs so swift that nothing can retard it , the sun standing still stayeth not it's course , it goes on when the course of the stars is arrested ; and , as if it were fatal to it self , it cannot gain but by it's own loss , and it increaseth only by it's own diminution . but , with much more reason do they doubt whether the future can make any part of time since that is yet to come ; since the first motions thereof are concealed from us ; since its coming is uncertain , and since ( in proper tearms ) it is but an idaea in the mind of the creator . yet this latter part of time is the only object of hope , which we judg so necessary for the execution of our designs , she feeds us only with the expectation of benefits that are hid from our eyes , she considers things to come , and not them which are past ; and , by an ungrateful injustice , disposeth of those good things which she hath obtained , and thinks only on the favours which she promiseth to her self shall yet be received . she slights the past and values only the future ; and aspireing to all things out of her possession , she cares not for being stiled ungrateful , provided she can but merit the title of provident . indeed let an ambitious man look never so well upon his benefactors , and what submission soever he renders them in assurance of his gratitude , he considers not so much what he hath received as what he expects from them , he easily steps over the obligations received , and remembers only what he hopeth for , and , according to the nature of the passion that possesseth him , he forgets all the grandurs that have raised him friends , to contemplate only the advantages that may render him equal to kings and potentates . as lasciviousness is a lazy vice , and the slavery that bears it company strips it of the power of any generous action ; she also quickly looseth the remembrance of past pleasures , the charms of novelty drive away her fleeting joys , she deemeth them lost that have been ; and although her present contentments may by accidents be interrupted , though they which are to come be as hidden as uncertain , and that no comforts are solid but those which cannot be taken from us , she causeth unclean persons to despise them , to feed upon the new delights which she holdeth forth to their expectation . the desire of wealth , which ariseth as often from our indigence as from our infirmity , looks upon nothing but the time to come , it considers the future and reflects not on the past , it becomes the numerator of expected treasures , but cares not to cast up what it hath in possession , it receives all and pays nothing : and without hunting for many reasons to condemn it , it is sufficient to know that it is insatiable , to judg it unjust and ingrateful . hope , which is the soul of all these passions , hath inspired them with this odious quality ; she teacheth them ingratitude , in shewing them to make excursions into the future ; her forgetfullness causeth her shame , and as that man is accused of unthankfulness who disowns a benefit received , who dissembles it for fear of repayment , or who doth not requite it but when he is forced . he that forgets it ought with much more reason to be deemed ungrateful for suffering a favor to escape his memory which he ought to have retained to his last hour . but hope is sufficiently odious since she is unthankful , and if we ought to hold her promises in suspicion , because she is faithless to her friends , and ungrateful to her benefactors , the unquietness of mind which waits upon her doth not render her less to be rejected , and we need but learn of seneca , that she is the enemy of our rest to perswade us to shun all her employments . for according to the words of that eloquent philosopher , fear pursueth hope : although these two passions be contrary , they rarely part company ; a man must be fallen into dispair to be void of fear , and as it often happeneth that one faculty perisheth by the ruin of another that is it's opposite , fear never forsaketh us till we cease to hope ; from thence it comes that the criminals that are lead to execution , are without apprehension , that they look death in the face without terror , that they are more confident on the scaffold then at the bar , and have no aversion for leaving the world because they have no expectation of life . this truth is so constant , that a certain stoick was of opinion that nothing could be more insupportable then a long suspence , that we suffered more easily the deprivation of hope , then the deferring thereof ; that an extended desire was a tedious torment , and that if in a wise mans judgment the loss of a benefit proved sometimes our advantage , the expectance was always attended with fear and grief . but truly we ought not to wonder that he that hopeth should fear , since the benefits he waites for are doubtful , since the passion by which he is lead is defective in her promises , since , for the most part she deceiveth all that rely upon her word ; and often flatters them with the enjoyment of pleasures that have nothing more in them then a bare shew of truth . as man is not the cause of what is to come , it is not to be expected that he should be able to dispose of the future ; and what knowledg soever he have acquired in the conduct of kingdoms or the oeconomy of families , he is not able to foretel the event of things : this part of time is equally uncertain and out of his ken ; and he must have been of the almighties councel , who is able to render a perfect accompt thereof ; for who is sufficiently enlightned to assure the husbandman that his fields shall be fruitful after a certain time , that the following year shall be more profitable to him , then the foregoing ; and that after a barrenness of his lands , a harvest shall come in which he shall find the reward of his toiles ? who can assure the mariners that their voyage shall be attended with smooth seas , the winds favorable , and their navigation prosperous ? who can warrant the souldiers that their arms shall be victorious , and assure them of the rout of their enemies ? who shall be able to promise a lover that the marriage he designs shall be happy , that the woman he courts will be faithful to him , that the children she shall bring him , will be obedient , and that they shall honor him as their father , and that she shall love him as her husband ? we reason according to outward appearances , and not according to that which shall happen ; we look upon that which is profitable , but we examine not the difficulties that surround it . our arguments are rather grounded upon our opinions then upon reason , and according to the good liking we have to the objects , we easily promise our selves the possession , although it be sometimes impossible . from thence cometh that we live always in instability , that our resolutions are various , that we add injustice to danger , and that we are but little afraid to become guilty , provided we can but obtain what we desire . but we see likewise that when fortune opposeth our designs , that the success of our affairs answereth not our hopes , and that our toilsome labours have only served to increase our unhappiness , we fall into sadness , we leave the event to chance , we condemn our own easiness to hope , and we are troubled that the injustice of our enterprizes was not able to give us possession of the good we had in pursuit . this caused seneca to say , that our parts were fatal to us , and that our good qualities rendred us miserable or guilty . the ingenuity of our spirits serves to discover the evils before they come , our memory calls them back when they are past , and the will often shuns them before they make shew of assaulting us . in fine , we convert all our faculties into torments ; and , as if we had made a conspiracy against our selves , we turn all the distinctions of time to our own affliction . but the wise man that is a friend to tranquillity , and whose felicity consisteth not so much in the calmness of his spirit , as in an innocent assuredness , despiseth all the counsels of hope , he laughs at her promises , he braveth fortune , and , finding nothing out of vertue that is able to content him , he as little desireth her presents , as he feareth her disgraces . he considers indifferently all the advantages of the earth , he builds all his glory or pleasure upon the innocence of his actions ; and , satisfied with vertues merit , he avoids the delights of the unchaste , the grandurs of the ambitious , and the treasures of coveteous men . discourse v. that anger is blind in taking of revenge , rash in quarrels , and insolent in chastisement . although i were not obliged to follow seneca , and betraying the opinion i have conceived of his doctrin , i were disingenious enough to forsake his party , or so unfaithful as to side with his adversaries , yet would it be a repugnance to me to believe that anger can be serviceable to vertue ; and that she must necessarily be employed by commanders in giving of battells , by judges in the condemnation of the guilty , and by kings in the chastisement of the rebells of their state. her fury is too much suspected , to approve her conduct , her manner of proceeding is too much void of equity to justify her decrees ; and the punishments which she ordaineth , are too rigorous to clear her from the imputation of injustice , and cruelty . if our other passions be sufficiently odious because they rebel against reason , and that it is not for nothing that we so much apprehend their tyranny , since they drive us from our selves to the subject of their fury , the benefits wherewith they keep us in hand , do alay their rigor : if their defects beget our hatred , their fair proffers cause us to affect them , and all savage as they are , they have charms that tempt us to give them employment . desire doth not at all times torment us ; if it disturb our mind , it tickles our imagination ; this languishing humor is mingled with delight ; and if it sometimes ravish our rest , it labours to give us possession of the advantages we stand in need of . if love pitch his tents in our souls , if he break in upon our liberty , and if , by an injustice which gives the lye to his name , he give us our slaves to be our mistresses he unites us to the o●ject we affect , and so much delights us with her perfections , that we prefer her enjoyment above all the grandures of of the earth . if hope hold us in suspence , and by a too ingenious foresight , she redouble the measure of that time which we remain in expectation ; she gives us with it the promise of fortunate success , she assures us that our travels shall not be in vain , and our reward shall bear proportion to our patience . if fear darken our judgment , if it fling horror into our spirits , and cause us to apprehend mischiefs contrary to our hopes ; she teacheth us moderation in prosperity , she foretels us of our evils to come , and prepares us to bear them with constancy , when they have laid hold on us . so that all our disorders have some charms : if they persecute us , they do us good service ; if they are violent , they abate sometimes of their cruelty , and give us intervals , that cause us the more to esteem our liberty , but anger is ever insolent , and take her which way you will , she is equally savage and precipitate . if she punish the guilty , her blindness causeth her to commit excess , if she force satisfaction for outrageous actions , she her self becomes guilty of the prophanation of all natures laws ; if she assault her enemies , she often runs headlong into their ambushes , and like unto those tumbling ruins that throw down the houses on which they fall , she finds her own punishment in her revenge , her own defeat in her victory , and her own execution in her condemnations . but that which yet better discovers her blindness , and makes her injustice less supportable is that she makes fuel of all wood , she proceeds from love as well as hatred , takes up armes against friend and foe , and falls not less violently upon those that have obliged , then on those that have done her injury . those pass times which heal or charm the other passions , discompose this , she is as much displeased at play as at serious business , as much offended at a jest as an afront , and it matters but little whether the motives which excite her be considerable , if the person who has them in apprehension be but susceptible of her violence . for as the fire operates but according as it finds the disposition of the matter , and its activity is not always the measure of its working ; as we find bodies that indure not its heat , and others that retain a spark till it amount to a flame , anger waits upon cowardly spirits , she burns them up in giving them courage , and seldom forsakes them , till she hath made them scornful , temerarious , and insolent . to know well the ground of all these disorders it ought to be known that anger is not of the nature of other passions , which gently make their way into the soul by insinuations , which flatter the imagination at their entrance , and by less vigorous accesses disguise their violence . but anger runs in with impetuosity , seizeth on all the faculties in a moment ; and being at full strength from her very birth , she doth that at once which others do but by degrees . so that if these court us , she violently constrains us , if they make us stray from the paths of reason , she leads us into the ways of madness , and if these be slow in their formations , this passion takes growth all at once . in fine , nothing is more blind then she in her undertakings , more violent in revenge , proudly vain in victory , nor more enraged in defeat . for which cause the most wholsom philosophy banisheth her from the soul of the wise man , and she judges that a passion so little subject to reason , and which hath so much affinity with fury , cannot have any useful qualities . though injuries be vexatious to man , though they break in upon his reputation , and equally wound the innocent , and the guilty ; though there be nothing less sufferable , though great spirits hardly bear them , though the most ingenious feel them , and though the one and the other do often want strength to stand under them ; nevertheless nothing so much demonstrates their cowardize as the resentment they shew of injuries , nor doth any thing more discover their pusilanimity , then the meditation of revenge . it belongeth , saith seneca , to men of mean spirits to avenge one afront by another , to sharpen our teeth against them that have bit us , and to hurt our selves because an other would have hurt us ; they resemble rats and emmots who make head against such as only look as if they would hurt them ; and perswade themselves to be wounded every time they are toucht . but if the injury be excuseless , and if the person offering it had design to rob us of our honor , yet ought we to abstain from anger , and take care of being carried away by a passion which instead of abateing increaseth our grief : contests are ever dangerous or to no purpose : and as we cannot contend with them above us without deserving the title of mad men , nor with our inferiours without being sordid ; we cannot hope to be avenged of our equals without the hazard of being worsted . anger is too malignant or too precipitate to be employed in such an adventure : reason must be our judg , we must receive her orders before any thing be undertaken ; and we must learn of her , that it is more glorious by silence to avoid an injury , then by words to overcome it . when we feel our selves offended , let us lay our hand on our breast , let us examin whether the harm done us be just , and whether we drew it not upon our selves by our own indiscretion : if so , it is very reasonable that we should bear it patiently , and receive it as the chastisement of an evil which we our selves caused in the offender . but if the outrage be unjust , if we are wrongfully persecuted , and if our conscience assures us of the innocence of our actions ; why are we conconcerned , and afflict our selves for an act of injustice , which ought to make him that hath committed it to blush ? let us not always believe the reports of men , let us set aside the circumstances that might help to prove them , let us mistrust our own conjectures ; time will tell us the truth , and it may be , that which to day we take for certain , to morrow may be void of all likelyhood . let us raise our selves above the common sort ; let us believe nothing of the unpleasant things that are told us , let us look upon injuries as things out of our power , and conclude that no man is offended but by his own consent . to speak truly nothing puts us into so much agitation as opinion : it is she , saith seneca , which measures offences , which magnifies their injustice , and which seducing our judgments , renders them more hainous and sensible then they are . we see servants that endure blows with patience , but cannot bear a sharp word , that take a bastanade more willingly then a box of the eare , and fancy that death would be less insupportable then a reproach or an abuse . it is not always the injury that torments us , but our imagination that we have received it ; and therefore a man of a large soul , and who knoweth his own innocence or desert , derides all the offences that can be offered him ; he looks upon them as other mens extravagancies , he forgets the injury before it be received , he stifles the resentment be-before it touch him ; and as he feels it not , he is in no perplexity how to be revenged . if anger be dimsighted in revenge , she is unjust in chastisement ; and if she violently break the laws of charity in constraining reparation for an abuse , she sinneth against the rules of equity when she forceth satisfaction for the injury , all her proceedings are irregular , the punishments she ordains do always exceed the greatness of the crime , and without a formal process , it is easie to condemn her by the very sentences which she her self pronounceth against the guilty . for as she is rash , and the flames which she throws into the soul of a judg or a king , puts them into a fury ; she prompts them to punishment , she swells the crime to justify the penalty , she invents new torments for the punishment of offences ; and causeing them to act according to the greatness of their authority , and not according to justice , she puts it out of their power to keep within the bounds of that moderation which teacheth to distinguish between too much and too little . for she will have it , that all her proceedings are regularly equal , that the vengeance which she directs is necessary : and contrary to reason , which esteemeth that only just which is agreeable to equity , she deemeth all that to be equitable which is suitable to her humor : she regards not so much the offence as the cause , she considers not so much the crime as the criminal , and , by a fury as strange as common to her , she is not less heated by the things which serve to the offenders advantage , then by the circumstances which make for his condemnation . she is angry both with the innocent and the guilty , she perverts the integrity of the one , and inlargeth the faults of the other , she is for nothing but punishment ; and , obstinate in her error , she thinks it more honorable to persist in evil then to shew any sorrow for it . the example hereof produced by seneca in his admirable books of anger , is an evident proof of this ; and without giving our selves the trouble of searching into history for any other , let it suffice to relate the particulars of this , to make known it's injustice . he saith that one of the piso's being in anger , espied a souldier of his returning from a party convoy without his companion : this return served him for a pretext to punish him , he thought it warrant enough to pass the sentence of death upon him , to have him but suspected of murder ; and to cause him to be led to execution , for not having his fellow souldier in his company . this unhappy condemned man , stoutly denies the crime , calls the gods to be witnesses of his innocence , craveth some time to justify himself ; and assures him that by his diligence he would bring the man to light who he said was massacred . the general refuses him this favor , is angry at the request , and without farther delay , commands him to be put to death . he is carried out of the trenches ; and the heads-man had already hold on the sword to strike off his head , when the souldier who was supposed to be slain , appeared suddenly in the midst of the assembly : the captain that attended this execution , at the sight of this souldier , directs a stop , commands the executioner to unloose the felon , and not to proceed without new orders from the general . he brings the prisoner then back to piso , to put into his hands an innocent man , whom error had caused him to condemn as guilty . the whole camp concluded that this prince would let himself be overcome of justice , that clemency would succeed his rigor ; and that being undeceived in his belief , he would make no difficulty of pardoning the man a crime , which he had not committed . but seeing the souldier yet alive , and taking his return as a contempt of his commands , he goes back to the tribunal all in a fury , pronounceth sentence of death upon both the souldiers ; and that they should be executed upon the place . what can be imagined more unjust then to condemn two innocent men because one of them was not guilty ? or to make too men felons because one of them was found innocent ? his passion carried him yet farther , and violently throwing him from one precipice to another , adds to these two a third , which was the captain , that had brought back the prisoner . his ingenious rage had furnisht him with reasons to justify this proceeding , and examining their offences , helped him to raise from the diversity of their fortunes , the different causes of their punishment . i caused thee , said he to the souldier , to be lead to execution , because thou wast thereunto condemned , and thou , speaking to his companion , for that thou wast the cause thereof , and thou , looking upon the centurion , for that having received command to put a felon to death , thou hast not done it . he subtilly invented the way to make them all guilty , and to commit three crimes at once , because he could not find any in the persons he condemned . from this example it is easie to discover the cruelty of anger , and to learn how insolent she is in chastisements and dangerous in courts of judicature , and great councels . for as she is proud , and takes no other advices but her own , she pursues the dictates of her own fury and can endure as little to be governed , as reprehended : likewise we see that none but barbarians and men of mean spirits , make use of her , who know not how to forgive an injury when they have it in their power to revenge it . it is true that anger seemeth in some sort more useful in camps then in courts of justice , that her violence hath some thing of agreement with a martial humor , and that her aspect better becometh the face of commanders then the countenance of a judg and a king. for if we credit aristotle , nothing contributes more to valor then anger : she it is that swells the courage of conquerors , that animates them in the thickest of the combat , that awakens their generosity , and causeth them to hazard their own , to become masters of the life of their enemies . fortitude by the doctrin of this philosopher , is feeble without her company , this vertue must be asisted with her fury , to make her despise the dangers that threaten her ; and she must be warmed with her fire , to be able to give battel , and gain the victory . for although man be naturally of a generous spirit , and endued with dexterity sufficient , to cope with , or defend himself against such as would oppress him ; nevertheless he is faint hearted when destitute of this champion , he is weak without this succor ; and he ceaseth to bring forth any thing that is great , from the time that this forsakes him . but surely if this rule were true , that vertue owes the happiness of her successes to anger , and that souldiers are cowards unless they be furious ; i know not why , we may not infer that drunkenness is a necessary martial vertue , since it often makes them fearless , since it renders them bold , pusheth them into the battel , and causeth them to despise both wounds and death it self . some have been seen , that could not be got into the engaged camp but by the animation of wine , they had forsaken their post , had they been sober , and the sight of the enemy had put them to flight , if the vapors that clouded their brains , had not been the author of the greatest part of their courage . who knows not that the most timorous of our passions sometimes inspires us with valor , that fear will make us adventurous , that necessity stirs up our courage , that despair finds us weapons to fight with , and often changeth our timidity into audacity . good successes are not always the works of valor and wisdom ; oftentimes fury doth not less triumph over the enemy then vertue . and the politicks do tell us , that there are rencounters wherein unadvisedness proves more lucky then prudence . but there is no man who confesseth not that these qualities are weak and unbecoming , that they excite the soul without giving it strength , that they corrupt vertue in stead of informing her , and that they make no impression but on the spirits of them that want resolution when they are deprived of anger 's aid . likewise we see not a valiant man , that draws not his courage from the depression of anger , that is not stout without fury ; and who becomes not more couragious when he is heated by her fire , but because he himself is of a generous nature . this passion is too rash , to have any service from her ; her headiness brings her prudence in doubt , she is too impetuous to observe the maximes of battel , and she seeks danger with too much heat , to avoid the perils into which she would draw the enemy . in fine , her service is as fatal to us in war as in peace , since in the midst of peace she is the image of war , she acts there but her furious part , she forgets the vicissitude of arms , and she falls into the power of her adversaries , because she cannot contain her self within her own . the third treatise . of fear . discourse i. of the nature of fear . i know it is accounted a crime amongst modern philosophers , to say any thing in favour of the stoicks , and that a man cannot undertake to plead their cause , without attracting their hatred and censure . i know that the severity of their principles is had in suspicion of many persons , that their sentiments are disliked by popular spirits , that their doctrine surpasseth the belief of aristotle and plato ; and that they both declare nothing more extravagant than that which we admire in their writings : those that side with these , laugh at the others paradoxes , and affirm that they are glorious but in shew , that their words are fuller of ostentation than reason , that the world admires them because they understand them not , and that learned men do not esteem them , but because they raise their thoughts to a higher pitch of sublimity . they protest , they cannot comprehend , that a wise man can be the only rich man of the world , since he often falls into want , since fortune reduceth him to ambs-ace , since he is often without things necessary , and for the most part hath neither clothes to cover him , house to put his head in , nor servant to attend him , that he can always enjoy himself , since he is sometimes at a nonplus , making vain eruptions , forsaking his discretion in discourse , and acting at certain times the part of mad men . that he should be the monarch of the world , since he hath seldom any subjects to command , being often constrained to serve ignorant masters , and do such work for them , as is opposite to that soveraignty he pretendeth to have over them . but amongst the absurdities wherewith they charge their paradoxes , they admire none so much as those which exempt him from opinions , which disintangle him from the knowledg of uncertain things , affirming that it is as impossible for him to doubt of a truth as to be ignorant of it . what , say they , is a wise man infallible in his conjectures ? can he not err in his judgment ? do we not see that he discourses of things he understandeth not ? and , descending to particulars , doth he not undertake to render an account of the influences of the stars and planets , of which he comprehends as little the nature as the power ? would you make a god of him , after you have filled him with pride ? and would you make him partaker of the almighties secrets , after you have assigned him the knowledg of angels , the power of kings , and the government of the creation . but their astonishment will cease if they take the pains to examine the sense of their paradoxes , and to learn from the explication which they give them , that they are grounded upon reason , that they are not so much contrary to truth as to their opinions ; and that they teach nothing but what may be received by the greatest criticks of our age : for if they say , that their wise man is the only man without want ; and make him master of all that wealth which causeth covetous men to be indigent ; it is for that he acknowledgeth no other benefits but those of the soul , he expects nothing from fortune , what he hath he useth with discretion , and judiciously dispising those forreign things , he knows how to enjoy what he contemplates , though he possess it not . if they affirm that he is not deceived in what he doth , it is because the light is ever his companion , and because reason is his counsellor in all his enterprizes . if they make him a king in this world ; and if without the load of a scepter or diadem , they give him the charge of states and empires , it is for that he being in tranquillity knows how to regulate his passions , he is alone capable of commanding his equals , and his integrity makes him not less in humane society , than the pilot in a ship , the magistrate in a city , the general in an army , the soul in the body , and the spirit and reason in the soul. if , in fine , they banish opinions from his mind , and if they will that his knowledg be as certain as himself judges it to be true , it is because he rejects all doubtful propositions , approves no conclusions but what are drawn from infallible principles , and forms no arguments , but what he knoweth before hand , bear a conformity to the matter whereof he discourseth . knowledg is the portion of the wise , and he is simple or temerarious , that perswades himself that he is master of a truth which he knoweth not . for this cause it is , that seneca maintains so bloody a war against fear , and informed of the disorders with which she entertains her guests , he gives her battel whereever he finds her . for as she is but a doubtful knowledg , and the opinion of an absent evil which threatens us , he condemns her foresight , he forbids her the counsel of his wise man , and he would think that he rob'd his soul of tranquillity , if he permitted him to entertain her in his service . to speak truly , nothing so much distracts our quiet as this passion , and nothing so much abaseth our courage , as her provident curiosity . for , as if she were ingenious at nothing but our destruction , she assumes all imaginary forms , to make us miserable . one while she advanceth our disasters , to make us feel them before they come , anon she makes us look upon them through a magnifying glass , to render them less supportable to us ; another while she represents them inevitable , to run us headlong into despair , and already overwhelmed with the evils she gives us to expect , she causeth us to wish for death , that we may be delivered from a passion , which constrains us to suffer it with tedious and divers repetitions : she is of so timorous a nature , that she is afrighted at every thing she fancies to be able to hurt her , she formeth monsters that will never be brought forth , she confoundeth imaginary with real evils , and suffers her self to be so much surprized by the senses , that without knowing the cause , either of the one or the other , she is equally afraid of both . hatred in this particular seemeth more reasonable than fear : for if she resist an evil , if she employ all her dexterity to oppose the violence thereof , it is because it is real , and its presence obligeth her to revenge . if audacity swell against her enemies , and puts her self in a posture to oppose all their fury , 't is for that they attack her , and danger or honour constrains her to a self defence . sadness , all melancholy as she is , regards nothing but the evil that hurts her , she complains of its rigors , for that she feels them , and sinks not under their weight , but because it 's not in her power to avoid them : but fear multiplies our sorrows , she sees them as soon as they threaten us , she seeks them before they come ; and by an ambitious industry , she makes use of the past and the future to torment us . what greater folly , saith seneca , can be observed in a man , than to run to meet his disasters , to feel them ere they touch him , and lose the present by fear of that which is to come ? a man must be extravagant , to afflict himself before the time , to suffer himself to be surprized by an evil , which it may be shall never come nigh him , and to make himself miserable , because he feareth one day to be sofor to shew her vanity , and convince her of folly in her foresight , we need but to examine the object which she apprehendeth , to know that her cares are always as hurtful as dishonourable . for either she respects a real or an imaginary evil , if it be real , it is in our power to avoid it , and nothing is able to draw us to vice against our will : if it be but imaginary , and of the number of them which fortune sends us , we know already that it is not an evil , and that it is to do her injury , to give her the imputation of that which the most sound philosophy attributeth only to sin . to prevent then these vain terrors , which cloud our reason , let us not judg of things rashly , let us examine the nature of the objects which cause our astonishment ; let us pull that vizard from their faces , which gives them so frightful an aspect ; and let us consider them nakedly in their original : then we shall find , that they are not so opposite to our humors as we imagine them , that they are troublesome to us , because we are seduced by opinion , and that they have nothing terrible but the apprehension we have of them . we see some men , who fall into a swound at the report of evil tidings , who grow pale at the thought of an accident that threatens them ; who tremble when men go about to prepare them to bear a misfortune ; and are so much divided between fear and sorrow , that they would sooner be taken for furies than for rational men . as if fear had carried away their reason with their stabillity , they are afraid without cause , they are affrighted at enemies which they have not , they fly from them before they appear ; and , by a blind timidity , they often leave a beaten road to choose a doubtful path. opinion hath nothing of quietness in it ; she is afflicted by every thing which she fancieth capable to hurt her ; she assures us as little of heaven as of the earth , and frighteth us as well with a remote evil , as with that which is ready to assault us . but a wise man that knows perfectly the difference between real and imaginary evils , stands fast against all accidents ; he is armed against fortune , he considereth afflictions as the exercises of vertue , he sees them coming without disturbance ; and , supported by the greatness of his courage , he waits for them with design to oppose and vanquish them . poverty doth as little touch him as the misery of his friends , he looks upon tortures with the same countenance as he doth injuries ; and he knows as well how to defend himself from adversaries that threaten , as from those who prosecute him . it is too great an effeminacy to run to the doctor before we be ill , to bind up the arm before dislocation , to complain of the head-ach ere ever the pain come , and to lay our hand upon the part which hath yet no hurt . but if that fear did not disguise our disasters , and were faithful enough to represent them truly to us , when they do come , yet would she be of no use to us , since she cannot divert them , and it is always a kind of cowardise to complain of grief before the cause , which produceth it , have overtaken us . how often have we seen , that events have deceived our hopes , that our fears have abused us to no purpose , that we anticipated misfortunes that never came at us ; and some have befell us which we did not expect ? let us not be afraid of the things that may arise without our leave ; and , by a prudent deceipt , let us promise to our selves , that those which give us so much horror will be favourable to us . as some fair appearances produce bad effects , sometimes troubles turn us to account . some have gotten out of prison by the means of women , who had brought them to the utmost farthing , and have preserved their liberty by that which might have cost them their lives ; others have escaped shipwrack by help of rocks and precipices ; some have found their preservation in the ruines of a house ; others have survived their executioners , and have seen them put to death , who designed their destruction . evil fortune doth not always persecute us , she hath her cruelties and her clemencies , and it 's not necessary to be a great philosopher , to know that there are times wherein her disgraces are more advantageous to us than her favours . from all these discourses it is easie to conclude , ( me thinketh ) that fear is unnecessary to us , that she can be of no moral good use to us , since she throws us into misfortunes before they come , torments us by her foresight , deceives us by false reports , abuseth us by misapprehensions , and ravisheth our tranquillity and rest , so often as we give our selves up to her conduct , which we shall see by the following discourse . discourse ii. that tortures are not terrible but in opinion , and that fools or cowards only are affrighted at them . those philosophers who so much contend for the gratification of sense , who make pleasure the end of their labors , and put no difference between the felicity of man and the content of a beast , have so much love for their bodies , and exercise so much particular care for its preservation , that they are not ashamed to establish its happiness in its health , and to attribute thereunto all those glorious qualifications which aristotle bestows upon the knowledg of the chief good , and which the wise roman assigns unto vertue . that pain which incommodeth the body seemeth to them the most cruel of all evils ; and they have so much given way to ease , as to affirm , that no life is more miserable than that which is mixt with pains and diseases : for if our other evils , say they , beget our disquiet , if ignominy offend us , if poverty afflict us , and if the death of our friends draw fears from our eyes , they do not so much hurt our body as our imagination ; and we need but a common dexterity , to perswade our selves , that these being things out of our power , they cannot give us any incommodity . but pain is a thing within us , its presence brings down our body , it seizeth our members , and ascending from the meanest to our more noble part , it causeth us to feel all the torments wherewith she exerciseth our companion . but what arguments soever they frame , to justifie the fear of torments , it must be said , that she is the daughter of opinion , that the tortures which appear the most terrible , are not always the most cruel , and that corporal punishments do not seem less supportable than banishment and poverty , but because they are accompanied with less solemnity . nothing doth so much awe us , as that which may happen to us by the displeasure of a potent king ; and who having the disposition of our life in his hands , is able to condemn us to tortures as terrible as infamous . although that diseases destroy the body as well as torments , that the pestilence be not less feared by us than punishments , and that there be natural evils that exceed the cruelty of the most ingenious tyrants ; yet is there not any thing which so much amazteh us as the sight of torments , and nothing so much shakes our stability , as the preparations made to deprive us of life , or to make proof of our faith. other evils which arise from our constitution , seize us silently , and their coming is so sudden , that there is often no distance of time between their first arrivel and their violence . sickness overtakes us without warning , it runs into our veins without noise , and without shew of that which might trouble us , it congeals our blood , or burns up our entrails . poverty hath not so frightful an aspect , she neither hurts our eyes nor our ears , when she enters upon the ruines of riches , and fortune changeth not her countenance , in making us poor , or in placing us in the midst of abundance . but tortures are terrible , we are astonisht at their preparations , the instruments of death which they set out before us , beat down our courage , and that tumultuous noise which attends the ceremony , throws horror into the minds of all that behold it . there they set in order all the cruelties which the malice of tyrants hath invented , here they set up the cross , raise the rack , expose the boiling cauldrons to view , lay open the pitched shirts , and rowze the cruelty of savage beasts , to devour us ; all this attracting matter sends terror into our soul , and it ought not to be thought strange , if we are so much afraid of torments , since they are shewed us with so much addition , and that they appear to our eies in such frightful shapes , that the executioner even redoubles our fear , by gradually exposing the instruments of torture , and causeth the most resolute to abate his constancy , by the preparation of things that are able to offend it . nothing so much abates our spirit as the consideration of the evil that threatens us , and experience lets us see , that pain is always less rigorous than the apprehension we had of it . it is not always the thing that wounds us , but the opinion that we have conceived of it ; and we have found some persons that had endured tortures with constancy , had they not first been overcome by the ceremonies thereof . a man is not miserable unless he think himself to be so , his thoughts are the regulators of his pains , and to become a glorious conqueror , he need but perswade himself , that the evil he suffereth is light . although these arguments be peculiar , they cease not to be true , and it 's sufficient to observe the effects of opinion , to make judgment of what she can say for her self . for as she is the child of the body rather than of the soul , and borrows her activity from the sense : she takes her part in all the accidents that befall it , she shares in his joy and grief , and , by a subtile craft , she raiseth the price of what ever pleaseth it , and augments the horror of what ever is odious to it . from thence it comes that she represents torments with so much frightfulness , and enhauncing upon the evils which the body suffers , she gives them dreadful shapes , which astonish us , and which equally send their horror into the soul of the patient , and of the spectators . she is so suspicious , that she never represents evil nakedly ; and she is so little faithful in her reports , that she is generally found a lyar . if we float upon the sea , and the winds swell her waves , or never so little toss our vessel , we become faint-hearted ; reason and light make their escape ; and , as if we had already suffered shipwrack , or were condemned to drink up the whole sea , we grow pale with fear , and fall into a sweat with fright . if earth tremble under our feet , and if the houses that cover us do but shake , or make shew of falling upon us , what out-cries do we not make , and what deaths faces do we not shew in our countenances ? cold takes possession of all our limbs , fear summons the blood to the heart , all objects astonish us ; and , as if the whole house were to fall on our heads , we are afraid of every part . yet we are not ignorant , that a small quantity of water will choak us , that a tyle from our house is sufficient to knock out our brains , and that we need but a hole of three foot to do our business . it is the same in matters of torture , of which we have so much apprehension , the noise that attends it makes the greatest part of the pain , opinion enhaunceth its violence , and the sight of so many instruments set out for shew , fills us with more grief than that death we are to suffer : yet we know that all those armed soldiers , that that troop of officers , that the executioner trimmed up in a wastcoat , can but remove us out of the world , let out our soul at the wound to be given us , and not to affright our selves with the name of murther , separate our soul from our body . in fine , they can do but what a worm doth among children in a chamber , what the gangreen causeth in the hospitals , and what the feaver every day produceth in the courts of princes and shepherds huts . an ordinary resolution will serve to endure evils that pass in a moment , and which often terminate with the same stroak by which they began . it is indeed a difficult thing to gain this power upon our selves : we find at this day but few scaevolas and regulus's , it appertaineth but to those great souls of antiquity , to brave tortures , and bear them without disturbance . we find no more men , who dare burn their own hands , to abate the confidence of their persecutors , who dare run to meet death in derision of their tyrannical oppressors ; and whose joys , in professing their innocence , are not interrupted under the hand of the executioner . modern philosophy hath made us too tender , and the love of our bodies is become too natural to us , not to be afraid of so many evils as do conspire our destruction , not to fear a wedg of iron which breaks our bones , wild beasts which rip up our bowels , engines by which death is conveyed to us with tedious repetitions , and moderate flames which reduce us not to ashes , till after our patience is tyred out . but as general principles terminate in examples , and that the living draw from them their principal lights , i think i may here propose the courage of a heathen-dame to the cowardise of our christian men , and shew them in the history of her life , that pain is insupportable only to them that are defective in resolution . never was empire more maligned than that of the first cesar : his usurpation begat him the hatred of all the nations of the earth , the romans often attempted their liberty ; and did sufficiently testifie by their enterprizes , that they could no longer endure the government of a man , who had rob'd them of their freedom . brutus engaged covertly in the conspiration , and though he forced himself in hiding the matter from his wife , he could not so well dissemble it , but she perceived , and observed by the change of his countenance the disturbance of his soul. fearing then that her husband mistrusted her weakness , and that he durst not tell her a secret which might be the price of his life , if it took air , resolved to make tryal upon her self , whether she could keep it undisclosed ; for retiring into her chamber , and putting out her servants , she laid hold on a razor , which she lets into her thigh ; her wound bleeds in abundance , her members grow feeble by loss of blood , a feaver slides into her veins , and seemed to lead her toward the grave : when brutus entering the room , and surprized by an accident so little expected , informed himself of the cause and circumstances . porcia constrained them that assisted her to withdraw , prayed her husband to sit down , and promised to tell him her self the original of her indisposition . you know , said she , brutus , that when i came into your house , it was not in the quality of a miss , or of a concubine , and that i preferred not your alliance before that of so many roman gentlemen , to be only the companion of your table and bed , but to lie in your bosom , to be the confident of your secrets , and to have my proportion as well of your misfortunes as of your felicities . it is not that i accuse heaven , or complain that you are my husband , but only that you look not upon me as your wife : you must not imagine that i am content with the duties of marriage , and that i expect from your person only those outward caresses , that unite our bodies rather than our wills and our souls . i aspire to greater things brutus ; i require to be admitted of your privy council , and that you honor me as well with your friendship as your love. this request is too just to be refused , and if you judg it such , why are you so reserved ? why do you dissemble your troubles of mind , and wherefore do you hide from me that glorious resolution you have taken , to put a tyrant to death ? if you cannot hope for help from me , and if my sex forbid me to assist you in your undertakings , you may , at least , expect from me some comfort , or lessening of your griefs , or misfortunes : and may be assured , that if i am not sufficiently strong to be your second , i shall have always courage enough to bear you company where ever ill luck or fate shall call you ; consider not the weakness of those of my condition , but remember only that i am the daughter of cato and the wife of brutus , and that if this body which i received from my father have not vigor enough to suffer death , the love that i have vowed to thee , brutus , shall make me constant in dispising it . then shewing him her wound , see there , said she , brutus , see there the tryal which i have made thereof ; do thou now not scruple to open thy bosom to me , to reveal me thy designs : know that within this body is contained cato's heart , and that if my sex permit me not , to follow thee in that execution thou hast determined , know , that my courage is great enough to die for thee and with thee . if a punctilio of honor , if a vehement desire of fame , and if a short obstinacy animated by vanity , have caused some to triumph over death , conquer pain , and despise the rigor of tortures , what cannot vertue do , when she is supported by integrity ? when she stands up for the preservation of laws , when she suffers for the defence of her temples and her altars ? since she is composed in her actions , and preserves the same measures in delights as in torments . wherefore to acquire this insensibility of pain so familiar to the stoicks , and so little known to other philosophers , let us often have in mind the actions of those generous men , who by their courage surmounted tortures , let us fortifie our selves against the apprehensions of death , let us not love our bodies more than necessity requireth ; let us separate from torments that solemnity which affrighteth us , and let us perswade our selves , that those ceremonies contain no more than what is despised by a man in his bed , sick of the gout , than what is endured by one at a feast , who is sick at his stomach , and what is undergone by a tender woman in child-bearing . discourse iii. that a wise man is not afraid of death , and considereth it as the end of his miseries , and the entrance to felicity . death is so terrible , and the horrors that attend it render it so dismal , that the lawyers have thought the fear of it to be just , and that it might be accounted among the number of those things which seized upon a man of resolution . they say , that the acts then committed are rather forced than voluntary , that our promises are not binding , that our agreements are invalid , and that as she deprives us of liberty , or hinders the use of reason , she acquitted us of performance , and annulled our contracts . divines , who consider death as the production of sin , rather than the effects of our constitution , conclude , that she must needs be a great enemy to nature , since she is so much redoubted , since she gives dread to all sensible creatures , and that those which we stile inanimate , testified some kind of aversness , to be separated from their principle . the chicken hides at the approach of the kite , the hare flies before the dogs , and we find nothing in nature , which useth not its force , or industry , to make defence against death . we cannot seperate the marble from the rocks but by violence , the trees groan under the blow of the ax , the air shuns the fire that rarifies it , and all insensible as it is , it makes opposition for self-preservation . if the animals , saith st. austin , which were created purely for slaughter , love life , and are so much afraid of death , how should not man be therewith affrighted , when it threatens him , since he was born to live for ever , and that he should never have seen seperation between his body and his soul , if he had been careful of his own innocence ? philosophers support the justice of their fear by the necessity of death , they think it reasonable to redoubt an unavoidable evil , and which , though common to all men , hath yet no remedy in nature . they accuse it of cruelty , they say , that it is she alone of all the gods , that will accept no sacrifice , who refuseth the offerings of men , and that it is in vain to dedicate temples to her , or build her any altars , since she is equally blind and inexorable . but what reasons soever these men invent , to excuse the apprehension of death , it is not hard to shew them their error , and to fight them with the weapons wherewith they maintain their principles . for if death be inevitable , if there be no altars of protection against her arrests , if no man have been yet able to secure himself from her ; and if that by which we live , be the means of our death , why are we so much afraid of it ? and why do we afflict our selves , for the suffering of a pain , for which nature hath no remedy ? we are born under this law , we came into the world to go out of it , our ancestors have beaten the road , and all those who shall come after us , will find themselves bound to suffer the punishment of their first fathers offence . who is not moved with compassion to see lewis xi . when affrighted with the horror of death , he courts the physicians , he promiseth them mountains of gold to reform his temper , and by excessive presents engaged them to give him length of years . for as if divine providence had forsaken him , and that his days had been in the hands of men , he summoned the hermits from the forrests , and conjured them to request the continuation of his health by their prayers : and without taking care to amend his life , he only chargeth them with the preservation thereof . sometimes being utterly void of all heavenly confidence , he shuts himself up in his closet , causeth all avenues to be stopt , the doors to be barracadoed , the windows to be close shut ; and , as if death had not been able to pierce the place of his retreat , he converted his pallace into a prison . unhappy man ! what art thou afraid of , is it not what thou must one day undergo ? why art thou affrighted at that which is in thy power not to be troubled at ? chace from thy soul this panick fear , resign thy self to gods will , forgo this vain superstition , that renders thee guilty before him , and then shalt thou see , that thy departure may become an offering to expiate thy offences , that death is but the way of life , and that thou mayst be eternally happy , for having generously despised it . though nature have brought forth nothing into the world , that is to endure to eternity , though all her workmanship be condemned to dissolution , and though all that we behold is but for a few days ; nevertheless we may say , that nothing is totally lost , that her labours are rather extinguisht than annihilated , and that death doth not so much determine , as interrupt them . if the summer pass away ; if the sun retire from our horizon , if the flowers forsake their beds , and if in our fields we see no remains of the vintage and harvest , another year restores them to us , and all those beauties which we look upon as vanisht recover and renew the face of the earth , by the same means which seemed to have caused their annihilation . if winter steal away , if the snow dissolve and leave bare the tops of our houses , if the frost cease to harden our rivers , and if the north-wind forbear to shake our buildings , it comes again after a little time , and his months , though departed for a while , fail not to return , to make good his season . if darkness prevail upon the light , if night hide the sun from us , and if its obscurity keep earths beauties from our eyes , the day following causeth the shaddows to flee away , and makes us restitution of the lights which the precedent darkness had deprived us of . the stars which are never at rest , which are in perpetual motion , and rowl continually over our heads , hasten to the point from whence they departed , and reassume their course by the same degrees by which they began their motions : it is with man as with other creatures , he dies to live again , the parts of which he is composed return to their principle , as his body descends to the earth , his soul mounts to heaven , and , escaping her prison , she flies unclog'd to her original . neither do we see any but impious or criminal persons , that fear this separation , and look upon it as their most rigorous punishment wherewith divine justice can chastise them : they tremble when they are told of death , they dread the judgments of god , which they have despised , and are unwilling to leave the earth , because they do not hope to reign in heaven . but just men look on death without fear , they submissively expect it , and wish for it as the ease of their miseries , they calmly prepare for it , and knowing it to be the sepulchre of vice , and the cradle of vertue , they cease not to supplicate the arrival of their change . they know by faith that the world is but a place of banishment , that heaven is their native country , and that they shall one day be called home , to receive the reward of their labours . descend into those solitudes of the ancient anchorites , and you shall there find the examples of this truth , there you shall see men who are continually employed in the contemplation of death , who think only upon the day in which they shall be discharged from the earth , who expect it with joy , and convert the most dreadful of our punishments into their ordinary imployments . break into their cells , there you shall find them , who are loaden with irons , who having their flesh torn with the whip , lean with fasting , weakened with watching , wish for the end of their life , and , like those generous athletes , or wrestlers of old , offer combat to obtain death , the recompence of their valor and courage . but , waving these christian sentiments , and to return to philosophical arguments , i do not well apprehend , why we are so much afraid of death , since it brings us so much advantage , and that putting an end to our days , it makes us infinitely happy , or renders us uncapable of further offences . for if we have lived as vertuous persons , if we have not misspent the time given us for the working out of our salvation ; and if we have well employed the moments of our life , why are we unwilling to be taken from it , and why desire we not rather to lose it , since death by which it is determined , is the passage to a blessed eternity ? but if we have gone astray from our duty , and if we have been prodigals of our time , why seek we to prolong it , and to augment the number of our sins , by the extension of our years ? if we are innocent , let us not fear to appear before the judg : and if we are guilty , let us not take it in evil part , that heaven calls us from the earth , and taking from us the means of farther crimes prevents the increase of our creator's anger . it is to be ignorant of our own condition , to fancy that death is a cruel thing , and not to look upon it rather as a favor than a grief of nature . for be it , that she give date to the happiness of the just , be it , that she finish the miseries of the afflicted , be it , that she give the aged a long day of payment ; be it , that she violently seize the infant in the cradle ; she becomes equally the end of all their sorrows , and as she is the remedy of the infirm , and of the guilty , she is generally the desire of the just , and of the unfortunate . but of so many persons as call her to their assistance , she is not so much a friend to any as to those to whom she comes without call , and whose miseries and apprehensions she anticipates . the earth hath few men , that are not beholding to death , and who place her not rather amongst the number of their acquisitions than their losses . for by her the slave is taken from under the cruel hand of his master , & breaking the twine that fastened his soul to his body , she gives him a dispensation of his oath of fidelity : it is she that sets the prisoners at large , and who , knocking off their irons , gives their freedom in despite of their malicious oppressors : it is she that shews the banisht persons the ready way to return to their own country , that teacheth them , that they have no abiding place here upon earth , and that it matters not much to what part of the world they be confined , since she brings them back to the place from whence they came . in fine , it is she who fortifies the faint hearted against their misfortunes , who laughs at the cruelty of princes , and who constraineth us to believe , that the life we love is a punishment , since that which gives it a period , puts an end to all our miseries . caius caligula being master of this secret , and who had learnt by divers murthers , that death past for a favor amongst the unfortunate , granted it only to his friends ; he that obtained it must be reconciled to him ; and seneca observed , that it was not so much an effect of his rigor , as of his bounty , to be put to death in the time of his reign . he would have thought himself ignorant of the fundamentals of tyranny , if he had chastised all men with one and the same punishment , if he had not put a difference between persons , if he had condemned the miserable to death , and if he had preserved alive those who deemed themselves happy . there were some men during his time , that wisht for death as a favor , and desired to be bereaved of life , that they might be no longer witnesses of his horrible wickedness ; caninius julius received the sentence of death with joy , he returned the emperor thanks for it in the midst of the senat ; and whether it were to reproach him of cruelty , or that he would blame the cowardise of his compatriots , he let him see , that death was not so terrible , since it was possible to despise it , to avoid the sight of a barbarous tyrant . he knew it was no extraordinary priviledg for a man to live ; that vassals enjoy it as well as their lords , that the condition of beasts in this point was equal to that of reasonable creatures , and that we must have had but small experience of the calamities of the world , to fear what children suffer without complaining , mad men expect without concernment , and what the afflicted receive with satisfaction . death hath nothing of cruelty but opinion , philosophers have augmented our horror by the description of it ; they have increased our apprehensions , in designing to prepare us for it ; and they have represented her frightful even by reasons that might well serve to enable us to support it . some have imagined , that she was the greatest of all our evils ▪ because it was necessary : that it was the chastisement wherewith the most famous criminals were punisht ; and that it was not without cause , that man had so much aversion for it , since natures most useless animals used so much indeavor to avoid or divert it . yet we know that death touches us not , but by depriving us of sense , it makes us incapble of suffering pain , and in separating our soul from our body , it makes us insensible of all evils . the epicureans , who have vowed an inviolable fidelity to pleasure , confess this truth : the living feel it as little as those that rest in the grave ; and as she offends not in the latter , because they are deprived of sense , she toucheth not the former , because they yet breath . if all these reasons cannot perswade the peripateticks not to fear death , at least , they will diminish their apprehensions of it , and will oblige them to confess , that death hath nothing so terrible in it as they had represented her to themselves , since an ordinary resolution will serve to endure or vanquish it . seneca , who knew that it was a part of his essence , and as quantity which hath its extent and termination , it was composed of life , and of death , he prepared to receive it at all times , he lookt on each day as the last of his life ; and to use his own words , he wisht for his change , to put an end to his miseries . he saith in one epistle , which he writeth to lucillus , that he had been a long time prepared for it , that he injoyed not life but because he was ready to surrender it ; and that as he had prevented her arrival by his vertue , he could wait his dissolution without fear , and suffer it without sorrow . discourse iv. that despair is mixt with cowardize fury and injustice . the love which man beareth to himself is so just , and the cares he carries about him for his own preservation are so reasonable , that he may not forgo them without unhinging his frame , nor be exempted from the rules thereof without perverting the very laws of nature . it is the end of all his actions , the foundation of human society , and the principle of that strickt union observed between lovers and friends . if aristotle may be credited in this matter , a man becomes sufficiently useful to his neighbour , from the time that he retains a love for himself , and being governed by the rules of vertue , stirs up others to practise them by his example . from thence the civilians assert , that our will cannot be pure when it considereth a benefit that is out of our power , that there is a self love in all our actions , that interest is the life of our designs , and that we care not to preserve , or defend , a publique good , any further then it concerneth our own particular welfare , the souldier fights not for his native countrey , but because he hopes to secure what himself therein possesseth ; and as he is a member of that body , he fears his own ruin in the destruction of the government . the merchant mounts not the threatning seas but under the hopes of profit , the husbandman doth not cultivate the earth , but because he expects a happy harvest of his labours . in fine , man imitateth his maker in his love : he causeth all creatures to serve his turn , he cherisheth himself with delight , he looks upon himself with respect , and subduing all things to his mind , he adoreth himself as a diety . although this affection be as just as it is natural , and cannot be blamed in a man but so far only as she passeth into excess ; yet doth despair design her ruin , it opposeth all her principles , and engageth the most tractable of all creatures , to become his own enemy . he breaks those cords of love which bind him so strongly to himself , it causeth hatred to succeed his love , and by a fury wherewith miserable souls and mad men only are possest , it forceth him to be his own executioner , to put a period to his misfortunes : i know that seneca did allow his wise man this sentiment ▪ that it was his opinion that we might depart this world without offence , that there was always glory by letting in death by our own hand , and that that man was able to live at liberty , who could die without constraint : that a wise man was master of his life , as well as his actions , that he was to live as long as he ought , and not so long as he could ; and as he withdrew himself from a feast when he was satisfied , or quitted his sport when tired ; he was to leave the world when he became weary of it . in fine , he maintained that this passion was an honor to him : and that if it appertained to men of great courage sometimes to forsake the earth in their prosperity , it was a mark of folly in a man to desire to live , being discontent and unhappy . this sentiment is so often repeated in his works , that we cannot deny but he was of that opinion , and i must give the lye to my own judgment , if i would defend or justifie him in that escape . but he seemeth to me excusable enough , being a stoick , since his error proceeded from the principles of the sect he was of , and for commending despair in his wise man , since it passed in his time for the most glorious act of our courage : yet no sooner was he undeceived in this doctrine , no sooner had christianity forbidden homicides ; and that no attempt could be made upon a mans self , without breaking in upon the rights of his lord , but he quitted his judgment ; he retracts from his errors , and confirmed , by the close of his life , the truth of his belief . for having received the sentence of death , he would not execute it upon himself with his own hands , he permitted his veins to be opened by them about him , and suffered them to let his soul ( with the blood ) out of his body , without his own assistance . in a letter which he writes to lucilius , he exhorteth a wise man not to deprive the executioner of his office , and ( without fear ) to wait for the termination of his days , he saith that there is fortitude in despising but not in hating of life , and that it is rather a sign of madness than of wisdom , to work our own dissolution by the fear of dying . indeed amongst all the passions of the soul , none are more sordid than despair : those that have made use of it , to recover their liberty , or to deliver themselves from the tyranny of princes , have not so much made proof of their constancy as of their weakness ; and they have passed among men rather for impatient than couragious persons . cato is not blamed in history , but for having hearkened to the advice of despair , his death is the shame of the romans , his homicide blemisheth all his other actions ; and what praises soever seneca gives him in his book of providence , he cannot be exempted from the imputation of cowardise , in having recourse to death , to shun the power of a victorious enemy . it is a defect of courage not to be able to undergo adversity , to wish for death , because our life is unpleasant , and to anticipate the end of our days , to free our selves from pain and infamy . regulus , to whom the like evil befell , shewed himself much more generous to posterity than this philosopher : for being fallen into the hands of the carthaginians he would not lend his own to despair , that they might be deprived of the glory of his overthrow : and although he was become the captive of them whom he had formerly vanquisht in pitcht battel , he chose rather to suffer , in being their servant , than violently to ease himself of their tyranny by the commission of a homicide . he received his disaster without murmuring against heaven , he bore the domination of his insulting lords with patience , he retained the same greatness of courage in his captivity as in his authority , and though far removed from the roman people , he ceased not to preserve his affection inviolable for them . if his enimies loaded his body with chains , they could not tear from his soul , the love he had for his country , he was faithful to it in the midst of his miseries , he made vows for its welfare , and as he knew that he could not go out of the world without the leave of him that placed him in it , he waited for death from his enemies , without daring to prevent it , by attempting upon his own life . but cato never surmounted cesar , if he became his prince , he was also become his conqueror by the law of arms , and if he deprived him of liberty , it was after he had subjected the roman commonwealth to his authority . likewise his despair is an evident sign of his imbecillity : he did not kill himself , but because he envyed cesars fortunes , and set not the dagger to his breast , but because he could not bear the prosperity of a victorious antagonist . if despair be found guilty of infirmity , we shall find her no less full of fury : violence gives not way to weakness , and as we deem a man a coward , whose heart faileth him in the day of adversity , he is esteemed cruel , when he contracts with death for his deliverance . those tyrants that break in upon our lives , come short of the violence of despair , they discharge their rage only upon our bodies , they leave our minds at liberty ; and , afflicting the meanest part of us , they often see the more noble victorious over their cruelty . but despair , that exerciseth its fury upon both , it depresseth the soul with the body , it sets us wholy on fire against our selves , and more outragious than the evil that assaults us , it constrains us to make use of steel or poison , to deprive our selves of life . then it is , that we become our own enemies , when we turn our advantages to our destruction , when we employ our reason to procure our ruine , and to avoid pain , which is but the trouble of effeminate men , we summon the worst of evils to our assistance . likewise an orator hath excellently said , that despair was but the passion of furious persons , that it took its laws from impatience , its power from indignation , its weapons from fear and pain ; and that a man called not for death , but because he hated himself , or forgot his own salvation . moreover despair is accounted the most unjust of our inclinations ; and whosoever should approve the use thereof amongst reasonable creatures , would no less offer violence to the laws of nature than those of christianity . life is a gift of god , we enjoy it not but so long as it pleaseth him , we came not into the world but by his favor , and that man would doubtless be insolently audacious , who would dare to abuse a benefit which he received not , but upon condition to preserve it . as none are permitted to choose the country where they will be born , nor the parents that shall beget them , it is not allowable for any to destroy themselves ; and it is but just , that he only that placed us in the number of the living without our consent , should remove us from thence at his pleasure . for although we are born for command , and that we behold nothing upon earth , that is not subject to our authority , nevertheless the disposing of our selves , is not within our commission , our life is in the hands of him that gave it us ; and since the son of god hath redeemed us by his blood , it is no longer lawful for us to undervalue it , because of a few incumbrances that attend it . even as the laws of men forbid particular persons to rescue the guilty from the hands of the executioner , the heavenly commandment permits not that sinners should diminish or change their chastisements ; and they are thereby oblig'd to suffer all sorts of calamitys rather than to abandon the rights which god hath over their life , to the discretion of fortune . if we desire death let it be the death of our passions , let us avoid every thing which makes us miserable , let us forsake all those false opinions which seduce us , and let us die to our selves , if we will not feel the evil which we are so much afraid of . the fourth treatise . of grief . discourse i. of the nature of grief . as nature is an enemy to ease , as she brings forth all things for action , as the more noble of her works terminate in motion , and as she allows them no divertisements but for the reparation of strength decreased by labour ; as sloth is hurtful to the body , as it converts it into excremental humors , as it encreaseth flegm , as it changeth the natural heat , and hindering the concoction of food renders it feeble and weak : the stoicks forbid their wise men to live at ease ; they make it the seed-plot of sin ; and knowing it to be nearer allied to darkness than to light , they enjoyn him to shun those retirements wherein he may learn to practise evil for want of employment . the truth is , it falls out very often , that nothing is more fatal to us than retirement and solitudes : our vices become less vigorous when they are seen ; when the disease is discovered , it 's half cured , and a dissolute life is never more dangerous than when , avoiding the eies of men , we retire into private places . yet such is the humor of grief , she delights in retirement , and seeks out solitary places to entertain her self with her own miseries : and , as if she were possest of an evil spirit , she shuns the company of them that are able to cure her . she resembles those idle delicate persons , who know little or nothing of their own actions , who think not of eating but when they are called to it , and who know not whether they be sitting or standing , unless you ask them : they live without sense , they divert themselves , and know it not , and they are employed , without knowing to what purpose . if the other motions of the soul put us into agitation , they propose some end , and the greatest part of them do aim at things that give us some sort of content . affection pursues the object we love , and laying open its beauties , or benefits , entertains us with the joy of its possession , or advantage ; anger meditates revenge , she considers the injury done her , and is never appeased till she have had satisfaction : covetousness applies her studies to riches ; the comfort she expects from their enjoyment is her motive ; and she ceaseth to hunt after them when she hath once lost the hopes of finding them . but grief is always idle , she propounds to her self no ends ▪ she is altogether taken up with her own misfortunes ; and without extending her thoughts beyond her self , her food is only her own affliction . nothing is so little at our command as this passion , she ariseth without our leave , she encreaseth by her own motion ; and contrary to the other distempers of the soul , she is made worse by the remedies which ought to be her cure. the journies or voyages we undertake wherewith to charm her ; the cares we apply to correct her nature , and the divertisements of which we make use , to allay her anguish , avail us nothing : she soon returns , and all the witty inventions of prudence serve not so much to destroy as to deceive her . for opinion coming in to her assistance , renews her sorrows , shews her the cause with aggravations ; and , as if it drew strength from her respite , it strives to make her yet more miserable . and it is from this reason , that seneca doth infer , that grief is not natural to man , since she is so fickle in her humor , so variable in her wounds , and so inconstant in her affliction . what ever comes from nature is not sensibly apprehensive of alteration , it preserves every where the same order , and the diversity of matter it meets with changeth not its course . fire which is a natural agent , spareth none , it equally devours the prince and the peasant , it consumes the wife and her husband , and it must be brass or diamonds , that is able to resist its fury . steel enters into every part of the body , it divides all metals , it separates the most solid things , it conveys death to the greatest number of men , and we cannot reckon a martyr in our annals , that was able to oppose its violence . but sorrow is partial , she wounds one without touching another ; that which afflicts us , reaches not our neighbours , and we often see , that one and the same disaster makes some contented , and others unhappy . the original of all this disorder is self-love , our griefs proceed from our affections , we grow not sad but because we are in love with our selves , and as that matron said in quintilian , we regret not the loss of outward goods , or of our friends , but because we affected them too much . if the enemy ravage our country , if the pestilence depopulate the provinces , if the hailstones become the harvestors of the husbandmans hopes , if the thunderbolts batter down our steeple-tops , if the famine decrease the number of our compatriots ; we do not so much lament their misery as our own private calamity , we apprehend our own ruine in their destruction , and their misfortunes and losses touch us no farther , than that the same disasters may fall upon our heads . for by a contrary reason , if news be brought us , that the armies have quitted our borders , that they are gone into ethiopia , or marched into persia , and are become masters of their most considerable strong holds , if we receive advice , that the plague hath tumbled twenty thousand indians into the grave , that the sea hath swallowed up a whole fleet of infidels , that the turks have gained some islands from the christians , and violently carried away a great number of innocent persons into miserable captivitie ; all these evil tidings stir us not , we hear them without disturbance ; and though nature oblige us to love all men as our brethren , we are not much concerned , whether they be miserable , provided we are but out of danger ; the misfortunes of our neighbours terrifie us not , but in proportion to the love we bear them , and we fear not their unhappiness , but in as much as it may chance to concern our selves . this was it that caused st. austin to define grief , according to the stoicks , a displeasure of the soul caused by the opinion of an evil , which befalls us contrary to our will. but as the humor of this passion agrees not with that of its companions , she bringeth forth effects , that are different from theirs : for if love and desire treat us with oppression , grief deals with us as a tyrant , and if hope and fear treat their guests as slaves , sorrow makes them martyrs . her malignity extends into all their faculties , she benumbs the body with cold , she extinguisheth the heat , by which they subsist , she dries up the radical moisture , by which they live , she obstructs the digestion of what they eat , she embroils their memory , she perverts their judgment , & she leaves not a member of their bodies nor any power of their soul uncorrupted or not weakened . in fine , if the other passions be diseases , grief is a torment ; if love be subject to discontents , if joy be ligh-theaded , if fear be accompanied with imbecillity , sorrow is attended at once with pining , anguish and pain : she beats down the spirits with the body , and overthrowing the whole order of their government , puts them into a condition uncapable of acting any thing , but what is fatal to their rest . despair ceaseth to torment us when separated from grief , and our apprehensions are supportable , when divided from that unquietness with which the faint-hearted are afflicted . discourse ii. that misfortunes make not a wise man sad , and that they are equally advantageous to the innocent and the guilty . albeit i have ever been perswaded , that there was a god in heaven , that i know well all creatures obeyed him , and that that religion , which i profess , obliged me to pay him reverence , although i owned his power to be infinite , that he was equally just and merciful ; and that the least of his perfections was as well beyond my expression as out of the reach of my thoughts : nevertheless have i sometimes been unable to forbear lifting my head into heaven , to bring his providence in question , and to ask , whether the creator of the universe were the governor of the minutes and adventures of our life . it is true , that my error lasted but a while , and i changed my opinion as soon as i considered the beauties of nature , when i contemplated these azure vaults , which hang over our heads , when i admired the influences of the stars , when i observed the regular order of the seasons , when i examined how the day succeeded the night , and how the sun , which caused both , conveyed his light and his heat into all the quarters of the earth . all these wonders easily undeceived me in my misapprehension ; and wholly ashamed of my infidelity , i confessed without difficulty , that he who divided the seas , who caused the fruits to come forth in their seasons , who upheld the earth by its own weight , was the same who regulated our actions , who took notice of our sufferings , who assisted us in our warfare , and made himself arbitrator of our defeat , or our victory . but when afterwards i saw that all things were in disorder in the world , when i observed in it the guilty happy , and the innocent miserable , when i considered there , the vicious rewarded , and the just afflicted ; i fell again into my first error , i appealed from my last opinion ; and swayed by an injustice , which to me seemed equitable , i acknowledged no other providence but that which the ancients attributed to destiny and fortune : my faith lost her self by too great curiosity , and i became an infidel , by desiring too much knowledg . but the chastisement that waiteth upon sin , cured me of this distemper , the punishment of the wicked opened my eies ; i complain now no more of the afflictions of the just , nor of the felicity of the wicked , i know that these are sufficiently miserable by being guilty ; and that it is not necessary that divine justice should abate their , pride , since vice contributeth to their torment . indeed let a man be as vicious as he will he shall not avoid the chastisement due to his sin : his lewdness is his punishment , and how insensible soever he be of his crimes , he cannot shun their punishment , after he hath committed them . there is no safety here upon earth , but that of innocence , and nothing can give rest to our souls , but the justice of our actions . as it was the custom of the romans to bear the cross upon which they were to be crucified , impious men carry their punishment about them : the remorse of conscience bears them company in all places ; and they feel themselves condemned before the witnesses be called , ere ever the judg pass the sentence , and before the executioner lay hands upon them . those torments that are visible , are not always the most sensible : our body is not at all times the theater of our pain , that which wounds this is often offensive only to our imagination ; and if its violence make it short , its modertaion is not insupportable : but that which proceeds from our crimes is eternal , it is this only which is able to unite different qualities , which is as lasting as cruel , which endures longer than that which caused it , which encreaseth by its silence , and gains strength by its moderation . it resembles that famous tyrant , who gave commandment to the executioners , to give their patients a tedious death , to make them suffer their torments with longer repetitions , to lay on gently , that their death might be the more sensible to them , and to send them into the other world by reiterated pains . for sin gives us no respite , it continues our whole life , and by repeated torments conveys us to eternal death . but without spending more time in summing up the calamities of the wicked , it will not be hard for me to satisfie those complaints , which most men make against heaven ; if i shew , that fortune hath nothing dismal in her , that her disgraces cannot make us unhappy , that they are rather testimonials of gods bounty than of his anger ; and that if they are the exercises of the innocent , they serve also for remedies to the guilty . it is adversity , saith an ancient orator , that reforms our wills , that gives courage to the cowardly , that constrains the obstinate , that teacheth the proud modesty , which instructeth the impious in vertue , which crowneth the just , and punisheth the wicked . seneca esteemed himself happy in his exile , the penury that attended him , contributed to his quiet , he thought he had lost his troublesom business , not his goods , when they spoiled him of his wealth , and that by a happy mischief he had recovered his liberty , in being deprived of the care of preserving his riches : the poor live securely ; and , as fortune is not their landlady , they fear not her displeasure . if a tyrant invade the neighbouring countries , if he send the alarm into their quarters , if he force the walls that surround them , they are not much concerned , they know the soldiers seek not for them , and that that want which makes them unhappy , is their shelter from the pursuits of usurpers . if they be banisht from their country , and if , by a power permitted by the law of arms to conquerors , they be forced to transplant , they leave their cottages without complaint , they seek to get out , and not to carry away ; and knowing that the whole earth is their country , they assure themselves of finding every where sufficient to satisfie their needs . poverty is not insupportable , but to them that think it so , the imagination makes the greatest part of their torments , men must be abused by the noise of the people , to be sensible of it , and be ignorant of necessitous contentments , to be afraid of their condition . if we will take the pains to frequent the habitations of the poor , we shall see that there is nothing frightful in them , but the name they bear ; that joy covers the faces of most of their guests , that they dispute tranquillity of mind with the rich , and that without being loaden with the cares which disturb the wealthy , they tast lifes sweetness with delight . but the rich are unhappy in the midst of pleasures , calamities beset them on all sides , their treasures are their troubles ; and as they get them by labor , they possess them with fear , and lose them with sorrow . but to make it appear , that poverty hath nothing vexatious , and that all its evil consisteth purely in opinion ; do we not see , that rich men often imitate the poor , when they have a mind to divert themselves ? that they appoint days , to be entertained after their manner ? that they lay aside their plate-services for earthen dishes ? that they change their goblets of gold into wooden bowls ? that they prefer the work of the potter before the art of the goldsmith ? and that they set aside the magnificence of their stately dwellings , to come and divert themselves in a shepherds hut ? mean while these unhappy men fly from want , they fear what they sometimes seek ; and , by a blindness which shews their infirmity , they abhor what in their delights they imitate . so much it is a truth , that indigence is but an imaginary thing , that it hath nothing more terrible in it than the common opinion of men , and that the incommodities that attend it hurt not our mind , but in proportion to the wound they give to our imagination . sometimes one and the same cause produceth different effects ; and that which made poverty odious , makes plenty a burthen . as it is of small importance , whether a sick mans bed be of ivory or of wood , and as his being often removed , allays not his grief ; a man is as little satisfied with poverty as with wealth , and because he carries his evil about him , there is no help for his misery . therefore when any misfortune befalls us , let us be assured , that the evil we resent , is only an effect of opinion , that it offends us because we think it doth , and that it afflicts our minds , only because we have suffered our imagination to be seduced by it . if we are fallen into disgrace , if men have violently robbed us of our credit , or good name , and if by the malice of our enemies , or the displeasure of the prince , we are stript of our dignities , let us remember that we have no power over human things , that there is a god above , who hath reserved to himself the jurisdiction thereof , that we cannot be renowned any longer than pleaseth him , and that as the earth hath no pretensions upon the day , which by intervals enlightens it , we ought not to promise our selves eternal advantages here , since men may spoil us of them every moment . fortune doth not imitate nature in her conduct : as this perfecteth her works by gradations , she brings them back by leisurely motions to their principles : the planets withdraw from their points at the same rate as they hastened to them . but that sightless dame doth often make us poor at once ; we lose in one day that which cost our ancestors divers ages to acquire ; and , as if she knew that we are all born equal , that riches fell unequally to our shares , that we stript our neighbours for our own accommodation , that we have encreased them against the laws of nature , she casts us violently into a state of poverty , and makes our condition equal to the meanest creatures on earth . though this method of proceeding be a surprizal , yet is it in some sort advantageous to us : by wounding she cures us , she stifles all our evils at once ; and , as a skilful chirurgion , who nimbly draws an arrow out of the body , she carries away with our goods the care of their preservation and the apprehension of their loss . if the fire violently ravage our fields , if it burn our houses , and consume all the substance we have in them ; we are to consider , that this loss happens to us by an universal cause , that this insatiable element operates according to the matter it meets with ; and that it would be guilty of partiality , if it should spare our habitations , since it pays neither respect to the temples of god , nor to the pallaces of kings . let us represent to our selves , that this burning is a forerunner of that fire which is one day to devour the whole world , that this creature is enraged against us , that it is angry that we use it as a slave , that we employ it in most of our arts : and that it is but just , we should be content to receive some damage from that which affords us so many good services . let us perswade our selves , that the evil befell us by the secret providence of heaven , that god sends it to them that least think of it , and that the flames would never destroy any houses , if they were to stay for the consent of the owners . as the fire is burning up our dwellings , let us implore heaven to consume our passions . by the light of the flames let us behold the vanity of temporal goods , let us therein adore the hand that strikes us , and which chastiseth us in this world , to spare us in the next . if death snatch away any of our friends ; and , by an innocent cruelty , deprive us of them we loved most in the world , let us bear this separation with submission , let us be thankful to providence , that we had them so long ; let us take her favors in the best sense , and not accuse her of having spoiled us , since she could give as well as take ; let us remember that all things in nature are subject to decay , that men have yet brought forth nothing immortal , and that the proudest of their works lasted but a few years . let us , by an ingenious deceit , imagine , that our friends are absent , and not dead , that they have changed their abode , and not their country , that they are removed , but not gone from us . let us not be of the humor of those who love not their friends till they have lost them ; and who , doubting of their own affections , have recourse to tears for their confirmation . if we judg of a man by the more noble part of his composition , we are assured , that those we lament are not dead , that their souls live content ; and that that virtue which caused them to excel upon earth , hath rendred them for ever blessed in heaven . let us apply all these arguments to our adversities , let us thereof make weapons of defence against their assaults when ever they attack us ; and let us hold for truth , that they serve always either to punish our faults , or to make our vertues more perspicuous . discourse iii. that the wise are happy even in exile and prison . nothing doth so much oppose the general opinion of the vulgar , as to assert , that afflictions are beneficial to a wise man , that his misfortunes contribute to his felicity , that his disgraces turn to his glory , that he may be content under oppression , and that that which makes other men unhappy should turn to his profit . what , say they , can it be believed , that he should be beholding to fortune for reducing him to a state of beggary , to be lodged all his days upon a dunghil , to be deprived of his wife and children , and to be ungratefully forsaken of his nearest relations ? is it possible , to think that fabricius could be happy in his exile , when after his retirement from the court , his necessities constrained him to dig and delve , and to gather , with his own hands , the herbs and roots for his supper ? who will judg it a blessing to rutilius to be driven from his native country , forced to forsake his children , make bankrupt of his friends , and to be confined to a barren corner of the earth ? who shall imagine that regulus could be content in a cask set with spikes , by which his wounds were renewed every moment , when he could not stir himself without piercing his body , when they constrained him to a continual watching , and by a new sort of cruelty , they keep open his eies against the beams of the sun ? who shall think , that socrates was used as a faithful citizen , when they present him the fatal cup , when the poison he swallows freezeth his blood , and , dispersing her malignity into all his veins , bereaves his eies of light , his limbs of vigor , and his reason of stability ? a man must be an enemy to himself , to build his felicity upon his misfortunes , and be ignorant of the nature of happiness ; to think of arriving there , by the help of violent injuries which oppose it . mean while we must own , according to seneca's opinion , that fabricius is happy in his poverty , that rutilius is content in his banishment , that regulus meets with nothing of evil in his torments , and that socrates is not miserable , in letting in death by tedious draughts . calamities astonish only men of ordinary spirits , and he must be ignorant of the condition of human life , who fears or flies the miseries that attend it . banishment , which is the midway beween life and death , which deprives the living of conversing with their fellow creatures , and causeth them to bewail the absence of them whom they have not lost ; is in propriety of speech , but a changing of habitation , and a removal from their countries ; the same sun gives them light where ever they go , and without being troubled for the place , whither they are to retire , they are assured to find a heaven to cover , and the same earth to sustain them . a wise man is too generous to be restrained to a portion of earth , the whole globe is his inheritance ; he lives here below as a pilgrim , and not as a citizen , and he thinks himself to be upon his journey every time he is obliged to forsake the place of his nativity . those mountains which distinguish kingdoms , and the rivers which surround their provinces , do not comprehend their territories : his comforts are spread over all the earth , he deemeth that he is arrived in his own country so often as he is brought into another ; and as by his mind he possesseth all things , he perswades himself to be born in every place , into which providence hath cast him . who doth not laugh at those fools , that are fastned with a straw by the leg to a table , who being tied to a post , by a small thread , seem as immovable as if their bodies were loaden with fetters and shackles ? and yet we see some men agitated by the same madness : they are so much in love with their own chimney-corners , that they are not to be hauled thence . they confine themselves to a piece of earth , and like no towns but those they were born in ; and they would think themselves thrown out of the world if they should be forced into fresh quarters . but forsaking the error of the multitude , whose judgment , a false opinion hath disordered , it is not difficult to make appear , that banishment is to be borne , that it hath nothing more terrible than the noise of the world , that the banished may live contented , and that they suffer nothing in exile that is able to make them unhappy . we see some men voluntarily quit their own to inhabit a foreign country . the people who fill the most stately city of europe , are not all born under one hemisphere , the most remote parts contribute to her composition , strangers are not there less frequent than those of the country : and if there were a general muster of the occupants , i know not whether the number of the banished would not exceed all that are natives of rome . either delight or profit is the motive of this exchange of air : some come thither for traffick , others to hide their enormities ; some are perswaded thither by the desire of acquiring arts , and others by a vain hope of heaping up riches , or gaining of reputation : ambitious men have sought it as a theatre whereon to expose their vanities to view ; and we find no nation of which some are not very glad to change their climate for that of this worlds paradise . but go out of this city , which is the common country of all those people , pass into the other towns , which have not her fame nor delights : sum up the inhabitants , and you shall find , that the greater number are strangers , that their language is different from that which they learnt in their infancy , that interest tempted them to remove ; and that by a humour which seemeth strange , they often abandon a pleasant air to seek an iron or a brazen sky . our country is that place where we live contented , our felicity depends on us , and not on our habitation , and it is to little purpose to drive us from the land of our nativity , since into what coast soever we are carried , we bear about us our vertue , which ought to make all our happiness . a prison seemeth to have something more vexations than banishment : for besides that this deprives us of the advantages of nature , that it is the general residence of darkness , that it shuts out the sun beams , and that the light enters not but at the grates and sighing holes ; it debars us of liberty , it tumbleth us alive into the grave , and makes us as exiles in the midst of our own country . the lawyers confound imprisonment with exile , and put no difference between the time that we spend in the dungeon , and that which is wasted in banishment . mean while that which makes others unfortunate , is no incommodity to a wise man : his mind never suffers restraint ; and as he lives content in solitude , he remains at liberty in prison . the walls which enclose his body , the chains by which he is fastned to a corner of the goal , cannot limit his soul : he is free whilest his companion is a slave , and without clearing the gates that enclose him , he takes his advantage to escape into all parts of the world. as in his freedom he loaths voluptuousness , he laughs at pain in servitude ; and he careth little into what place they put him , since he demands not to have his portion here upon earth . that which afflicts the weak , and makes a prison so odious to persons of honour , is because it is infamous , because it passeth in the conceit of men , for satans habitation , the abode of evil spirits , where his family recides , and that letting the innocent go free , they fancy that none but the unfortunate and miserable are there left behind . but all these words ought not to affright us : for if we be true christians , let us go in boldly , let us prepare our selves to fight with a tyrant even in his own house , and to trample under foot an usurper , who is not less an enemy to the just , than to the wicked . if the hole into which we are thrust , be the possession of darkness , let our vertue serve us for a light ; let our patience bruise the fetters , let our inward sweet smell expel the stenches of the place , and let our innocence triumph over the rigour of the goalers . we trade well when we gain by our commerce , when our profits exceed our losses ; and when adventuring some vain pleasures of this life , we exchange them for solid and eternal joys . it is really true , that the guard about us , those fetters with which they load our bodies , and the dungeons in which they bury us alive , are advantageous to us , they attract us from the earth , they are the ladders by which our thoughts climbe into heaven , they give us there the contemplation of divine things , and insensibly pour into us charity , with knowledge . they do what providence daily performs in the world ; and as she gives cessation to the labours of mortals by the sweet refreshments of night , they allay our miseries by the consideration of the rewards they work for us . in fine , a prison restoreth to the soul that which by violence it takes from the body : the liberty of the one ariseth from the servitude of the other , as it causeth our sufferings , it begins our health : and stripping us of the delights of the earth , it leaves us only the desires of heaven . but if the prisoners be not attended with all comforts , yet ought they not to be much afflicted : a prison hath nothing but what may be born with ; if it have its shame , it hath also its glory , and if it have incommodities that cause it to be hated , it hath advantages which have rendred it desirable . some philosophers have made it the habitation of the muses , they stiled it a wise mans retirement ; there they composed the most excellent of their works , and as if it had been a schoole , they there taught their disciples vertue , unfortunate men constancy , and their oppressors mercy ; it was there that anaxagoras studied the square of the circle , by which he put the greatest artists to a nonplus , and proved by reason what they could never demonstrate by experience . it was there that boetius writ his consolations , by which he shews , that it is god that sends afflictions , that philosophy is a proper remedy , and that that which came from so just a hand , could not be offensive , but to such as were without hope of reward . it was there that st. paul preached the gospel , that he writ the greatest part of his epistles , that he confuted both the jews and the gentiles , and proved to all the world , that we cannot enter into glory but through the straight gate of affliction . in fine , it is there that we may learn to be sober , to be contented with what we have , to retrench our selves of superfluous things , to contemn earthly benefits , and by a generous violence , to prepare for those mansions , where the unfortunate shall be happy , the innocent at rest , and the captives free . discourse iv. that pity and envy are enemies to wisdom . as we see nothing in the world purely simple , that all we find there hath a mixture , that the pleasure we tast in it is mingled with pain , and that the highest of human felicity is always attended with troubles and disquiet : as there is hardly any compleat vertue upon earth , as the most excellent have their defects , the most enlightened their mists , the most innocent their faults , and the most couragious their weaknesses , it must not be wondered , that vice doth so often deceive us in its appearance , and that , assuming a proportion of its contrary qualities , it needs only a little outward shew to represent it self glorious ; we magnifie ambition because she apeth generosity , because she despiseth dangers , affronteth death , and , to gain a piece of earth , makes little of all those laborious toyls which give exercise to valor . we esteem prodigality , because it opposeth covetousness , because it claimeth kindred of liberality , and gives largely without hope of reward . we pay reverence to the dissimulation of politicians , because it hath an affinity with prudence , because it hides our designs , covers our anger , and waits for the day of vengeance . we honour compassion , because it resembles charity , because she takes the prisoners out of the dungeon , comforts the distressed ; and without any consideration of their merits relieves equally the innocent and the guilty . all the orators have given her elogies : they make her the vertue of princes , they have lifted up her head above her companions , and do assure us , that if valor and justice made kings great , it was compassion that rendred them worthy of our admiration . nothing likens you so much unto the gods , saith cicero , speaking to cesar , as your compassion , your clemency makes you his image ; and if your fortune have not any thing to present you more glorious than the command of the roman nation , nature cannot endow you with a more excellent gift , than a will to preserve the unfortunate . although this vertue be so fair in her out-side and that it seemeth as if we could not blame her without a renunciation of humanity , nevertheless she ceaseth not to be found guilty of great defects , and to pass for a vice in the stoick morality . for as these generous philosophers strip their wise man of all the maladies of his soul , they allow not that other mens misfortunes should be his miseries : they will have him as little concerned for his neighbours afflictions as for his own disasters : they will have him to be fortune proof ; and that that which discomposeth others , should teach him constancy , and an even temper , what , say they , doth vertue consist in infirmity ? must we be guilty of effeminacy , to perform acts of generosity ? can we not be charitable without being afflicted ? and can we not relieve those that are in misery , unless we mingle our sighs with their sobs and groans , and our cries with their tears ? a wise may ought to consider the poor for their relief , and not himself to share in their calamities ; he ought to protect them from oppressions , and not to be inwardly disturbed for them ; he ought to endeavour their comfort , and not to be a partner in their misfortunes . but as this notion seemeth somewhat strange to them that know not the stoick sentiments , to apprehend it well , we must suppose with seneca , that compassion is a composition of two different parts , whereof one regards the calamity to relieve it , and the other to take a share of the suffering . the stoicks reject the second to embrace the first ; they say that pity is unworthy of a man of courage , they call it the vice of effeminate persons , and do declare , that they cannot become sad without derogating from the excellency of the mind : and that they must resolve to be miserable , if other mens misfortunes may as well pierce their heart as their eyes . as we judge of the weakness of these , when they water at the sight of others that have sore eyes : as it is not so much a chearfulness of spirit as an infirmity of body , to laugh with all that laugh , and to gape every time that another opens his mouth . pity is a badg of weakness , and we must be of the disposition of women , not to be able to look upon other mens troubles , without being assaulted by it our selves . therefore when a wise man giveth alms , when he saves a man from shipwrack , when he hospitably receives the banished into his house ; he preserves still the same tranquility of mind ; he is seen to be as little disturbed when he helps the distressed , as when he rebukes the impious , and chastiseth the guilty . he accosts them without trouble , he comforts them with arguments , he relieves them by his liberality ; and knowing that his grieving can do them no good , he rather draws money out of his purse , than tears from his eyes . if compassion be sordid when she renders other mens misfortunes her own , envy is infamous when she makes her own torment of other mens prosperity : and as we may not excuse the first by reason of her weakness , we cannot but condemn the second , because of her injustice . vices do at sometimes tickle us , they often steal into the seat of vertue , and some of them are so disguised , that hardly we can know them from their contraries . profusion seems so becoming in monarchs , that we make no difficulty of confounding it with liberality , cruelty is often covered with the robe of justice : compassion is so tender hearted , that she is hardly to be separated from clemency , and as she bears all her marks , she is not afraid to pretend to her praises ; but envy is always opprobrious , vertue is her torment , the most innocent feel her fury , she dares not appear to the eyes of men , and as she cannot conceal her malice , she is forced to seek darkness to hide her deformities and discontents . as if she were animated against the whole race of mankind , she maks war against all men ; and without distinguishing their merits , she sets both upon the perfect , and the less accomplished : she opposeth the most eminent , because she cannot arrive to their perfections ; she persecuteth her equals , because they reprove her covetousness and pride ; and she prosecutes her inferiours , as having an apprehension of their happy successors . but though she be an enemy to all the vertues , yet she exerciseth her fury particularly against the more noble , and resembling the scorpions , who sting most fiercely when the sun is most hot and clear ; she assaults those which have the greatest lustre and glory . from thence it comes that tyrants hate the honesty of their heirs , that they fear the valour of their commanders , that they dread the prudence of their ministers , and apprehend the puissance of their friends . they think themselves contemned in the praises of their inferiours ; they fancy that the commendations given to them is an abatement of their own grandeur , and they are afraid of designs to supplant them , every time men speak in their favour . but if monarchs unwillingly suffer vertuous persons , the subjects do not less envy their princes advantages : conspiracy is not always an effect of their evil government , it more often proceeds from the malice of the people , than from the tyranny of kings ; and their inaccessableness is oft times the only cause of their ruine . socrates lost not his life but for being too vertuous : his integrity made all his crimes , and the athenians would not at this day be accused of having put the wisest man of their commonwealth to death , if envy had not furnished them with arms to take him out of the way . but as no crime goes unpunished , envy finds her chastisement in her self ; she drinks the greatest share of her own poyson ; and to make her miserable , we need but leave her to her own fury . all other vices propose to themselves some advantage , and though it be never any thing but shew , it ceaseth not to give vigour to their pursuits ; but envy looks upon good to afflict her self , she rejoyceth not but in other mens harms , and by a blindness proper to avarice , she measures her own riches by the poverty of her neighbours , and her own wants by their treasures . if a passion be never so violent , it lasteth not always , it ceaseth after a time , and often finds its suffocation in the cause that gave it birth . anger takes her ease after she hath tormented us a while , pleasure becomes our pain , when its charms have tired us ; gluttony is wearied in much feasting ; and our soul hath not any faculty , which admits not a truce after a combate : but envy is always in motion , she lasts as long as her cause ; and what efforts soever we use to sweeten her , she is not to be cured but by the death of the author . from all these discourses it is easie to conclude , that grief is not natural , since she is so self conceited , since she doth not equally affect all men ; since she is partial in poverty , effeminate in pity , infamous in envy , dejected , or insolent in misfortunes . he that embraceth the motions of so dark a passion , may assure himself to be never happy , and as the most innocent are attended by injustice , we are not to expect any moral good service from them . finis . a table of the contents of this work. part i. treatise i. discourse . page . 1. the stoicks defence against passions 1 2. that it is mans happiness to live according to the laws of nature 11 3. a continuation of the same subject , and of the advantages of reason 20 4. that a wise mans felicity is not built on the goods of the body 28 5. that the goods of fortune cannot make a man happy 41 6. that vertue alone maketh a wise man happy 49 7. that the moral vertues of the heathen are not criminal 57 treatise ii. discourse . page . 1. what the nature of passions is , and in what faculty of the soul they reside 66 2. of the number of passions according to the stoicks 73 3. that passions are not natural to man 80 4. that the senses and opinion are the two principles of passions 89 5. that passions cannot be of use to vertue 95 6. that no man is more miserable than he that is subject to passions 107 7. that a wise man may live without passion 115 part ii. treatise i. discourse . page . 1. of the nature of joy 127 2. that the love of beauty is an enemy to reason , and that it is not so much an effect of nature as opinion 135 3. that learning is vexatious , and the pleasures of knowledge are mixt with grief , danger , and vanity 145 4. that the buildings , and gardens of grandees are not so much the inventions of necessity as vanity 155 5. that the gaudiness of apparel discovereth the impudicity , or pride of them that use it 164 treatise ii. discourse . page . 1. of the nature of desire 173 ●● that the desire of greatness and wealth plungeth men into misery and sin 181 3. that audacity is of no use to wise men in assaulting or defending of evils 193 4. that hope is ungrateful , fearful , and uncertain 199 5. that anger is blind in taking of vengeance , rash in quarrels , and insolent in chastisement 207 treatise iii. discourse . page . 1. of the nature of fear 220 2. that tortures are not terrible but in opinion , and that fools and cowards only are affrighted at them 228 3. that a wise man is not afraid of death , and considereth it , as the end of his misery , and the entrance to felicity 237 4. that despair is mixt with cowardize , fury , and injustice 247 treatise iv. discourse . page . 1. of the nature of grief 254 2. that misfortunes make not a wise man sad , and that they are equally advantageous to the innocent and the guilty 259 3. that the wise are happy even in exile and prison 268 4. that pity and envy are enemies to wisdom 276 errata . page 23 line 14. for experte read exparte . pag. 109. l. 14. for to grandeur r. to her grandeur . pag. 130 l. 14. for transmitted r. transmuted . pag. 142. l. 10. for been r. seen . pag. 150. l. 25. for unskilful r. skilful . pag. 171. l. 31. for christs r. christ . ag . 184. l 14. for dispose r. despise . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a50023-e170 prov. 3. * to king charles the second . seneca . notes for div a50023-e330 * veritati nemo praescribere potest , non spatium temporum , non privilegia regionum . tertul. lib. de veland . virgin. c. 1. * judicia nullius jus deterius , sed fermius efficiunt . l. 87. ff . de regul . juris . * lipsius lib. 10. manuduct . ad stoic . philosoph . notes for div a50023-e590 amicus plato , amicus socrates , sed magis amica veritas aristoteles . 1 eth , ad nicom . nascitur ex affectibus virtus , & nata cum illis consistit . architas , apud stob. serm. 1. interpres apollinis egebat interprete , & sors ipsa referenda erat ad fortes . chrysippus . chilo quid difficilimum interogatus , seipsum agnoscere respondit : unumquemque enim multa ex caeco amore sibi attribuere . stob. serm. 21. cavenda haec ignorantia , qua de nobis minus sentimus , sed plus illa , qua plus nobis tribuimus : per hanc damonibus , per aliam pecoribus sociamur . bern. lib. de dilig . deo. fieri non potest , certè egrè , ut bona aliquis faciat sine instructo apparatu multa enim , velut per organa , facienda sunt per amicos , opes , civilem gratiam aut potentiam . arist . ad nicom . 1. cap. 8. nesciat justus , nisi secundùm naturam vivere ; in cujus instituto dei lex est . ambros lib. 2. de abrahamo . cap. 11. non est in homine penitus extinctae scintilla rationis , in qua factus est ad imaginem dei. august . 22. de civit . dei. cap. 24. finem zeno ita edidit ; convenienter vivere , quod est secundùm unam rationem , & concordem . sibi stob. in eclog. stoici secundùm naturam vivere finem esse decreverunt , dei nomen in naturae decorè commutantes . clem. alex. 2. strom. assuesce ita vivere , ut vita tua quandam picturam exprimat , eandum servans semper imaginem quam acceperis ambros. lib. 11. ep. 82. quid aliud censes esse beatè vivere , nisi secundùm id , quod est in homine optimum , vivere ? quis vero dubitavarit nihil aliud esse hominis optimum , quam eam partem animi , cui dominanti obtemperare convenit caetera quaeque quae in homine sunt ? haec autem , ne aliam post●les definitionem , mens aut ratio dici potest . augustin . lib. 1. cont . academ . in homine optimum quid est ? ratio ; haec antecedit animalia , deos sequitur : ratio ergo perfecta proprium hominis bonum est . senec . ep. 76. sic est faciendum ut contra universam naturam nihil contendamus ; & ea tamen conservata , proprium sequamur . cic. offic. arriaga in phys . 8. 81. bonum est , quod omnes appetunt . arist . eth. nusquam pejus , quam in sano corpore , animus aeger habitat . petr. pulchritudo eòs , qui ipsam sentiunt , amicos reddit & inimicum neminem sibi fieri permittit . stob. serm. 68. animus spectandus est : nihil pulchritudó juvat , cùm quis mentem , non bonam , habet . idem . serm. 69. nostra longum forma percurrens iter , deperdit aliquid semper , & fulgens minùs , malisque minùs est . sen. in herc. voluptas , cùm maximè delectat , extinguitur , nec multum loci habet , itaque citò implet & tedio est , & post primum impetum marcet . sen. de vita beata . cap. 7. virtus contemptrix voluptatis & sortis est , & longissimè ab illa resiliens , labori ac dolori familiarior , virilibus incommodis magis quam isti effeminato bono , inserenda . sen. 4. de benef . cap. 2. radix omnicum peccatorum , cupiditas . paul. divitias nego bonum esse : nam si essent , bonos facerint . nunc , quoniam , quod apud malos deprehenditur , dici bonum non potest , hoc illis nomen nego : sen. de vita beat . cap. 24. ex homicidio saepe orta nobilitas , & strenua carnificina . alii pecuniâ emunt nobilitatem , alii illam lenocinio , &c. multis perditionem nobilitas conciliat . agrip. de van . scient . plato ait , neminem regem non ex servisesse oriundum , & neminem non servum ex regibus . omnia ista longa varietas miscuit , & sursum deorsum fortuna versavit . quis ergo generosus ? ad virtutem à natura bene compositus . sen. ep. 44. quid est in quo erratur ? cùm omnes beatam vitam optent , quòd instrumenta ejus pro ipsa habeant , & dum illam petunt , fugiunt : nam , cùm summa beatae vitae sit solida tranquillitas , & ejus inconcussa siducia , sollicitudinis causas colligunt , & per insidiosum iter , non tantum ferunt sarcinas , sed trahunt . sen. ep. 44. virtutes pereunt , si ea sententia vivit : nam saepe ab iis bonis est ab eundum ; aut illa deserenda : quod ut fiat paulò promptius , velut à respectantibus fiet , quasi ob majus bonum minora , sed tamen bona , omittentibus . lips . lib. 2. ad stoic . philos . nemo istorum , quos divitiae honoresque in altiore fastigio ponunt , magnus est : quare ergo magnus videtur ? cùm basi illum suâ metiris , non est magnus pumilio , licèt in monte constiterit . sen. ep. 76. omnis homo naturâ suâ scire desiderat . arist . 1. metaph. aurea prima sata est aetas , quae vindice nullo , sponte sua , sine lege , fidem rectumque colebat . ovid. 1. metamoph . non ex regulâ jus sumitur , sed ex jure quod est , regula fit . l. prima f. de reg . jur . peccatum est , dictum factum vel concupitum contra legem aeternam . aug. lib. 22. contra caust . ergo illam servare non est peccatum . romani mundi imperium acceperunt à deo , in remunerationem virtutum suarum moralium . august . apud suarez . lib. 1. cap. 6. delectatio non est in potestate delectantis , nisi quia actus est in potestate agentis . scotus . 1. dist . 1. q. 3. affectiones nullâ naturae vi commoventur , omniaque ea sunt opiniones ac judicia levitatis . cic. 3. defin . omnes affectus nihil aliud quàm voluntates sunt . nam quid est cupiditas & laetitia , nisi voluntas in eorum consentionem , quae volumus ? & quid est metus & tristitia , nisi voluntas in dissensionem ab his , qua nolumus . aug. 14. de civit . dei , cap. 5. natura intellectualis , scilicet voluntas , habet naturalem inclinationem ad suam perfectionem : nec est magis in voluntate , quàm in lapide . scotus 4. dist . 49. si affectus a natura essent , boni essent . lips . 3. manud . ad stoic . philos . nihil est naturale , quod nimium esse possit . cic. 4. tusc . lex communis esse debet , ut authoritatem habeat . bald. f. de leg. omnes nostris vitiis favemus ; & , quod propria facimus voluntate , ad naturae necessitatem referimus . hieron . an ira secundum naturam sit , manifestum erit , si hominem inspexerimus : quo quid est mitius , dum in recto animi habitu est ? quid ira crudelius , &c. sen. 10. de ira cap. 5. affectus non est oblatas rerum species movere , sed se illis idem 2. de ira cap. 3. non tam bene cum rebus humanis agitur , ut meliora pluribus placeant : argumentum pessimi turba est . senec. de . vit . beat . cap. 20. inter insaniam publicam , & hanc quae medicis traditur , nihil interest , nisi quod haec morbo laborat , illa opinionibus falsis . sen. ep. 94. numa omnium primùm ( rem , ad multitudinem imperitam , & illis temporibus rudem , efficacissimam ) deorum metum injecit . liv. lib. 10. affectus velut ubertas est naturalis , ad quam cùm verus cultor accesserit , statim cedentibus vitiis , fruges virtutis oriuntur . lact. 6. cap. 15. nihil rationis est , ubi semel affectus inductus est , jusque illi aliquod voluntate nostrâ datum est . sen. 10. de ira cap. 9. affectus quidem tam mali ministri quàm duces sunt . idem . cap. 9. scis pro patria pugnandum , dissuadebit timor : scis pro amicis desudandum esse , sed deliciae vetabunt . sen. ep. 95. facilius est excludere perniciosa quàm regere , & non admittere quàm moderari . senec. 10. de ira . cap. 8. libertati à majoribus tantum impensum est , ut patribus quibus jus vitae & necis in liberos datum erat , non tamen licebat eripere libertatem . l. ult . c. de pat . servit quicunque vel metu frangitur , vel delectatione , vel cupiditatibus ducitur , vel indignatione exasperatur , vel moerere dejicitur : servilis est omnis coactio . amb. de vit. beat . lib. 2. aestimatio rerum non sumitur ab affectione singulorum , sed secundum quod communiter venditur . l. 33. f. ad l. acquil . parricidae cum lege ceperunt , & illis facinus paena monstrauit : pessimo loco fuit pietas post quam culeas saepius vidimus quàm cruces . sen. de clem . lib. 10. cap. 23. tantum inter stoicos & caeteros sapientiam professos interesse , quantum inter faeminas & mares merito dixerim ; cùm utraque turba ad vitae societatem tantundem conferat , sed altera pars ad obsequendum , altera imperio nata sit sen. lib. const . cap. 10. quid si sanum voces leviter febricitantem ? non est bona valetudo mediocritas morbi : quomodo oculos major & perfecta suffusio excaecat , sic modica turbat . sen. ep. 85. non quia difficilia sunt , non audemus , sed quia non audemus difficilia sunt . sen. ep. 104. notes for div a50023-e7410 virtus voluptatis ancilla & locum famulae obtinet . athen. lib. 12. de sin . quid aliud est vitia incendere , quàm authores illis inscribere , & dare morbo , exemplo divinitatis , excusatam licentiam ? sen. de brevit . vit. cap. 16. si naturalis amor esset , & amarent omnes , & semper amarent , & idem amarent ; neque alium pudor , alium cogitatio , alium satietas deterreret . petr. dial . 69. amare simul , & sapere ipsi jovi non datur . plato amore contemplationis abstinuit ab omni delectatione venereâ . d. thom. 22. q. 152. artic. ad 3. admitti non debet quis ad probandum id , quod probatum non prodest . lib. 10. cod. de probat . misera orbis christiani facies sub constantio , ob frequentes ecclesiasticorum disceptationes & conventus . ammian . lib. 21. mutatur ars quotidie , toties interpolles & ut quisque loquendo pollet , imperator illico vitae & necis fit . plin. lib. 29. illud humile tugurium nempe vertutes recipit , jam omnibus templis formosius erit . sen. cens. ad helu . cap. 9. auratas vestes aut murice tinctas nulli licet ferre , & gravi animadversione plectitur , quisquis vetito se , & indebito , non abdicaverit vestimento . cod. de vest . deles picturam a deo datam mulier , si vultum tuum materiali candore oblinas , si acquisito rubore perfundas : illa pictura vitii non decoris est , fraudis non simplicitatis . amb. exam. lib. 6. quanta haec amentia , essigiem mutare naturae , picturam quaerere ; & dum verentur , maritale judicium perdere suum ? aug. lib. 4. de doct. christ . quantum a nostris disciplinis aliena sunt , quam indigna nomine christiano , faciem fictam gestare , quibus simplicitas omnis inducitur ? turtul . lib. 16. de cult . faem . cap. 7. omne quod contra naturam est , monstri meretur notam penes omnes ; penes nos verò etiam elogium sacrilegii in deum naturae & authorem tertul. lib. de coron . milit . quisquis de accipiendo cogitat , oblitus accepti est , nec ullum habet malum cupiditas majus , quam quod ingraest sen. ep. 73. divum julium plures amici confecerunt quam inimici , quorum non expleverat spes inexplebiles . sen. 3. de ira c. 30. nihil habet ita magnificum , quo mentes in se nostras trahat , praeter hoc quod mirari illa consuevimus : non quia concupiscenda sunt , laudantur , sed concupiscentur , quia laudata sunt . sen. ep. 18. jure naturali regna edita . d. de just & jur . ut domiti se melius haberent , quum indomiti se deterius habuerant aug. 19. de civit . cap. 21. magna servitus magnae fortunae est . sen. consol . ad polib . rato quam justus quisquam fuit , ut non charior populo successor soret . petr. de remed , utriusq . fort . funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris . psal . 15. quod quisque juris in alterum statuerit , ipse eodem jure utatur . sceptra thebarum fuit impuné nulla gerere . sen. in thebaide . admirationem nobis parentes auri argentique fecerunt : & teneris infusa cupiditas altius sedit , crevitque nobiscum . sen. ep. 16. temperatus sit sapiens & ad res fortiùs agendas non iram , sed vim adhibeat . sen. 2. de ira cap. 17. firmiter existimo tempus non dicere aliam rem absolutam , ultra motum , sicut qualitas dicit aliam rem a quantitate , sed eandem rem simpliciter . scotus . q. 18. de rerum princip . spes metum sequitur , nec miror ista utrumque pendentis animi esse , utrumque futuri expectatione solliciti . sen. ep. 6. quis enim pollicetur serenti reventum , militanti victoriam , marito pudicam uxorem , patripios liberos ? sequimur qua ratio non qua veritas trahit . sen 2. benef . cap. 5. omni vita pendent , & inhonesta se ac difficilia docent coguntque & ubisine premio labor est , torquetillos irritum dedecus , nec dolent prava sed frustra voluisse . sen. de trancq . anim . cap. 2. nos venturo torquemur & preterito , nemo tantum presentibus miser est . idem . ep. 5. tam ex amore nascitur quam inter lusus & jocos . sen. ep. 18. si vis ulcisci injurias , tace & ultus es . chrisost . dandum est tempus , veritatem enim dies aperit ne sint aures criminantibus faciles . sen. 2. de ira . cap. 22. causa iracundiae , opinio iniuriae est . idem . 16. iratus ad paenam qui accedit , nunquam mediocritatem illam tenebit quae est inter nimium & parum . cic. 11. de ossic . excogitavit quomodo tria crimina faceret quia nullum invenerat . sen. 2. de ira . cap. 16. habet iracundia hoc mali , non vult regi ; irascitur veritati ipsi , si contra voluntatem suam apparaverit . idem . 16. extollit animos & excitat , nec quicquam , sine illa , magnificum in bello fortitudo geris , nisi huic flamma subdita est & hic stimulus peragitavit , misitque in pericula audaces . arist . apud sen. 2. de ira . cap. 7. aliquando metus fecit audacem , & morbus ; sed ira , ebrietas , timor aliaque ejusmodi faeda & caduca irritamenta sunt , nec virtutem instruunt , sed segnem aliquando animum & ignavum , paululum allevant . idem . cap. 13. nec in pace nec in bello unquam bona fuit , pacem enim similem belli efficit : in armis vero obliviscitur martem esse communem , venitque in alienam potestatem , dum in sua non est sen. 2. de ira . cap. 12. ista paradoxa , quae appelluntur maxima , videntur esse socratica , longéque verissima . cic. praefat . in parod . zeno & stoici opiniationem repudiarunt opiniari enim te scire quod nescias , non est sapientis , sed temerarii ac stulti lact. 3. cap. 4. plura sunt quae nos terrent quam premunt , & saepius opinione quam re laboramus . sen. ep. 13. lenissima ferè ingenia in tantum venere formidinis ut sibi exciderent : nemo quidem , sine aliqua jactura sanitatis , expavit , similisque furenti , quisquis timet sen. lib. 6. quest . nat . cap. 29. quod si vita doloribus referta maximè fugienda est , summum profectò malum vivere cum dolore . eudoxius apud arist . 10. eth. inopia atque morbi silentio subeunt , nec oculis nec auribus quidquam terroris incutiunt : ad tormenta magno strepitu & apparatu veniunt . sen. ep. 14 cui verba facio ? rem vide , cepi ipse mei experimentum & ecce hoc vulnus , quod sponte inutile ut discerem , ecquid dolori aut tormentis par essem lips . monit . polit . cap. 7. possum ferre , possum contemnere , & mori , brute , cum marito , & pro marito possum . id. 16. metus mortis est justus , & talis qui in constantem virum cadere posset : unde & restitutio conceditur l. 3. ff . quod met . caus . stultum est timere quod vitare non possis . sen. de remed . fortuit . o miser ! assiduo times ; semel faciendum est hoc . quid times quod in tua manu est ne timeas ? lips . mon. polit . ad refrigerium justi vocantur , non est exitus , sed ad aeternitatem transitus . quis ad meliora non festinet ? cyprian . lib. de mort . ignaro malorum suorum , quibus non mors , ut optimum inventum naturae , lauditur . sen. consol ad mort . mortem misericors saepe pro vita dabis sen. in troade . omnium terribilium terribilissimum est mors arist . ante senectutem curavi ut bene moriar ; bene autem mori est libenter mori , & libens moritur qui non repugnat : non qui jussus aliquid facit miser est , sed qui invitus facit . sen. ep. 61. vix bonum publicum curamus , nisi in quantum privatum bo●● admixtum est . cod. neque interest multum , mors ad nos veniat an ad illam nos : illud imperitissimi cujusque verbum falsum esse tibi persuade , bella res est mori sua morte . sen. ep. 61. aliquando etiam si mors istabit , & destinatum sibi supplicium sciet non commodabit sapiens poenae suae munum , stultitia est timore mortis mori : veniet qui occidet , expecta , quid occupas alienum negotium ? sen. ep. 70. nihil agendo malè agere discimus . ea quae à natura originem acceperunt eandem in omnibus servant ; apparet non esse naturale quod varium est . sen. consol . ad helv. cap. 7. tristitia est dissentio animi ab his rebus quae nobis nolentibus accidunt . aug. 14. de civ . res humanas ordine nullo fortuna regit , spargitque manu munera caeca pejora fovens . sen. hippo. cognatum imò innatum omni sceleri sceleris supplicium lips . 2. de const . quod ad me attinet , intelligo me non opes sed occupationes perdidisse . corporis exigua desideria sunt . sen. consol . ad hel. cap. 11. dementes ! hoc aliquando concupiscunt quod semper timent . idem ibidem cap. 12. quicquid est , cui dominus inscriberis apud te est , tuum non est : nihil firmum infirmo , nihil fragili aeternum & invictum est . sen. epist . 98. magnum est exemplum , nisi mala fortunae non invenit . sen. de provid . exiguum hoc , quod si montes coercent , si fluvii cingunt , patriam esse censes ? universus orbis est , quacunque homines sunt coelesti illo semine oriundi . lip. 10. de const . patria est ubicunque bene est● : illud autem per quod bene est , in homine , non in loco , est . sen. lib. de remed . fortuit . tempus quo quis debet esse in carcere , computatur in tempore quo quit debet esse in exilio . lib. 23. cod. de poen . nulla de virtutibus tuis plurimis nec gratior nec admirabilior misericordia tua . nihil habet nec fortuna tua majus quàm ut possis , nec natura tua melius quàm ut velis conservare quam plurimes . vere enim aegritudo , nec longè à miseriis est quisquis miseretur . lips . 2. de const . non miserebitur sapiens , sed succurret , sed proderit : at illa facit tranquillam mentem vultu suo . sen. 2. de clem. invidia est odium alienae felicitatis : respectu inferiorum , ne sibi aequentur , respectu parium , quia sibi aequantur . august . in serm. a table of humane passions with their causes and effects. written by ye reuerend father in god f.n. coeffeteau, bishop of dardania ... translated into english by edw. grimeston sergiant at armes. tableau des passions humaines. english coeffeteau, nicolas, 1574-1623. 1621 approx. 507 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 368 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a19058 stc 5473 estc s108443 99844102 99844102 8888 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a19058) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 8888) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1475-1640 ; 1168:01) a table of humane passions with their causes and effects. written by ye reuerend father in god f.n. coeffeteau, bishop of dardania ... translated into english by edw. grimeston sergiant at armes. tableau des passions humaines. english coeffeteau, nicolas, 1574-1623. grimeston, edward. [48], 684 p. printed by nicholas okes, london : 1621. a translation of: tableau des passions humaines. the title page is engraved. reproduction of the original in the folger shakespeare library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng emotions -early works to 1850. 2003-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-11 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-12 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-12 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a table of humane passions . with their causes and effects . written by the reuerend father in god f. n. coeffeteau , bishop of dardania , councellor to the french king in his councels of estate , suffragane and administrator generall of the bishopricke of metz. translated into english by edw : grimeston sergiant at armes . london , printed by nicholas okes. 1621 ●●easure . paine hope . feare . to the right honovrable , george , marquesse of buckingham , high admirall of england , &c. most worthy to be most honored lord ; all outward honors and accomplishments of height , already most abundantly & blessedly adorning you ; i thrice humbly submit to your lordship , ( in as much as this little volume may containe ) as ample meanes to all inward addition and illustration : in teaching all manly and lordly gouerment of those invvard passions and perturbations that are euermore excited by outvvard pleasures , and all their storme-rockt soothings of security and licence . for no more doth the sun and wind ; exhale and blovv vppe pasttemper , vapors and tempests ; then the graces , and amplifications of kings ; cause aestures & vprores of affection and passion ▪ yet is there not any more sencible variety of medicine and cure , for all bodily wounds and maladies : then there are intelligible and reasonable repressions and setlings of all the vnquiet , and raging ouerflowes of our spirits and minds . neither is there any so deadly danger layd open in the one , as abides hid in the other . for as that tempest is more dangerous that suffers not a ship to repaire to her hauen , then that which sustaines not shee should sayle at all ▪ so most difficult are the minds stormes , that let a man to containe himselfe ; nor suffer him ▪ to quiet and settle his disturbed reason . and therefore all men floting on the high-going seas of fortune , if destitute of pylots , cables , and anchors ; and moued only with tumultuous and vnbounded errors , in vncertaine and dangerous courses ; may for a time perhaps in safety and pleasure enioy , and extend them : but at length ( as t' were suddainly rauisht by the neckes ) they are driuen helplesly headlong on the more horrible ship-wrackes . since then your lordships disposition to all goodnesse is in nature most sweete , most flexible ; vouchsafe eare a little to artificiall and experimenc't aduices , that may rectifie , accomplish and establish you in all the heights of your honors . wherein my humble and poore endeauors obtaining their desired ends ; i shall holde my selfe happy , and rest in all seruiceable deuotion , your lordships euermore most submissiuely vowed ▪ ed : grimeston . of humane passions . the preface . as prouident nature hath prescribed certaine ends to all the creatures of this vniuerse , whom she hath clothed with certaine qualities and allurements fit to inflame them with their loue ; so there is not any one in this world but doth endeuor by all meanes to attaine vnto those ends which are propounded . as the sunne hauing bin placed in the firmament , to contribute to the birth and preseruation of beasts and plants ; runnes continually from one hemisphere to the other , to poure out the beames of his influence and light ouer all . so after his example , there is not any other cause in all this great world , but is carefull to seeke and pursue her end , according to the motions which nature hath ingrafted . but to make them c●peable , it was necessary that the same nature which hath prescrib'd them their ends , should also giue them as it were two wings to raise them vp : that is to say , it was needefull she should impart vnto them the knowledge , and ingraf● in them the inclination and desire to pursue them . desire alone were not sufficient , for that is fashi●ned in the appetite ; which is a blind power , and requires some light to guide and conduct it in its motions ; euen as they say the whale , which hath a weake and heauy sight , hath need of a guide to conduct it through the waues of the sea , lest that this great and weighty masse which she drawes after her , should strike against some rocke and be crusht in peeces . neither were knowledge alone sufficient , for that it proceedes from a faculty which being borne to giue light , doth necessarily presuppose another power , which doth receiue the beames of her light , and as we may say , suffers it selfe to be guided by that light . as for example , to cause the king ( being incited by the glory of his ancestors , or induced by the greatnesse of his courage ) to vndertake the sacke of constantinople , or to repl●nt the cross● in palestina ; it were not sufficient that he knew where constantinople stood , or in what part of the world palestina were ; but besides all this it were needfull , that with this knowledge the heat and ardor to carry him to so glorious a conquest should breede a desire . as in old time to thrust on alexander to vndertake the voyage of persia , or of the indies , it was not onely requisite this prince should haue some knowledge of that st●tely empire and of those rich prouinces ; but it was also necessary his generosity should beget in him a passion and will to conquer them . so as no man imbraceth any designe whatsoeuer , vntill that knowledge be vnited with desire , and desire ioyned vnto knowledge . in this manner then if things knewe their ends and did not desire them , or if they desired them without the knowledge , they could not be drawne to endeuor to get them : for as much as through the want of those helps , they should be in danger to labor in vaine , and to lose all the paines of their pursuites . so as to effect it they had neede of knowledge and desire . the proofes hereof are seene in all the creatures which make a part of this vniuersall world . for leauing apart the angels of heauen , whose actions show sufficiently that their substance is indued with an vnderstanding full of knowledge , and a will capable to frame diuers desires ; if we will fixe our eyes vpon visible nature , we shall find that there is not any creature , not onely among those that haue life , but euen among those that haue no soules , in the motions and course of whose actions this truth doth not appeare and demonstrate it selfe plainely . it is true , that in things which are insensible and without life , it is not necessary that the knowledge of their ends should remaine in themselues , as the desires and inclinations to attaine vnto them do reside ; but it sufficeth that they bee guided and conducted by a cause conioyned to their actions . and to returne to our last example , as it was necessary ( to draw alexander to vndertake the voyage of asia and the indies ) he should haue knowledge of the prouinces , yet he might borrow this knowledge from those which had seene them , and obserued them ▪ euen as blind men , who led by their guides go where their affaires do call them ; euen so , although that naturall things which of themselues are not indued with any knowledge , besides the inclination which they haue vnto their end , haue yet some need to know it , to the end they may affect it and seeke it ; yet hauing a desire ▪ it imports not whether the knowledge be precisely in themselues , or that some other cause supplies this defect , and insinuates it selfe into this action to guide it . the reason whereof is , that although they be depriued of knowledge , yet it hinders not the force of their motions ; for that they are vnited to that great intelligence which knoweth all things , and cannot erre in her knowledge , but guides all the naturall causes to their ends by her wise prouidence . but these things haue alwayes neede of knowledge and desire , to put them into action , although that in regard of knowledge it is not absolutely necessary it reside in them , but it sufficeth that it be imparted vnto them by the influence and assistance of a more eminent cause . as for those which haue life , it may be plainly obserued in the course of their liues . but we must remember that the soule being the forme of liuing thinges , and naturall formes hauing this in particular , that the more noble containes the perfection of that which is lesse noble , as a quadrangle comprehendes with a certaine eminency , all that enters into the composition of a triangle ; and as the formes of beasts containe the formes of the elements ; it followes that there beeing three degrees of soules ; that is to say , that which giues life , which is the lesse perfect ; that which giues sense ; which is the second ranke , and the reasonable which is the noblest of all ; this reasonable soule which is peculiar onely to man , containes all the powers and perfections of the other , and can effect as much as all the rest together . by reason whereof man hath a vegetatiue soule , which is common with plants ; he hath the sensitiue , which he hath common with bruit heasts ; but he alone is in possession of the reasonable soule , whereby he hath nothing common with the rest of the creatures . after this , either of these soules hath a number of powers befitting the operations which must arise . the powers of the vegetatiue soule are principally those which nourish , which contribute to the growing and increase , and which serue to generation : and those haue other powers for instruments to their actions , as the power to draw , the power to retaine , the power to expell the excrements , the power to disgest the nourishment , and others which philosophers assigne vnto them . moreouer , there is a power which is as it were the queene of all the rest , to whose command and conduct they referre all their actions : and that is the power of the naturall appetite , the which ( as wee haue sayd ) is one of those two things necessary to accomplish the actions of nature . according vnto these lawes we see that the power we call attractiue , drawes the nourishment vnto her , for that the naturall appetite doth presse and command her ; and in like manner the power which they call expulsiue , doth cast forth and expell those things which the same natural appetite doth abhorre ; and so of the other powers which are ordained to diuerse ends . but for that the appetite which is blind and voyde of all knowledge , is not sufficient in vegetatiue things to exercise their action , but withall it is requisite that they be accompanied with knowledge ; it therfore happens that the vegetatiue soule being not so noble that among all her powers , there is not any one indued with knowledge : the vniuersall nature which prouides for all , supplies this defect , and conducts by her light the inclination of vegetatiue substances to their ends , and by the same meanes guides all the other powers which follow her motions in their actions . so as nature knowing the substance fitting and proper for the nourishment , shewes it and instructs the naturall appetite , and ordaines that it shal bee drawne and disgested , and conuerted into nourishment for the preseruation of the vegetable indiuidue ; and the like may bee sayd of the other actions ; wherein doubtlesse liuings things diff●r not much from those that haue no life , and we must not obiect that plants seeme to bee indued with knowledge , for that they can distinguish a iuic● which is proper for them , from that which is pernitious , the which seemes to bee a marke of knowledge ; for although there were pilosophers which did a●tribute vnto plants a feeling of things , which they sayd was lesse pure and lesse actiue then that of creat●●es : yet it is most certaine that the nature of the vegetatiue soule is too earthly , to bee fit for the functions of the sences , which require oth●● organs then those of the plants . and therefore although they draw vnto them good iuice , and reiect the bad , it proceeds not from any knowledge wherewith they are indued , but from their naturall vertues ▪ and properties , guided by that soueraigne intelligence which disperseth her care ouer al the creatures how base and abiect soeuer : and it is also by her motion that the same plants fly their contraries , as the vine shunnes the bay tree ; and that they shew such grace & beauty in their workes , as we see in the spring time ; so as all these things bind vs not to beleeue ▪ that they are indued with knowledge . but let vs returne to our discourse , and ( leauing the vegetatiue soule ) ascend a degree higher , and come to the sensitiue . this as the more noble hath in her selfe the possession of knowledge and hath no need to borrow it , like vnto the vegetatiue soule , 〈◊〉 things without life . moreouer shee hath three kinds of powers , that is to say , the fa●ulty to know , the faculty to desire and the mouing power . b● the mouing power , i vnder●stand that which executes the motion , from one place to another , as it is commanded and ordained by the faculty where the desire is framed , after that it is enlightened and guided by knowledge . the knowing powers are of two sorts , that is to say , the exterior and the interior . the exterior are the fiue sences of nature , as seeing , hearing , smelling , tasting , & touching ; the which as messengers 〈◊〉 to the interior powers indu●d with knowledge , whatsoe●er we can comprehend and desire . these exterior powers 〈◊〉 the sences answers in some ●●rt to the bodies of the vni●erse , whereof they comprehend 〈◊〉 colours , the sounds , the ●melles , the sauors , the cold , ●●e heat , and the other naturall qualities wherewith they are clothed . the interior powers capable of knowledge are three , whereof the first is the common sence , the which is called by that name , for that it is as it were the center , to which doe flow the formes which are sent vnto it from the other sences : so as from the eyes it receiues the formes of colours which they haue seene : from the hearing the formes of sounds which haue toucht the eare ; from smelling the formes of sauors which it hath sented ; from the tongue , the forme of sweetnesse or bitternesse which it hath tasted ; and from the body the formes o● those things which fall vnder the sence of touching . and 〈◊〉 not o●ely receiues ▪ the forme● which the other sences send vn●to it , but it also compares them , discernes them , and iudgeth of them ; the which the particular sences cannot do , for that they are limitted and tyed to their particular obiects , and neuer exceed the bounds thereof . for the eyes are onely imployed to iudge of the difference of colours , as betwixt white and blacke , and neuer seeke to ●eddle with that which concernes the sound , smelling , or the other qualities which haue nothing common with colours . the common sence then is necessary to iudge thus generally of all the obiects of the other sences , that by meanes thereof the creature may distinguish that which is healthfull from that is hurtfull . but to the end the knowledge , which this sence doth gather from the obiects ▪ whose formes are presented vnto it by the exterior sences , be not lost by their absence , it sends all it hath gathered compared and distinguished , to another power meerely knowing , which is called the imaginatiue ; as that wherein are grauen the formes of things which are offred vnto it by the common sence , to the end the knowledge may remaine after they are vanished away . besides this imaginatiue , there is another power proper to preserue things , which is the memory , the which although it bee not directly ordained to iudge but rather to serue as a store-house and treasury to shut vp , and to preserue the formes of things which are imprinted in her ; yet for that she doth continually represent vnto the common sence the formes which are consigned vnto her , she may well bee sayd also to helpe to knowledge . these then are the three interior powers capable of knowledge , to the which although that some adde others , yet i wil hold with their opinion who not willing to multiply the powers without necessity , reiect them as superfluous , seeing the imaginatiue power sufficeth to do all the offices which are attributed vnto them . there are then in the sensitiue soule eight knowing faculties , fiue externall , and three internall as we haue shewed . as for the appetitiue powers where the desires are formed , there are but two , that is to say , the concupiscible or desiring power , and the irascible or angry power : the one of which without the other sufficeth not for the health of the creatures . for if the lyon had no other inclination , nor any other spurre of desire then to runne after meate fit for his nourishment , doubtlesse the least difficulty and obstacle he should incounter , would hinder the pursuite of his prey ; for that hee should be without any desire to surmount this difficulty , and so he should not be able to preserue his life for want of nourishment . in like manner men would bee daunted for the least crosses they should finde in the pursuite of any good thing , or in the auoiding of euill ; and although the danger were not great nor vrgent , yet would they not dare to oppose themselues and incounter it : and so they would yeeld to these difficulties , and not pursue the obiects of their desires , how great soeuer their inclination were to seeke them . wherefore prouident nature to preuent this inconuenience , besides the other powers , hath giuen vnto the sensitiue soule two appetites , that is to say , the concupiscible and the irascible ; whereof this last , when as any difficulty ariseth and opposeth it selfe to the desire of the concupiscible , comes presently to succour it ; and inflaming the blood , excites choler , hope , courage , or some other like passion destinated and ordained to make him surmount the difficulties which crosse the contentment of the soule . for that which concernes the powers of the sensitiue soule , there remaines none but the faculty mouing from one place to another , which is disperst and resides in the sinnewes , muscles and ligaments , and which is dispersed ouer all the members of the creature . this power being commanded by the appetite , doth presently exercise his office , seruing for an instrument to that part of the blood which for the great subtility and purenes thereof hath gotten the name of spirit . to come now to the reasonable soule , it hath two principall powers , the one indued with knowledge , which is the vnderstanding ; and the other capable of desire , which is the will ; the which being blind as all the appetites are naturally , she followeth in the pursuite of her obiects , the light of the vnderstanding , by reason whereof she is termed the intellectuall appetite , but more properly the will. the office of our vnderstanding , particularly of that which we call possible , is to receiue , and in receiuing to know , and in knowing to offer vnto the will those kinds or formes , which are sent vnto it from the imagination . it is true , that being a more noble power then the sensitiue , it cannot receiue those images and formes , so materiall , grosse and sensible , as they are of themselues in their particular being , for that they are not proportionable to the purity and excellency of her condition . by reason whereof the philosophers haue placed in our soules another power wonderfully noble , whose office is to purge and to clothe as it were with a new lustre , all the images or formes which are found in the imagination or fantasie ; and by the meanes of this light , to cause those formes which were materiall , sensible , and singular , to become so purified from these earthly conditions as they seeme vniuersall , and so well proportioned to the purenesse of our vnderstanding , as they easily receiue the impression . thus then the powers of all the three soules concurre in man in regard of the rationall , the which as more noble then the sensitiue or vegetatiue , comprehends all their powers , and withall addes many things to their perfection . in the meane time , wee must consider that man hath no kind of command , neither ouer the powers of the vegetatiue soule , whose actions are meerely naturall ; nor ouer those of the sensitiue soule , which are destinated to knowledge , as the interior and exterior sences ; vnlesse it bee by accident , when as by a resolution of his will ; hee denies these powers the meanes which are necessary to put them in action ; but hee may well haue power ouer those of the sensitiue appetite , which are proper to obey the discourse of reason , and the command of the will , as ouer the irascible and concupiscible . to the end then that amidst the bond of the intellectuall powers with the sensitiue ; and the communication , and correspondency which is betwixt them for the exercise of their functions , we may the better see how the lesse noble , obey and serue the more noble , and execute their offices , wee must heere represent the forme . as soone as the exterior sences , busied about the obiects which are proper for them , haue gathered the formes of things which come from without , they carry them to the common sence , the which receiues them , iudgeth of them , and distinguisheth them ; and then to preserue them in the absence of their obiects , presents them to the imagination , which hauing gathered them together , to the end she may represent them whensoeuer need shall require , she deliuers them to th● custody of the memory ; from whence retiring them when occasion requires , she propounds them vnto the appetite , vnder the apparance of things that are pleasing or troublesom , that is to say , vnder the forme of good and euill ; and at the same instant the same formes enlightned with the light of the vnderstanding , and purged from the sensible and singular conditions , which they retaine in the imagination , and insteed of that which they represented of particular things , representing them generall ; they become capable to be imbraced by the vnderstanding ; the which vnder the apparance of things which are profitable or hurtfull , that is to say , vnder the forme of good and euill , represents them vnto the will : the which ▪ being blind referres it selfe to that which the vnderstanding proposeth vnto it : and then as queene of the powers of the soule she ordaines what they shall imbrace , & what they shal fly as it pleseth her ▪ whereunto the sensitiue appetite yeelding a prompt obedience to execute her command from the which it neuer st●aies , so long as it containes it selfe within the bounds and order prescrib'd by nature , quickneth all the powers and passions ouer which shee commands , and sets to worke those which are necessary to that action , and by their meanes commands the mouing power ; dispersed ouer all the members , to follow or fly , to approch or to recoyle , or to do any other motion which it requireth . and shee obeying suddenly if shee bee not hindred , moues , the whole body with the organs which reside in the parts , and induceth them to fly or imbrace things according to the command which she hath receiued . after this manner man proceeds in his free operations , if he will obserue the order which he ought . the which i say , for that oftentimes ●ee ouerthrows and peruerts this order , either by bad education , or by custome , or the organs being vnsound , or for that his will hath bad inclination ; so as reason cannot enioy her power , & subiect the sensuall appetite vnto her ; but contrariwise hee abandons himselfe in prey vnto this disordered appetite , and suffers himselfe to bee transported by his furious motiōs . so as suddenly when as fantasie offers to the appetite , the formes which shee receiues from the sences , vnder the shew of good or euill ; he without stay to haue them iudged by the discourse of vnderstanding , and chosen by the will , comm●nds of himselfe the mouing power , & makes it to act according to his pleasure . and herein consistes the disorder which the passions cause in the life of man , which diuert him many times from the lawes of reason . but wee haue spoken enough hereof , let vs now enter into the subiect , and beginne by the definition of passions to know their nature and essence . to his long-lou'd and worthy friend , mr. edward grimeston ▪ sergeant at armes ; of his vnwearied and honored labors . svch is the vnequall , and inhumane vice of these vile times , that each man sets his price on others labors ; and the lasiest drone that neuer drop of honey , of his owne brought to the publique hiue , distasts all ours and ( in the worlds wit ) feeds far worthier powers . t is noble to be idle ; base to be of any art , good mind , or industry . another sort of dull opinionists , consume their stupid liues in learned mists ; yet wold be seene ( poore soules ) beyond the sun ; but that like dolon , in the darke they run , other explorers fearing . and these men like cheaters , foyst in false dice to their den , to win mens thoughts of th' onely truly learnd , and feede on that conceit , before t is earnd . to strengthen which , their marke●s are the marts where sounds and names of artsmen , & all arts they stuffe their windy memories withall ; and then when ere their creditors shall call they pay them , with these tokens , all they owe ; then , honest men they are , then all things know . when all employd in priuate conference ; they count all rude that are of open braines feare to be fooles in print , though in their cels ( in learn'd mens vizards ) they are little else . they that for feare of being cald fooles , hide , like hid men more they stir the more are spied , whose learnings are as ignorantly applied , as those illiterate peripaticke soules , that all their liues , do nought but measure poules ; yet neuer know how short or long it i● , more then their liues , or all their idle blisse . in short , all men that least deseruing● haue , men of most merit euer most depraue . how euer ( friend ) t is in vs must assure our outward acts ; and signe their passe secure . nor feare to find your noble paines impeacht , but write as long as foxe , or nowell preacht ▪ for when all wizards haue their bolts let fly , there 's no such proofe of worth , as industry . e merito solers industria reddat honorem . george chapman . a table of the chapters contained in this treaty of humane passions . chap. 1. what passion is . fol. 1. chap. 2. of the number of passions . fol. 29. chap. 3. of the quality of passions , and whethey they be good or bad . fol. 51. of loue , the preface . fol. 78. chap. 1. of the beginning of loue. fol. 83. chap. 2. wherein the essence of loue consists . fol. 103. chap. 3. of the persons to whom loue extends . fol. 121. chap. 4. of the effects of loue. fol. 152. chap. 5. of iealousie , whether it bee an effect and signe of loue. fol. 175. chap. 1. of hatred and enmity . fol. 184. chap. 1. of desire and cupidity , and of the flight and horror we haue of things . fol ▪ 216. chap. 1. of pleasure and delight . fol. 244. chap. 1. of the effects of pleasure . fol. 297. chap. 1. of griefe and heauinesse . fol. 317. chap. 2. of mercy and indignation . fol. 354. chap. 3. of indignation . fol. 375. chap. 4. of enuy and emulation . fol. 389. chap. 1. of hardinesse and courage . fol. 411. chap. 1. of feare or dread . fol. 428. chap. 1. of shame . fol. 473. chap. 2. of the effects of shame . 494. chap. 1. of hope and despaire . fol. 507. chap. 1. of choler . fol. 547. chap. 2. of those against whom wee are angry . fol. 575. chap. 3. of the effects and remedies of choler . fol. 598. chap. 1. of mildnesse and gentlenesse . fol. 633. chap. 1. of the diuers passions of men according to their ages and conditions . fol. 654. a table of humaine passions . chapter 1. wherein is expounded what passion is . seeing there can be no better order obserued , to expresse the nature of things , then to beginne by the definitions , which haue vsually giuen vs a full light of their essence , wee must enter into this treaty of passions , by the definition which philosophers giue . that which is called passion , say they , is no other thing , but a motion of the sensitiue appetite , caused by the apprehensiō or imagination of good or euill , the which is followed with a change or alteration in the body , contrary to the lawes of nature . whereby it appeares , that passions , to speak properly , reside onely in the sensitiue appetite , and that they are not fashioned but in the irrationall part of the soule : so as if we should giue the name of passions to the motions of the vnderstanding , or of the will ; it is by a kind of improper and figuratiue speech , alluding to the passions of the senses , with the which they haue some resemblance . the reason why passions are not found in the rationall part of the soule , is , for that this part doth not imploy any corporeal organs in her actions , and that her office is not to alter or bring any change vnto the body ; the which notwithstanding , is an action which doth accompany the passions inseparably . but seeing they are not to be found in any other part of the soule , but in the sensitiue appetite : there riseth heere a great question , whether this appetite shal be diuided into the irascible & concupiscible or desiring power , as into two different and distinct powers , or whether it makes but one power of both . the common opinion is , that as their obiects are diuers , so they are two distinct powers : whereof the reason is gathered , by that which experience doth shew vs in all other things subiect to corruption ; for we see in other corruptible creatures , that they haue not onely an inclination and power to seek after those things which are fit and conuenient for them , and to flie those which may hurt or anoy them ; but moreouer , they haue another faculty or power , to resist and fight against that which may crosse their actions , or destroy their beeing . as for example , fire is not onely indued with lightnesse , to flie vp high , but it hath also receiued heate from nature , by meanes whereof , it doth resist and fight against any thing that is contrary to his action . in like manner it was necessary for the good of man , that hee should haue two kindes of inclinations , the one to pursue those things which are pleasing & agreeable to the senses , and to auoyde those which may any way anoy him : and this we call the concupiscible or desiring power ; and the other , by meanes whereofhee may incounter and vanquish whatsoeuer opposeth it selfe , crosseth his inclinations , or that tends to the destruction of his being , or the decay of his contentment , which is that wee call the irascible or angry power . this differs from the concupiscible , for that the concupiscible tends to the sensible good , absolútely considered , and without any crosses ; whereas the irascible doth alwayes aime at the good which is inuironed with some difficulty , the which she striues to vanquish to the end shee may take all obstacles from the concupiscible power , which crosse her content , and hinder her from enioying the good which she desires to attaine vnto : so as the irascible is as a sword and target to the concupiscible , for that she combates for her content , and resists any thing that may crosse her . there are many things proue , that they are two different and distinct powers : for as mathematicians hauing noted diuers apparent irregularities in the planets , and obserued , that they seem sometimes to hasten their course , and sometimes to slacke it ; sometimes they stand as it were fixed , and sometimes to returne backe in the zodiaque ; sometimes they seem neare to the earth , & sometimes they appear far off ; they haue held it necessary to multiply their heauens , and to giue them many to auoyd all disorder in these excellent bodyes of the vniuerse . in like manner the diuersity of passions in man , the contrary motions & desires , wherewith his soule is tost , haue let philosophers vnderstand , that there is in him not onely a concupiscible power , but also an irascible : for that many times we haue a desire of that which wee striue against , and resist with vehemency ; and if wee suffer our selues to be vanquished , wee are grieued ; as hee who desiring to see the bodies of such as had beene executed , suppressed this desire , and diuerted his eies from this infamous spectacle , yet suffering himselfe to bee vanquished by his curiosity , and hauing cast his eyes thereon , witnessed his griefe and sorrow which remained , to haue giuen so brutish a contentment to his eyes . whereby it appeares , that desire and anger are two diuerse faculties , seeing that one power is not carried at one instant to contrary desires . and we finde in our selues , that often times wee are inclined to angry passions , & are not much mooued with those of the concupiscible , or to the contrary . in like manner there are creatures which haue desires , but no motions of choler : as for example , sheepe , pigeons , and turtles , make shew to haue impressions of desires , and yet there appeareth in them no signe of anger . so as to obserue their dispositions well , we may call in question that which aristotle saith , that there is no creature but hath some touch of choler : finally wee may obserue , that sometimes the irascible makes vs to pursue things which are absolutely contrary to the concupiscible , as when with the hazzard of life ( which is so deere and precious to all creatures ) we seeke to reuenge our selues of a powerfull enemy which hath wronged vs. for this reuenge which puts our life in danger , cannot proceede from the same power which desires passionately to preserue it : and so the irascible and concupiscible , are two different powers . and there is no part of passion properly taken , but in these two sensitiue faculties , which is one of the things wee gather from the definition wee haue giuen . it appeares also by the same definition , that the passions of our soule should alwayes bee followed with a sensible alteration in the body , by the impression of the sensitiue appetite , touched with the imaginatiō of good or euill , which presents it selfe . and here first we must not wonder if the ●oule doth impart her motions , and causeth such great alteration in the body , seeing that the body doth impart his paines , when as it suffers any violence . for if it be laid on the racke , broken on a wheele , or cast into the fire , the soule grones vnder the burden of his torments : the which happens , for that beeing vnited as forme and matter , and making but one body which growes from their vnion ; of necessity all things must bee common vnto them , except those things which repugne , and cannot agree with their particular natures ; and therfore by a certaine contagion they communicate their passions one vnto another . but in this subiect there is a stronger reason for the which the soule excites these alterations in the body by her passions , that is to say , for that the soule doth not onely reside in the body as the forme , but doth preside there in quality of the moouing cause , by meanes whereof , she doth change and alter it at her will. for as the intellectuall power , which mooues a heauen , applying her vertue to mooue it , makes it to change place , and drawes it from east to west , or from west to east , euen so the soule which hath a moouing power commanding ouer the body , changeth his naturall disposition , and by her agitation puls him from his rest , wherein hee was before shee troubled him ; in this manner . moreouer , wee must not wonder if the sensitiue appetite in particular , make so great an impression in the body . this proceedes from the sympathy which is found in those powers , which are gouerned by the same soule which imployes them : so as the sensitiue appetite , comming to play her part , shee doth stirre vp the mouing faculty of the heart , the which dilates it selfe , or shrinkes vp , according to the nature of the obiects which haue made impression vpon the sensitiue appetite , whence grow al the alterations which are made in the body of man. and here we must remember , that nature hath fashioned the heart in such sort , as it is in perpetual motion , according vnto which it sometimes extendes it selfe , and sometime retires of it selfe , with a certaine measure and proportion ; the which continuing within the bounds which nature hath prescribed it , as conformable vnto the condition of the creature , this motion is wholy naturall : but if it once come to breake this law , and shew it selfe more violent , or more slow , then the nature of the creature requires , the naturall harmony is broken , and there followes a great alteration in the body of the creature . of all the powers of the soule , those of the sensitiue appetite onely cause the alteratiō of this motion , whose actions alone may make it more violent , or more slowe , then the lawes of nature doe allow . and hence it comes , that none but the actions of the sensitiue appetite are made with a visible change of the body , and with a sensible alteration of the naturall constitution . yet as in this change the heart receiues an alteration , so the spirits , the blood , and other humours , are agitated and mooued beyond ordinary , the which doth wholy trouble the naturall constitution of the creature . the which happens after this manner : the obiects of the senses strike first vpon the imagination , and then this power hauing taken knowledge of thē , conceiues them as good or bad , as pleasing or troublesome , and importune : then afterwards propounds them as clothed with those qualities to the creature , which apprehending them vnder this last cōsideration excites the concupiscible , or irascible power of the soule , and induceth them to imbrace or flye them , and by the impression of its motion , agitates the spirits which we cal vitall , the which going from the heart , disperse themselues throughout the whole body , and at the same instant the blood which deriues frō the liuer , participating in this agitatiō , flowes throughout the veynes , and casts it selfe ouer all the other parts of the body : so as the heart and liuer beeing thus troubled in their naturall dispositions , the whole body f●eles it selfe mooued , not onely inwardly , but also outwardly , according to the nature of that passiō which doth trouble it . for in motions of ioy and desire , the heart melts with gladnesse . in those of sorrow and trouble , it shrinks vp and freezeth with griefe . in those of choler and resolution , it is inflamed and all on fire . in those of feare , it growes pale and trembling . a louers words are sweete and pleasing , and those of a cholerick man are sharpe and rough : finally , there riseth no passion in the soule , which leaueth not some visible trace of her agitation , vpon the body of man. lastly , wee may gather from the definition of passion that this alteration which happeneth in the body , is contrary to the lawes of nature , for that ( as we haue said ) it transports the heart beyond the bounds , which nature hath prescribed it , and doth agitate it extraordinarily . hence it growes , that amōg al the motiōs of the sensitiue appetite , those only are prop●●ly called passiōs , which are accompanied with some notable defect . for as we call passions of the body diseases , wounds , paines , inflammations , incisions , and all other violent accidents which happen extraordinarily : so wee properly call passions of the soule , those infirmities wherewith she is afflicted and troubled ; as pittie , feare , bashfulnesse , or shame , loue , hatred , desires , choler , and the rest . for , in this subiect the word passion , is not taken in that sense , whereas wee say that a subiect suffers , when as it receiues some new forme , bee it that at the comming of this forme , it lose any thing of its owne or not , as when the ayre is enlightned with the sunne beams , without losing any thing of her first constitution : nor in that sense , wherein we say , that a subiect suffers , when as it receiues a new quality which doth expell another , whether it bee concurrent to its nature , or contrary vnto it , as when water growes cold , or is made hot . but the word passion is taken here for a change , which is made in man , contrary to his naturall constitution and disposition , from the which hee is as it were wrested by this change . in which sense the phylosophers say , that things suffer , when as they are drawne from their naturall disposition , to a course that is contrary to their nature . in the mean time you must not wonder , if we ground the irregularity of the change , which these passions breed , vpon the disorder which the sensitiue appetite ( stirred vp by the sensible obiects ) casts into the heart , being a thing which wee must constantly beleeue , that this power of the soule , bee it the irascible or cōcupiscible , hath its se at and mansion in the heart : the which cannot be denied in the subiect of feare , for that such as are transported therwith , call back the blood and heate vnto the heart , as to the place where feare doth exercise her tyranny , therewith to defend themselues : considering also that those creatures which haue the greatest and largest hearts , are most fearefull , for that their heate is more dispersed , and consequently lesse able to resist the assaults of feare . some haue not beleeued , that it was so of other passions , but haue appointed thē their seates else-where , and haue maintained , that some did reside in the liuer , others in the spleene , and some in the gall ; & as for anger , they haue lodged it in the gall , whereas choler resides , which doth inflame it . but they haue giuen loue his quarter in the liuer , for that the sāguine cōplexion is inclined to loue : & for ioy , they haue seated it in the spleen , for that melancholy proceeds from the distemperature of this part . but notwithstanding this , it is most certaine , that both the powers of the sensitiue appetite , i mean the irascible , and concupiscible , reside in the heart ; the which beeing the fountaine of life , & of all vital operations , must also bee a lodge & retraite to those appetites which nature hath gigiuē the creature to preserue his life , & to chase away those perils which may threaten it . wherby we see , that the passiōs of desire or anger , are felt presētly in the heart , & trouble the natural cōstitution as soon as they rise ; wherby followeth a strange alteration throughout the whole body , for the springs cānot be troubled but the streams wil feele of it . and therefore the passions being too vehement , and making a violēt impressiō vppō the hart , they cause strāge accidents in man. as for exāple , a furious anger drawing the heate violently from the heart , to those parts which are most remote frō the center of life , and by the same meanes inflaming choler , which by her naturall lightnes mounts vp to the braine , may depriue mā of the vse of reason , & make him furious and mad . in like manner an extraordinary feare , drawing the spirits and heate forcibly to the heart , whereas she meanes to fortifie her selfe against her enemy , may quench the natural heate , and suffocate the man : shame may doe the like , whereof we haue prodigious examples in histories , which testifie , that great personages haue died with shame and griefe , for that they could not find the knot , or expound certaine riddles or difficult questions , which had beene propounded vnto them : yea , they say , that great ornament and gemme of phylosophy aristotle , died with griefe , for that he could not finde the cause of the flowing and ebbing of eurypus . whereby it appeares , that the heart which is thus opprest by passions , when they are violent , is the seate of both the powers of the sensitiue appetite , that is to say , of the irascible , and concupiscible . and whereas they obiect to the contrary , that choller resides in the gall , inferring thereby that the irascible power should reside there also : it is easily answered , for that the choller which remaines in the gall , is not the reason for the which anger is inflamed , but for that it is a hot and dry humor , the which are fit qualities to produce that effect . the like may be sayd of loue , and that the aboundance of bloud doth not make men more inclined to the passions of loue , forthat the concupiscible power resides in the liuer , which is the place where the blood takes his forme ; but for that they which are of a sanguine complexion , haue a hot and moist temperature ▪ which is proper to that passion . and as for ioy wee cannot conclude that it resides in the spleene , for that it being infirme , many are opprest with melancholly ; for the reason why melancholly doth torment them which are troubled with the spleene , is not for that ioy resides there , but for that adust choller preuailing , causeth a troublesome and importune heauines . yet we will not so restraine these two powers , within the bounds and extent of the heart , but wee will confesse , that although they haue their chiefe residence there , yet they disperse themselues through the whole creature ; whereof wee haue good proofe in lizards , which being cut in peeces , feele paine in all the parts where they are offended . for the last of our obseruations vpon the subiect of passions , it remaines to shew , whether of the concupiscible and irascible powers , bee the more noble and excellent : some giue the preheminence to the concupiscible , for that it is destined to serue the soule , and to make it enioy the obiects of her passions . the which made aristotle to say , that beasts put themselues into choller , and fight for their desires . but this reason doth nothing abase the irascible power , but contrariwise it shewes how much it is more excellent then the concupiscible . for as those souldiers are most valiant which maintaine the shocke of a battaile , and defend the weaker ; euen so by consequence , the irascible power must haue more generosity then the concupiscible , seeing she is ordained by nature for her defence . and as the noblest vertues , are formed in the most excellent powers , so we see that force or valour , which resides in the irascible , is a more worthy and more commendable vertue then temperance which hath her seat in the concupiscible . we finde also that it is more shamefull not to bridle the motions of the concupiscible , then those of the irascible , for that these are lesse offensiue to reason . in regard whereof we blame them more which abandon themselues to pleasure and voluptuousnes , then those which are subiect to motions of choller . of the number of passions . chap. 2. as they that haue treated of the nature of the winds haue written diuersly , some setting foure , others eight , some eleauen , and some two and thirty , to the which they assigne diuers points in the horizon : so the philosophers which discourse of the passiōs of the soule , agree not of the number , some naming more , some lesse . yea there was an ancient affirmed , that as there are many passions , whereof we know the names , so there are an infinite number which we know not . wherefore hee compared man to one of the monsters of antiquity , which they represent vnto vs , composed of the members , and formes of diuers creatures : for that his cupidities and passions are so prodigious , and so many in number , as they are able to amaze any one , that shall iudiciously consider of the multitude and diuersity . first of all , there were some which haue beleeued , that as there were foure chiefe winds which excite diuers stormes , be it at land or sea ; so there are foure principall passions which trouble our soules , and which stir vp diuers tempests by their irregular motions , that is to say pleasure , paine , hope , & feare : and in truth these foure haue as it were the empiry ouer all the rest , which propound themselues as the obiects of their motions ; for whatsoeuer men do , either they feare or desire , or afflict themselues , or are contented ; which be the effects of these passions . others will haue onely two , that is to say , pleasure and paine ; and some assigne but one , and that is loue , to the which they refer all the rest as to their center and roote . others haue multiplied them , and haue made twelue , and some eleauen . amidst this diuersity of opinions , that is the tr●est which is receiued at this day , and imbraced by all those that make an exact profession of philosophy : that is to say , that there are eleauen primitiue and generall passions , whereof all the rest are but as it were budds and branches . these generall passions are , loue , hatred , desire , flight , pleasure , paine , feare , courage , hope , despaire and choller . and thus the philosophers finde out the number . of passions , say they , some regard the good or euill absolutely and simply considered . and these belong to the concupiscible power . others regard the good or euill accompanied with some difficulty , and they appertaine vnto the irascible : those of the concupiscible power , are six in number , whereof three haue for their obiects the good , that is to say , loue , desire , and pleasure ; and the other three haue for their obiect the euil , that is to say , hatred , flight , and paine : for presently that the obiect which hath the forme of good , offers it selfe vnto the concupiscible power , shee presently feeles herselfe surprized , and loue is framed . if this obiect bee present , she receiues pleasure and delight : if it bee absent , she is toucht with a desire to enioy it . and in like manner as soone as the obiect presents it selfe vnto the selfe same power , vnder the shew of euill , it doth presently stirre vp a hatred contrary to loue : and if during this horror it bee absent , then flight or au●rsion , contrary to desire discouers it selfe : but if it bee present , she then conceiues griefe . in this manner we finde out the number of the passions which reside in the concupiscible power : those of the irascible are but fiue , as feare , courage , hope , despaire , and choller : for if the obiect which hath some shew of good , presents it selfe being accompanied with difficultie , and that man conceiues with himselfe that notwithstanding all that , it is in his power to obtaine it , then hope is framed ; but if there bee no likelyhood , despaire pulls him back and diuerts him . and touching that which regards the good wee enioy , there is no passion in the irascible that concernes it , seeing that which is in our power is not accompanied with any difficulty , neither is it needfull the irascible shoulde mooue or worke for this subiect . but if the euill which presents it selfe , be ful of horror and difficulty , it must either be present or absent ; if it be absent , it excites courage or feare ; cour●ge , if wee striue to surmount it ; and feare , if we apprehend it as too doubtfull . if it bee present , it inflames choller which carries vs to reuenge , to repell the iniurie that is done vs. and thus wee finde out the number of the passions of the irascible power , the which with the six of the concupiscible , make eleauen in a●l . but wee must remember , that notwithstanding this determined number , yet wee finde as it were a swarme of others , which notwithstanding take their beginning , and spring from these , as we haue obserued . in this number the philosophers put bitternes , enuy , emulation , shamefastnes , impudency , mercy , humanity , and a thousand others which were too long to relate . but for that there are some , without the knowledge whereof this treaty were imperfect , wee will speake of them according the exigence of the subiect , when occasion shal be offered : here it shall suffice to obserue , that as the generall passions , regard their obiects without any restriction , but that of good or euill , which presents it selfe ; so the more particular passions , contained vnder these generall , regard the same obiects limitted to some speciall condition : as for example , desire taken absolutly is a generall passion , which regards the obiect of good , without any other limitation then vnder the apparance of good : but if wee come to prescribe bounds to this good , and that wee consider it vnder the forme of some particular good , be it of h●nor , of riches , of beauty , or of any other thing ; the desire must also bee limited , and then it shall bee a desire of honor , which is called ambition ; or a desire of riches , which we call couetousnes , or a desire of beauty , the which attributes vnto it selfe , the name of the gender , and is called loue . and the like may bee sayd of the other limitations of this obiect : so as these passion of loue , riches , and honor , are more particular passions then the desire , which is as it were their gender and spring . so griefe taken absolutely is a passion , which regards the obiect of euill in its generall extent , without any other limitation then that of euill . by reason whereof if this obiect come to bee restrained by vs to some speciall condition , as to the misery or prosperity of another man , or to our owne infamy ; then this griefe shall also be limited and restrained , and shall become a griefe for another mans misfortunes , and then it shal bee a compassion ; or it shal bee a griefe for another mans prosperity , and then it sha●bee called an indignation or an enuie and despight : or else it will become a griefe for our owne infamy , and then it is a shame , and so of the rest . these passions may bee infinite vnder the diuers limitations of obiects which are infinite , and therefore they can hardly bee rancked vnder a cert●ine science : neither haue they particular names , but borrow them from the limitation which the obiect giues them ; yet there are some which haue their proper names , as enuy , iealousie , compassion , shame : but the rest many times carry the name of their genders . in the meane time a question is heere propounded , whence it comes that considering the obiect of the concupiscible appetite , which containes the good and euill simply taken , that is to say , without shew of any difficulty added vnto it ; wee haue put ioy as a passion , which ariseth from the presence and enioying of the good , and griefe as a passion which growes from the present euill which cannot be auoided ; and yet considering the obiect of the irascible power , which comprehends the good which cannot be obtained but with difficulty , and the euill which cannot be auoyded but with paine , wee haue not set any passion that riseth from the enioying of that good , or from the presence of that euill which cannot bee eschued . whereunto we answere , that this difficulty were allowable , if these two appetits had their actions separated one from another ; but they are alwayes vnited , and march ioyntly to the pursuit and enioying of good , and to the flight and auoyding of euill . so as the irascible appitite neuer stirres but ioyntly with the concupiscible , for that it is ordained to succor and assist it , whensoeuer there appeares any difficulty in the obiect which he is to pursue or auoyd . in regard whereof , notwithstanding any difficulty that may be incountered in the fight or pursuite of this obiect , yet when it is obtained or auoyded , all the paine or difficulty which did enuiron it , vanisheth away , and is dispersed . it is not therefore necessary to ascribe any other passions , which grow from the enioying or flight of this obiect , then the same which arise from the enioying or flight ; when as there is no apparent difficultie which doth crosse the possession or make the auoyding difficult : and to the end wee may the better know what order these two appetites obserue in the execution of their offices , wee may thus represent their motions , and the order of the passions which are framed in the one , and the other . as soone as any obiect presents it selfe vnto the sensible power , vnder the forme of an apparent good : as for example , the beauty of a faire hellen , whether that the acquisition be accōpanied with any difficulty or not , this beauty doth first of all stirre vp a passion of loue , from the which presently doth grow a desire which makes him seeke to enioy her ; and if in this pursuite there appeare no difficulty , the possession wil be obtained without the assistance of the irascible appetite , whence will arise ioy or pleasure . but if during the heate of desire , there appeares any difficulty to obtaine it , then if the concupiscible appetite were not assisted , it would be danted with the least difficulty that should present it selfe , and would cease to desire the thing , or striue to enioy it : for this reason the irascible to preuent this , causeth hope to arise to succour the concupiscible , which supports desire and makes him striue to attaine vnto it ; and in this case it breedes no other ioy then that which had succeeded if it had bin obtained without any difficulty , considering that the enioying makes him forget all the precedent paines . but from the beginning and breeding of desire , or during the whole continuance thereof , bee it with hope , or without expecttance of the enioying of the obiect , if it appeares to bee a thing absolutely impossible to enioy , then not to suffer desire to consume it selfe in a vaine pursuite , the irascible stirres vp despaire , to the end the concupiscible power may not spend it selfe in a designe which cannot succeed . and in like manner if an obiect presents it selfe vnto the appetiue power , vnder the forme of euill , as for example , a powerfull enemy prepares himselfe to wrong vs , then first of all hatred riseth in vs , and makes vs apprehend the euill which doth threaten vs apparantly , and then inclines vs to seeke the meanes to auoyd it , bee it in putting our selues in defence , or in retiring our selues and seeking some shelter for this storme , or else in auoyding it by some other meanes , the which breeds in vs the passion of flight , by the which wee vnderstand no other thing here ▪ then our striuing to flie the euill . but in case that in this seeking of meanes to auoyde it there appeare not any difficulty , then the irascible power doth not trouble it selfe to assist the concupiscible . and for that to escape a danger and to auoyd a mischiefe is a kind of good , this happening it begets ioy . as on the other side if we fall into a misfortune which threatens vs , although there appeare not any difficulty in the auoyding , it will cause griefe . but if whilst i seeke meanes to auoyd the storme which threatens me , i finde that i cannot doe it without paine and difficulty ; then for that the least obstacles amaze and hinder the concupiscible power which neuer striues to surmount them , the irascible excites courage which goes to succour it , and supports the motion of this passion , which wee terme flight or auersion from the thing , vntill the euill bee wholy auoyded and dispersed ; and then ariseth the same ioy which had happened if it had not incountered any of these difficulties . and if amidst this resistance and striuing of courage , the euill doth notwithstanding ariue , then griefe is framed after the same manner as if this accident had happened without any incounter or difficulty . but if whilest wee seeke the meanes to auoyde the euill , wee discouer much difficulty to preserue our selues , and that there approcheth an eminent danger to our persons , then the irascible doth succour vs with feare , which makes man discreet and aduised , to the end that his too great hardines may not precipitate him into the danger which hee would auoyd . besides al this , when as the obiect which presents it selfe vnder the forme of good , seemes at the same instant impossible to be attained vnto , then not onely hope dies , but euen desire is banisht , so as the first passion which then springs vp in vs is despaire , which the irascible stirres vp , to the end there should grow no vaine desire , for that naturally no man desires things which are impossible , and vaine and vnprofitable actions are enemies to nature . as for the contrariety which may bee found betwixt some of these passions , we must vnderstand that this contrariety may be considered after two manners , that is to say , either by reason of the diuers motions of the appetite which is inflamed ; as for example , wee say that hope and despaire are contrary passions , not in respect of their obiects , seeing they both regard the apparant good , vnder the condition of difficult obtaining , but by reason of the diuers motions they excite by their nature in the appetite , for that hope striues to seeke and enioy the obiect , and despaire to flie from it and auoid it . whence it growes that if we compare hope and cour●ge , we shall find them contrary passions , not in regard of the motion of the app●tite , seeing that both agitate and stirre vp the spirit , and serue it as a spurre to make it more ready in the pursuit of th●ir obiect , but in respect of the obiect , for that hope lookes to the apparent good , and courage to the euill . in like manner fe are and despaire are contraries , by reason of their obiects , and not in regard of their motions , for that both serue rather to retire and stay the striuing of the appetite , then to excite and stirre it vp . next , desire and flight are contrary passions , by both reasons together , considering that the one hath the good for obiect , and the other the euill . and moreouer desire stirres vp the appetite to seeke the obiect , whereas flight makes it retire to auoyd it . we may make the same comparisons of the rest of the passions . but this will appeare more plainely when wee shall treat of them in particular . of the quality of passions , whether they be good or bad . chap. 3. amongst the questions which haue beene seriously disputed in the schooles of ancien● philosophers , there is not any one hath bene more famous ▪ nor whose subiect hath been● argued with greater contention , then that which concernes the quality of the passions of the soule , that is to say , whether they be good or bad , and if they bee compatible with any eminent vertu● , or can subsist with it . the stoicks seuere phil●soph●rs ▪ & dissenting from the common opinions of the world , haue maintained , that a soul● in which vertue hath taken deepe roote , and which enioyes all the ornaments of true wisedome , should haue gotten such a power ouer all her motions , as it should neuer be transported with any perturbations . the reason which moued them to this opinion , was , for that they held it an vnworthy thing for a wise and vertuous man to see himselfe subiect to the infirmities of the soule , which is the name they giue to passions . but the peripatitians haue held the contrary opinion , and did beleeue that it could not bee denied , but that the greatest spirits , and most accomplished in vertue and wisedome , had sometimes a feeling of these passions , the heate whereof wisemen knew how to bridle and restraine . and they ground their reason , for that they rise not in vs ▪ by our election , but are as it were siences of nature , which spring out of themselues . this controuersie hath seemed to many great personages to be more verbal then materiall . but whatsoeuer it bee , it is certaine that the wisest cannot exempt themselues from the motions of naturall passions , and yet their vertue is nothing diminished or made lesse perfect . we must then remēber that these kinds of passions may be considered in two manners , first in their particular extent , that is to say , as motions of the sensitiue appetite , which of it selfe is not indowed with any reason , and which is common to vs with beasts ; and in this consideration they are neither commendable , nor blame worthy , seeing that the weight and merit of that which parts from our soule , depends of reason : secondly , they may be considered in as much as reason may subiect them to her command and prescribe them a law. and in this consideration they may bee good or bad , according to the quality of the will that gouernes them . so wee see both good and bad , feare , desire , and reioyce alike . but the wicked haue bad feares , wicked desires , & bad ioyes , whereas the good haue none but good feares , good desires , and good ioyes , for that the branches do alwaies participate of the nature of the roote . for although the sensitiue appetite of her owne quality be destitute of liberty , yet by reason of the strict vnion that it hath with the intellectuall and reasonable , it doth participate as it were with a beame , and some kind of borrowed liberty , in regard whereof some haue maintained that it is capable of vertues , as of temperance and fortitude , which reside in this part of the soule . if the stoicks had well obserued this consideration , they should haue seene that a wise man by the guide of reason may so moderate his passions , as they may be commendable and worthy the profession hee makes of vertue . the which is nothing doubted of by christian philosophers , seeing that he who was neuer subiect to sinne , and whose soule was aduanced to the height of graces and vertues , had passions and humane affections , the which could neuer command ouer reason , or transport it , but receiue a law from it . but on the other side wee want no reasons to conuince and ouerthrow the opinions of the stoickes . for first of all , vertue ( how eminent soeuer ) neuer ruines that which is wholy conformable to reason . but what is more reasonable then to see a man moued with pitty and compassion of his like , of his friends , or of his kinsman ? what inhumanity were it for a mother to see her child in the throat of wild beastes , or exposed to shipwracke , or broken vpon a wheele , or torne in peeces by tortures , or only sicke of some violent infirmity , and not to haue her soule sensible of griefe ? would wee that a vertuous man should not bee touched with indignation to see crimes honored , and the wicked aduanced to the height of dignities ? shall we condemne the spurres of an honest emulation , wherewith he is toucht that reades the glorious exploits and vertuous actions of great person●ges which ●aue gon before him ? will you haue him that owes his life , and honor , and whatsoeuer ●ee enioyeth , to his friend , insensible of the offices of his friendshp ? would they that the ●eares of an honest wife should haue no power , o●er an husband that were ready to abandon her ? all these motions being so iust were it not a great cruelty to seeke to suppr●sse them , as it were in despight of nature ? but who knowes not that these passions●re ●re exercises of vertue ? to apprehend euill , to feare punishments , to attend recompences with ioy , to long after promises , are they not so many incour●gements to piety , temperance , and other vertuous actions ? who is it then that will blame so commendable a thing ? nay , is it not to quench the fruits of vertue ; and to deny it the content which is due vnto it , in cutting off thus generally all passions ? for who knoweth not , that shee doth vsually plant in the soules of men an ardent loue of the goodly fruits which she produceth ▪ what iust man but feeles ▪ certa●ne pleasure ●nd sweet●nes in the effects of iustice ? what sober man but receiues content in the actions of sobriety ? what valiant man but suffers himselfe to bee transported with the loue of braue exploits , and a desire to seeke glorious death in combats ? and who will beleeue that euer vertue ( like vnto polipus which eates his owne armes ) will euer ruine her proper obiects ? who doth not know but the passions of our soules are the obiects of many excellent vertues , which doe moderate them , and reduce them vnto reason when they seeke to flie out ? fortitude is nothing but a mediocrity betwixt feare & hardines : that is to say , it is nothing but a vertue by meanes wher●of we do moderate our exceeding feare , and our immoderate boldnesse . take then feare and hardines from fortitude , and it is no more a vertue . and by the same reason you ouerthrow all courage and magnanimity , whereof the one makes vs to vndertake the most terrible and difficult things with resolution , and the other giues vs a lustre in our greatest actions . you shall in like manner ouerthrow all patience , and perseuerance , whereof the one makes vs constantly and willingly to endure all the miseries of this life ; and the other confirmes vs against all the crosses of this world , so as wee remaine inseparably 〈◊〉 to that which wee hold conformable to reason ; for all these vertues haue for their obiect the passions of the irascible appetite . temperance is no other thing , but a mediocrity which wee keepe in the pleasures of tast and feeling , and in the griefes and sorrowes which befall vs. that is to say , it is a vertue by meanes whereof wee gouerne our pleasures and paines . if then you take all pleasure and paine from temperance , you giue it the name of vertue in vaine . and withall you put modesty and honesty out of the number of the vertues , whereof the one makes vs apprehend infamies and reproches ; that is to say , induceth vs to flie whatsoeuer hath any shew of dissolution . and the other filling our soules with goodly things done with a certaine grace , makes vs to flie whatsoeuer is filthy and worthy of reproch . you shall also put out of the same number of vertues , abstinency , sobriety , chastity , and pudicity , whereof the two first moderate the delights of the mouth , and the other the pleasures of generation : for that all these ver●ues haue for their obiect the passions of the concupiscible appetite . after all this the sensitiue appetite is a present of nature , which god ( who is the author ) hath freely bestowed vpon vs ; but vertue neuer destroyes nature , but addes vnto it the perfection which it wants . it must then suffer the sensitiue appetite to act according to his inclination , yet moderating his motions and restrayning them vnder the lawes of reason . and without doubt it seemes the stoicks haue not obserued in man any other composition then that of the body and the soule , and that they were ignorant of the diuersity of the intellectuall and sensitiue powers of reason , and of sensuality . for otherwise they would neuer haue suffered the sensitiue appetite to haue bene idle in man , as it must of necessity remaine , if it bee once freed from all motions of passions . and as for those wonderfull praises they giue to a wise man , whom they imagine to bee freed from passions , they are like vnto the stately titles which are giuen to great shipps , and to all that rich equipage , and furniture wherewith it is adorned , and yet it is subiect to the fury of stormes , and suffers shipwracke as well as the smallest vessells . wee haue alwayes seene those which haue made profession of this sect , grow pale and wanne , aswell as other men in dangers at sea or land ; they are alwayes seene subiect to the common desires of men , and they haue in that regard more vanity then constancy . so as they haue bene forced to excuse these first motions , and to confesse that it was not in the power of man to suppresse them , but they would sometimes breake forth . what remaines then but to confesse that reason must gouerne them , and reduce them to a mediocrity which is found in vertue ? for as health doth not consist in the ruine of contrary qualities which are found in man , but in the temperature which a good constitution giues them : and as to make a perfect musique , wee must not take away the diuersity of tunes , but reduce them to a good accord to make the harmony perfect ; so the striuings of vertue consistes not wholy to roote all naturall passions out of the soule , but to moderate and gouerne them by the rule of reason . it is true , there are some passions full of offence , and which wee detest to heare named , as impudency , enuy , hatred ; and these wee make no question but they ought to bee supprest . but there are others whose very names are pleasing , as pitty , modesty , honest loue , and the like ; and these need not any thing , but to receiue a tincture from reason and vertue , to make them altogether commendable . but to prescribe vs a man that is not moued with any passion , were to depriue him of all humanity , and to make him a stone or a god . they that make profession of this proud and arrogant philosophie , cannot but laugh when as they reade in the writings of poets , that there hath bene men of that constitution , and as we may say , of that temper , that no swords , lanc●s , or other armes , could pierce them or wound their bodies . and they that haue had most credit among them , haue derided those philosophers which beleeued that there were certaine ilands and countries in the world , as delos and egypt , which had neuer felt the violence of earthquakes , and which had continued for euer immoueable , amidst the motions of all the other parts of the world . and these people paint vs out a wise man so perfect , so eminent , and so fortified with vertue , as all the stormes of fortune , yea the most violent , shipwrackes tortures , and infamies cannot make any impression in his soule ; so as he continues immoueable in the midst of flames , wheeles , gibbets and all the fearefull horrors of death and shame . what is hee that will not laugh at this strange vanity ? but the stoickes say , that it is a thing vnworthy of a wiseman adorned with perfect vertue , to see himselfe transported with passions , which are the diseases of the soule . whereunto we answere , that passions considered as they submit themselues vnto the lawes of reason , are no infirmities of the soule , but in that sence they are the instruments and obiects of vertue , and as it were liuely sparkes which inflame desires in our soules ; and as aristotle speakes , they are the armes of reason . it is true that ( as one saith ) the flowers of egypt being continually charged and watered with the vapor of nilus ( which are grosse and earthly ) ye●●d not such pleasant smelles as they would do without this obstacle : euen so soules troubled with passions , cannot produce the vertuous actions which they would do without this agitation : for that the motions and impressions which they make in our soules are like vnto the force of a violent torrent , which teares vp stones , ouerthrowes plants , and drawes after it whatsoeuer opposeth it selfe against his violence ; for that they quench the reason , depriue vs of iudgement , smother the vnderstanding , and suffer not any image of vertue in a soule that is transported . but this happens to those which abandon themselues wholy to passion ; and not vnto these who like vnto wise pilots prepare against a storme , and when it comes endeauour to auoid it , not loosing his iudgement in an accident which terrifies others . wee tame elephants , tigers , lyons , panthers , and other sauage beasts , and are not moued : and will they not allow vs a power to suppresse the brutishnesse of the sensitiue appetite , and to moderate the passions when as they aduance themselues against reason , without great perturbation ? finally , when as these motions of passions preuent the reason and anticipate all the resolutions of man , wee cannot hold them bad , seeing they are meere motions of nature without any shew of liberty . and it is most certaine that not onely an ordinary wisedome is subiect thereunto , but euen the most excellent soules , ( i speake not of those which haue speciall guifts from god ) yea those that are indued with heroicall vertues , feele agitation ; seeing that vertue how eminent soeuer , cannot so subiect the sensitiue appetite , ( ouer which she doth not command as a slaue , but as a cittizen ) but it will anticipate the empire of reason . and this the stoickes are forced to confesse , seeing they affirme that it is not in the power of a wise man to free himselfe from perturbation , when as some fearefull formes presents themselues suddenly to his eyes , so as whatsoeuer he doth in those accidents , hee will grow pale , he will be amazed , and his heart will shrinke vp . yet , say they , all this will happen without consenting to these motions , for that it is in his power not to consent . they adde , that there is this difference betwixt a wiseman and one that is distracted : for that an vnreasonable man yeilds to passions and obayes them wholy ; whereas the wiseman although he suffers the motions , yet hee resists them still , and generously preserues in his soule the lawes and loue of vertue ; heerein truely they approach neere to the doctrine which we teach . but we must still remember that the office of reason is not to pull out of the soule of man , all the rootes of passions , neither were it expedient or necessary she should do it : but her duty is to prescribe them their bounds , and to reduce them to a mediocrity as vertue requires . as for example , let vs presuppose a brother which hath lost his brother whom hee loued passionately , and they coniure him not to lament for this losse , not to afflict himselfe , nor to shew any signe of mourning to preserue the reputation of a wiseman and absolutely vertuous . is it not rather a meere stupidity then a true constancy ? they that make these discourses shew that either they haue no naturall disposition , or else they neuer fell into these calamities : otherwise so sensible a griefe wold haue pulled out of their spirits this arrogant philosophie ; and had forced them to confesse that humanity cannot suffer them to remaine insensible at such cruell accidents . in the meane time as these passions preuenting reason , cannot be held good nor bad , so when as they suffer themselues to be moderated and gouerned by reason , they get vs great commendations ; whereas when they flie out and exceed the bounds of vertue , they procure vs nothing but blame and infamy . to conclude , passions are in the soule , as the sinnews in the body ; for as by meanes of sinnewes we extend ●r bend the members ▪ so by the operations of passions , wee carry our selues to good or euill , and if wee will imploy them to good , they are as it were spurres and obiects : but if wee turne them to euill , our sensuality makes vse of them ; like vnto him that keepes a slaue , who makes vse of his chaine to draw him where he pleaseth . so as the triumph of vertue consists not in pulling away or rooting out the passions , as monsters ; but in ruling and reforming them like vnto insolent and disobedient children ▪ for they grow in vs and are as the fruits & buds of our sensuality , which haue onely need to be made subiect vnto reason . finally , they that haue any other opinion must remember , that wee cannot wholy pull away the defects which proceed from nature : and that may by our industry correct and moderate that which is borne with vs , but not vanquish it and suppresse it wholy ; wherefore wisedom may not promise vnto it selfe any thing in this subiect , seeing she hath no power . the passions are absolute and depend not on the empire of vertue . they present themselues vncalled . of loue. the preface . an ancient sayd , that to expell youth out of our townes , were to cut off the spring time of the yeare . but we may maintaine with no lesse truth , that to banish loue from a ciuill life , and the conuersation of men , were not only to depriue the yeare of her goodliest season , but also as it were to pull the sunne out of the firmament , and to fill the whole world with horror and confusion . for what is there in this life , bee it amidst honors and glory , in riches and treasures , yea in delights and pleasures , that can giue a full and sound content vnto man , without the communication of the sweetenes thereof to friends ? wherefore an excellent philosopher said , that if any one were raised aboue the heauens , from whence he might behold all the wonders of nature and of the world , and see with amazement the reuolutions , periods , order , diuersity , & beauty of the planets and stars , and had no friend to whom hee might impart this admiration ; all these things in steed of fulnesse of ioy , would become displeasing and importune to his thoughts . for as colours which are the most exquisite ornaments of nature , how liuely and glistring so euer they be , wil notwiths●āding be darkned & giue no pleasure to our eies , if they were not enlightned , and as it were inspired by the light which discouers vnto vs the singularities , and perfections : so what wealth or honor soeuer we enioy in this life , we cannot tast the sweetnes therof but in representing vnto our selues the contentment which comes to thē we loue , and whom we thinke haue an equal passion on our behalfe . epaminondas gloried to haue won 2 battels , his father & mother being yet liuing ; as if the ioy that those persons conceiued which were so neere to him , had made his victories more stately , & increased the glory & pompe of his triumphs . in like manner there is no man liuing , which in the cours of his prosperities doth not feel as it were an increase of happinesse , when as he imagines that his friends are spectators & partakers of his felicity . and moreouer what can be sweeter to our thoughts then the image of a true & constant loue , which we are assured our frend doth beare vs ? what happinesse to haue a friend to whom we may safely open our hart , and trust him with our most important secrets , without apprehēsion of his cōscience , or any doubt of his fidelity ? what content to haue a friend whose discourse sweetens our cares ? whose counsells disperse our feares ? whose conuersation charmes our griefs ? whose circūspection assures our fortunes , & whose only pr●sence fils vs with ioy and content ? seeing then loue is a passion which doth produce such sweete and ple●sing contents in the society of men , we will endeauour to shew what his beginning is , wherein his essence consists , to what persons it extends , and what the effects bee . of the beginning of loue. chap. 1. as it is the custome of men to refer the noblest effects to the most excellent causes ; many considering the dignity of loue , haue imagined that this passion came from a particular impression , which god makes in our soules , inspiring into them with the nature , the affections which transport them , and which makes them seeke the obiects which are pleasing vnto them . the which they striue to proue by the example of the naturall inclinations which he hath giuen to other creatures . wee see , say they , that god as the author of nature , hath ingrafted into light things an inclination to rise vpward , to seeke the place of their rest , by reason whereof the fire doth alway send his flame towards heauen . and in like manner hee hath imprinted in heauy things a naturall inclination which makes them tend to the center : so as stones , marbles , and such like , do alwayes bend downeward , & do not hang in the aire , but with violence and contrary to their inclination . in the same manner , say they , god hath ingrafted in man a certain inclination to those things which haue some beames of beauty or bounty , so as when these obiects come to incounter his eyes or minde , he is rauished , and then presently there is framed in his heart an ardent desire to seeke and pursue them . they confirme this opinion by the diuerse inclinations which shine in the life of men from their birth . for wee see some loue painting naturally , others take delight in geometry , some are passionatly affected to the liberall arts , others imbrace the mechanicks ; some loue hunting , others burne with a desire of play ; some are borne to war ; & others are inclined to mildnes and peace ; some haue no contentment but in solitarinesse ; and others cannot liue without the mannaging of affaires . and whence , say they , proceed these so different inclinations , but from the author of nature ? the which they confirme againe by the example of things which happen often in the loue which men beare one vnto another ; for that it will sometimes fall out , that by a certaine simpathy of mindes , wee shall loue at the first incounter a man whom we haue neuer before seene nor knowne . so as it seemes , this affection doth not then disclose it selfe in our soules , taking forme so suddenly and sweetly , but it is rather quickned and awaked by the presence of the obiect , which makes vs to see that which we loue instantly without delay , for that wee knew him not , finding him so conformable to our humors and inclination . the which hath made some presuppose , that the beames of their eyes , which loue incountering with the beames which proceed from the obiect which inflames them , makes so sweete a mixture , as their vnion is as it were the fulnesse of al the delights which may be tasted in this life : and contrariwise at the first incounter wee shall haue a distast of some other person whom we had neuer seene before : doth not this proue ( say they ) that it is nature which frames in vs this passion ? and so they conclude , that it cannot proceed but from the author of nature : others prefer the cause of loue to the planets , starres , and constellations , and presuppose that the reason why achilles loued patroclus , alexander hephestion , and the queene of the amazons , alexander ; and to come to moderne examples , that charles the ninth loued the marshall of rais , that henry the third loued the dukes of ioyeuse , and espernon , and monsier de termes ; that henry the fourth loued the duke of suilly ; and that the king now gloriously reigning loues the duke of luines and his brethren ; are all effects of the aspects of the planets , which incountered at the natiuities of these princes and noblemen . others seeke the cause in the parents , as if they which bring vs into the world , with our being did transfer and infuse into vs their passions . others refer it to the good or bad education we receiue , according to which wee frame our desires and affections . the platonicians imagine that wee must seeke it in the degrees of the harmony which is found in soules ; which they beleeue are compounded as of a consort and proportion of numbers , the which incountering equally in two persons , incites them to loue one another . but this is very mystical , and requires a spirit accustomed to the imaginations of plato . to come then to the point , it is certaine that god hath infused into our soules the seedes of loue , seeing that he hath giuen vs the powers which are capable . it is also certaine that the influence of the planets may cōtribute to this passion ; for that it resides in the concupiscible appetite , the which is a sensitiue power , and depends of the body , ouer whose motions the planets haue a kind of power . it is also visible , that nurture & education , & sometimes the inclinations which our parents haue ingrafted in vs , may haue a share in the motions of our affections . but to speake according to the rules of philosophy , wee must say precisely and absolutely , that the bounty of things , whether they bee found in them , or that wee imagine them to be , is the spring , beginning , and mouing cause of the loue wee beare them . for god the author of nature , who hath created all things in number , weight , & measure , hath also imparted to all creatures , inclinations and motions necessary to attaine vnto their ends . so hee hath infused into his vnderstanding an inclination which makes him passionately to seeke the truth , and to imbrace it when hee hath found it . and in like manner hee hath ingrafted in the wil a desire and loue of good , which is the only obiect which may moue it and enflame it to pursue it . and as colours are the obiect of the sight , which drawe it by a certaine attraction , which growes from a naturall simpathy which is betwixt them , like vnto that which is betwixt our vnderstanding and truth , betwixt the eye and colours ; and betwixt the hearing and sounds . hence it growes that there is so strict a cōnexion betwixt the will and the good , as the will cannot loue any thing which hath not a shew of good . so as if it bee at any time deceiued , and imbraceth the euill , it is vnder a veile and shew of good , which is imployed to abuse it ; and the like may bee sayd of the sensitiue appetite , which in its motions follows the same instincts that the will doth . but when as wee say , that the good is the obiect of our will and loue , vnder this good wee comprehend that which is faire , for that goodly things haue an equall power with those things that bee good , to inflame our wills : as also beauty and bounty in effect are all one , and differ not but only in our imagination . the which the platonicians demonstrate by excellent reasons , calling loue simply a desire of beauty . yea to shew that beauty is louely of it selfe , as well as bounty , they adde that beauty which shines in the body , is as it were a beame or image of the infinite beauty which is in god ; wherefore we admire it and loue it passionatly , when it presents it selfe vnto our eyes ; and then , say they , the beauty of the body is also an image of the beauty of the mind : for that the internall perfections ingender the externall , as the lustre of pretious stones & pearles growes from the perfect mixture of the foure elemēts which are found in their constitution , as flowers and leaues of trees borrow their beauty from the roote ; and as in beasts the good interior constitution is the cause of the beauty which appeares in the countenance . so then wee conceiue that the external beauty of the body proceeds from the internall bounty of the mind , so as bounty seemes to bee the roote of beauty , and beauty the flower of that bounty which shines in creatures . and therefore hee that containes himselfe within his bounds and in the innocency of loue , seeing the beauty of the body , imagines ( as it is true ) that this pleasing obiect is a beame of the infinit and immense beauty , whereof the essence of god is as it were the center , from whence shee deriues and takes her beginning : and consequently , that it is as it were a sience of the interior beauty which shines in the soule , from whence the body hath taken life . thus the platonicians proue that beauty as well as bounty makes an impression in our wills , and proportionably inflames our desires , & begets affections and passions , which makes vs to seeke it . but leauing all other reasons to proue this assertion , wee will content our selues with the saying of aristotle ; that to demaund why wee loue beautifull things , were a question fit for a blind man , for that the eyes feele and know how powerfull the charmes are to make an impression in the soule . by this which wee haue spoken it is easie to bee gathered , that loue hath for obiect and mouing cause the bounty and beauty of things , which by the sweetnes of the beames they cast forth , make so powerfull an impression in our soules , as they remaine as it were rauished or rather charmed with so pleasant a lustre ; so as to ascend vnto the spring & fountaine , we must eleuate our selues to that great and immortal essence , which is as it were a notion of all the graces , of all the beauties and of all the bounties which are infused into al the creatures . we must , i say , raise vp our selues to that infinite and most happy essence , which is as it were the center , from whence all the perfections which represent themselues so goodly vnto our eyes , and so pleasing vnto our sense , borrow their lustre and take their beginning . and in this manner wee shall tie our affections to an obiect worthy of the generosity of their motions , which should alwayes imitate the nature of fire , which remaines vnwillingly in the earth , and striues continually to mount towards heauen . finally , wee must remember that loue is deuided into fiue branches , and that there are fiue kinds which differ much one from another : for there is a loue of naturall things , there is a loue of creatures ; there is a loue of men ; there is a loue of angells ; and there is a loue of god. the loue of naturall things is nothing else but the inclination which things destitute of knowledge haue to vnite themselues vnto their ends , and to attaine the perfections of their nature ; to which sence an ancient sayd , that the loue of the bodies was nothing else but the weight wherewith they are ballanced , bee it that the weight keepes them downe , or that the lightnes raiseth them vp on high : for god hath ingrafted these inclinations into all naturall things , to the end they may attaine to their perfections , and preserue them when they haue once gotten them . the loue of creatures is nothing else but a vehement impression made in their sences , surprized with things which they conceiue to be pleasing . this passion is many times blind , importune , obstinate , and insolent , and is common to men , & brute beastes , which suffers themselues to bee transported with the motions of a dishonest pleasure . humaine loue is a passion which should follow the motions of reason , and which being guided by the light of the soule shold only imbrace the true good , to make it perfect : for containing himselfe within these bounds , it should no more be a violent & furious passion , which filles the world daily with so many miseries by her exorbitant and strang disorders . the loue of angells flies yet higher , for that those happy spirits enlightned with a more excellent light , and illuminated with a more pure & perfect splendour , loue the soueraigne good more ardently then all the creatures , and by a reflux of this great loue take an incredible care of the affaires of men ; and being neuer wearied in the seruice they do them by the cōmandement of god , assist them , & procure their safety , with constancy , and ioy full of amazement and wonder . the loue of god enters not into comparison with any other , for that as there is no proportion betwixt things finite , and infinite , his motions being infinite , they appeare with another lustre , and shew themselues with a greater endeauor towards that he loues , then the creatures can doe . from this spring flow the admirable beauties which shine in the heauens , in the starres , planets , elements , in bodies both simple and compound , and in great , meane , and small things ; all which do feele the effects of his bounty , and the perfect assistance of his prouidence . from this spring proceedes the care which hee hath of men , the graces which he imparts vnto them , the good desires wherewith hee doth inspire them , and the meanes which hee offers them to raise them vp to the height of his glory , and to make them enioy the felicity of angells . but we will not treate of this kind of loue , whereof wee had rather feele the flames then describe the perfection . neither will wee discourse of that of angells , which wee may better admire then set forth : wee will not in like sort busie our selfe with that of naturall things or of creatures , which is too base for our subiect , but wee will represent the loue which is a humaine passion , whereof morall philosophy teacheth vs to discourse , and whose essence we meane now to set downe . wherein the essence of loue doth consist . chap. 2. as in other subiects we dovsually ascend vnto the knowledge of the cause by the search of the effects , so in this matter to attaine vnto an exact knowledge of the nature of loue , we must first vnderstand what it is to loue , to the end the branch may discouer the nature of the roote . loue then is no other thing , but , to will good to some one , not for our owne priuate interest , but for the loue of himselfe ; procuring with all our power what we thinke may bee profitable for him , or may giue him content . whereby it appeares , there are foure things to be considered in loue. the first is , that wee be carefull of his good whom we loue ; the which growes , for that loue vnites the wills perfectly , and makes vs esteeme the good which befalls him we loue , as our owne particular : wherefore the ancients sayd , that loue was one soule in two bodies . the which it seems that alexander would giue darius mother to vnderstand , when he sayd that hephestion was another alexāder : for he vsed this speech in regard of the great affection hee bare him , the which was such as he held him another himself , so as he would haue him a partaker of all his honors & glory . after this manner then wee should desire to our friends the same honors , the same glory , and all other felicities which we wish for our own proper contentment . and when they succeed , wee must reioyce as if wee our selues enioyed them , seeing that all things are common among friends . but secondly we must wish al this good to those we loue for their ownesakes , and not for any priuate interest of our owne , or for any profite wee expect to reape by them ; for the epicures opinion ( who wil haue men loue for profit , or pleasure ) is infamous , and makes loue either mercenary or of small continuance . wee must then remember that there are three kinds of friendship ; that is to say , honest , profitable , and pleasing . betwixt the which there is this difference , that the two last kinds are no true affections ; but rather shadowes of loue ; whereas the first , that is to say , honest friendship , which hath vertue for her obiect , is solid and true , and moreouer it is constant and of long continuance ; whereas the profitable and the pleasing last little , and are dissolued vpon the first alteration which happens in the subiect whereunto they are tied . as for example , they that loue only for profit , continue no longer in this affection , then they whom they loue , may be beneficiall vnto them ; the which ceasing , they renounce the duties of friendship which they had formerly shewed ; for that the cause ceasing , the effect of necessity must cease . hence it growes that the friendships of court are so inconstant and variable , for that courtiers commonly ●●e their affections to those which are in fauour , & haue some kind of credit , to the end it may bee an entry , for them to offices in the estate . but if there happen any alteration in their fortune by a disgrace with the prince , and that they see them vnable , and incapable to assist them , they presently abandon them , and make no more account of them then of an image ouerthrowne ; yea they would haue men thinke that they neuer obserued them . so in tiberius time , seianus possessing his maister absolutely , & receiuing the fauor of this prince with full sailes , so as all the honors , all the dignities , and all the offices of the estate , depended of the inclination he had to those that courted him ; all the world adored him , the people and senate erected statues vnto him , hee was publiquely praised , his house was neuer empty , all the orders went to consult with him as with an oracle , or rather as the soule of the empire . but as soone as his fauour began to shake , presently hee saw the affections of such as had so shamefully flattered him , decay and die ; and when it was wholly falne , there followed so prodigio●s a change in the affections of the court and people , as after they had vnworthily massacred him , they drew his body through the streete into the riuer of tiber , his statues were beaten downe , all his kinsfolkes persecuted , his memory detested , and the name of seianus was held in execration to all the world . but this is the ordinary course in court , whereas fortune is alwayes adored . as the affections which depend vpon profite decay as soone as the profite ceaseth , in like manner that friendship which is supported only by pleasure , continues no longer then the subiect of pleasure indureth . for they that loue in consideration of beauty , when as age or infirmities makes it to wither and decay , their affection is gone , and they esteeme no more that which they had formerly honored . so as there is no true nor solid friendship but that which is grounded vpon vertue and honesty . the rest hauing inconstant and wandring obiects , are also inconstant and mutable , and the interest and pleasures ceasing , they die : whereas honest loue propounding vnto it selfe a constant and durable obiect , knowes no change . they that loue in this sort wish all good to him they loue , for his owne sake , and not for their priuate interest . the third thing wee must consider in loue is , that wee are bound to imploy all our meanes to procure good to them wee loue . for as the sunne should not deserue the name of sunne if it gaue not light to the whole world , so wee cannot esteeme him a true friend which doth not imploy himselfe with all his power and meanes to bind him whom he makes profession to loue . and this admits no limitation nor bounds , for there is not any thing which loue will not make him do that loues perfectly , euen to contemne his owne life for the safety of him hee loues . it is true , that a perfect friend should wish that he to whom he hath ingaged his affection , should haue all things happy and prosperous in the course of his life , that hee be neuer shaken with any storme , and that hee neuer feele any crosses of fortune ; but as the condition of man is fraile and exposed to a thousand calamities , if it chance that hee fall into any infirmity , he must participate of his paine . if a tempest carries him through the waues of the sea , hee must hoist saile to follow him ; yea if the billowes ouerset his ship , he must seeke him in this shipwracke . if tyrants seaze vpon him , if they cast him into prison & loade him with chaines , hee must offer his owne body to free his bonds ; and if they send him to execution , he must present his head to redeeme his friends . if hee see him assaulted by his enemies , who seeke to murther him , he must present himselfe to beare their blowes . and if he see him in the throat of lions , exposed to the rage of wild beasts , hee must hazard himselfe to free him from danger ; and if he die , he must in like manner abhorre life . hee that loues perfectly , sayd plato by the mouth of phedro , will rather abandon himselfe to death , then expose that he loues to dangers . and there is no man so faint hearted , whom loue doth not fill with courage and inflame with a force , to make him in this subiect equall to the most generous soules . for that which homer saith , that the worthies are inspired with a diuine force and furie , is more truely verified in those that loue , whō loue hath often inspired with a diuine fury , which hath made them to contemne death , to preserue the life of those they haue loued . the last thing that is to be considered in loue , is that we wish vnto our friends ; the things which we thinke truely are good for them , that is to say , that we desire for them the things that are iust , and that are adorned with all the circumstances of vertue . in regard whereof hee spake wisely , which answered his friend , who would haue him forsweare himselfe , that hee was a friend euen vnto the altars , hauing no intent to serue his friend against his conscience . in this case then loue admits bounds & limitations , and it were to abuse the name , to bind him that loues , to commit vniust things in fauour of them to whom he wisheth well . so when as charles of burbon ( to reuēge his priuate discōtent ) abandoned france and his king , and imbraced the party of spaine & the emperour , the princes & noblemen his friends , ( whereof he had many in court ) did not hold themselues bound to follow him , and to make themselues confederates of his despight and rebellion . so as these words which are at this day in the mouth of many , that they are ready to turne turkes for their friends , yea and to follow them into hell , is the speech rather of a fury , then the discourse of men transported with true loue : for loue must cōtaine it selfe within the bounds of iustice , honesty , and vertue , and not make vs do any thing which may breed vs shame . and moreouer , they that make these impious protestations , haue them more in their mouthes then in their harts ; and i know not how they can make them without blushing . by al this which we haue sayd , it is easie to gather wherein the essence of loue doth properly consist , the which we may define in this manner . loue is a wellwishing , which we testifie with all our power to those , to whom we haue an inclination , procuring them for their owne sakes , all the good we think may giue them content . according to which hee is a friend that loues , and is reciprocally beloued ; for loue being as it were a torch which lightens another , friends must beleeue that affections are reciprocall , and that as they loue , so they are beloued ; wherein they must not shew themselues vnpleasing or importune , to sound the hearts one of another , which will bewray a diffidence and distruct : but content themselues with the true signes of loue , which their friends shew them . these signes of true loue are reduced to three principall heads . the first is , that friends reioyce & grieue for the same things : wherfore homer describing agamemnōs affliction , when as he was forced to sacrifice his daughter iyhigenia , he represents al his friends accompanying him to this sacrifice , with mournefull countenances & full of sorrow ; and at rome , when as any one was accused and brought in question for his life , al his friends changed their robes with him , to shew that they did participate with his affliction . the reason is , for that sorrow and ioy are the markes of our affections , and of that wee haue in the soule , which reioyceth or afflicts it selfe , as the obiects which present themselues are pleasing or distastfull . and for this reason , sorrow and ioy discouer the inclination we haue to any one . the second is , that friends share equally betwixt them the good and euill . they say that there are images of wax , vpon the which inchanters deliuer such powerfull spells , as being made to represent any person , as soone as they are wronged , the body of him for whom they were fashioned , feeles paine . in this sort there is such a bond of affection betwixt friends as the harme which happens to the one , afflicts the other , and fills him with bitternesse , so as many times we haue seene true friends die with sorrow , for the losse of their friend . yea , prophane histories are full of persons which haue slaine themselues , for that they would not suruiue them whom they haue loued dearely . in like manner the prosperity of friends passeth from one to another , so as the tryumphs of alexander are the cōtentments of ephestion , and the glory of ephestion is the ioy of alexander . the third is , that they which loue should haue the same friends , and the same enemies . they say the adamant or loadstone doth not only make an impression vpon iron which it drawes , but doth also impart his vertue by his touching ; so as the iron which it hath toucht , drawes other iron vnto it , and makes as it were a continued chaine . in the same manner , a friend brings his friends to him he loues , and he reciprocally imparts vnto him his friends ; whereof there is framed a common bond , which makes them ready to succor one another , as if they were members of one body . to what persons loue extends . chap. 3. although that loue hath for his generall obiect the bounty and beauty which shines in those things which present them selues vnto our eyes and soules ; yet there are diuerse particular considerations , and diuerse beames , which excite this passion and fashion it in the hearts of men . aristotle numbers fifteene causes , the which are also diuided into other branches , whereof we will treate as briefely as wee may , taking only that which shall belong vnto our subiect . first , sayth he , men loue them which do them good , or whom they thinke haue a will to do it , or to their friends . in truth there is nothing that more bindes the hearts of men , and induceth them more to loue then benefits . for euen bruite beasts feele the good which they receiue from men , and there is no creature so wild , whom good vsage doth not make gentle and tame . they that gouerne lyons feare not their rage , but play about them without any apprehension of their fury , for that this generous creature knowes him that hath a care to feede him . by continuall feeding they bring elephants to do what seruice they desire . and wee must not obiect against it , that it hath beene a common complaint in the mouth of men in all ages , that most of the benefits that are bestowed in the world are lost , for that they fall vpon vngratefull soules , who do not acknowledge themselues in any sort bound . for ( as an ancient hath obserued ) this proceedes not from the nature of the benefits , which contrariwise haue a particular vertue to draw the affection and to charme the will : but most commonly the fault proceeds from our selues , for that wee either erre in our election , doing good to vnworthy persons : or we distribute it ill , if we take away the grace . for wee must not think that our benefites bind a friend , if we suffer our selues to be too much courted , if we make him to languish in the pursuite , or if we do it with a kind of vnwillingnesse ; for by these meanes wee take away all the merrit and bond of the benefit , for that no man will thinke himselfe beholding for that which hee hath purchased so dearely : wherefore an ancient called benefits of that nature , a loafe filled with stones , which no man can vse . men therefore thinke themselues bound to those from whom they receiue benefits , whether they be great and worthy to bee acknowledged , in regard of their greae shew and magnificence ; or that they which are the authors , bestow them freely without importunity , and with a singular demonstration of loue ; or that such as giue , haue made a sit choice of time to bind them , assisting them when as they or their friends had extreame neede , and when as they thinke that for their owne sakes they haue bound them by these benefits . they also loue the friends of their friends , and such as haue any conformity with them in the subiect of their affection , and that loue those whom they loue , and who also make profession to be enemies to their enemy . the reason is , that reputing their friends good as their owne , they beleeue , that the good which is done vnto their friends extends vnto them●selues , and that they do participate wholy thereof . in regard whereof they loue the spring and fountaine . and contrariwise they beleeue , that the auersion and distast they haue of their enemies is a token of the loue they beare them . they also loue those that succour them with their meanes , or bind them with the hazard of their liues . for first of all , men loue bountifull friends passionatly , imagining that they are borne for the good of mankind . as for the second , men loue great courages , imagining that they are supporters of their liues ; & that they will neuer suffer wrong to bee done vnto the weake and feeble . they also loue such as they hold to bee iust , and resemble not the harpeys or rauening birds , which liue of spoyle , but content themselues with their owne fortunes , committing no outrage , nor offering violence to any . and in this rancke they put labourers and handicrafts men , to whom all the world seemes to beare an affection , in regard of the innocency of their profession . they also put in the same rancke , temperate persons , in whom they see some great modesty to shine , which shew that their soules are not inclined to any kind of iniustice . they againe esteeme those that leade a peaceable life , which haue no curiosity , and which pry not into the liues of other men , but content themselues to order , & gouerne those that are submitted to their care and charge , presupposing that such as containe themselues within these bounds , thinke not of any iniustice or wickednesse . men also loue famous persons , who by their vertue haue attained to an eminent glory , and an extraordinary reputation , bee it generally in the world , or only among good men , or among such as they haue in admiration , or by whom they themselues are admired ; and they especially make great shew of their affection , when as they presume , that these persons in all their dignity and greatnes disdaine them not , but are wel pleased with the testimonies of their passion ; so wee haue seene people runne by whole troupes from all the corners of the world , to see conquerours & such as did triumph ; men of holy life , and persons indued with rare knowledge or wisedome , aboue the common sort of men . the reason is , for that vertue , generosity , sanctity , and eminent knowledge , are not only louely things of themselues , and which haue powerfull allurements to cause them to bee affected and admired in the subiects where they reside , but also men beleeue there is a kind of glory to bee admitted into the fauour of such illustrious persons , whose glory seemes to communicate with those that haue the honor to come neere them . but men loue particularly these famous and vertuous persons , when as they discouer , that they disdaine not the affection and loue of those , which make shew to honor them with passions ; for it is a testimony of their moderatiō & of the bounty of their nature , not to be puft vp with the glorious aduantages which they haue gottē aboue the ordinary sort of men . they also loue such as are of a sweete conuersation , and that haue a milde and pleasing humor , that is to say , they loue those that are not fantasticall , and of a troublesome and importune behauiour . they also loue such as reproue them not odiously of their faults , they loue those whom they see enemies of contention , and which make shew , that they haue not a desire to bee superior in al disputes which rise in companies ; but accōmodate themselues wisely and moderately to that which is contested . the reason is , for that these wayward spirits , they that are licentious in their answeres , and such as will alwayes in their arguments haue the vpper hand , seeme to bee borne to contradict and controule the opinions of the whole world : the which is a signe of the alienation of wills , and dissenting from others ; which makes them to be hated : whereas contrariwise they loue such as haue none of these bad humours , and which accomodate themselues in company , without making any shew to bee selfe conceited . moreouer men haue as it were a naturall inclination to loue those which haue a quicknes and grace in their incounters , or to iest pleasantly , but withall can indure to heare a witty returne : hence it comes that in court , buffoones and ieasters , which haue biting and satiricall spirits , are so much esteemed ; and yet many times these people , bite priuate persons too sensibly and indiscreetly , and draw vpon them the iust wrath of those whom they haue licentiously offended . in the meane time the reasons why they loue such as are sudden in their incounters and sharpe in their ieasts , is , for that it seemes this quicknesse , & wittinesse to incounter , proceeds from the subtilty and force of their spirits . and then we are inclined to heare men euil spoken of ; wherefore we loue them that do it with a good grace . and for that we loue particularly such as take liberty to iest at others , & are content to be iested withall ; that proceedes , for that wee beleeue that such as will indure that which they themselues practise to others , haue no bad intent nor any bitternes in their hearts , but are carried to these incounters , more through a quicknesse of wit , then by any spleene . moreouer they loue such , as seeme to make great esteeme of the good partes and qualities which they beleeue they enioy . wherefore wee suffer our selues to be surprized by flatterers , who insinuate into our fauours , couer our defects , & seeme to admire our actions . this misery happēs particularly to such as distrust themselues , and who feare to want those vertues which they desire to attaine vnto . for this distrust b●ing dispersed by the praises which they giue them , they thinke themselues bound to such as bring this support vnto their weaknes . they also loue those persons which affect neatnesse in all things , who take delight to carry a pleasing countenance , and to attire themselues properly : for that this neatnesse and hansomenesse is as it were a signe of the desire they haue to insinuate themselues into the hearts , and to gaine the affections of men , who f●r this cause think thēselues boūd to loue them : they in like manner loue them , that lay not their faults before them to shame them , nor reproche them with the benefits wherwith they haue bound them . the reason is , for that both the one and the other redounds to our disgrace ; and it seemes , that such as enter into these reproaches , will make vs contemptible , either by discouering our defects , or in accusing vs of ingratitude . they also loue such as remember not iniuries past , which are not obstinately bent to reuenge , and who are alwaies ready to pardon such as haue offended them . wherefore the romaines did wōderfully admire the first of the caesars , for that he forgat nothing but iniuries , the remembrance whereof he held vnworthy the greatnesse of his courage . wherefore when as this prince had erected againe the statues of pompey , cicero ( that great ornament of the romaine eloquence ) pronounced to his commendatiō , that in erecting the statues of pompey , he had assured his owne , as hauing wonne the loue of the whole world , by this act o● humanity , which hee shewed to his enemy opprest with misery . the reason of this loue which men beare to those which forget iniuries in this manner , is , for that they presume when they haue offended them , they will shew themselues in like manner to them , as they haue done to others . they also loue such as are not il tongued or detractors , which obserue not their imperfections , nor those of their friends , but only regard their vertues , either to admire them , or to frame themselues after their example . for that these things are the offices of good men , and of persons indued with singular integrity , and great probity . moreouer , they loue such as resist them not when they are in choler , or that importune them not in the middest of their most serious imployments : for that they which take pleasure in these oppositions and importunities , seeme to loue contention , and to be enemies to all society . they also loue those that admire them , which haue an opinion that they are vertuous , and make shew that they take delight in their conuersation , and are officious vnto them : but principally , when they make shew of this affection and liking in those things wherein they would haue their industry admired . as for example , a man that loues philosophy , takes delight to heare his profession praised : he that takes delight in armes , hath a singulat content to heare his exercise commended : wherefore both the one and the other loue those tha● giue glorious testimony of that which concernes their profession . aboue all , they haue an inclination to loue their like , being a thing which nature teacheth vs dayly , that resemblance ingenders loue , not onely among men , but also among other creatures : for euery creature loues his like : tygers & panthers troop together with beasts of their owne kind : and birds of one fether fly willingly together ; such power hath resemblāce to vnite affectiōs : the which we must beleue is more powerful in man , who can haue no sweeter conuersatiō thē with his like . the reasō why euery man loues his like , is , for that mā louing passionatly aboue other things , loues consequently any thing that hath any corresponcy with him ; so as respecting him whom he loues as another himselfe , hee cannot but bee inflamed with this consideration . the platonicians had another reason , the which in my opinion concurres with this . loue , say they , makes an impression in the soule of him that loues , of the image and forme of the thing beloued . but man loueth not onely his being , and his true and reall forme , but also his imaginary forme ; as appeares by pictures , and looking-glasses , in which we behold with content our portraicts & formes . wherefore there is a certaine passion for the thing beloued , in whose soule he doth contemplate his forme which loue hath ingrauen . after this manner , resemblance breedeth loue , and vnites the affections of men . the truth hereof appeares , for that men do commonly loue those , that are allyed vnto them in neernesse of blood , so as kinsmen doe commonly loue one another : or by some conformity of humours and complexions , which maketh melancholy men loue the company of their like , and iouiall spirits delight in the company of them that are pleasant : or by some commerce of profession , which maketh philosophers to loue philosophers ; and painters delight in painters : or some equality of age , which makes young men delight in the company of youth , and olde men to conuerse with them that are graue : or some coherence of manners , which makes good men loue the vertuous , and the wicked seeke after such as are wickedly affected . but notwithstanding that which we haue said , that cōmonly men of one profession loue one another , must bee vnderstood according to the true nature of things , for by occasion and accident , this cōformity of professions may ingender hatred and enuy , that is to say , when as they of one trade and profession , liuing of their art and labour , hinder one another : as for example , when as a tradsman hauing gotten some reputation , doth hinder the profit of his companions , then iealousie riseth amongst them , according to the saying of an ancient , the potter enuies the potter . the philosophers giue an excellent reason hereof : he that loues , say they , loues himselfe more deerely then all other things besides : for that he is vnited to himselfe by essence and nature , whereas hee is not conioyned to him that he loues , but by some accidentall and externall forme . and therefore if this conformity crosseth his priuate good , and be preiudiciall vnto him , hee findes himselfe more strictly tied vnto himselfe , then to his like : wherefore seeing his losse concurring with his passion , he whom hee loued , being an obstacle to his desire , he growes odious vnto him , as opposite to his good . men doe also loue those that aspire to the same honors and dignities , at the least when they may attaine vnto them , and enioy them together , without any obstacle or wrong one vnto another . for competency causing an hinderance , as it did in the pursuit of the consulate at rome , it happeneth ( as wee haue said of men of the same profession ) that it excites enuy and hatred : wherefore in the loue of women they can endure no corriuals , for that with honesty they cannot be enioyed by two . they also loue those with whom they haue any familiarity , which is not scrupulous , hauing free liberty without apprehension of disdaine , to doe and say things in their presence which they would not act or speake before the world . as for example , they affect those before whom they may freely discourse of their loues , of their pursuites , and of their other passions . but wee must remēber that there are some things which are dishonest of themselues , the which a good man may neither do , or speak before the world , or before his friends . but there are others which are shameful only in the opiniō of the world , and not according to the truth of things : and these a good man , vsing an honest familiarity with his friends , may doe and speake in their presence , although he would not doe it in publike before the world : like vnto king agesilaus , being in priuate with his children , playd with them with a fatherly liberty , but beeing surprized by one , who knew not how farre the loue of a father might extend , he was discontented . men also testifie , that they loue those before whom they are ashamed to doe or say those things which are of themselues shamefull or dishonest ; wherein wee may say , that the persians gaue good testimony of their loue to their wiues , when as they caused them to retire from their banquets , being vnwilling that their eies shold be spectators of their excesse , & admitting none but their concubines . for this respect and reuerence which they gaue them , was a signe of true loue , for that wee are ashamed to commit any vnworthy act before them wee affect . they also willingly imbrace such as they haue seene faithfull , and constant in their affections , and who loue equally both present & absent . for which consideration they desire to insinuate themselues into their friendship which testifie their loue vnto the dead , who adorne their tombes , erect statues , and make other monuments for them , to preserue their memory among men . they also affect such as abandon not their friends in the crosses and iniuries of fortune , whereof wee haue a worthy example in the subiect of damon and pithias , whereof the one beeing condemned to die , by the tyrant dionisius , and desiring some respite , to goe and settle the affaires of his house , his companion yeelded himselfe a pledge for his returne , with this condition , that if hee returned not backe within the prefixed time , hee should vndergo the rigour of the same sentence : but the condemned man presenting himselfe at the day appointed , the tyrant was so rapt with admiration , to see the faith which he had vnto his friend , in a matter of that importance , and of so great danger , that in stead of putting him to death , he coniured these two perfect friends , to accept of him as a third man in their friendship . behold how the most sauage and vntamed spirits are forced to loue those , that shew an vnuiolable constancy in their affectiōs . men doe also loue such as they see full of freedome , and without dissimulation towards them . in which ranke they nūber such as make no scruple to discouer their errors vnto them , and who entertaine them freely with their priuate passions : for , as wee haue shewed before , we blush not to say or doe in priuate with our friends , that which we would not doe publickely before the world . wherefore , as he that is ashamed to doe any thing before another , shewes that hee loues him not perfectly ; so he that hath not this apprehension , giues a manifest testimony that he hath a full confidence in his friendship : wherefore , wee loue such as make shewe to rely vpon vs , euen discouering their imperfections vnto vs. againe , they affect those whose authority is not fearefull vnto them , & whose power they thinke they shall haue no cause to apprehend : for no man euer loued him whom he feared seruilely ; and herein tyrants abuse themselues , thinking to se●le their authority by the terror of armes , and the terror of punishment : yea , they haue alwayes detested the furious words of him that said , i care not to be hated , so i may bee feared . it were good among bruit beasts , but men must be managed and gouerned by mildenesse . and they willingly embrace such as they may trust ; and whose power is not fearefull vnto them . behold the persons to whom the loue of men doth commonly extend . in the meane time the true means to purchase loue , is to bind those whose friendship we affect , by all sorts of benefites and good offices . and to this end they must do good before it be demanded or that they bee forced to discouer their wants vnto vs : for that were to put them on the racke , to make them confesse our magnificence & bounty . moreouer he must be carefull neuer to reproach the fauours which hee hath done them , nor proclaime them to others , with a vanity which seems to turne to their contempt . he that obserues this mean in the benefits and fauours which hee bestowes , seemes to haue propounded vnto himselfe , the onely good of him whom he hath bound , without any other particular interest : in regard whereof he is also bound to acknowledge and loue his freedome , and bounty . of the effects of loue. chap. 4. as the ancient romanes obseruing of the one side , the conquests , victories , triumphes , and glory , which caesar by his valour had purchased to their empire ; and on the other side weighing the ruines , miseries , massacres , and slaughters , which he had caused in their estate , they were wont to say , that it was difficult to iudge whether his birth had bene more fortunate or fatall to their common wealth . euen so it is hard to say , whether that loue causeth more good or euill in the world . it is true , when as this passion containes it selfe within the bounds of honesty , it is a liuely spring and fountaine of all good things in the life of men . it is also true , that the author of nature hath ingrafted in vs the first motions and beames ; and it is true , that it is borne with vs , that it increaseth with vs , & that it doth alwayes accompany vs , so as it cannot subsist without vs , nor we loue without it . it is an immutable law , which men haue not ●●●nd out , lawgiuers haue not prescribed ; neither doth it depend vpon the examples or customes of nations , but was grauen , as we may say , by the hands of nature in our soules . but when like a wild and vntamed beast it exceedes the bounds of reason , there is no misery which it brings not into the world , nor any disorder which it causeth not in our liues . it is as it were a fatall source , from whence flow all kinds of horror , vncleanenes , adulteries , incests , sacriledges , quarrells , warres , treasons , murders , parricides , cruelties , and violences ; besides the particular torments it giues vnto the soules of such as giue themselues to be surprized , filling them with enuies , iealousies , cares , melancholies , terrors , yea and madnesse ; drawing them many times to despaire , and to do things whereat heauen and earth blush and are ashamed : wherein it is the more to bee feared , for that as the first heauen by his motion doth violently draw whatsoeuer is beneath it , so loue prescribes a law to our other desires , & to all our other passions ; so as we may tearme it the key and beginning of our tho●ghts , of our words , of our actions , and of whatsoeuer wee do in this life : so it makes the first impression in our soules , where it excites the desire of that which we resolue to pursue ; & then it fortifies this desire by hope , which inflames vs to the pursuite of that we desire ; and if there appeare any obstacle , it imbraceth choller , and hath no rest vntill it hath vanquished and surmounted all lets , wherein she settles her cōtentment & rest . and as the thunder breakes whatsoeuer resists it , so this furious passion , being once inflamed , striues to ouerthrow whatsoeuer opposes it selfe against her rage and violence . yet as the winds fill the sailes of pyrats shippes , but are not the cause of the murthers and thefts which they commit at sea ; but all these miseries proceed from the bad inclination and couetousnesse of these infamous pyrats : so although that loue bee an assistant in many villanies which men commit , yet it proceedes not from the malice of this passion , which contrariwise is framed to bring all good to the society of men ; but it growes from the liberty and excesse of men , who peruert the vse of all things , and conuert the causes of their felicity , into instruments of their misery . let vs then see what bee the proper effects of loue , not staying at those which rise from the meere malice of men . we will reduce them to three or foure heads , the explanation whereof will giue sufficient light to the rest of the subiect . the first effect they attribute to loue , is , that it hath an vniting vertue , by meanes whereof it causeth him that loueth to aspire to vnite himselfe to the thing beloued : whereunto we may refer the fable of androgenes , where of plato doth so much triumph ; but we must swallow so many fopperies , before wee shall come to the mysteries of this fiction , as it were better to passe it ouer in silence , then to spend time to explicate it . so it is that prophane and vnchast loue seekes the vnion of bodies , which is found euen among brute beasts , and for this reason may be called brutish , if it bee not sought with an honest intent by a lawfull marriage . but chast and honest loue seekes the vnion of affections and wills , and exceeds not that which is decent and vertuous . they which loue , sayd aristophanes , would passionately desire to be trāsformed , & chāged one into another , & of two bodies to become one . but for that this transformation cannot be without the destruction of their being , they striue to recompence this defect , by a ciuil and honest vnion , which tēds not to the ruine of their nature , but contents their affections ; that is to say , they conuerse continually together , entertaine their passions , and are as little absent as may bee one from another : moreouer they haue the same thoughts , the same desires , the same affections , the same wils , the same delights , & the same distastes , & seeme to be but one soule in two bodies . so as that which is pleasing to him that loueth , is in like manner to the party beloued , what he affects the other imbraceth ; and what hee reiects the other flies , and doth abhorre . so as their willes being thus strictly vnited , all their actions and carriages conspire to the same end , and propound vnto themselues the same obiect . for when as we haue graft the sience of one tree vpō another stocke , the fruits which grow follow the nature of the graft , and sauor nothing of the stocke : so the will of the louer , being transported into that of the party beloued , takes the tincture , and doth not any thing but what is conformeable to his desires and intentions . but whence comes the power which this passion hath , thus to vnite the subiects where it worketh ? this cannot well bee explicated without the aide of philosophy . first of all , loue , say the philosophers , is a desire to enioy the good wee propound vnto our selues , as proper for our content , and capable to make vs in some sort better by the fruition . but this enioying & participation cannot bee effected but by vniting the obiect to our affection , which is the same good we propound vnto our selues ; wherefore it is of the essence of loue that it produceth this vnion . hence it proceeds , that the presence of the party beloued is so deare and pretious vnto vs , and that we feele our selues filled with content , when as we may enioy him to entertaine our thoughts , to taste the sweetnesse of his company , and to discouer our passions : whereas his absence and separation giues vs a thousand torments , and afflicts vs with a thousand sorrowes and discontents , which wee would redeeme with our liues . wherefore when as death doth take violently from vs those whom wee loue dearely , and by this meanes hath condemned vs as it were to a perpetuall absence , we striue to ease our griefe , and sweeten our losse , by transporting our selues often to the places where we were accustomed to see thē , representing vnto our selues their portracts and images , reading ouer their letters , & stil handling al the gages and monuments they left vs of their affection . sometimes the same gages and the same momuments of their affection displease vs , and wee do so abhorre them , as wee cannot indure to see them , nor handle them , but this growes from the griefe of their absence , for that we then represent them as infallible signes of our losse , which they figure vnto vs as irreparable ; by reason whereof their pictures fill vs with bitternes . but on the other side when as the same things seeme vnto vs to supply the presence , wee loue them dearely , and cannot bee weary to entertaine our selues with those thoughts . and if amidst all this we can inuent any thing that may serue to preserue the memory more liuely in our soules , wee imbrace the inuention , and are wonderfully pleased with this art . wherein doubtlesse artimesia queene of caria , shewed an act of wonderfull passion towards her husband mausolus . for death hauing taken him away , this desolate princesse not knowing how to pull the thornes of her sorrow out ofher soule , she caused his body to be reduced to ashes , and mingled them in her drinke , meaning to make her body a liuing tombe , whereas the reliques of her deare husband might rest , from whom shee could not endure to liue separated . the most subtile philosophers giue a second reason of this vnion which ariseth frō loue. loue ( say they ) hath her feate in the will ( they doe not consider it as a passion onely , which riseth in the sences , but also as a quality which in the end becomes spirituall ; ) but there is this difference betwixt the vnderstanding and will : the vnderstanding goes not out of it selfe to ioyne with his obiect , but rather he drawes the obiect vnto him , whereof the image is framed to produce his action , like vnto a seale which prints its forme in the waxe . but the will being toucht with the loue of her obiect , suffers it selfe to bee drawne to his image ; and going out of it selfe , vnites it selfe vnto him to take his forme ; like vnto the waxe which receiues impressions of the seale . so as by this reason , loue is thoght to cause the vnion of him that loueth with the party beloued ; for that his will rauished by his loue , hath no other passion but to see her self vnited vnto her . but these meditations are too nice for our subiect . the second effect they attribute to loue , and which is as it were , a branch and bud of the first , is , that it causeth the soule of him that loues , to bee more where it loues , then where it liues , and that reciprocally the soule of the party beloued , is more with the louer then with his owne body . the reason is ; for that the soules of such as loue , are perpetually attentiue to cōtemplate the image of that they loue , and haue no other thoght nor greater pleasure , then that they receiue by this sweete entertainment : by reason whereof the soule making shew of a more exact presence , where it doth most frequently worke , it followes thereby that it is more with the party beloued , then in its owne body . but let vs heare the opinion of the platonicians vpon this point : the soule , say they , which is toucht to the quicke with loue , dying in i●s owne body , findes life in that it loues . and when this loue is reciprocall , it dies but once , wheras it reuiues twice . for he that loues dyes truly , when as loue makes him neglect and forget the causes of his life , to thinke wholly vppon the party beloued ; but hee recouers his life doubly when as he sees himselfe imbraced and entertained by the party beloued ; and that he finds in his armes his deer image ; which hee preserues more carefully then his own life . who will not then , say they , hold this death happy , which is recompenced by two such sweete liues ? but this discourse of the platonicians presupposeth an equall correspōdency in loue , without the which they maintaine that this passion is full of despaire , & leaues nothing in our soules but importune and troublesome thornes . wherfore the ancients said , that to make loue grow , shee had neede of a brother . but wee haue treated sufficiently of this subiect . they attribute other effects to loue , that is to say , languishings , extasies , and amazements ; but that loue must bee very violent which doth produce them . and moreouer wee may consider these extasies , and rauish●ments which may happen in a violent loue , after two sorts . first , we may obserue them as a true alienation of the sences , which ariseth , for that the spirit and will of him that loueth , being wholy imployed in the contemplation and enioying of the thing beloued , suffereth himselfe to bee so transported with this content , as the soule remaines as it were quencht and without motion . the which may also proceed from a more powerfull cause , that is to say , either from god or from euill spirits , which somtimes stirre vp these rauishments and extraordinary extasies . secondly we may consider these extasies & rauishments , as a kind of madnes , which transports them that loue , and makes them to commit many follies ; wherefore an ancient sayd , that iupiter himselfe could not be wise and loue at one instant . these extasies and rauishments produce sometimes prodigious effects in their soules that are afflicted with this passion . for that his soule that loues intirely , is perpetually imploy●ed in the contemplation of the party beloued , and hath no other thoughts but of his merit , the heate abandoning the parts , and retiring into the braine , leaues the whole body in great distemperature , which corrupting and consuming the whole bloud , makes the face grow pale & wanne , causeth the trembling of the heart , breeds strange convulsions , and retires the spirits in such sort , as he seemes rather an image of death , then a liuing creature . these accidents are followed with passionate and heart-breaking sighes ; as it appeared in young antiochus at the sight of stratonice : or when as they only make mention of her , as if the spirit were eased and free from a heauy burthen , and receiued content by this thought or presence . teares in like manner fly to succor this afflicted soule , for that the heate which is mounted vp to the braine , causeth the humor to dissolue and discharge it selfe by the eyes . but this poore soule thus agitated , hath no certaine consistence , but floting betwixt hope and feare , she sometimes giues signes of ioy , sometimes markes of sorrow ; she is sometime frozen and congealed , sometimes all on fire : she goes , she comes , without any stay or rest , and doth many things which shew that shee is as it were incensed . for she proclames the merit and glory of that she loues , and giues extraordinary commendations , which are the signes of her rauishment . suddenly changing her humor , shee makes her griefe and discontent ascend vp into heauen , shee accuseth the innocent starres , she complaines of destiny and fortune , and blames that which she loues ; and suddenly returning to herselfe , shee condemnes herselfe of wrong . then she powres forth her spleene against such as she thinks haue crost her rest and hindred her content , so as she suffers cruel tormēts in this agitatiō . many times euen in the heat of his passion , the party toucht with loue can indure no lōger discourse ; his words are short & scarce intelligible , for that the soule being thus tied to the obiect which it loues , it cannot giue it self the leasure to speake of any other thing . and that which is full of admiratiō , this passion doth so chāge & trāsform men , as it makes the wisest to commit great follies ; it humbles the grauest to seruices vnworthy of their rancke , it makes the most glorious to become humble and meeke , the couetous to be profuse and prodigall , and cowards to shew themselues hardy and valiant . but for that some of these effects exceed the ordinary of a morall passion , we will leaue them to discourse particularly of iealousie , vpon which subiects there are great controuersies and disputes , that is to say , whether it bee one of the effects of loue , as the vulgar sort imagine ; or whether it be rather the poyson of loue , as others presuppose ; but we will referre the discourse to the following chapter . of iealousie , whether it be an effect and signe of loue. chap. 5. the vulgar sort thinke , that as the sun runnes not his course without light , so loue cannot bee without iealousie ; and they adde , that as lightning is an infallible signe of thunder , which breakes forth , so iealousie is a certaine signe of loue , which desires to shew it selfe powerfully . but they that haue a more exact and particular knowledge of humane passions , maintaine , that as the sunne beeing come to the south ( which is the point of the perfection of his light ) casts no shadow , but spreads his beames all pure vpon the earth ; so a true and perfect loue is not subiect to the inclinations of iealousie . and they say moreouer , that this vniust passion is no more a signe of loue , then stormes and tempests are shewes of faire weather ; this opinion is more probable : for to begin with the proofs , how can iealousie subsist and remaine with loue , vnlesse we will ouerthrow the lawes of nature , which suffer not two contraries to subsist in one subiect ? is there any thing more contrary to loue then iealousie ? can the world see a greater antipathy , then that which is obserued in these two qualities , whereof the one doth participate with the condition of monsters , and the other is the very idea of perfection ? loue vnites the wils , and makes that the desires of them that loue , striue to take , as it were , the same tincture , to the end they may resemble one another . and contrariwise , what doth so much distract the wills , and diuide the hearts , as iealousie ? loue binds vs to interpret fauourably of all the actions of the party beloued , and to take in good part that which we ought to beleeue she hath done with reason : whereas iealousie makes bad interpretations , not onely of her actions , but euen of her very thoughts ? is there any innocency that can bee sheltred from the outrages of this inhumane fury ? if the party beloued hath any ioy , it then presupposeth a riuall ; if she be pensiue , they are suspitions of contempt : if shee speakes to another , it is infidelity ; if she haue wit , they apprehend practises ; if shee be aduised , they imagine subtilties ; if she be plaine , they call it simplicity ; if shee bee well spoken , it is affectednesse ; if she be courteous , it is with a designe . so as iealousie is like vnto those counterfeit glasses , which neuer represent the true proportion of the face : and what more sinister iudgements could the most cruell enemy in the world giue of the party beloued ? but not content thus to blemish the particular perfections of that shee seemes to loue , she seekes to depriue it of the sweetest content in this life , which is by communicatiō with men of honor and merit , who doe not visite her but for the esteeme they make of her vertues : so as many times to please an importune , who is himselfe a great burthen to them that suffer him , shee must forbeare all good company . what iustice can force a soule well bred , to indure this brutish rigot ? loue is a liuely fountaine of ioy and contentment , which banisheth all cares and melancholy ; but iealousie , what is it else but a nursery of grief● and waywardnesse , whereas wee see thornes of despaire and rage , to grow vp among the sweetest and most pleasing flowers that nature can produce ? how then can any man beleeue that these two contrary passions can subsist in one subiect ? if they oppose heereunto experience , and the testimony of many persons worthy of credite , which protest that they haue loued sincerely , and yet were neuer without iealousie ; and will thereby inferre , that at the least , iealousie is a signe of loue ; which is the second thing we must incounter , to satisfie that which hath bene formerly propounded : it sufficeth to answer , that although for respect we yeelde to those personages what they publish of their passions : yet as one swallow makes no spring , so that which happens to particulars , cannot prescribe a law to the generall . but to containe our selues within the bounds of our first proposition , we say , that these persons are much deceiued in this subiect : and their error growes , for that they cannot giue proper names to things , for that of a respectiue feare competible with loue , whereof it is full , they make an vniust iealousie , with the which loue can no more subsist , then water with fire . they that loue intirely , are in truth , full of respect to the party beloued ; honor her with all the passions of their soules , fight for her honor , and hold it a punishment to offend her . but these are not the effects of iealousie , which contrariwise violates the honour which is due to the party beloued , and by a prodigious manner to blind the world , will haue her fauour by wronging her , treading her merits vnder foote . we must then put a difference betwixt a respectiue feare , which always doth accompany those that loue perfectly , and iealousie which is neuer found but with an imperfect passion , which cannot iudge of the perfections of the party beloued . they which know that these things are diuerse , and as remote one from another , as the earth is from heauen , wil easily passe on this side , and yeelde , that iealousie is neither competible with loue , nor is any signe thereof . yet if wee shall yeelde any thing to the opinion of the vulgar , we may freely confesse , that iealousie , in truth is a signe of loue , but as the feuer is an argument of life . it is vnquestionable , that a feuer is a signe of life , seeing the dead are not susceptible of this bad quality . but as a feuer shewing that there are some reliques of life in the patient that is tormented , accompanies him to his graue ; so iealousie is i know not what signe of loue , seeing they which loue not , cannot haue any iealousie . but it is certaine , that if wee expell it not , it will in the end ruine loue , like vnto a thicke smoake which smothers the brightest flame . this is all we can yeelde vnto the vulgar , so as according to this opinion which we haue held the most probable , iealousie is to loue as thicke mists are to flowers , haile to haruest , stormes to fruites , and poison to our liues . of hatred or enmity . chap. 1. as the lawes of loue and hatred are directly contrary ; by that which wee haue spoken of loue , it will be easie to iudge , wherein hatred consists , and how farre her effects extends . hatred then is an auersion and horror which man hath of all that seemes contrary to his good , or preiudiciall to his contentment : or else hatred is an horror which the appetite hath of that which seemes pernicious vnto it , so as the sheepe hate the wolfe , as the enemy and persecuter of his life . but wee must heere obserue , that as all that is befitting nature is put in the rancke of good , so on the other side , whatsoeuer is opposite vnto it , must be placed in the rancke of euill . wherfore as the good is the obiect of loue , so the euill is the obiect of hatred . to vnderstand this , we must remember , that whether it be in the minde or in the body , there is a befitting estate , and as it were a naturall harmony , which makes vs to abhorre that which may dissolue this consort . this harmony considered in the body , is no other thing then the good constitution , by meanes whereof , we enioy a perfect health ; the which being impayred , our nature receiues pain , as when we indure great hunger and thirst , or when as wee receiue any hurt or wound . as for the soule , this same harmony may bee considered : first in the senses , as well externall as internall , & cōsist in the proportiō they haue with their obiects ; which is such , as they hate whatsoeuer puls them away , or which diuerts them by any kinde of violence . as for example , the eyes hate darkenesse and obscurity , and our imagination is terrified and troubled by the fearefull apprehensions of dreames , which it frameth during our rest . this same harmony considered in reason , either it regards the simple knowledge of the truth , which our vnderstanding conceiues with pleasure ; or the vse and execution of things which depend on wisedome , which wee doe with content . in regard of the first , our spirit is enemy to lying , although at some times it takes delight in the art wherewith they colour a thing to giue it some shewe of truth : so as the wisest are delighted in the reading and report of fables , when as the intention hath any grace . and as for the second , there is such diuersity of iudgements in humaine actions which are as it were the element of prudence , as it is a thing in a manner ▪ incredible : for hardly shall you see two persons which haue the same feeling and apprehension of affaires , in regard whereof this life is full of hatred and factions which grow from these diuerse opinions . as for that which concernes the will , her harmony consists in the proportion & loue which she beares to the good , which makes her detest and abhorre whatsoeuer presents it selfe vnto her , vnder the shew of euill , as pernicious and hurtfull to her content and rest . and therefore the harmony of the sensitiue appetite consisting in the familiarity and concurrence it hath with the good of the sences , it doth abhorre and beares an irreconciliable hatred , to whatsoeuer shall offend them ; hence it comes that wee so much abhorre whippes , tortures , punishmēts , hunger , thirst , wounds , & such like which tend to the destruction of our being . this passion was ingraft in vs by nature , to the end that at the first approach , at the first taste and imagination of euill , wee may retire our selues and flie it , lest wee runne into ruine . this kind of hatred then is proper to the concupiscible which is offended at diuerse things , yea at small things , and many times at those which haue no subiect of offence , for you shall see some which cannot suffer the presence of certaine creatures , & others cannot endure the sight of certaine fruites , though otherwise they be exceeding pleasant . finally there is no creature so fantasticke in his appetite , nor so sudden in the motions of hatred and distastes of things which present themselues vnto his senses , as man , who not able to endure any thing , makes himselfe insupportable in a like manner to all creatures : but principally to his like . but to giue more light to this discourse , we wil obserue that there are diuerse sorts of hatred and enmities , which may bee referred to foure chiefe heads : for there is a natural hatred , and a brutish hatred , a melancholy hatred , and a humaine hatred . the naturall hatred takes her beginning from a certaine antipathy , and contrariety of nature which is found in creatures , the which as it were abhorre one another , and cannot frequent or conuerse together , although the subiect of this hatred appeare not , and that shewes it selfe more in the effect then in the cause ; whereof wee haue prodigious examples in nature , in plants , in beasts , and in men . brutish hatred is rather a rage then a passion , for that it seekes a furious destruction of that it hates , and to see the last relliques consumed ; so as it is more fitting for rauening wolues , or for monsters then for men . such is the hatred of those who not satisfied to haue slaine their enemies , make their bodies to feele their fury , practizing a thousand cruelties vpon their carcasses , and making them to suffer after death , all the indignities their rage can deuise . this detestable hatred sometimes passeth to such a furious transport , and so full of excesse , as they eate the flesh of their enemies , & haue a brutish delight in the fume of their members being cast into the fire : this onely befits canniballs and those monsters which haue layd aside all humanity . melancholly hatred growes from the great aboundance of adust choller , the which doth so torment and agitate those miserable wretches which are afflicted therewith , as they abhorre all the honest pleasures of life , fly the light of men , and wish euill vnto themselues , so as they cannot indure to bee seene , neither will they speake to any man , but seeke desarts & solitary places , where they confine themselues , and consume themselues with the discontent and hatred they beare to mankind : like vnto that cursed athenian , who had conceiued such a mortal hatred against all men , as he imagined it was not in his power to binde his fellow cittizens vnto him more strictly , but in planting of trees which might serue them as gibbets to hang themselues . some among the idolaters would haue tied this aspersiō & infamy to the profession of religious men amōg christians , comparing these holy soules , to birds which fly the light , and neuer shew themselues but in the darknes . but these reproaches are the fruites of impiety , which is not capable nor can comprehend the motions , nor force of the inspirations of the spirit of god , who drawing his elect from the vanities and pleasures of the wo●ld , leade● them into these holy solitudes , where being far from the conuersation of men , they approach neere the comp●ny of angells ; or rather vnite themselues to him who is the sole ioy and soueraigne good of angels . if they which haue thus soug●● to blemish and defame this holy profession , which beginnes his paradise on earth , would haue taken the paines to search into and sound the condition , the manners , and the life , of those which renounce the world , & the pleasure thereof ; they shold haue found , that the sun in the whole world doth not behold soules more contented then those , in whom there appeares no signe of sadnesse , nor any shew of melancholy : but a perpetuall ioy which no troubles interrupt , nor any discontents do crosse . but this belongs not to our subiect . it rests that wee speake of that hatred which plants her rootes simply in the harts of men . this is an infirmity of the soule as wee haue described it , which hath humaine causes , and to the which also they bring humaine remedies to seeke to cure it , of the which we now treat . in the meane time there is great difference betwixt choller , hatred , and enuy . and first of all there is this difference betwixt choller , and hatred , that choller growes from iniuries which we haue receiued , and which offend vs in our owne particular ; whereas hatred may spring from things which concerne not vs in particular ; but which touch the publique . as for example , we may hate and detest those which kindle a fire of discord in the remotest parts of the estate . we may hate such as commit villanies a hundred leagues from vs ; but to inflame our choller , the iniury must touch vs and offend vs , either in our owne person , or in that of our friends . and choller doth alwayes presuppose particular men ; but hatred may extend it selfe to all mankind , there being no man but doth detest and generally abhorre all theeues , al murtherers , and all slanderers ▪ moreouer choller may bee cured with time , for that it is a short fury which may bee pacified with patience . but hatred is in a manner incureable , and growes more bitter with time and remedies . wherefore the poets describe etrocles : and pollinices , continuing the effects of their hatred euen in their tombes : for when as their sister antigona had cast their bodies into the fire , to performe their ordinary obsequies , they could not remain together , but the flame diuiding it selfe cast their bodies one from another ; whereupon miserable antigona cried out , that their hatred suruiued their death . moreouer , he that is transported with choller , not only desires to be reuenged of the party that hath wronged him in making him to feele the effects of his wrath ▪ but withall will haue him know that hee is the author of this reuenge , and of the paine hee feeles . but he that is possest with hatred , desires onely to see his enemy ruined , and doth not care to haue him know that hee is the author thereof , so as he may behold his destruction . besides , choller is accompanied with paine , by reason of her vehemency : but hatred is without paine , neuer filling her subiect with this extreame ard or , but suffers him coldly to attend the ruine of his enemy . finally , choller hath bounds , for if hee that is incensed against any one , sees any great calamity befall him , which exceedes the limits of a common reuenge , he hath pitty , and doth wish that his misery had not mounted to that height . but the man that is full of hatred , neuer sees his bad inclinations satisfied ; and how great soeuer the calamity be which befalles his enemy , hee hath no feeling nor pitty : the reasō of this differēce is , for that he which is in choller , desires only that the party against whō he is incēsed shold know , that it is in his power to reuenge the wrong he hath done him . but he that meerly hates , seeks absolutely the ruine of his enemy , and is not satisfied vntil he see him vtterly lost : let vs now obserue wherin hatred differs frō enuy. the diuersity appeares first , in that hatred hath for obiect the euill which wee conceiue of the party whom wee hate , presupposing him to be wicked , either in our owne respects , or generally toward all men . for we finde it dayly by experience , that men are disposed to hate those , from whom they thinke they haue receiued some iniury , or whō they know are accustomed to outrage all the world : whereas enuy hath for obiect the felicities and prosperities of another : the which is most apparent , for that wee neuer enuy the miserable . and hatred also extends euen to bruit beasts , for as we haue said before , there are some which naturally hate certaine creatures ; yea , we haue seene a great prince who could not endure the singing nor sight of a cocke . but enuy powres forth his poyson only among men : for wee doe not enuy birds for their goodly fethers , nor lyons for the greatnesse of their courage ; nor stags for their swiftnesse ; ●or elephants for their greatnesse and force : but we onely enuy the glory of our like . moreouer , enuy is alwayes vniust ; for what shew of reason can be found in a passion which doth afflict vs for the prosperities of another man , as if hee did vs some iniury in being happy ? but there may be hatred full of iustice as those which make vs abhorre the publike plague , and troublers of the peace of the state , the enemies of the countrey , men desperately wicked and vicious , and the enemies of god and religion : yea , this hatred of the wicked is a signe of a good soule , as the enuy wee beare to them that are fortunate , discouers a wicked dispositiō : wherfore we dissē●ble not the hatred we beare to such as wee know are wicked , whereas wee disguise all we can the enuy we conceiue against them that are happy . againe , enuy kindling in our hearts by the great prosperity of another , when as they decline , and that we see them ouerthrowne by some notable accident of misfortune , it relents , and is by little and little quenched : yea , it is most certaine , that enuious men are glad to haue some cause of pitty ; whereas hatred and enmities neuer ceas●e for all the calamities which befall their enemies ; but when they are once framed and fixed to any one , they neuer abandon him neither in good nor bad fortune . moreouer , hatreds and enmities are sometimes cured and quenched , by letting the party ( that is tormented with this passiō ) know , that he to whō he wisheth euill , hath not done him any wrong , or that he hath changed his inclinatiō , & is become a good & vertuous mā ; & moreouer , that he hath done him some kind of pleasure , in occasions which haue bin offered to oblige him . but althogh you perswade a man , that hee hath not receiued any wrong from him that is happy and fortunate , yet it doth not quench his enuy ; and in stead of suppressing it with this consideration , that he is a good man and that hee hath indeauoured to doe him fauours , yet he will shew it the more , and let the world see , that he can neither indure his prosperity nor his benefits ; for that the one proceeds from the good fortune which doth accompany him , and the other is an effect of his vertue , which are two recommendable things , & cōsequently subiect to enuy . lastly , these two passions differ , in regard of the diuerse ends which they propound vnto themselues : for enuy hath that in particular , that shee doth not alwayes cause vs to wish great miseries to those we enuy : for wee see it dayly by experience , that there are some which enuy their own kinsmē or friends , yet they would be loth to see any great misery befall them , or an affliction which might tend to their ruine ; contenting themselues to crosse their prosperities , and to hinder the lustre and glory of their fortunes . but hatred passeth further , still watching for an occasion to ruine his enemy , and is neuer satisfied with his miseries vntill they haue brought him to the period of his downefall : so as shee induceth vs to procure irremediable mischiefs , and extreame calamities to those whom shee pursues with obstinacy . wee must now seeke the source and fountaine of hatred , and shew what the causes be that frames it . as she consists in the auersion of things which are contrary to our senses , it may spring from three causes principally ; that is to say , from choler , from reproches , or slanders , and from the crosses or discommodities which wee receiue . as for the first , an ancient had reason to say , that hatred is an inueterate or rooted choler ; not that time doth change one of these passions into another : for the philosophers will neuer confesse , that one kinde may passe into the nature of another but for that choler hauing exasperated our courage , if wee entertaine long the forme of an offence which doth gall vs , in the end wee lay aside choler , and beginne to hate him against whom our wrath was kindled : so as choler is not of the essence of hatred , but many times the cause . as for the second , it is certain , that nothing doth more excite our hatred then slanders & reproches , the which may euen trouble the wisest and most vertuous ; for wee haue seene great personages , who had , as it were , renounced all feeling of the other passions , yeelde o the griefe of detraction , and haue suffered themselues to haue beene so caried away with griefe of minde , as they haue fallen into a generall disdaine of all the world , and to abhorre all mankind , by reason of the fury of such as had defamed them . so as slander is like to a huge waue which wrests the helme out of the marriners hand : for that she troubles the most vertuous , and makes thē to giue way to the griefs of hatred . besides , if they which slander vs , giue vs other crosses , and are the cause of some notable preiudice ; as if they accuse vs before the magistrate , if they bring vs in questiō of our liues , if they cause vs to lose our goods , if they persecute our kinsmen , if they torment our friends ; all these causes together frame a deepe hatred in our soules , the which retaine for euer the forme of these bloody iniuries , vnlesse they make some great and solemne satisfaction . finally , the reasons why choler , detraction , and crosses , or discommodities , ingender hatred , is , for that all these things tending to the destruction of the being , or honour of men , they are so many subiects and spurres of hatred against those that procure them those displeasures . yet hatred is not framed in our hearts by these causes onely , but there are other particular motiues from whence it may proceed , as when we see our selues deceiued in our trust , and of the good opinion we had of men to whom we were tied by affection . wherefore an ancient had reason to say , that hatred is commonly framed in our soules , by our bad elections , for that wee loue before we know , and before wee haue tried the merit and fidelity of those to whom we will trust so rich a treasure as friendship . we are too easily perswaded that they are vertuous , and worthy of all fauour and confidence , and in the meane time wee finde them treacherous and vnworthy : so as wee fall into such a disdaine , and do so abhorre them , as we cannot inindure to heare them spoken of . finally , to draw to a head the causes of this passion ; wee hate vgly and deformed things , as the monsters and scorners of nature and arte , and those which are filthy , troublesome , and importune : for that wee esteeme them as enemies to our senses and content . as for those which are subiect to the motions of this passion , wee obserue , that faint and base mindes , are sooner mooued then generous spirits : the reason is , for that cowards feare euery thing , so as their hatred is inflamed against all such as they thinke may hurt them , bee it in their person , in their goods or in regard of their friends . hence it growes , that great men which haue no courage are commonly cruell , as we haue monstrous examples in nero , caligula , and other effeminate princes , whose rage no murthers could satisfie . and for the same reason they that haue offended a great personage , who hath meanes to reuenge himselfe , hate him irreconciliably ; which makes them to desire his death , to see themselues freed from feare . whence groweth that famous saying , he that offends neuer pardons . the proud and enuious are also subiect to the motions of hatred . the first , for that they thinke they are not honored as they should be ; and the last , for that all the prosperities of their equalls offend them . they that loue themselues too much , are wonderfull apt to the same motions , for that they take euery thing as an iniury , and are so nice as they cannot endure any man. but as loue springs from a feeling of good , and hatred from an apprehension of euill , it happens that for that the good things we enioy in this life are neuer pure , nor much durable , they make no great impression , neither do they leaue any great remembrance nor loue of them in our soules : but contrariwise euill things being very sensible & long , take deepe rooting in our hearts , where by reason of our corruption , they are are as it were in their proper element , so as we do more easily preserue the seeds of hatred then of loue : wherefore an a●●ient sayd , that he whic● 〈◊〉 with griefe , remembers it ; but hee that enioyes pleasure , forgets . finally if wee would make good vse of our hatred , wee must imploy it against vice , and against those obiects , the loue and pursuite whereof may pollute our hearts , and blemish the image of god which shines in our soules . this hatred must take her course from causes contrary to those , which we haue formerly said , are proper to induce loue. as for example , to roote out of the soule a dishonest loue , we must leaue to thinke of it , and diuert our minds and sences from the continuall contemplation of the image which beginnes to make vs to feele her power , lest that the beames of so pernitious an obiect , kindle and nourish in our hearts bad desires : and moreouer , to fortifie our hatred , we must iudiciously weigh the defects which may incounter in the subiect which we loue. and of this sort , from the most perfect creature in the world , being subiect to great imperfection , we may easily if wee will , finde occasion to separate our selues . wee must in like manner represent the miseries which do commonly accompany the pursuites of loue ; we must also set before our eyes the shipwracke of so many famous pe●sonages , which haue lost themselues vpon this shelfe : we must represent the infidelities , cares , crosses , paine , and torments , which this wretched passion doth cause . and aboue all , a christian should apprehend the wrath of god , and the horror of his iudgements which hee powres out vpon vncleaenenesse . but this belongs to another discourse . of desire or cupidity : and of the flight and horror we haue of things . chap. 1. as natvrall things being farre from their center , haue no rest vntill they attaine vnto it ; so man hauing a particular inclination to good , as soone as he propounds vnto himselfe the obiect , and ties it to his imagination ; if the enioying bee denied him , he feeles himselfe surprized with a certaine vehemency , which makes him to seeke it passionately . and if it bee a good of the mind , his will is inflamed ; and if this good concernes the contentment of the body , his sences receiue the impression and long to enioy it . according to this last motion , philosophers affirme that there is passion in man which they call cupidity or desire , which concerneth those things which we possesse not , and which we thinke are fit and proper to giue vs content this cupidity or desire is no other thing , but a passion wee haue to attaine vnto a good which we enioy not , & which we imagine is fitting for vs. it differs from loue and pleasure , for that loue is the first inclination , the first taste , or ( as we may say ) the first sweetnesse we feele of good things , or of those which are goodly or faire : which rauish our sences , and breed in vs this desire and longing to enioy them ; after which , hope doth arise , the which succeding , the effect filles vs with ioy , and contentment , which is properly the pleasure wee conceiue when the thing hath succeeded . or to deliuer it more plainely , desire , differs from loue , and pleasure , for that loue is the first motion , and the first passion we haue of any good thing , without respect whether it be present or absent ; desire is a passion for a good that is absent , and pleasure a contentment wee haue to enioy when wee haue gotten it . whereby it followes , that desire as we say , is a particular passion , for that it regards a sensible good , vnder a sensitiue consideration , that is to say , vnder this consideration that it is absent , and that in this absence it drawes vnto it the affection of man to pursue it . for the sensible good which is the obiect of the sensuall appetite , moues otherwise when it is present , then when it is absent . for when it is present , the appetite is at rest by the presence of the thing beloued , whereas being absent , the appetite is moued and agitated with a desire and longing to pursue it and get it . but there are two kinds of desires and cupidities , which may make impression in our senses , the one is naturall , the other rise from our choice ; the naturall are those which agree with the nature of the creature , as drinking , eating , sleeping ; and these are common to men & brute beasts , for that both the one and the other , haue obiects befitting their nature . those which arise from our election , are such as regard the things which are not altogether necessary for the creature , but man hath inuented them for his greater ease and commodity , as the delights of drinking , & eating , baths , play , sights , riches , honor , reputation , and such like . as for naturall desires they are not infinite , but haue their bounds ; for that as nature contents it selfe with a little , so shee prescribes vnto her selfe certaine limitts , within the which she containes herselfe , tying herselfe to the obiect which is fitting , without any diuersion . but those which follow our election haue no bounds , so they grow infinite . for as they depend of the imagination of man , as this power represents the formes and images of infinit obiects ; so these desires multiply infinitely to pursue all those good things which the imagination hath propounded . whereby it happens that representing at one instant any thing that seems pleasing or profitable , we desire it passionately , and then changing opinion wee wish another , and after it a third . so as we feele as it were a swarme of desires disclose themselues in our thoughts , which draw vs to diuerse obiects , without rule or measure . for as no aboundance of water can satisfie them that are sicke of the dropsie , so there is no kind of goodnesse or pleasure that may content our desires . the ancient philosophers compared the first matter to an infamous strumpet , who is neuer glutted with present pleasure , but doth still meditate vpon new imbracings ; for that the first matter is neuer content with the formes which she enioyes , but still desires new , not caring whether they be more noble then that wherewith she is adorned . but we haue more reason to apply this comparison to our cupidities and desires , which shew themselues insatiable in all they pursue , with what kind of passion soeuer . and herein appeares the great misery of man , who hauing meanes to passe with few things necessary for the entertainment of his life , plungeth himselfe in superfluities as into a gulph , whereas hee findes neither bottome nor bancke , and afflicts himselfe with a thousand torments in the pursuite of his vaine desires , making his condition much more miserable then that of other creatures . for they hauing quencht their desires by the enioying , remaine fully satisfied , and torment themselues no more , vntill that nature quickens againe their appetites . when as the lyon hath pursued a bull or a goate , he deuoures what is necessary to satisfie his hunger ; but he hides not the remainder in the ground . the bore drinkes vntill hee hath satisfied his thirst , and then leaues the water . the wolfe ( though a rauening beast ) runs after his prey , when hunger driues him ; but being satisfied hee leaues his chace . leopards and tygers being prest by necessity , kill their prey , but hauing fedde they are quiet . bulles hauing taken their pasture , returne content . but there is nothing able to satisfie the desires of man , his imagination being alwayes fertile and intentiue to furnish him with new toyles and cares to seeke for new , by the distaste hee hath of those which hee enioyeth . so as to comprehend them all together , there is not glory enough , nor wealth sufficient , nor obiects of pleasure and delight in the whole world , that can make him absolutely content . whereby we may see a man growne from a base estate to a glorious fortune , complaine of his estate ; neuer looking to them that are inferiour vnto him , but onely to such as exceed him . let him be aduanced to the first office of estate , yet this glory will be a spurre vnto him to aspire vnto a greater . he would play the prince , he wold contemne his king , and would enioy the glory of his diademe . finally , he would see how high fortune can raise him , and doth not consider that she growes weary , and that her consistence is as brickle as glasse , and that her lustre is like vnto those false lights , which deceiue seafaring men , and guide them vpon rocks and shelfes , whereon their ships are broken , and they suffer shipwracke . ambition hath no bounds , if she hath surmounted the earth , she wil defie heauen . so those proud princes of antiquity , not satisfied with the glory of their crownes , and hauing nothing more on earth to be desired , wold counterfeit the thunder and lightning , to haue themselues held powerfull in heauen . but if euer prince made shew that ambition is insatiable , it was alexander ; for that after so many battels , after so many glorious conquests , hauing past from macedonia through asia , euē vnto the red sea , yet he sent forth his lieutenants to discouer new worlds , there to finde out a new haruest of triumphs : the scythians though barbarians , could wel reproach him with this in●atiable passion of glory . if the gods ( say they ) had giuen thee a body equall to thy courage , the whole world would bee too little for thee : with the one hand thou wouldst touch the east , and with the other the west : and after all this , thou woldst yet know where the brightnesse of that great diuinity were hidden . but wee must not imagine , that this passion is proper onely to alexander , for there was neuer great monarch whose abundance of treasure , and extent of empire could limit his ambition . there was neuer any one whom death hath not found plotting of new designes , and making of new proiects for conquests . the cupidities and desires of riches are no lesse insatiable : the more we enioy , the more wee desire , and the passion growes more violent by abundance ; like vnto the flame of a great fire , which increaseth whē they cast wood into it . giue mee a man in whose house ( to speake with the world ) fortune hath heaped vp all the treasures of perou , to whom shee hath imparted so much gold , siluer , and pretious stones , as he not onely enioyeth it , but also treads vnder his feet pearles , rubies , and diamonds ; yet amidst al this riches and glory , i dare boldly affirme , that his soule is not content , but in this abundance hee represents vnto himselfe other riches , which he imagineth are more exquisite , & more pretious then those which hee enioyes . so as in being rich , we doe not learne to leaue to be passionate for the loue of riches , nor by enioying many superfluous things , we do not get the contentment not to desire more . and when will mighty men ceasse to extend the boūds of their possessiōs ? the lands , the houses of their neighbors , do they not stand in their light ? & do not their desires enflame them to buy thē , or take thē away by vioence ? if there be a branch of a riuer that may fit their buildings , must they not haue it either by loue or force ? doe they not cut down moūtains & rocks , diuert the course of riuers , make valleis euen ; yea , & remoue the very foundations of the earth to satisfie their desires ? poore men , which hauing but so little a body to lodge , build such ample pallaces . and for al this are their desires satisfied ? nay rather , the end of one is the beginning of another . this is a miserable passion , seeing that shee her selfe fights against her owne satisfying and content : and seeing that by a prodigious violence shee enflames vs to the pursuit of riches to inioy them ; and when wee haue gotten them , she forbids vs the vse : she begets a longing in vs , and denies vs the pleasure and as we more abhorre the cantharides and tarantules , then lyons , tigers , and beares ; for that they kill men and reape no fruite of their death , whereas sauage beasts doe feede themselues , and satisfie their hunger : so of all the cupidities and desires , there is not any one that we should so much detest , as that of couetousnesse : for that this monstrous passion draws no contentment from that it gathers together , nor suffers him rhat is possest with it , to take any pleasure : wheras other desires , at the least , aspire to the enioying and content which may grow by the possession of their obiects . interdicting thus the enioying , shee stirres vp new desires , to get newe treasure ; and hauing gotten it , wee finde , that the paine we haue taken to enioy it , is nothing in regard of the torment it giues vs after that we are owners . and yet wee stay not there , but plunging our selues still in this gulph , wee finde sooner an end of our liues , then of our couetousnesse . these are the thornes which spring from riches , which are gotten with paine , preserued with care , and lost with griefe . pleasures and delights are also infinite , not onely for that they cannot giue a full contentment to our desires , but also for that the number is so great , as we can hardly reckon them , or at least giue them names . there are desires of the eyes , which represent sensible beauties , of which we finde a thousand fashions , the search whereof should be innocent if it had any bounds ; but the excesse of our desire doth blemish the pursuit . as for example , pictures , images , statues , porphyrie , marble , amber , c●ystal , iuory , flowers , tapistries , diamonds , rubies , & all other things , where the eye discouers the wonders of nature and the art of man , are the obiects of an innocent pleasure , if we could vse them moderately . but wee suffer our selues to bee transported with so furious a desire , and we seeke them with such an inraged heate , as it is rather a madnesse then a desire . an ancient said , that nothing had more distasted him from loue , and the passion of all those things , then to see the stately triumphs of rome where they exposed to the sight all the gold and siluer of that great city , to serue for an ornament ; and carried the pictures , images , armes , plate , pretious stones , treasure , tapistry , and the mooueables of vanquished kings , & the spoyles of their rich prouinces , to encrease their glory . and his reason was , for that ( said he ) all this pompe , all this lustre , all this glory , and this abundance of treasure , was seen in one day , and then vanished : so as in a short time our eyes might behold all the pride not only of rome , but of the world . this was to make a man wise by sights , whereas others become mad . there are other pleasures of the eyes , which pollute by the excesse of our cupidities , and by the disorder of our desires : as when our eyes not content to behold the beauty of a woman , conceiue an vnchaste desire . besides these diuers pleasures of the eyes , there are others of smelling , hearing and feeling ; wherein wee obserue as little measure as in the rest . perfumes are exquisite presents of nature ; but our effeminate delicacy hath made the vse infamous and shamefull . musick , consorts , and the sweetnesse of instruments , were things which wee might vse honestly without offence ; but we haue conuerted all into luxury , which prophanes the vse . and amidst all this abundance , neither doe our eyes satisfie their desires , by so many obiects which they behold ; neither doe our eares finde their heate quenched , nor our other senses their passions , by whatsoeuer offers it selfe to their desires . the other pleasures wherunto man is addicted , as play , combats , huntings , exercises , companies , and whatsoeuer he doth to ease the cares of this life , cannot satisfie nor giue any full contentment to man : but amidst all these roses hee stil meets with some thornes , and seekes dayly after newe contentment ; so insatiable are his desires . the same cupidities also vary according to the ages , complexions , and humours of those which are toucht with this passion . yong men are passionate after play and women , and exceede in these pleasures . the sicke wish for health , as the souereigne good of his life ; old men desire good wine , and good fare , which seemes to make them liue againe , & to adde new vigor to their bodies . princes and generous spirits breath nothing but glory , tryumphs , and trophies , which serue to aduance them beyond the ordinary of men . they which are of a sanguine and hot complexion , haue a passion fit for all things , and they pursue them with great heate ; but it lasts not long , and is like a fire of straw , inconstancy & change accompanying them still in their pursuites . whereas they that are of a cold constitution , haue no great desires , by reason of the heauinesse of their humors : but they are obstinate in their pursuits , and can hardly bee diuerted from the obiect , whereunto they are tied . they which haue the least feeling of the motions of desire , are such as haue no apprehensiō of the discōmodities and miseries of this life , as they that are young ; great spirits ; men ouertaken with wine ; and finally all such as haue much blood and heate gathered together about the heart . as in like manner , they are not much transported , which haue neuer felt any vrgent necessity . for as feare and distrustes increase desire , to prouide all things necessary for the preseruation of this life , they which haue tasted of crosses , apprehending to fall into their first miseries , do desire infinite things , to fortifie themselues against all accidents ; supposing still that nothing can secure them sufficiently . they also which haue little blood about their hearts , & that but luke-warme , haue naturally cares and ardent desires to gather ; for that they feare to see themselues fall into want and pouerty ; and the importune care they haue to preuent this misery , afflicts their soules , and tortures their minds . hence it comes , that we often see men who haue bene prodigall and very profuse in their youth , so change their inclinations , as when they come to age , there can be nothing noted in them but base couetousnes in all their actions : whereas on the other side wee commonly see that wine and loue make couetous men bountifull . finally when we haue gotten with much paine the goods which we enioy , wee shew more vehemency to keepe them . the which may arise from two causes , either for that we feare to fall againe into the necessity in which we haue bene , and apprehend to see our selues forced to take new paines , and to vndergo new toyles to recouer our estates . or else for that the things which we haue gotten with sweat and danger , are more deare vnto vs , then those which come without labour and paine . so we see a young heire , which comes to a great estate by the death of his father , will bountifully bestow his gold and siluer , and dissipate within few dayes , what his miserable father had bene long a gathering , and which he had not gotten but with infinite torments both of body and mind . whereas a merchant , who hath tried the dangers of traffique ; who hath grown pale a thousand times at sea during his voyages ; who hath seene himselfe often neere death , and ready to fall into the hands of pyrates or theeues , will not thrust his hand rashly into his coffers , nor distribute his mony but with great stayednesse , and wonderfull discretion , which may make him to bee held base and couetous . doubtlesse wee haue seene in our times the most generous prince of the world , who shewed no such magnificence in the bestowing of his excessiue treasures , as the glory of his birth and the splendor of his other actions seemed to require . so as many had a conceite that he feared to fall into his first necessities ; but doubtlesse his good husbandry was far better then our profusions . wee haue spoken sufficiently of this passion of desire , the which hauing in a manner all things common with loue , it shall not need any longer treaty , nor more words to explaine it . as for the passion which is contrary vnto it , as it hath no name , ( although it bee the same which makes vs abhorre and fly that which wee thinke is hurtfull to our nature , ) so it is not needfull to seeke out the conditions and particularities , seeing they are in a manner the same which we haue obserued vppon the subiect of hatred . moreouer , that from the nature of desire , we may gather what that of horror is , seeing that one contrary deciphers another . of pleasure or delight . chap. 1. as this great fabricke of the heauens makes his motion vppon the two poles of the world , which are as it were the two points where it beginnes and ends : so it seemes that all the passions of our soules depend vpon pleasure and paine , which grow from the contentment or distaste which we receiue from the diuerse obiects which present themselues vnto vs in the course of this life . if we loue , it is for that wee finde a sweetnes in the subiect that doth rauish vs. and if we hate , it is in regard that wee imagine the obiect which presents it selfe vnto our imagination , is full of griefe , contrary to our apprehension . the pleasure wee take in the idea of a good thing , which we enioy not , and yet promise to ourselues the possession in pursuing it constantly , begets hope : as contrariwise , when we think it is not in our power to obtaine it , the griefe wee haue afflicts vs , and leades vs to despaire . desires in like manner are framed in vs by the imagination we haue of a benefit which may giue vs content ; and the distaste wee haue of things which we flie , is , for that we imagine they may cause our discontent and vexation . so as in all the other passions wee still finde ple●sure and griefe intermixt , in regard whereof , wee may rightly tearme them the two springs and fountaines , from whence deriue and flow all the other passions . yet they haue their particular reasons and considerations , which giue them their rancke , and put them in the number of other passions duly & exactly considered . wherefore pleasure or delight is a passion & motion , which is framed in our soules with a certaine sweetnes which filles our senses with contentment and ioy , when as they receiue the impression , by the enioying of a good which is pleasing vnto them : or else , pleasure is a passion which proceedes from the sweetnesse which our senses receiue from the obiects which delight them . or to vse aristotles definition ; pleasure is a motion of the soule , which putts it suddenly and sensibly in an estate fit for the nature of man. whereupon wee must first obserue , that as things meerely naturall tend to their perfections , by those meanes which nature hath prescribed ; so all creatures striue to attaine vnto those which are proper vnto them , by the meanes which the same nature hath made subiect to their power . but there is this difference betwixt insēsible creatures & those which haue sense , that the insēsible hauing attained to the height of their perfection , feele no ioy . so as it seemes , the sun is vnhappy in that respect , that being indued with such a shining brightnesse , and such perfect beauty , yet it hath no feeling nor knowledge of his glory ; whereas creatures haue a feeling of their good when they haue gotten it . so as this feeling filles their senses with ioy , and causeth pleasure , which makes their nature cōtent : let vs now see what conditiōs are necessary to frame this delight , & to beget in vs the pleasure of things which touch our senses . first of all , the good must be vnited to our senses , be it really & in effect , or in thought and imagination . for wee must remember in all this treaty of humaine passions , that it imports not for to stir them vp , that the obiect which incites the motions be really in the nature of things , or simply in the imagination : for that there are some men which suffer themselues to be more transported with the images which fancy frames in their braines , then by the true obiects of things which subsist really . as we reade in histories , that a certaine athenian called thrasillus had a certaine foolish conceite , that all the shipps ▪ with their loading , which came into the port of pyrea were his . but when as his friends had caused his braine to be purged , and had brought him to his right senses ; he complained of them , and blamed them for that they had depriued him of an infinite content . moreouer it is requisite in pleasure , that the obiect of good which makes an impression in our senses , should be agreeable to our nature . the which cannot be , if it be not in some sort agreeable vnto their capacity . wherefore there must bee such an agreement and proportion betwixt the senses and obiect , as there may bee betwixt them a certaine resemblance and affinity , so as that which caused the pleasure must neither bee too strong nor too weake , to make his impression . wherefore a moderate light is more pleasing to our eyes then that which is more glistring . and in like manner a sweete sound cōtents the eare more then that which is loud . and we take more delight in a speech which we vnderstand , then when wee vnderstand not the words ; for that this intelligence wee haue of the words , frames a kind of conformity betwixt them and vs , whereby the speech doth insinuate sweetly into our eares , and makes a more pleasing impression in our soule . thirdly , it is requisite to breed delight in our senses , that wee haue knowledge of the good which breeds the impression , and that we find it is fit for vs , & that we enioy it either in effect , or by imagination : for that we cannot receiue any ioy of a thing vnknowne , or which we find not that it is good for vs , or are ignorant that it is in our power . so a hidden friendship doth nothing touch vs , and yet if we had any perfect knowledge , we should be rauished with ioy , and burne with desire to imbrace it . finally , it is requisite to beget pleasure in our soules , that our appetite ( from whence desires do arise ) should receiue an alteration or change by a sweet impression , which the obiect ( being the cause ) makes in our senses . for this sweetnesse is of the essence of pleasure , which cannot subsist without her : wherefore shee consists rather in the end of the motion then in all the rest of her progresse ; therefore aristotle tearmes it , not onely a motion , but also a rest of the soule . in the mean time there are two kinds of appetites in man , that is to say , the intellectuall , which is the reasonable will , and the sensitiue , which is diuided into the irascible and concupiscible , as we haue said : the intellectuall reioyceth at good things which are conformable to reason , whereof the vnderstanding is iudge . and the sensitiue takes delight in things which concerne the senses . we also obserue this difference , that those things which delight the senses , cause a sensible alteration in the body . as in ioy wee feele our heart open and dilate it selfe ; especially if this ioy proceede from an vnexpected thing which concernes vs much , it may be so mooued and agitated , as death may follow . as it happened in those women of carthage , who hauing newes that their sonnes had beene slaine in battaile , when as they saw them liuing before their eyes : this ioy happening contrary to their hopes , they dyed suddainely . but the pleasures of reason cause no other thing then a simple motion of the will , which reioyceth the minde without any alteration of the body , vnlesse it extend vnto the senses . wherefore some affirme that this kinde of ioy is found in the essence of god , and in the nature of angels . and they are accustomed to propound a question vpon this subiect , which be the greatest pleasures , and delight most , whether those of reason , or those of the senses . but the answer is easie , for that vndoubtedly , the intellectuall and those of the minde ( if we consider them in themselues ) are more delightfull then those of the senses . and this made aristotle to say , that the sweetest and most pleasing content , wee can haue in this life , is that which proceedes from the exercises and actions of wisedome , which is spent in the contemplation of the first causes . the reason why the pleasures of the minde haue an aduātage ouer those of the body , is , for that to cause pleasure or delight in vs , there must concurre three things ; that is to say , the obiect vnited to the power ; the power to the which it is vnited ; and the actuall vnion of the one with the other , which presupposeth knowledge of this good . as for example , to beget the pleasures of our taste , there must bee delicate meates , a taste well disposed , and moreouer the vnion of these two things must bee made by the naturall organs , with his knowledge , that must receiue the impression of this pleasure . for if the most exquisite meates were put into the mouth of a man that slept , hee should receiue no pleasure , for that hee had no feeling nor knowledge . and first of all , the goods of the minde ( in the enioying whereof consist the intellectuall pleasures ) are more noble and more louely then all the goods of the senses and body : whereof we haue a notable proofe in that wee see men ( yea , most abandoned to vice ) depriue themselues of the sweetest pleasures of the body , to purchase glory , which is a good of the mind . so they sayd of caesar , who in his great inclination to loue and women , renounced all his pleasures to get the honor of a triumph . moreouer , the power of the will , in which is made the impression of these kinde of pleasures , being intellectuall : and much more excellent then the senses which are corporeall , the actions which she produceth and which are followed by these pleasures , are also more noble then those which deriue from the senses . and by consequence , the vnion which is made of spirituall obiects with the will , is farre more strict ; more worthy , and more durable , then that which happens betwixt the senses and the obiects , which they pursue . it is more strict , for that the senses regard onely the superficies of things , and doe not busie themselues but to consider the accidents which inuiron them : as colours , smelling , noyse , sweetnesse , and the like ; whereas the vnderstanding pierceth into the essence and substance of the obiects . it is more worthy , for that it is made without any alteration or corporeall change : whereas the obiect pleasing to the senses , cannot be vnited with them , but it will cause some kinde of change which is full of imperfection . it is more durable , for that the obiects of the sēses are of perishable goods which soon faile , whereas the obiects of the minde are of eternall felicity which continues for euer . yet it is true , that the obiects of the senses make a more violent impression in our soules , and that the pleasure which we receiue , toucheth vs much more then that which the spirits gathers from the obiects which are pleasing vnto it . the which happens first , for that the goods of the body are borne with vs , encrease with vs , and are preserued with vs· so as handling them daily and hourely , we haue a more exact knowledge then of the goods of the vnderstanding , which are remoued from vs. we haue said , that knowledge is necessary for the enioying of pleasures : wherefore , where this knowledge hath least power , there the pleasures are least sensible . this also happens , for that we vse pleasures as remedies and cures against the crosses , troubles , and cares of this life , which are sweetned , and as it were charmed by their presence . but most men being either indisposed , or not capable to raise themselues vp to spiritual consolations , seeke and tye themselues to pleasing obiects , which present thēselues easily to their senses . the which is fortified , for that the sweetnesse of obiects which delight our senses , are suddainely tasted , and doe not much trouble vs to seeke them . it is an infallible maxime in philosophy , that the obiects by their presence , make a more powerfull impression in our soules , then when they are absent . and those things which giue vs least paine , are most sweete in their acquisition : so as for all these considerations , the pleasures of the body seeme vnto vs greater then those of the minde . we may say in a word , that those of the senses are more sēsible , but these more perfect , & more excellent . in the mean time , all the wise men of the world exhort vs to set a careful guard ouer the pleasures of the senses , which they call the poyson of the minde . for the which wee must the more carefully prouide ; for that these passions are accompanied with a certaine sweetenesse which flatters vs at her first approach , and surprizeth our iudgement , and charmes it in such sort , as it helpes to deceiue it selfe . so as in this subiect wee must imitate those wise old men of troy , who counselled priam to send backe hellen to the grecians , and not suffer himselfe to be any longer abused with the charms of her great beauty : for that keeping her within their city , was to entertaine the siege of a fatall and dangerous warre , and to nourish a fire which would consume it to ashes . the euent did shew , that it was wisely fore-seene , and pronounced as an oracle ▪ for in the same manner wee should chase from vs the obiects of pleasures , lest they be the cause of our ruine . to which purpose an ancient said , that nature had engrafted no such pernicious desires , as those of the pleasures of the body : for that these desires growing vnbridled , doe so enflame the courages where they get possession , as they leaue nothing vndone to content their passion . whence spring treacheries and treasons , which make men to sell their friends and countrey : from thence proceedes ruines and defolation of estates , & the conspiracies against common weales . as it appeared in that of catilyne , who practized the ruine of rome : from thence the murthers , violences , burnings , and all the miseries of this life , take their spring and beginning . the reason is , for that pleasures quench the iudgement , and smother all the seedes of vertue and wisedome in man ; the which they effect more powerfully , when they are most violent : as it appeares in those which are transported with loue , who are not maisters of themselues , but suffer themselues to be wholy guided by their passions : wherefore a wiseman of the world was wont to say , that he had rather fall into frenzy , then suffer himselfe to bee surprized with pleasures ; for that , sayd hee , physitians may cure madnes , by purging the braine with helleborum , whereas pleasures depriue man of his iudgement , without hope of remedy for his infirmity . but for that there are pleasures not only of the mind , but of the body and senses , which are meerely innocent , as the pleasure we receiue by pictures , perfumes , honest exercises , and other things which bring a chast content ; it shall bee conuenient to know what the causes and obiects bee , to the end wee may of our selues iudge , which are lawfull , and which are interdicted , and to bee abhorred . first then , things necessary for preseruation of our nature , as drinking , and eating , are pleasing vnto man , and the which he vseth with a delight , which moderation and temperance make innocent . secondly , men take a singular delight in things to the which they haue beene long framed and accustomed , for that custome is as it were another nature , considering that the things whereunto wee haue bene accustomed , and whereof there is framed a long habite , by continuall exercise , haue a great affinity with those of nature . thirdly , the things which are conformable to our nature and disposition , are pleasing ; for that they force vs not in any sort , but insinuate sweetely into our senses : whereas on the other side , whatsoeuer brings any constraint vexeth vs , as studies , serious affaires , disputations , and such like , are importune and troublesome ; for that they constraine and force our inclinations , vnlesse that custome hath taken away the bitternes . whereas their contrary please vs , as rest , sleepe , play ▪ cessation from labour , sights , and such like , in which wee finde not any constraint . fourthly , whatsoeuer flatters our desires , giues vs ioy and pleasure , for that these kinds of cupidities , are properly the desires of things which we imagine are pleasing , and rauish our senses : for whatsoeuer flatters our senses , and delights our imagination , causeth pleasure and content . so euery kind of good , bee it that which is present , or past , or to come , doth giue a content by the presence or by the imagination ; for that it delights our senses , and is pleasing to our fancy , which is a delicate power , & easily toucht with the sweeetnesse of her obiect , how small soeuer . wherefore they that remember the good things which they haue tasted ▪ and those which they hope for in future , hauing these things imprinted in their fancy , feele a ioy . whereby it appeares plainely , that all pleasure and delight consists either in the feeling of things present , or in the remembrance of things past , or in the hope of those which are to come . for we taste and feele the present , we remember those that are past , and we hope for the future . and doubtlesse the things which are grauen in our memory please vs much , not only those which were sweete in the action , but euen those which we haue tasted with some bitternesse , especially when as the paines and toiles we haue indured are ended to our profite & honor : which made an ancientto say , that it was a sweete thing to remember trauailes past . so souldiers glory of their dangers past , and relate with singular content , the wounds they haue receiued in combatts . they which haue escaped dangers at sea , or made great and desperate voyages by land , haue the same content to relate the hazards and fortunes which they haue runne and surmounted . the reason of this ioy , and the cause of this content , is , for that it is a sweete thing to be freed from a mischiefe , especially when it hath giuen vs great afflictions and apprehensions . but as for that which regards things which depend of hope , all those things whose presence and enioying we imagine will bee pleasing or profitable , and which will cause vs no kind of discontent , excite pleasure in our senses , be it when we remember them , or when wee hope for them . so as whatsoeuer we imagine as a good which may befall vs , is pleasing vnto our thoughts : by reason whereof , ( as wee will shew hereafter ) we feele a content in choller , for that no man is angry , but with hope to bee reuenged , the which hee reputs for a great good . wherefore homer made achilles to say , that choller disperst it selfe in a great courage , more sweetely then hony . for as much then as what we remember or hope for , as a thing pleasing and sweete vnto our thoughts , excites ioy in our hearts , therefore most of the desires of men are accompanied with some pleasure and delight : for when as they remember how they haue plaied , or when as they imagine after what manner they hope to play , they feele a sensible content and a new ioy , which represents vnto them the image of the true enioying . as it happens to those which haue drunke with delight during a burning feuer , for they haue a certaine kind of ioy when as they remember to haue so drunke ; or when as they promise vnto themselues to drinke againe after the same manner . so they that are tormented with loue , be it that they speake of the party beloued , bee it that they write or make verses of that subiect , they feele a wonderfull content , for that in all those things , they conceiue that whom they loue is before their eyes , as in their thoughts . wherefore they hold it for a certaine signe of loue , when as any one afflicts himselfe for the absence of another , and when he takes pleasure in the teares and complaints of their separation . and it is certaine , that euen in cares and vexation , there is also a content in the teares and sighes wee powre forth for the absence of that wee loue . there is doubtlesse a griefe for that we see not the party wee loue ; but there is also a sweetnesse , for that her image presents it selfe vnto our thoughts , and sets before vs all the motions , gestures , actions , speeches , smiles , grace , sport , and whatsoeuer wee haue obserued in her when shee was truely present . reuenge also , as wee haue formerly toucht , is a sweete thing , the which doth well appeare by her contrary ; for if wee see that wee cannot reuenge the iniury which hath beene done vs , and which hath inflamed our choller , wee feele a wonderfull discontent : whereas wee are transported with ioy when as wee hope and see some appearance of reuenge . moreouer , it doth much content , and giue a singular pleasure , not onely to the ambitious , but indifferently to al sorts of persons , to vanquish and surmount those , against whom they haue any contention or dispute : for in this concurrence it seemes they dispute of the excellency and superiority , and that it is as it were , adiudged to him that obtaines the victory : and all men liuing , bee they great , meane , or base , desire , ( though some more ardently , and others with lesse passion ) to excell and surmount others . by this reason we finde there is pleasure in sports , in which there is any cōtention , as at chesse , tennis , cards , and dice ; and likewise in more serious exercises where there is any dexterity to obtaine the victory ; as in fighting at barriers , running at the ring , and tilt , or such like . wherof some are pleasing as soone as they apply themselues vnto them , and others growe pleasing by custome : as for example , they that giue thēselues to the exercise of hunting , although it bee somewhat violent ; yet they receiue a singular content , for that they must fight against sauage beasts , and aspire to get the victory . and according to that which wee haue said , that victory breeds delight , it is easie to iudge why the exercises of schooles , disputations among learned men , and the pleading of lawyers at the barre , giue a content to them that imploy themselues : the reason is , for that in these exercises , there is also an image of victory which presents it selfe vnto our eyes . glory in like manner is in the rancke of those things , which causeth delight and pleasure ; for that it consists in a certaine opinion , to be more eminent , and more excellent then other men , by reason of the esteeme the world makes of vs : for euery man imagines himselfe to bee such as others esteeme him ; especially , if they bee men which he holds to be ful of truth . wherein wee giue more credite to neighbours then to those which are remote , who can haue no exact knowledge of our merit . and wee referre more to out fellow citizens , to our household seruants , and to our familiar friends , then vnto strangers : yea , wee yeelde more to them that liue , then to posterity : we esteem more the iudgement of wise men , then of them that want wit ; and we preferre the testimony of many , before the applause of some few particulars : for that it seemes they whom we preferre , for the aboue mentioned reasons , are better informed of the truth , and more to bee credited in their dispositions . wherefore wee are better satisfied and contented , to bee in reputation with them , then with the rest of the world : for no man cares to be honored by such as are contemptible , and not regarded . wherefore if we hide our selues from infants or beasts , it is not for any fear of shame we haue of them , seeing wee know they are without iudgment , and cannot dishonor vs. it is also a sweete thing to haue a friend , seeing that the very action of loue , what obiects soeuer she propounds vnto her selfe , is wonderfully pleasing . for no man loues wine who takes not delight to drinke it . no man delights in armes which takes no pleasure in the exercise ; no man loues philosophy which is not pleased to discourse thereof . in like manner no man loues another , but hee takes pleasure in his friendship . and moreouer , it is a sweet thing to see himselfe beloued , for it is as it were a presage , that hee is indued with qualities which makes a man louely , and to be esteemed by such as haue any feeling of reason . also euery man thinks he is beloued for the loue of himselfe : the which puffes him vp , and makes him more glorious , & by consequence , fuller of content . for the same reason it is a sweete thing to excite admiration of vs in the hearts of men , for that the honor they yeeld vs , maks vs to haue a good conceit of our selues , which fills vs with ioy and pleasure : in regard whereof , flatterers charme our mindes , for that these kinde of people offer themselues vnder a shew of friendship , and admirers of our vertues . moreouer , it is a sweete thing to doe an action often that pleaseth vs , for that custome makes things easie vnto vs , & consequently pleasing . change is also delightfull vnto vs ; for that it is as it were , an imitation of nature , which is pleased in variety , & in the diuersity of things : for that which persists alwayes in one sort , frames an importune custome in its subiect , which continuing too long , comes to corrupt . where●ore it was wisely said that alterations and changes make all things more sweete and pleasant to our senses . so as they also which come againe by interualls and respits , are more pleasing vnto vs : as the returne of the spring after the sharpenesse of winter , and the arriuall of our friend after along voyage : for that these things are not onely done with a change which causeth delight , but also for that they happen rarely , and not at all times , nor in all seasons . moreouer , it is a great content to behold things which giue vs a subiect of admiration : for the wonder which they stirre vp in our soules , inflames vs , and makes vs desire to know them , and the cause of our admiration . but wee cannot learne any thing of that wee desire to know , but with extreame pleasure ; seeing it is as it were , to mount vp to the highest degree of our nature , and to eleuate it to her perfection : wherefore this admiration causeth ioy . againe , they be things full of sweetnesse and pleasure , to impart and to receiue benefits ; for that in receiuing you obtaine that which men desire ; and by giuing , you shew your selfe to haue that which others want , and that you exceede them therein ; the which we see with delight as a marke of our excellency . and as to do good is a sweet thing , it followes , that it is pleasing to ease the misery of another , to draw him out of captiuity , and to change the face of his fortune , by making him happy , who was formerly miserable . and for that any thing that breedes admiration in our soules , and giues vs any subiect to learne , is followed with pleasure : it therefore happens , that whatsoeuer consists in imitation , brings contentment , as painting , caruing , and poesy , which are all professions whose exercises are pleasing , although the things which they imitate be not alwayes delightfull . as for example , the painter leaues not to please himselfe in his art , although he drawes the portraict of a moore : nor the caruer to content himselfe in his work , althogh he cut a chimera , or that he fashiō a monster : nor a poet forbeares not to take delight in his verses , althogh they bee made vpon a mushrome , a sparrow , a flea , or some such ridiculous subiect : for that which stirres vp pleasure in the spirit of man , is not the obiect , which hath propounded it selfe , but the knowledge and iudgement hee makes to haue so well exprest this obiect , as his industry approcheth neere the truth , and is a liuely image : for that this perfect resemblance betwixt the image and the originall , teacheth him some thing which hee knew not before ; and withall , it makes him see his industry , and his labour , whereby he enters into admiration of his worke , and pleaseth himselfe to beholde the perfection of his arte. for the same reason , the euents of things not hoped for , nor expected , and the care to bee freed from those wherein there are great dangers , are accompanied with ioy , for that they happen not without amazement . in the meane time ( for that we haue said , that what is cōformable to the inclinations of nature , is pleasing ) we see , that the things which are tied by any bond of nature , & that haue any affinity one with another , as those which are of one kinde , or which haue any other naturall conformity , are delighted in the company one of another : as eagles loue eagles , lions take pleasure to bee among lions ; and men loue to see themselues among men : and for that euery thing loues that which resembles it . all men loue themselues , althogh some with more vehemency then others ; and by consequence they commend their owne workes , they esteeme their discourses , they loue commonly flatterers , who praise them , they are passionate for glory , for their friends , and for their children who are ( as wee may say ) their owne workes . and by the same reason they are pleased to finish that which they haue begunne ; which is to giue perfection to the labour of their hands . wisedome which consists in the knowledge of many excellent & admirable things , procures ioy to him that is adorned , for that it raiseth him aboue the ordinary of men , and giues him a kind of power ouer others , which man desires naturally ; and for that men are naturally ambitious of honor , they take delight to shew their authority in commanding others , and in reprehending them , they make demonstration that they cannot allow of their actions . moreoue , rman hath a singular delight to practize those things wherein he thinkes to excell ; for he is neuer tired to shew his industry , & doth willingly spend dayes and nights to become more perfect and to exceed himselfe . the which we haue seene in apelles , zeuxis , protogenes , and other excellent painters of antiquity . finally , for that the sports and recreations of the minde are pleasing , and that wee take delight to laugh , and to spend the time iouially , it followes that all the things which may ferue to that end , as iesters , their actions and words , giue vs content , and procure delight to behold them . these in some are the obiects of pleasure , which wee feele in this life ; we must now see what kind of pleasures are allowed , and which are iustly forbidden . for the explaining whereof , we must vnderstand that there haue beene philosophers , who not knowing how to set a difference betwixt the vnderstanding and the senses , and imagining there were no other pleasures but those of the body , haue condemned them generally as detestable and pernitious . but they had no reason for their assertion , seeing there is not any man that can liue without some kind of sensible and corporall pleasure ; seeing the author of nature hath vnited this kind of pleasure and sweetenesse to the actions of this life , to the end wee might with more courage indure the toyles and paines , and that they might bee as salt which seasoneth meate , and which makes it more pleasing to our taste . wee must then know that pleasure being a rest of the soule which she hath gotten by some kind of operation , there are some which being conformable to the rules of reason , and to the eternall law which god hath established among his creatures , cannot be held bad , but are meerely innocent ; as those which god hath tied to the procreation of children , when as they are tasted in a lawfull marriage , such as hee hath ordained for the preseruation of mankind . yet we must confesse , that the discordes of men do commonly peruert the vse , not keeping thēselues within the bounds of reason nor of the law of god ; the which is visible in the excesse they commit in drinking , and eating , in women , perfumes , play , dancing , and other pleasures of the body , which are seene at this day to be no other then subiects of offence : whereby we may see how infamous the opinion of the epicures was , ( from the which notwithstanding many great personages did beleeue that epicurus himselfe much dissented , affirming that hee made no account but of the pleasures of the mind , ) who with a visible reproach to humaine nature , haue placed the soueraigne good of man in the pleasure of the senses , which notwithstanding are common with bruite beasts . in like manner wee may gather what wrong they did vnto vertue , who by a notable effeminacy , represented the image of pleasure sitting in a throne like a great queene , which had vnder her the vertues , as slaues to attend her commandements . as if a man in the course of this life , should haue no other obiect in all his actions , yea in the most vertuous , then the satisfying of his pleasures , and the contentment of his senses . our resolution then is , that we must not imagine that all the pleasures of the senses are to bee reiected as pernitious , neither all to bee imbraced as beames of our soueraigne good . but as pleasure is a rest and contentment to the soule , which enioyeth some good whereof she tastes the sweetnesse ; if it bee an absolute good without exception , the pleasure is innocent and allowable to man. but if it bee a good pleasing only to the senses , and contrary to the rules of reason , and the law of god , as the pleasures of the flesh out of a chast marriage ; the effect is pernitious , and the enioying damnable . but for that we haue formerly sayd , that pleasures regard either the remembrance of that is past , or the enioying and feeling of a present good , or the hope of a future , it shal bee fit to shew which makes the most powerfull impression in our senses , and delights vs most . we must then know that pleasure taking her beginning in our soules , by the presence of a good which incounters our senses , or which vnites it selfe vnto vs by some other meanes , this presence or imaginary good is framed by the simple knowledge , and the only idea which wee haue of this good , so as the obiects wherof we haue knowledge , make an impression of their formes in our soules ▪ or else this presence consists in a real vnion of the good with our senses , whether that wee do actually enioy it , or that wee haue a certaine hope to get it . wherefore as the reall vnion of the obiect with the power is greater and more strict then that which is but imaginary ; and as the actuall vnion is stronger then that which is but in power , wee must necessarily conclude , that the sweetest pleasure is that which proceeds from the feeling and actuall enioying of the good which is really present with our senses . but the ioy which springs from hope is greater , and the pleasure more sweete , for that in this kind of ioy , there is an vnion b●twixt our soule , and the good which pleaseth vs ; not only according to the imagination , which represents vnto vs the perfections , but also with this condition , that the possession is in our power , for that otherwise wee could not hope for it . wee put in the last rancke the pleasure wee feele of good things which are past as the least of all , for that those good things not being vnited to our senses , but by the imagination and memory , which is the weakest vnion that can bee betwixt our senses and the obiects which delight them ; the ioy which we receiue must also be lesse sensible . of the effects of pleasure . chap. 2. the effects which arise from the pleasure we conceiue of the obiects which are delightfull to our sense , may be better vnderstood by experience , then expounded by words . fi●st of all , there is not any man which doth not feele in the midst of the ioy which hee receiues , his heart to dilate it selfe and as it were open with gladnesse , from whence it sends the signes & tokens to the countenance , by the laughter whic●●t ●irres vp in the mouth , where it causeth a visible change . they that are tender hearted , are apt to receiue the impressions of ioy and heauines , like vnto soft wax , wherein they do easily imprint the formes which are laid vpon them . they that haue them firme and hot by reason of the heate , conceiue ioy easily , & by reason of their constancy preserue it longer . whereas contrariwise they that haue it cold and hard , are capable of heauinesse & melancholly , which makes an impression easily , by reason of the coldnesse , with the which she hath an affinity , & maintaines it selfe long by reason of the hardnesse , as we see happen vnto melancholy men . for sadnesse is an earthly passion cold and dry , whereas ioy is moist and hot . and therefore it is easily framed in the hearts of children , of young men , and of those which are of a good complexion : from this ioy which makes the heart to spread and dilate it selfe like vnto a flower , growes laughter , which is no passion , but an exterior effect of an interior passion . for the sweetnesse of pleasure , makes the heart to moue and open to receiue the forme , euen as when wee go to meete a friend , and open our armes when he presents himselfe vnto vs. and this his motion and interior ioy ascends vp vnto the countenance , but it appeares chiefely in the opening of the mouth , whereas laughter is framed , and hath his seate , & from thence disperseth it self to the eyes and the rest of the face , although that some hold it hath his seate within man , and about his heart . but to take away all kind of difficulty , wee must vnderstand that sometimes laughter comes meerely from a corporall motion , as that which proceeds from the tickling of the arme holes , so as there haue bin seene sword players die laughing , for that they haue beene wounded in that place . sometimes it riseth from indignation and despight , which we haue conceiued of any thing we behold vnwillingly ; as we reade of hann●bal , who seeing the carthaginians lament their estates , for that the romaines were maisters of their fortunes , beganne to laugh● whereat one being amaz●d , said vnto him , that it was an act of great inhumanity to laugh at the teares of his fellow citizens ; to whom he answered , that this laughter was no signe of his ioy , but a token of his despight , for that he scorned the fruitlesse teares of those , who lamented rather their particular losse , then the misery of their common weale . but when it is an effect of our passion , and a signe of pleasure which our heart receiueth from pleasing obiects , which present themselues vnto our senses : it comes from a quicke and suddaine motion of the soule , which desiring to expresse her ioy , excites a great abundance of hot blood , and multiplies the vitall spirits , which agitate and stir vp the muscles which are about the heart , & those raise vp the muscles which are of either side of the mouth , which vpon this occasion opens with a visible change of the whole forme of the face . but it riseth from the pleasure and ioy which our soule conceiueth , by reason of the pleasing obiects which present themselues vnto our sense . it is certaine that as new things and not expected , prouoke most ioy in our hearts , so they stirre vs vp sooner to laughter . for proof whereof , hauing once accustomed our selues to see spectacles and sights , how pleasing soeuer they be , they doe not moue vs to laugh , as they did when wee first behelde them . and in like manner profound cogitations and meditations , hinder laughter : wherefore wise men doe not laugh so easily as others , as well for that they haue alwayes their spirits busied and imployed about some serious meditations , which will not suffer them to regard such triuiall things as commonly make the vulgar to laugh : as also for that the great knowledge they haue of things , hinders them from esteeming many of those things newe or strange , which the common sort admire . and withall , their complexion do●h contribute thereunto : for that most commonly it inclines to melancholy , which makes them pensiue , and more difficult to moue to ioy . the reason why many things please at the first approach , and afterwards lose this grace by custome and continuance , proceedes from nothing else , but that at the first sight our thought is ●ied vnto it with a certaine vehemency , which yeelding by little and little , makes the pleasure decay . the which is not onely seene in the obiects of the sight , whereof our eyes growing weary by little , begin to slacke in their action , and to become more negligent in beholding them ; but also in the obiects of all the other senses , wherewith our soule is loathed in the end after too long a continuance . the reason is , for that as in the action of the eyes , the vitall spirits consume by the vehemency of the attention : so in all other operations of the senses , the disposition of the organs alter , and are changed by the motion , and by the impression which the obiects that vnite themselues vnto our senses , make : so as it is impossible that the creature should long enioy one kinde of pleasure , or suffer the same griefe . and moreouer , as we haue sayd before , that diuersity , as an image of the changes of nature , is pleasing ; hath also a place in this subiect : for that men are weary alwayes to enioy the same pleasures , and see the same obiects . wherefore the continuance causeth distaste , how sweete soeuer the possession be . and therefore lucian brings in a man , who beeing made a god , was weary of his diuinity , and desired to dye , that he might bee no more : and his reason was , that the life of men did not seeme tedious vnto him , but onely for that hee still beheld the same things , one sunne , one , and the same moone ; the same starres , the same meates , and the same pleasures , which change not their face : wherfore , sayd he , tasting nothing but the same thing in this diuinity where i am , i am weary , and thereupon would needes dye to change . moreouer , there are men who are wonderfull sensible of ioy , which bee they to whom all things seem new , as children , and the ignorant multitude , whom any sights prouoke to laugh : whereas wise men are nothing mooued . the complexion doth also helpe much to ioy , as they which abound in blood , and haue it not cholericke and adust , but pure and sweete , are iouiall by nature , and loue to laugh . whereas mellancholy men are hardly mooued to ioy . the delight or pleasure which wee conceiue of the obiects , which are agreeable vnto vs , doth vsually stirre vp in vs an ardent desire , and as it were , a thirst of a new , or a more full enioying . the which proceedes either from the condition of the thing which is not capable to satisfie our desire at one instant . as we see in drinking and eating , to which we must returne diuerse times to entertaine life : or from the imperfection of enioying , as they which haue but tasted the first sweetnes of friendship , desire to haue a fuller content : like vnto those which loue poësie , who hauing heard a peece of a goodly verse , such as vergil wrote , wish to heare the rest to make their pleasure perfect ; or else it growes from the nature it selfe of pleasure , which is so sweete as it inflames the soule to desire the continuance : the which is seldome seene in the pleasures of the senses and of the body , but which is felt with infinite delight by those which drink of that torrent of pleasure , which the scripture describes vnto vs in heauen ; for they drinke eternally , and are neuer satisfied . we must also remember , that there is great difference betwixt the pleasures of the senses , and of the minde ; for the delights of the senses charging and as it were importuning our naturall dispositions , becomes troublesome and tedious ; as it falls out when we suffer our selues to be surprized with the excesse of eating and drinking . whereas those of the mind neuer exceed the carriage nor capacity of the naturall disposition of the soule , but rather adde perfectiō to her nature : wherefore when they are fully enioyed they delight most . and if there be at any time a distaste , it is for that the actiō of the mind is accōpanied with the action of the inferior powers , the which being corporeall , they are tired with the cōtinuance of so long an imployment . wherefore they call backe the spirit that it may giue some rest vnto the body . and doubtlesse it is the onely reason why those happy soules are neuer weary to behold the diuine essence , for that the contemplation of this pleasing obiect doth not ouercharge nor weaken the spirits , but doth ease and fortifie them . and moreouer , she doth not worke by the meanes of the senses , and corporeall organs , which are subiect to grow slack in their actions . i might adde , that this happy contemplation of the diuine essence , is alwayes accompanied with new subiects of admiration , in regard wherof , it can neuer be troublesome : and moreouer , although the obiect bee soueraignely simple , yet it comprehends all the good things which may fall into the thought or desire of man , so as it can neuer cause any distaste : but this belongs vnto another discourse . the pleasure of the senses produceth a pernicious and dangerous effect in vs ; it binds our reason and takes away the vse , the which happens by three occasions . the first , for that imploying the soule wholly in the feeling and enioying of the sweetenesse which doth accompany it , she retires it from the consideration of all spirituall goodnesse , and makes it lesse capable of reason , in regard of the heate of the passion which doth agitate it . secondly , for that most part of the pleasures of the body , at the least when they tend to excesse and disorder , are contrary to the motions of reason . and it is an vndoubted truth , that one contrary doth alwayes expell and destroy another ; wherefore pleasure yeeldes no place to the motions of reason . the which made aristotle to say , that although that pleasure corrupts not the theory and simple knowledge wee haue of things ; as for example , she doth not hinder vs from knowing , that a triangle hath three corners , and that the whole is bigger then its parts distinctly comprized ; yet shee depraues the iudgement , and hinders the esteeme wee should make by the lawes of wisedome , of that which is good : for that although we know well that temperance is a vertue , yet we flie it , for that it is cōtrary to the pleasures of our senses , which suffers vs not to esteeme it as we ought . the third is for that the pleasures of the senses cause a greater and a more violent alteration and change in our bodies , then that of the other passions . the reason is , for that wee imbrace with more vehemency , and tie our selues more strictly to the obiects which please vs , when they are present , then when they are absent . these changes and sensible alterations in the body , cause trouble to the soule : as it appeares in those which are surprized with wine , in whose actions there is no shew of reason ; the excesse of wine hauing altered their braine , and made them incapable of the functions of the mind . but honest and moderate pleasure , addes perfection to her actions , as beauty and a good grace giues the last ornament to youth ; aswell for that she is the end and scope which wee propound vnto our selues when we meane to worke : as also for that shee makes her actions agreeable by the content she ingrafts in our senses : so as to entertaine this pleasure shee causeth vs to imploy our selues with more heate and attention to accomplish them . wherefore an ancient sayd , that nature had ioyned pleasure to actions necessary for the entertainment of the life of creatures , or for the preseruation of their kinds , as eating , drinking , and generation , to the end it might bee as salt which seasoneth meate : that is to say , to the end it might make those actions delightfull , and that the creatures might not bee drawne vnto them with distaste . and touching that which concernes the allurements and inticements of honest pleasures , we must still remember the wise counsell of aristotle , who perswades vs not to obserue them at their first approach , but at their parting ; for that although the entry bee sweete and pleasant , the end is alwayes bitter and tragicall . they say that among the pagans there was a temple of diana , whose image did shew a sadde and seuere countenance to those that entred to worship it , but at their departure it seemed more pleasant and smiling : but it is contrary in pleasures , for at their first approach they present nothing but roses and sweete contents ; and in the end they leaue vs nothing but thornes and importune griefes ; especially for that they diuert vs from the soueraigne good , and from the loue of spirituall delights , without the which our soules can finde no solide nor soueraigne content . of griefe and heauinesse . chap. 1. as among all creatures there is not any one exposed vnto so many outrages of fortune as man , whom we may rightly tearme an image of misery and weaknes ▪ so it is most certaine , that there is not any passion wherewith hee is more afflicted in this life , then with griefe and sorrow , whose obiects present themselues continually to his sense and mind . wherefore although that by the light which we finde in contrary things when they are opposed , and compared one with another , we may iudge of the condition of griefe and sorrow , by that which we haue spoken of pleasure and delight ; yet for a more ample knowledge of a thing which is so common vnto vs , it shall be fit to treate more exactly vpon this subiect . griefe then is a violent passion of the soule , entertained by some sensible discontent : or else , griefe is a torment of the mind and body : or againe , griefe is a passion of the mind afflicted by some kind of euill which presents it selfe : or to describe it more particularly ; griefe is a passion of the soule , which riseth from a discontent she receiueth from obiects contrary to her inclinations , which present themselues vnto the senses , and afflict them . but wee must obserue that there are two kinds of griefe : the one which resides in the sensuall appetite ; and the other hath his seate in the rationall . this last which afflicts the minde , is properly called heauines , and differs from the other , for that a sensible griefe is alwayes accompanied with a visible alteration and change of the body which is moued ; whereas the griefe of the mind hath not alwayes an agitation of the body , but most commonly containes it selfe within the bounds of the power where it is framed ; in regard whereof it is sometimes attributed to god and the angells . these two kinds of griefe differ also one from another , for that the cause of the sensible griefe resides in the body , which suffers some violent impression that alters it . but the cause of the intellectuall griefe resides in the rationall part and in the mind , which represents vnto it selfe the euill which she receiues from the obiects which present themselues vnto her thought . they differ againe , for that the apprehension and knowledge which the exterior senses haue of things , they do only regard the present obiects which make an actuall impression in them ; but the vnderstanding not only conceiues things present , but euen those that are past , and which may happen , or fall vnder the imagination of man. hence it comes that corporeall griefe which followeth the apprehension , which present things make in the senses , growes onely from the presence of obiects contrary to their inclinations . whereas the griefe of the mind following the knowledge of the vnderstanding , may grow from obiects that are present , past , or to come , and from those which man doth presuppose may succeed vnto him . so as the noblest powers of our soule , and those which are the richest ornaments of our nature , as the vnderstanding , imagination , and memory , helpe to increase our paines , and to augment our afflictions : as if the presence of heauen which giues vs some prerogatiue ouer beastes , should make vs more miserable . for the most sauage beastes flie dangers , when as they present themselues vnto their eyes : but being escaped they remaine quiet and assured ; whereas we not only torment our selues ▪ for the euill which doth oppresse vs ; but euen for which is not yet happened . but you must vnderstand that to speake properly , griefe which is one of the passions of the soule , is that which is framed in the sensitiue appetite , with a visible alteration of the body , which is agitated and moued exteriorly by the euill or paine which it suffers : so as the cause doth reside in the body which receiues some kind of outrage . but the motion of griefe is alwayes framed in the soule , for that the body is not capable but by the presence of the soule . wee must also remember , that as to excite pleasure in our senses , the pleasing obiect must not only be vnited , but also knowne and perceiued by the senses , as we haue formerly obserued ; so to cause griefe , the afflicting obiect must touch our senses , so as by the imp●●ssion it makes , th●y must p●rc●iue : at it 〈◊〉 painefull . for it is certaine that as there is no good but that which is sensibly present , can cause pleasure to the senses , so there is not any but a present euill can procure a sensible griefe . but vnder the obiect of griefe we comprehend not only the euill which afflicts vs , but also the good which we haue lost . for euen as the weight of bodies causeth that not only they haue an inclination to rest in the center ▪ but also is the cause that they are neuer farre remote without suffering a visible violence in their nature : so men are naturally carried not only to loue , but with a sensible griefe of their losse . so the couetous man torments himselfe for the losse of his wealth ; the voluptuous is grieued to see an end of the obiects of his content ; the mother afflicts her selfe for her only son ▪ & we see many who after good cheare , great feasts , and dancings , hauing spent the time in all kind of pleasures , suddenly grow heauy and pensiue ; and yet can giue no reason of this sudden change , which proceeds only from the disquietnesse of our minds , which grieues at contentments past , and afflicts it selfe , the which makes him heauy ; and this heauinesse conuerts into melancholy , which augments his anguish , and torments him without any other forme of euill , that presents it selfe vnto his senses . as for the causes of griefe and heauinesse , being consisidered in regard of their subiects where they incounter , we obserue three . for first of all , our cupidities and desires , do many times cause great vexation and discontents , as when any one is surprized with the loue of a pleasing obiect , if they hinder the enioying , or but only delay the possession , they are so many thornes of griefe which pierce his soule . for as the hope to obtaine the possession causeth pleasure and delight ; so the despaire to attaine vnto that we passionatly desire , giues cruell afflictions and insupportable torments . moreouer , the loue wee beare to the preseruation of our bei●g , doth oftentimes cause sorrow and 〈…〉 , for that we apprehend the destruction ; euen as wee see all creatures afflict thēselues for that which offends them , and are very carefull to shelter their bodies from all outrage . wherefore wee may say , that griefe is no other thing , but an apprehension and feeling of the destruction of our good , which makes vs impatient . thirdly , the soule helpes to afflict herselfe , whether that melancholy workes this effect , or that the continuall afflictions oppresse her in such sort , as she doth nothing but sigh vnder the burthen of sorrow , and like vnto a bad pilot which abandons his ship to the waues and storme , shee suffers her selfe to be so ouercome with griefe , as she augments her owne paine and increaseth her misery . for we often see men who in the middest of their afflictions and discontents do nothing but sigh and powre forth teares , and will not yeeld themselues capable of any kind of consolation . but although wee shew our selues more sensible of the griefe of the senses , then that of the mind , yet it is most certaine , that the interior griefes which afflict the soule , are much greater then the exterior paines which torture the body . for that the apprehension of the mind and imagination , is much more powerfull , and more noble then that of the senses , and especially then that of feeling which hath the greatest share in corporeall paines . for proofe whereof , wee see great courages to auoyd inferior griefe , expose themselues voluntarily to the exterior paines of torments and punishments , which are in some sort pleasing vnto them , for that the interior ioy doth mollifie their paine : whereof wee haue glorious examples in the constancy of our martyres , who to auoyd the blame and aspersion which had bene layd vpon them , to haue offended god in burning incense to idolls , haue exposed themselues to the fire , to tortures , to wheeles , and to the rage of wilde beasts , for that they would not bee subiect to that ignominious reproach . finally , heauines hath troublesome effects , for that first of all , if it be excessiue , it quencheth the spirit , and takes from it all meanes to attend the search of truth . the reason is , for that all the powers of our soule , being tied vnto their essence , as the branches vnto the tree , it doth of necessity follow , that when shee is wholy busied in the functions of one of her powers , shee abandons the rest , and cannot assist them in their actions . wherefore when as any thing drawes the soule wholy vnto it , and imployes her whole action , shee cannot attend any thing else : by consequence whereof , an exceeding heauines seazing vpon her , it drawes her away ; so as shee cannot thinke of any thing else , feeling her selfe opprest with griefe as with a heauy burthen , which beares her downe and hinders the liberty of her functions . it is therefore generally true , that there is no action of the soule whereunto heauines is not a hindrance and let . the which we find verified in our selues , for wee neuer do any thing so well being possest by cares as when we are in ioy ; whereof the reason is visible ; for that the will is the cause which excites vs to act , the which hath the good for obiect , and makes the more powerfull effect , when it appeares pleasing and is accompanied with delight . it is true , that when there remaines any hope to surmount the causes of our displeasure , then heauines may serue to fortifie our action and to inflame our courage ; for that the more we feele any griefe , the more wee striue to bee freed from it . but if there be no hope remaining , we become as it were senselesse , and abandon our selues in prey to griefe . we flee the company of men , we hate the light , wee find the comforts and consolations of our friends importune , and we haue no content but to feed our selues with bitternesse . besides the torments which heauines giues vnto our spirits , she doth also produce fearefull effects vpon our bodies ; for that it is a maligne , colde and dry passion , which wasteth the radicall humor , and by little and little quenching the naturall heate of the body , thrusts her poyson euen vnto the heart , whose vigor shee causeth to wither , and consumes the forces by her bad influence ; whereof wee see the signes after death , when as they come to open those that haue beene smothered with melancholy . for insteed of a heart , they find nothing but a drie skinne like to the leaues in autumne . so as all things exactly considered , we may say , that there is not any thing that doth so much aduance our dayes as this cruell passion , which thus consumes our forces , causeth our heart to languish , and makes our life short , but extreamely miserable . there are many remedies against this passion , but most commonly the griefe is so obstinate , as all applications are vnprofitable . to cure it , we must first take away , or at the least diminish the opinion of the euill which afflicts vs : the which is easie to do , seeing it depends of our opinion . for as dignities , honors , crownes , and triumphs , giue vs no content , but what wee take our selues when as they arriue ; for that we haue seene many weepe euen in the middest of all this pompe : so the paines of this life , ignominies , banishment , the losse of goods and kinsfolkes , with all other miseries , afflict vs not extraordinarily , vnlesse wee our selues make them more bitter and violent by our owne weaknesse ; for that we haue seene many laugh in the middest of all these miseries : wee must then represent these things otherwise then the vulgar esteeme them ; for that the true cure of the euill must not bee expected from time , but by our reason , which must preuent it . otherwise wee shall receiue this disgrace , that it will cause vs to do that we would not , although it were in our power . for there is no griefe so bitter but time doth moderate , seeing that , as wee haue sayd , the greatest pleasures decrease by too long enioying , which causeth our soule to grow slacke ; so it is most certaine that excessiue sorrow by little and little decayes , by the continuance and custome which the soule takes of the griefe . the which may also happen , for that time doth change the condition of things and giues them another face , and so doth mollifie or wholy take away the sorrow . but not to yeeld to the euill when it comes to seaze vpon vs , we must foresee the accidents of this life , not as if they should happen infallibly , for that were to make vs miserable before the time ; but as incident to all men , and that being of this number , if any crosse or misery shall fall vpon vs , we may bee the lesse amazed . for the crosses of fortune which wee haue foreseene , strike vs more gently , and make a weaker impression in our soule . wherefore a wiseman of the world , who had prepared himselfe for all the accidents of this life , receiuing the heauy newes of the death of his sonne , was no otherwise moued , but only sayd , i knew i had begotten a mortall creature . doubtlesse it is the effect of an exact and singular wisedome , to haue this feeling of humaine accidents , not to bee amazed at that which happens , nor to see any thing befall him , which he hath not foreseene . so as a wiseman must alwaies remember , that dangers , losses , banishment , infirmities , yea the death of his children , wife , and that which he holds most deare , are things which may happen dayly , and which threaten all men ; and therefore if hee bee exempt , it is the benefite and guift of god ; and if they befall him , that they are the miseries of his nature . for hauing this consideration of the common miseries of men , he finds himselfe bound ●o suffer constantly and with patience , the necessities and crosses of this life : least he should seeme to fight against god , who hath layd this yoake vpon him , to punish his offences , or to keepe him in awe . but to mollifie our sorrowes , wee must remember that the miseries of this life giue vs a glorious subiect to exercise our vertue , and to shew our constancy before the eyes of heauen and earth , which are witnesses of our combatts . for as pilots cannot shew their art and industry but in stormes , nor soldiers giue proofes of their valour but in the middest of dangers : so a vertuous man hath no meanes to make his vertues shine , but amiddest the aduersities which befall him in this life ; as for example , wee should haue knowne nothing of the great resolution of sceuola , if hee had not fallen into danger before the king of the tuscanes , who was rauisht with admiration , seeing with what constancy he burnt his own hand , & suffered without amazement the violence of the fire , into the which hee thrust it , for that he had fa●ld of his enterprize . neither should wee know the notable temperāce of fabrititus , nor the moderation he shewed in refusing the gold and presents of pyrrhus king of albania , if pouerty had not bene familiar vnto him . so regulus being pierced with nailes , and torne in pieces with punishments , seruing as a spectacle of the carthiginians in humanity , purchased an immortall name for his constancy . so socrates seeing himselfe condemned to drinke poyson , and beholding the cup into the which the hangman powred that mortal draught without any palenesse or amazemēt , deserued to be admired by his enemies . after their example , then a wiseman will conceiue , that the afflictions of this life offer him a goodly occasion to shew his constancy , and to make his vertues shine ; and therefore they shall not be able to afflict him immoderatly , nor to torture his minde extraordinarily : but that which should most fortifie him in this thought , is , that god which doth cast him into the middest of these combatts , will crowne his constancy , and not suffer him to remaine without reward . moreouer , we may also striue to diuert it by some pleasing imployment , which may cause vs to turne our eyes from the fearefull image of the euill which afflicts vs , representing vnto our selues obiects which are more sweet and delightfull , then those which torture vs so cruelly . finally , to draw together as it were into one body , all the meanes wee haue to charme our cares & griefes ; heauines is disperst , ether for that wee see our selues freed from the euill which did persecute vs , or that wee recouer the possession of the good which had beene wrested from vs , and wee had lost : or else for that the misery wherewith wee haue beene crost , is as it were recompenced by some other felicities which befall vs ; as the sweetnesse of these last contents , takes away all the bitternesse of our forepassed afflictions , as would befall him that should be drawne out of prison and from bonds , to bee set in a royall throne , and to haue a scepter put into his hand , and a crowne vpon his head . griefe is also dispersed by diuertisments , by affaires , by the entertainment of wisemen , by the discourse of such as are learned and feare god , and by the force of our owne iudgement , conceiuing with our selues that we should not suffer any misery to triumph ouer our constancy ; that to suffer our selues to bee vanquished by griefe , were to shew the weaknesse of our courrage ; and that to bee toucht with afflictions , is a thing common to all men , but the glory of this constant oppositiō ▪ belongs only to an eminent vertue . and lastly , that he who sends vs these afflictions , is a father , and no executioner : that it is that great god , without whose decree there falls not a haire from our heads , & whose will no man may contradict , vnlesse hee will shew himselfe desperately mad . after all this we must remember , that griefe is neuer cured , but rather inflamed by griefe . and therefore as in other infirmities of the soule , a greater euill makes the lesse to be forgotten , so wee may disperse a present heauinesse , either by shewing that it is not the present misery which we must lament , but others that are more cruell , which threaten vs : as if hee who is afflicted for the losse of his goods bee in danger to lose his life , by publicke iustice : or else in fortifying our resolutions with a better hope , as in representing vnto himselfe the glory of paradise , after the miseries of this life , and the crownes of heauen after the combatts of the earth . all these things make great impressions in religious soules , capable of the feeling of piety . besides all this , there are remedies which are taken from the obiects of the senses , which recreate the mind and body in the middest of griefe . for first , whatsoeuer delights and giues ioy vnto the senses , causeth ease to the heauinesse of the soule ; for that ioy is to the soule that which rest is to the body . so as they which rest repaire their forces , mollifying the paine which hath tyred thē ; so they which begin to taste any sweete pleasures , feele their griefe to decay by little and little , and their heauinesse to vanish away & go to smoake . wherefore it is fit to draw them that are afflicted , into the fields , to enioy a free aire and the sight of heauen . it is good to shew them haruest , riuers , meadows , and hills ; for that these diuerse obiects diuert the afflicted soule , and make it forget a part of its griefe , so as all hideous shapes are defaced by the presence of these sweeter obiects . some haue thought that musique consorts and instruments , are fit to charme our melancholies , whereunto they referre that which the scripture sayth , that dauid by the sound of his harpe did pacifie the euill spirit which tormented saule , but experience hath taught vs , that all these things do many times rather entertaine melancholy then disperse it . wherefore in this subiect wee must obserue the nature of the infirmity , and the quality of the musique , which must be cheerefull to driue away heauinesse . the vse of wine hath also a particular vertue to expell cares : and we haue seene in our time a great prince desperately afflicted for the death of his only sonne , could finde no other remedy for his griefe , then to vse the strongest wine that could be gotten . the reason is , for that wine being moist and hot , it doth at one instant both water sweetly , and heat that bilious humor , which is as it were the center & roote whereunto melancholy doth fixe it selfe . sleepe also and the vse of bathes , are very behoouefull ; for that both the one and the other reduce nature to her first habite , and restore her good constitution which griefe had corrupted ; the which disperseth heauinesse , and causeth ioy to enter into the afflicted soule . teares are also proper to disperse heauinesse : yea wee finde many times in our bitterest griefes , that teares diminish our paine , and mollifie our miseries how sharpe soeuer . the which happens for two reasons . the first , for that the things which are pernitious vnto vs and remaine inclosed within vs , hurt vs more then when they are without : but when wee powre forth teares , we cast out that which afflicts vs , & emptying the humor which oppresseth vs , and smothers vs within , by this meanes we free our selues from a heauy burthen which lay vpon our hearts , by reason whereof our soule helping her selfe to cast out the enemy of our life diuerts and frees her selfe from the importune thought of griefe , and imployes her imaginatiō in this diuertisement , the which for this occasion is pleasing vnto her , and doth ease her in her afflictions . the second reason is , for that it is a contentment to man , to do an act befitting the estate wherein hee finds himselfe . so as if amiddest the mourning of our friends , we chance to laugh vnaduisedly , when wee enter into consideration with ourselues , this lightnesse doth displease vs , for that laughter agrees not well with mourning ; and there is nothing doth accord and concurre better with the condition of miserable men thē teares , wherefore they are pleasing vnto them , and by consequence sweeten their torments . and not onely the teares which afflicted persons poure forth are sweete vnto thē , but euen those of their friends do comfort them : whereof wee may yeeld two reasons , the one , for that naturally they who grone vnder any burthē , feele his hand sweete , which labours to discharge them , or which helpe to support them . so friends from whom pitty and compassion wrest teares in the middest of their friends misery , endeauoring as it were to ease him of the burthen which doth presse him downe , sweeten his paine , and make him endure his affliction with more constancy and resolution . the other , for that he that sees his friends participate with his griefe , knowes thereby that their affections are sound , and that they loue him sincerely ; which is the sweetest thing that may happen in this life : wherfore this thought makes his affliction more supportable ; whereby hee comforts himselfe in his discontent . but all these remedies are not so powerfull against griefe , as the contemplation of the first truth , which dispersing her beames in our soules , fills them with so pleasing a splendour , as they remaine rauisht with ioy and content . for it is certaine that this kind of contemplation is so sweete and delightfull of it selfe , as it expells and disperseth all his cares and griefe that applies himselfe vnto it . the which shee workes the more powerfully , if the soule be enflamed with the loue of true wisedom , which consists in the contemplation of the first cause , which is god. so as the soule reioyceth in the middest of the afflictions of this life , thinking still of the sweete idea's of the glory of heauen . in regard whereof some martyres haue giuen a thousand testimonies of ioy in the midst of their torments : and some marching bare-footed vpon burning coales , haue protested constantly and truely , that they thought they trod vpon roses . but we haue spoken sufficiently of griefe in generall , let vs now come vnto the buddes which she produceth , and to the species in particular , which are contayned vnder the generall , as miserie , indignation , enuy , and emulation , without the explayning whereof this treaty would be imperfect . of mercy and indignation . chap. 2. although there bee some philosophers who obseruing the impression and wound which the pitty wee haue of another mans miseries makes in our hearts , haue absolutely condemned al the motions of this passion , as vnworthy the greatnesse of our courrages : yet we must confesse , that amidst so many strange accidents which happen in the course of this life , amiddest the great pou●rties and miseries of men , the cruel infirmities , banishments , tortures , punishments , shipwracks , burnings , slaughters , and all other calamities aswell priuate as publicke which makes them miserable ; they must haue abandoned all feeling of humanity if they should not be toucht with griefe when as these miseries offer thēselues vnto their eyes . for notwithstanding the saying of these philosophers , that great spirits in the which vertue hath taken deepe roote , see all things without perturbation , and wipe away the teares of those that weepe without any motion : that is to say , that men perfectly vertuous giue almes to the poore , stretch forth their hands vnto him that is in danger of shipwracke , vntie the bonds of those that are in seruitude , giue liberty to a sonne for the teares of his mother , interre the bloody carcasse of him who hath bene transpierced with wounds , and yet his heart is not toucht with any feeling of all these miseries ; yea and in these accidents they retaine still the same countenance with the which they behold playes & shewes vpon a theater . these are words which haue more shew and pompe then solide truth . let vs then leaue this inhumaine philosophy which makes men rather stupid then constant , & to become insensible of the miseries of this life ; and let vs consider more exactly of the true nature of this passion , which giues vs a commendable feeling . mercy is a griefe or feeling which we haue of another mans miseries , whom we hold worthy of a better fortune . this feeling and griefe is framed in our soules , for that we consider , that what hath befallen him may happen to all the world : and particularly for that wee imagine that the like misfortune may ouertake vs , or some one of our friends : for it is most certaine that such as feele their hearts toucht with pitty , must bee in that estate as they thinke that either themselues or their friends may fall into the like accident , and runne into the same misfortune that he hath done , whose misery doth moue them to this commiseration . wherefore first of all , they that are at the height of humaine miseries , and cannot feare a more wretched condition then that whereunto they are reduced , are neuer toucht with any kind of compassion , for that no kinde of griefe presents it selfe vnto their eies but they think they haue tried it . and also for that they imagine that all the afflictions which may happen , are as it were mixed with those they suffer . secondly , they that at the height of worldly felicity , haue no feeling of pitty , but are rather transported with insolency and contempt , then to haue any compassion of the miserable . for imagining themselues to enioy all kind of ioyes & contentments , they presume that no disaster can befall them which may ouerthrow their fortunes , for that this confidence is as a part of their felicity . this second consideration made aristotle to say , that mercy had no place in the diuine essence ; for that it is soueraignely happy , and that nothing is able to trouble or diminish her felicity . but here he considers mercy as a sensible passion which doth moue and mollifie the heart , and doth imprint a feeling of another mans misery in his soule which desires to releeue him . and of this sort without doubt there can bee no mercy found in god , who is as free from humaine passions , as the heauens and plannets are exempt from the qualities and impressions of the elements : but taking mercy according to her effect , which is to releeue the miserable , were to ruine mankind which subsists by his bounty , to deny that it is in him : for this soueraigne felicity which hee enioyeth from all eternity , without any apprehension that he may euer lose it , doth not hinder him to releeue vs in our afflictions , & to draw vs out of our misery , by the sole inclination of his bounty , who hath nothing common with the hardnesse of tyrants , nor with the stupidity of the wretched . but let vs returne to our discourse . they that are capable of mercy , are such as first of all imagine themselues to bee subiect to the accidents of this life , and who haue already tried and escaped them , or which apprehend to feele the rigor . and for this reason they which haue liued long are commonly inclined to pitty , both for that experience hath taught them that neither diademe nor crowne , nor riches , honors , health , nor present prosperities , can shelter man from the stormes and tempests which assaile his life ; as also for that age filles them with iudgement and makes them wise , not to trust to fortune , which seemes to haue no other constancy , but alwayes inconstant in the fauours which she bestowes vpon vs. in like manner men subiect to infirmities , weake persons and destitute of meanes , who see themselues exposed to all kinds of outrages ; yea and learned men who haue the knowledge of the accidents and miseries of this life , are easily moued to pitty , for that they can duely consider of things , and iudge vprightly of the affaires of the world . wherefore an excellent and wise romane captaine , hauing defeated a mighty king of macedon in battaile , when as they brought this miserable prince prisoner vnto him , hee rose from his seate , and with teares in his eyes went to meet him , as a great personage fallen by some misfortune , or by the wrath of the gods , into that lamentable accident : and hauing cast himselfe at his feete , hee could not endure it , but raisd him vp with all humanity . afterwards retiring himselfe , and thinking deepely of the miseries of this life , he made a speech vnto his children and to the young men that were about him , to purge their soules from all insolency and vanity , by so prodigious an example of humaine frailty . but wee must returne to our discourse . they that haue wife , children , and a great number of friends , are also inclined to pity , for that as we haue said , they still apprehend the common miseries , and think that the like misfortunes hang ouer their families . but they that are transported with a violent passion of courage , choller , or hardinesse , are nothing moued ; for that the heate of their blood ▪ and the excesse of their passion , will not suffer them to thinke seriously of these things , and to care for future euents . an extraordinary feare doth also hinder the feeling of pitty , for that they which are seazed therewith , being tied to their priuate miseries , haue no time to thinke of another mans . so he that hath lost his children , or seene his house burnt , thinkes not of him that is led to the gallowes , or to bee broken on a wheele . but we put in the ranke of those which are touched with pitty , those soules which haue not yet lost all feeling of mankind , but beleeue that there are yet good men liuing in the world . for they that imagine there are no vertuous persons vpon earth , perswade themselues also that all men deserue the miseries they suffer , and by that reason beleeue that they are vnworthy of compassion : whereof we haue a monstrous example in that athenian , who had no pleasure in this world but to see the ●●ine of mankind . finally men suffer thēselues to be moued ●o pitty , when as they remember that they haue groned vnder the burthen of afflictions which they see other men endure : or when as they apprehend the ●ike calamities may befall them or their friends . but let vs see what things are worthy of pitty and compassion . they are generally all those which cause griefe to the mind , or torment to the body : those which take away life ; make families desolate , and cause some gre at changes and alterations in the fortunes of men . as for example , punishment , violent deaths , disgraces , pouerty in age , incureable diseases , great languishings , & insupportable want , or extreame pouerty , treachery , or losse of friends , burnings , and shipwracke , are all miserable things and excite to pitty . wee may also put in this rancke the monstrous deformities of counterfaite bodies , the accidents of limmes lamed , or benummed , and the ruines which happen to men by the treachery of those from whom they should expect all support . wee may also comprehend the miseries which befall vs often , or which happen after other accidents . and in like manner the benefits which come out of season : as if a prince should send presents of gold and siluer to one that were dead of hunger . finally , it is a miserable thing neuer to haue felt any good or contentment in this life , or if any hath happened , not to haue had meanes to enioy it . but for that these obiects of misery do not alwayes make an equall impression in our senses , we must now know who they bee whom wee do chiefely pitty , when we see them ingaged in any misery . first of all , wee are greatly moued to compassion and mercy to those persons whom we haue knowne familiarly , and with whom we haue had some kind of friendship , at the least if they be not strictly tied vnto vs by naturall affinity and blood : for as for those which touch vs so neere , we haue a feeling more violent then that of pitty . in regard whereof wee reade of amasis king of egypt , who seeing his own son drawne to execution , he neeuer shed one teare , as if he had had no feeling ; whereas perceiuing one of his friends opprest with pouerty and begging his bread , hee wept bitterly , thinking that teares were not sufficient to witnesse his first griefe , but they were due vnto the second . in like manner those strange accidents which happen to those of our blood and which touch vs so neere , are full of horror & amazement , and by their excesse suppresse our teares , yea and depriue vs of our speech , as if the spirit were wholy retired to consider of the violence of our griefe ; whereas the miseries of our other friends mollifie our courrages , and by the wound they make in our hearts , send teares vnto the eyes , which we powre forth , and are as it were the blood of that part wounded and opprest with affliction . moreouer , men haue pitty of those whom they see neere vnto some great misfortune : as when they are ready to be buried in the waues of the sea by some accident of shipwracke ; or of those who are to haue a member cut off , or to receiue some notable violence , yea or some indignity . particularly men are toucht with pitty , when as they that are exposed to outrages , or endure great calamities , are their equalls in age , in humors , in quallities , in exercise , or in breeding . for all these things make deepe impressions in the thought , that they are subiect to the like miseries ; wherefore they are moued to take cōpassion of their miseries , being an ordinary thing to pitty those which suffer any affliction , which we ourselues apprehend . and to the end we may be sensible in the feeling of a misfortune which befalls another , wee must haue it as it were present before our eyes : for that we are not much moued with those miseries whose forme is remote from vs. as for example , wee are not much moued to teares by the relation of the miseries which the slaues of byserte and algier endure . and in like sort our hearts are not much mollified for any tragicall accident which happened a thousand yeares since , neither do we care much for that which shal succeed after the reuolutions of many ages . wherefore in old time the romans to moue the magistrates to mercy , striued to make a more sensible impression of their miseries , by causing their wiues , children , and families to come desolately vnto the place of iustice : and as for themselues they appeared in iudgement with garmēts befitting their fortunes , all filthy and torne ; they opened their breasts & other parts of their bodies , to shew the wounds they had receiued in the seruice of the common wealth : yea they caused tables to bee drawne where their misfortunes were painted ▪ the which they presēted vnto their iudges , to the end that hauing before their eies so mourneful a spectacle , they might take cōpassion of their misery ; being most certaine that the voice , attire , carriage , countenance , gesture , and presence , of the miserable , make powerfull impressions in our hearts , and incite men more to pitty : the which happens for that these things make vs as it were present by the sight of another mans misery . and therefore a bloody roabe , ( as that of caesar murthered in the senate ) being showne to expresse the misfortune of a prince , did not onely wrest forth teares , but euen inflame the people to reuenge so pittifull an accident . for the same reason wee feele our selues much touched with griefe and pitty , when as wee heare the complaints , sighes , teares , and lamentation , of these which are opprest by some notable calamity : as when we behold the agonies of those that are exposed to a cruell and shamefull death : and we are the more moued to pitty and commiseration , when they are worthy and vertuous men , whose vertue and glory past , makes their ends the more lamentable and tragicall , for this consideration moues vs the more , both for that the euill is neere vs , and that our eyes are spectators , as also for that the image of their vertue , and the glory of their precedent liues , increaseth the indignity of their punishment . of indignation . chap. 3. as mercy or pitty is a signe of a good soule , so this other passion which we cal indignation , and which is no other thing but a grieuing & repining wee haue at the good fortune which befalles the wicked , who are altogether vnworthy , is very commendable in vs. for as pitty is framed of the griefe which we feele for the miseries of good men , or whō we iudge worthy of better fortunes ; so indignation proceeds from the discontent we receiue to see the wicked flourish and enioy the worldly blessings which they haue not deserued ; so as either of these passions is commendable , for that as wee should afflict our selues to see vertuous men ouertak●n by mi●fortunes , from the which their vertue should exempt them : so we should bee greiued to see men execrable for their crimes , aduanced to the height of honors and wordly dignities , which good men should enioy . for whatsoeuer befalls a man contrary to his merrit , is full of outrage and iniustice ; wherefore aristotle did not forbeare to say , that indignation is a thing which is found euen in the diuinity , to the which the prosperities of the wicked cannot be pleasing . but to enter into the matter , you must vnderstand , that as indignation is a griefe which wee feele , & a despight which we conceiue at the great prosperity of those whom wee hold vnworthy for their crimes , yet this passion is not framed in our soules for all kind of prosperities which may befall them : for that no man hath any reason to bee troubled to see the wicked change their life vnto a better , to imbrace piety , to become iust , valiant , moderate , wise , and adorned with other vertues . yea , the most innocent soules reioyce whensoeuer they see a man who was formerly vicious and disordered , become vertuous and temperate . there being no man liuing that is vnworthy of vertue , seeing that vertue by her presence doth extinguish vice , and makes man worthy of the blessings of this life ; whereas they that are destitute of this ornament , deserue them not . so as if hee who was formerly wicked , becomes vertuous , by this change hee makes himselfe worthy of all good fortune , and therefore if any happen vnto him we should not be grieued ; as in like manner wee should not take pitty of those who remaine obstinate in their crimes , and glory in their vices . the goods then which we grieue and disdaine to see the wicked enioy , are the goods of the body and those which we call of fortune , that is to say , nobility , beauty , honors , scepters , crownes , empires , and such like . as for example , there is no good man but doth grieue and tremble to see the tyrants of the east , the cruell and infidell race of the ottomans hold the goodliest scepter , enioy the richest citties , and command ouer the most powerfull prouinces of the world . and in like manner there are no vertuous soules that can without griefe & indignation see other wicked men to flourish and abound in all sorts of honor and riches . but especially our despight is inflamed , when as they are men who haue crept vp to the height of glory in an instant , and when they are very prodigies of fortune , being aduanced before they were in a manner knowne to bee in the world , or at the least were in any sort respected . for as for those which hold their nobility from precedent ages , who are rich by succession and inheritance , and who hold all the aduantages they haue from nature , although they be altogether vnworthy , yet wee endure them with lesse impatiency then we do new men , who are risen to a monstrous prosperity in one day . the reason is , for that they which enioy their glory and riches from their ancestors , seem to haue nothing but what belongs vnto them by the right of nature and blood ; whereas men aduanced to new honors , without merite , seeme to bee rich with the spoyles of vertue , and to enioy the goods which in no sort belong vnto them . and for the same reason , although that sometimes the goods of the body , as beauty , health , and disposition , meeting in men which deserue them not , may raise in our soules some clouds of indignation and despight to see these presents of nature so vnworthily prophaned ; yet wee do not conceiue so galling a discontent , as when we see them enioy the goods which we call of fortune , as charges , dignities , offices , the gouernment of state , and the mannaging of great affaires ; all which things seeme to bee due to vertue . for this cōsideration it is an insupportable thing , to see a man of the common sort , wholy destitute of vertue , and full of all vice , attaine to the first dignities of a realm , and in the twinckling of an eye to become as powerfull as the greatest princes . and there is no doubt but all good men tremble when they see these prodigious aduancements of persons taken from the scumme of the people , without any consideration of merit . yea these sudden changes are as it were odious , & contrary to nature which requires time in her actions . and for the same reason wee see , that the people submit themselues willingly vnder the obedience of a prince who holds the scepter of his ancestors , and is come to the crowne by the right of succession ; but when they seeke to giue them a new maister , which is not issued from the extraction of their kings , they cannot endure him , but easily shake off the yoake whereunto they haue not bene accustomed . and in like manner , no man is grieued to respect them that are descended from ancient nobility , but they can hardly yeeld honor to those whose nobility is but newly discouered . the reasō is , for that men beleeue , that the ancient nobility being in possession of this glory , no man should repine to yeeld him that which time hath gotten him , which is a right in a manner equall to that which nature giues ; for that the things which we enioy by a long continuance of yeares , seeme to be gotten and held as it were inpropriety , not by the indulgence of men , but by the bounty of nature . and withall that which hath continued so long , hath a greater affinity with the truth , whose lasting is eternall , then that which is but newly sprung vp within few dayes . but there is one thing that filles our soules with indignation , when as wee see any one enioye those goods , which haue no coherence with his quallity : as when ( to the great reproach of piety ) wee see a knight , a captaine , a souldier , or any other making profession of armes , to hold bishopprickes , to enioy abbeys , and to possesse other dignities of the church ; we hold this much more vnworthy , then if they gaue the charge of campe-maisters , and of colonels of foote or horse to religious men or bishops . or if they made a singing man or clarke of the kings chappell , generall of his armies . finally , we hold it a thing very vnworthy , to see a yong man inferior in all kind of qualities to a reuerent old man , contest with him of merit and glory ; especially when it falles out betwixt men of the same profession , betwixt whom this inequalitie is remarkeable . and admit they be not men of the same profession , yet we hold it an vnworthy thing that one who is inferior in all poynts to another , should contest against him . as if a musitian would equall himselfe to a president or counsellor of the court , remembring not that the charges of iustice are farre more honorable then the profession of musicke ; this would make all men to tremble which know what difference there is betwixt gold & lead . they which easily conceiue indignation , are first of all men indowed with some eminent quality , who see themselues reiected from dignities and offices , or which see men altogether vnworthy , aduanced to the same honours whereunto they haue attayned by their vertue : for doubtlesse it is no iust thing to place so vnequall persons in the same ranke . moreouer vertuous soules and adorned with bounty , haue a great disdaine to see good men depriued of the iust reward of their vertue , and the wicked raised to honours which they could not hope for . the cause is , for that those soules haue their iudgement pure , and can esteeme things according to their weight and value : and therefore they abhorre vice , and haue vertue in singular recommendation . againe , they that loue honors and charges , are subiect to indignation , especially when as they aspire to those places which are held by vnworthy persons . in like manner , they that haue a good opinion of themselues , and ●ho beleeue they deserue ●ore then all the world besides , are subiect to the motions of indignation , when as any one enters into comparison with them . whereas contrariwise ▪ seruile soules , men borne in barbarisme , and grosse spirits , are not transported with any thing , hauing nothing in them that may quicken this passion . yet there are some which do rather referre the motions of ambitious & presumptuous men to meere enuy , then to a iust indignation : for that indignation being a commendable passion , & which proceeds from the feeling of vertue , it cannot subsist with the vanity and arrogancy which accompany those men , but it must bee another passion which kindles in their soules this kind of despight . of enuy and emulation . chap. 4. as crocodiles haue their breeding , and liue in the goodliest and richest riuer in the world ; and as other venemous beasts are commonly found among the most exquisite and sweetest flowers , whose grace and beauty they pollute and corrupt ; so enuy which is a venemous and maligne passion , doth commonly assaile the most vertuous men , and such as haue attained to the greatest honor & glory in the world . wherefore one of the most famous captaines of antiquity , being yet in the flower of his age , was wont to say , that he knew hee had done nothing that was generous or commendable , for that he did not find any man that did enuy him : which shewes that there can bee nothing imagined in this world more vniust or more wicked then this infamous passion , which seekes her owne torment , and finds her punishment in the glory and contentments of another . it is also the reason why men are ashamed to confesse openly that they are troubled with this passion : and being conuicted , they labour to palliate their error , yea , they had rather accuse themselues of all other imperfections then to iustifie this ; and therefore they giue it other names , excusing themselues that it is not enuy , but hatred , feare , or choller , which transports them : the which is a silent confession they make , that of all the infirmities of the soule , they should most dissemble it , least they expose themselues to a visible shame and disgrace . but before we blame it , we must first know it with her nature and properties . enuy then is a griefe , which is framed in our soules by reason of the prosperities which we see happen to our equalls or such as be like vnto vs ; not that wee expect to reape any fruite by our passion , but for that wee cannot endure the glory of another man without griefe . it riseth first betwixt equalls or such as are alike ; that is to say , betwixt those of the same blood , of the same age , of the same profession , of the same wealth , and betwixt those that aspire to the same honors . so as we see , kinsmen enuy their kinsmen , and are grieued at the increase of their fortunes . young men also cannot suffer with griefe that they of their age should be aduanced before them . in like manner philosophers are iealous of the glory of philosophers ; and painters enuy the reputation of painters ; great commanders in the warre cannot behold but with impatiency the tryumphes of their companions ; rich men in like manner crosse the rising of such as are their equalls ; and finally , they that affect the same offices do what they can to keepe backe their companions . the reason is , for that enuy being alwaies accompanied with a certaine competition and contention , which riseth betwixt those that do passionately desire the same thing , it is necessary it should rather be among equalls ▪ then where there is no equallity nor comparison : for that men being naturally desirous to excell in all things , and to exceed their companions , this desire doth alwayes breed a contention betwixt such as pretend the same thing , and from this contentiō enuy is ingendred ; and therefore the philosophers did rightly teach , that this passion was alwayes found among equalls . and therefore they which do much exceed others in glory , being aboue their enuy , feele not themselues to be crost . and wee obserue that as the sun at noone day makes no shaddow , so eminent vertues are exempt from the iealousies of enuy , and yet they cannot auoyd the assaults of hatred . as for example , cyrus and alexander the great in their ages , and in our time henry the great being raised to the height of worldly glory , by the greatnesse of their courages haue so surmounted enuy , as in the end they found themselues without concurrence : but they could not so vanquish the hatred of the wicked , but they were exposed to their rage : especially this last , the loue and delight of princes ; whō an execrable parricide depriues of his life , when as the whole world honored his vallour . moreouer , that which made these inuincible resolutions to tryumph ouer enuy , was for that no man could contend any more with them of glory , whereof hauing attained the full ; despaire to surmount them or to equall them , did shaddow them from the iealousie of all the world . and for the same reason , they which haue attained to that height of glory , seeing their vertue raised and aduanced to so high a degree , as all they that would bee their concurrents cannot attaine vnto it , they enuy no man , but rather disdaine and contemne all the world , as incapable to mount vnto that height whereunto they haue raised themselues . as for example ; there is no priuate knight that doth enuy the power and lustre of a kings diadem , neither doth the king enuy his fortune . in like manner , there is no capuchin , or simple religious man , that doth beare enuy to the popes authority or crowne ; or whose condition also the pope doth malice : but if by some notable disaster a potent king or a great bishop should decline , and bee reduced to a more base fortune and condition , in which they that were before their inferiors , might hope to become their companions and equalls ; then there were no obstacles , but enuy might rise betwixt them , seeing that there might bee a concurrence . enuy then discouers it selfe betwixt equalls , and those that are alike : the which must bee vnderstood of those which are alike , according to their degrees and power , but are vnlike in their fortunes and prosperities ; considering that in this last point , hee which beares enuy is alwayes inferior in some kinde to him whom hee enuies , at the least , in those things which cause this torment . in the meane time there is not any thing that doth so much beget enuy , as those things which concerne honour . whereby the ambitious are perpetually affected , for that they are alwayes in contention with some one for preheminence and glory . yea , what glory soeuer men enioy , yet for that they imagine the honour they haue not , is due vnto them , and that it is as it were rauisht away by such to whom the world hath giuen it , they doe commonly beare enuy to all those that haue any lustre or share of it . they also which haue a conceit of their wisedomes , or which think themselues to bee vertuous , are wonderfully subiect to enuy . i say , those that imagine and suppose these things ; for that they which are truely vertuous , and truely wise , content themselues with their proper vertue , and with their owne wisedome , & knowing themselues to be truely worthy of honor , affect no other glory , neither doe they feede themselues with winde and smoke : whereas such as haue but the name of wise and vertuous , hunt passionately after this vanity , and desire to bee honoured and praised of all the world ; shewing a wonderfull despight against those that contemne them : and for this reason they are enflamed with enuy against such as are aduanced to great honours . cowardly mindes are in like manner subiect to enuy , for that beeing faint-hearted , when as they see things of small price shine in others , they esteeme them great and worthy to bee enuyed : like vnto little children , who seeing a piece of glasse or a pin in the hands of those of their age , afflict themselues , and striue to take it away . they also which haue attained to some good with wonderfull paine , are enuious to see another attaine vnto the like without any difficulty , and especially if the facility which hee hath found be preiudiciall or dishonorable vnto them . as they which haue spent many yeares to learne painting and philosophy , enuy such as are growne perfect in a short time , especially when they are to make profession in the same city . finally , they against whom we conceiue any enuy , must not be farre distant from vs , either in place , time , age ▪ dignity , honour , or such like : so as the inhabitants of paris and france , doe not enuy those of the great cayre or china . in like manner , wee beare no enuy to those who had fauourable fortunes two or three thousand yeares since . neither doe wee see that kings enuy the fortune of alexander or of caesar , although they may enter into some emulation of their valour . in like sort , wee enuy not the dead , or those which are not yet come into the world . and there is no apparence that a yong man , though issued from a noble family , should enuy graue old men , which enter into a councell of state. in like manner , an attorney of the court cannot enuy a chancellor of france , being so farre short of his dignity . neither doe shepheards enuy the crownes and scepters of kings : nor merchants malice generalls of armies , with whose charges their qualities haue so little proportion . but our enuy is kindled against those , whose glory doth as it were dazell our eies with their continual presence , which makes vs to thinke of the basenesse of our condition , the which wee see deiected vnder theirs . but especially when as they possesse a good which wee haue enioyed , and which is no more in our power to recouer . by reason whereof , it often happens , that old men enuy the younger sort , for that beeing in companies , they see that their age takes from them the vse , or forbids them the enioying of those sports and exercises , wherein young men take delight . and this enuy which they beare them , appeares in the rigors which they shew them , in their reprehensions which they make them , and in the hinderances they giue them , when as they may crosse them . moreouer , the things that may bee profitable or commodious vnto vs , stir vp more enuy then those which are onely proper to him that enuies them . wherefore wee do more enuy our equalls for their beauty , riches , knowledge , and honours , then for their health or long life , which are particular vnto themselues . and the reason is , for that enuy rising from this desire to bee esteemed in the world , and from the passion we haue to see our selues more respected then other men ; the qualities which recommend them , make the deeper impression of enuy in our soules , the more capable they are to purchase reputatiō to him that enioyes them . and there is no question but the things which may bring pleasure , profit , or honor , not only to him that enioyes thē but also to all men that shall possesse them , are euer esteemed more honorable , and more glorious then those , whose pleasure , profit , or glory , extend but to one in particular : wherefore they doe also stirre vp more enuy. there is another passion which is also a bud or branch of headinesse , as well as enuy , and that is emulation , which hath some affinity with it , but yet they are very different passions . for although that emulation bee a griefe which we haue conceiued for the prosperity of our equalls , yet it riseth not from any bad affection wee beare them , but onely from a desire wee haue to see our selues attaine vnto the like felicities . wherefore emulation doth not merit the blame which enuy doth , but many times it is commendable in vs. as for example , when as wee see some vertue shine in one of our equalls , we striue in imitation of him to attaine vnto it . this emulation is worthy of praise . so caesar is commended , to haue propounded alexander for a patterne , as alexander did achilles : and themistocles did shewe that hee was borne to great matters , when as he said that the triumphes of miltiades would not suffer him to sleepe : for that it was a testimony that hee was troubled with an honest emulation of his vertue . emulation then is found among equalls , or at the least among those which are almost alike , for that this passion stirring vp a desire in vs , inciting vs to seeke the perfection which shines in those , whose glory hath made this impression in our soules ; wee must of necessity imagine that it is in our power to attaine vnto them , for that we neuer desire those things which are impossible . wherefore wee haue no emulation of those , who haue so great an aduantage ouer vs , as it is not in our power to come neere them . reciprocally we haue no enuy in regard of those that be so farre inferior vnto vs , as we see no commendable quallity in them , which wee enioy not with much eminency . among the rest , young men are naturally inclined to emulation , for that by reason of the heate of their youth , they are found more hardy , and being full of good hopes , they shew themselues more actiue to vndertake ; for that all things how difficult so euer , seeme easie vnto them . and for the same reason great and couragious spirits , are very capable of emulation , by reason of the greatnesse of their minds , which makes them conceiue that there is no designe aboue their valour , and that there is nothing so difficult but they may surmount . among other things which may induce vs to emulation , those which may make a man necessary or profitable to many , hold the first rancke . as for example , learning , eloquence , riches , power , the mannaging of affaires , and such like , are greatly subiect to the force of this passion . and therefore it is often commendable ; that is to say , when shee propounds vnto her selfe no sort of externall goods , but the only treasures of the soule and the riches of the mind , which shee sees to shine in another subiect , whose glory inflames her , and makes her aspire to the possession of the same graces . for this consideration also we haue a particular emulation , and desire passionately to equall , or to imitate those who are respected throughout the world , whom all the world commends , and al men loue , and especially when their vertues are honored by excellent pennes : for that all these things are so many glorious testimonies of their merits . these bee the personages whose vertue makes so glorious a shew , as wee desire earnestly to imitate them : as contrariwise wee contemne and are ashamed to resemble those which are destitute of all these goodly qualities . wherefore as man should carefully free his soule from enuy , which doth but trouble his rest , and afflicts him more then the party against whom it conspireth ; so in some sort hee should giue way to an honest emulation , which proceeds not from any euill will hee beares to another , but from the good hee desires to himselfe , to the end that in propounding to himselfe the examples of magnificence , valour , iustice , modesty , prudence , wisedom , and of the other vertues which shine in the liues of great personages of his condition , he may become magnificent , valiant , iust , moderate , prudent , wise , and endowed with all the other qualities which make them glorious which are adorned therewith . but wee haue spoken sufficiently of the concupiscible passion , we must now treate of those which make their impressions , and stir vp the irascible . of hardinesse or courage . chap. 1. as in the ancient sacrifices of the pagans they did carefully obserue the generosity of the beasts that were to bee sacrificed ; so as ●he priest comming to passe a naked sword before their eyes , if they were affrighted with the brightnesse thereof , they were chased from the altar ; whereas if they stood stil without amazement , they were held worthy to bee offred to the diuinity . so base and deiected minds which grow pale at any danger , were alwayes held in great contempt ; whereas generous and resolute spirits , whom no kind of perill could terrifie or amaze , haue euer beene held in singular admiration . this resolution and courage proceeds from an excellent nature wherewith they are endowed , which makes them to looke vpon all the accidents of the world without any alteration , being resolued to vanquish whatsoeuer presents it selfe to encounter their constancy : shewing thereby , that they apprehend a disgrace more then a misfortune , and that they had more care to preserue their honors , then to prolong their liues . seeing then that true hardinesse and courage is so commendable a thing , and that many of the most excellent men of antiquity haue preferred it before riches , the disposition of the body , beauty , and the other ornaments , whereof men do vsually glory ; we must seeke out the essence , and shew what courages she doth accompany , and in what soules shee is found . hardinesse then is no other thing , but a resolution of courage , whereby promising vnto himselfe to be able to surmount the calamities which threaten him , he sees them comming without amazement , and is not terrified when they are befallen him : or else according vnto others : hardinesse is a passion of the soule , which doth fortifie it , and makes it assured against the miseries which are most difficult to auoyd , and which doth encourage it to pursue those good things which are most painefull to obtaine . whereby it followes , that hardinesse is alwayes accompanied with a certaine hope to bee able to vanquish and disperse those fearefull things which present themselues vnto the imagination of man. this confidence may grow from the opinion wee haue , that the euill which treatneth vs is far from vs ; or from our beleefe , that if it should present it selfe , we should bee able to surmount it . as when a citty hath a conceit that no man will attempt any thing against the peace of her cittizens ; and if they should , they were able to repell the iniury , and to endure the attempts of their enemies ; this beleefe makes them hardy and assured . secondly , it may grow , for that although wee finde our selues weake , and vnable to resist our enemies , yet wee beleeue that wee shall bee powerfully assisted by our allies , with whose ayde wee hold our selues inuincible . as for example , although the duke of saiwy bee not able of himselfe to resist the armes of spaine ; yet being fortified with the alliance of this crowne , hee doth not apprehend them , neither is hee affraid to incense them , knowing that the assistance of the christian king protects him of that side . thirdly , this confidence may grow , for that wee beleeue , wee haue neither receiued nor done iniury to any man , which should make vs apprehend reuenge . and againe , for that we thinke wee haue no enemies , or else that they are so feeble and weake as they cannot annoy vs. it may also grow in regard that they who haue power to hurt vs , are our friends , and liue in good correspondency with vs , and haue assisted vs in our occurrents , as for our part we haue endeauored to bind thē vnto vs by al occasions which haue bene offered . so the allies of great kings feare not their power , although it be fearefull to the rest of the world . by this meanes wee find that there are diuerse sorts of persons which are full of hardinesse and assurance . first , they are hardy , which imagine that all things shall succeed happily in regard of their former felicities . so alexander vndertaking the conquest of india , apprehended nothing ; by reason of the happy victories , and tryumphes which he had gotten ouer the persians . so caesar being ouertaken with a cruel storme and in a small barke , feared nothing , but to confirme the resolution of his pilot whom the storme had amazed , he wisht him not to feare , seeing hee carried caesar and his fortunes . secondly , they are hardy who hauing beene ingaged in great dangers , haue yet escaped ; for they imagine that good fortune which hath beene so fauorable vnto them in so many other occasions full of despaire , will not abandon them in that present danger . finally , men are not troubled in dangers for two reasons , either for want of experience , or for the hope they haue to be speedily releeued . as for example , they that go by sea , hauing neuer seene the horror of tempests , imagine that the maisters and such as guide the ship , are expert in their facultie , and that they will easily preserue them from shipwracke ; so as they are not amazed , although the stormes and waues seeme to threaten them their death . thirdly , men are full of assurance when as they see such as equall them not , or do not exceed them in power , make no demonstration of feare ; conceyting that they are assured , they haue more cause to continue constant . men not only hold them inferior vnto them whom they haue exceeded , but also such as cannot enter into comparison with them , or at the least are not more pow●rfull then those whom they haue vanquished , againe men are full of courage and resolution , when as they see themselues furnished with all those things which may make thē feareful to their enemies . among the which we put store of coyne , disposition of body , greatnesse of minde , extent of empire , support of friends , the power of armies , and a great prouision of all that is necessary for the maintenance of a war. moreouer , men hold themselues assured when they haue not offended any man , or when such as they haue offended are not able to reuenge the iniurie . and withall , men are much assured , when as they thinke that god is fauorable and assistant in their designes . wherefore , in old time great captaines of war were not wont to giue battaile , before they had sacrificed vnto their gods , and had seene in the intrailes of their sacrifices some happy presage of diuine assistance . for the same occasion they consulted with oracles , attended the answers , and were carefull to obserue the signes which were seene before the battaile : so that sometimes the flying of an eagle hath assured armies that were amazed . but without all these signes and presages , men thinke that god is fauourable , when as they thinke they fight for a good cause : as when they haue taken armes for religion ; for the seruice of their prince ; for the maintenance of his crowne ; and for their countrey : yea , when as they imagine , that the reuenge they pursue is iust , and that they haue beene vnworthily abused . the reason is , for that choler which is alwayes enflamed by the iniury receiued , and not by that which wee doe vnto others , makes men hardy , perswading themselues , that god assists them that are wronged and vniustly persecuted . lastly , they that begin a warre are commonly hardy , especially when they haue a conceit that the action will succeed , and that the euent will answer the expectation . as for the constitution of the body , which may contribute to the hardinesse and resolution of man : it is certaine , that such as haue much blood and spirits , and which abound in heate , are most commonly hardy and valiant . for they haue great mindes and full of generosity , which makes them to cōtemne dangers . and if in the middest of hazards some part of the blood retires inwardly , yet the better part keepes her seate , and remaines firme and constant : so as they neuer grow pale , nor tremble like to other men . but if before they fight the apprehēsiō of dāger , makes any impression in their soules , they recouer themselues suddainely , and expell the feare which would surprize them . and for the same reason , they which are full of wine , may become more hardy : not that this defect of it self doth contribute any thing to the greatnesse of courage , but for that wine enflames the blood , & by accident makes men valiant ; and withall , they that are ouertaken with wine , haue their reason captiuated , and their iudgement troubled : so as they cannot consider duely of the greatnesse of perill , but imagine , that all dangers are inferior to their force and resistance . in the meane time we obserue , that many which shew a great hardinesse and courage to cast themselues into danger , as soone as they finde themselues engaged , are often amazed ; as we see in those that go valiātly to a charge , but finding resistance , they turne their backs to the enemy : where of wee can giue no other reason , but that they are not valiant by iudgment , but by the bounty of nature . so as apprehending not the greatnesse of the danger before they enter , but imagining that they shall vanquish whatsoeuer opposeth it selfe against them ; when as they finde resistance which they did not expect , they are amazed at the strangenesse of this accident , and their hearts grow cold and relent in such sort , as sometimes they flye before their enemies . but the contrary happens to those that are truely valiant ; for when as they gouerne their courages by wisedome , and measure their forces , attempting nothing aboue their strength or against reason , there is no sudden accident that may befall them , that can trouble them in any action of armes ; whereas commonly they finde lesse resistance then they expected before they entred the fight , so as their resolution is alwayes fortified and neuer decayes . and then propounding honor only before their eyes , the feare of the losse of life cannot amaze them , but their vertue surmounting all accidents , it causeth them ( notwithstanding all hazzards ) to persist couragiously in that which they haue gloriously begunne . yea , commonly they shew themselues more cold in the beginning , then at the ending ; for that it is not the passion that doth animate them , but it is iudgement which doth act in their courages . by reason whereof , in the beginning of the actiō they are more cold , & are not enflamed but with fighting . but it hath bin obserued in many valiant men , which had their hearts all couered with haire : whereof wee haue a famous example in that couragious lacedemonian leonidas , who with fiue hundred men kept the streight of thermopiles against that huge army of xerxes , & who had the courage and resolution to passe through the midst of his armed souldiers , to wrest the diade●e from his head . for when as after his death the king of persia ( amazed at so great a resolution ) had caused him to bee opened , his heart was found all couered with haire . some , it may be , would put this among the prodigies , or rather among the scornes of nature ; but the reason is easie to bee giuen , for they that are extraordinarily valiant , haue an exceeding heat , which drawes from their heart a fume of excrements , which thickens , and is conuerted into haire ; the which is a marke of their courage , and a signe of valour . chap. 1. of feare or dread . althovgh it seems that feare is a dead passion & that it shold not make any great impressions in our soules , nor cause any strange alterations in the world : yet as there bee certaine starres , which beeing in a manner continaully hidden , haue notwithstanding very maligne and pernicious influences : so although shee seeme not to bee so actiue as the rest , and remaines as it were couered & hidden , yet she doth cause strange accidents in the life of man ; for that shee hath sometimes ruined powerfull armies , brought kingdomes and states into dangers , and ouerthrowne the fortunes of priuate persons . wherefore wee haue seene great commanders in warre , who troubled by some sinister and vnexpected accident , in a day of battaile , haue had recourse to vowes and prayers , and haue promised to build temples to feare and palenesse , to diuert the ruine that threatned them , if the amazement spread ouer the whole army , had not beene as it were miraculously dispersed . wherefore seeing that feare doth produce such powerfull changes in the affaires of men , and withall , that this life is dayly threatned with infinite miseries , which giue vs still cause to feare ; wee must see wherein shee consists , how shee is framed , and in what soules she doth reside . feare then is no other thing , but a griefe and distresse of the soule , troubled by the imagination of some approaching euill , wherewith man is threatned , without any apparence to be able to auoyd it easily , although it tend to the destruction of his being , or cause him some strange calamity in the course of his life . it is first of all a griefe and a distresse ; for that as pleasures fill the senses with delight and ioy , so the imagination of an infallible euill , which cannot bee auoyded , fills vs with griefe and heauinesse . but secondly the causes of this griefe , are not alwayes solid nor true , but many times they are vaine and imaginary : for that wee doe frame or rather forge to our selues the miseries , whereof the apprehension afflicts our mindes , and torments our senses . the which made an ancient say , that there are more things which amaze vs , then that presse vs : and that most commonly opinion and apprehension , doth vs more harme then the thing it selfe . wherein doubtlesse the condition of man is lamentable , for that as if he were not inuironed by a sufficient nūber of true miseries , he forgets others which are not in nature , to encrease his miseries . for wee see daily that although there appeare no presages , nor any signes of a calamity that doth threaten vs , yet our minds do frame false imaginations , and vaine feares , which many times are the causes of our ruine . there are some things which torment vs more then they should do , others trouble vs before the time , and some afflict vs without cause or subiect , for that we either increase our griefes and paines , or we forge them our selues , or else wee run before them and anticipate them : and whereas wee should striue against these iealousies and false opinions which cause them , wee suffer our selues to be vanquished , resembling therein certaine soldiers who being amazed at a little dust raisd by a flocke of sheepe , turned their backes , as if the enemy had beene at their heeles . these vaine feares may sometimes grow from the ignorance of things which they imagine to bee of bad presage , although they bee meere effects of nature which they should obserue without trembling , as we haue many times seene an eclipse of the sun or of the moone which haue their naturall causes , trouble whole armies and terrifie their commanders . thirdly , wee must obserue that to cause feare , the euill that doth threaten vs must not bee present but to come ; for that when it is present , it is no more a feare but a meere heauinesse . and then the euill which wee doubt must bee full of horror , and threaten vs with the losse of life , or some other great preiudice : for things of small weight , are not capable to make any impression of feare , at the least if there remaine any sparke of generosity in our hearts . yea all kind of calamities how great so euer , are not able to cause feare , if it be not accompanied with a certaine horror which amazeth the sences . as for example , men apprehend not to become vniust , or wicked , although they be things more to bee feared then all the miseries of this life . but the nature of vice is such , as the horror of her presence is not sensible vnto vs , for that shee seemes not to destroy our being , nor to cause in vs any great alterations that should afflict vs. moreouer , to bee terrified with any euill , it must bee as it were hanging ouer our heads , and threaten vs with a ruine at hand ; for when as we imagine that it is farre from vs , how fearefull soeuer the forme be , yet we are not amazed . euen so although that death bee the most horrid & fearefull thing that may fall into the thought of men , yet for that euery man presumes it is not ready to seaze vpon him , we do not apprehend it as we ought , but wee suffer it to come and prepare not our selues . there rests now to see what things wee haue iust cause to apprehend . an ancient makes three sorts , that is to say , pouerty , diseases , & the outrages of the mighty . the two first , that is to say , pouerty , and diseases , make the least shew ; but the outrages of the mighty present themselues vnto our sences with much bruite , and terrifie our eyes and eares . for euen as an executioner is the mor● fearefull when he brings forth diuerse instruments to torture & torment the patient , so as many times they which would haue endured their punishment patiently , are dismayed , seeing so many deaths at one instant before their eyes ; euen so among the calamities which oppresse our spirits , those cause most terrour which march with the greatest shew , for that they represent vnto our thoughts irons , fire , chaines , prisons , gibbets , wheeles , and whatsoeuer is most horrible and fearefull in this life . but let vs heare aristotle , who also sets three kinds of things which giue vs apprehension and feare . in the first rancke he puts those which tend infallibly to the destruction of our being . for this reason , we do iustly feare thunder and lightning ; for that the life of man is full of the examples of such as haue bene miserably burnt . we feare in like manner great inundations , and deluges of water , which are the cau●es of so many ruines vpon earth . for the same reason , being in forrests and deserts , wee apprehend the encounter of sauage beasts , which are enemies to the life of man. and for the same subiect wee apprehend to fal into the hands of those whom we thinke we haue offended . in the second rancke of fearefull things , he puts those which cause pinching vexations and griefes , as the losse of our kinsfolkes and friends , banishment , imprisonment , and other punishments . in the third hee placeth those which are as it were the signes and presages of these kind of miseries . not that these signes of themselues cause vs any preiudice , but for that they are as it were the forerunners of the danger into which wee feare to fall . the which makes kings and princes apprehend the rising and apparition of comets , for that they haue beene perswaded they are foretellings of the death of great men . these signes which amaze vs , may bee reduced to foure heads , which are found in the course of this life , and in the affaires of the world . for we are accustomed to feare the wrath , and hatred of those which haue power to bee reuenged ; for that their wrath and hatred is as it were an infallible signe of our ruine ; seeing that hauing power to vndo vs , there is no question , but ( by a disease commune to all men , ) they will be naturally inclined to reuenge . but secondly , wee apprehend our enemies more , when they are not stayed by some honest feare of iustice , or some other respect , but are ready to tread all diuine and humaine lawes vnder foote to satisfie their reuenge . for men which haue thus renounced all the feelings of vertue , wanting no power , & hauing a wicked inclination , are alwayes ready to do euill ; and apprehend not to shew their valorous disposition . so we haue great reasō to feare such as in the liberty of crimes , find themselues aboue the lawes , and cannot bee punished by any man. as for example , tyrants which haue seazed vpon estates & empires , are much to be feared ; for that hauing force & power to oppresse whom they please , there is no doubt but they will speedily put it in execution ; for that these sauage spirits , knowing that those whom they haue made subiect to their empire , ( hauing iust cause to hate them , ) haue no other dessigne but to take from them al meanes to hurt thē , by weakning them , and terrifying them with the feare of punishments . they are also to be feared , not only for that they haue power , but also for that to settle their empire , they are inclined to commit all outrages and violence . it is true on the other side , that the same tyrants should apprehend the fury of the people , who do but seeke occasions to roote them out , and to abate their power . wherefore wee see the life of these plagues of mankind , is ful of iealousies and distrusts , which torment them day and night more cruelly , then those which they make their miserable subiects to suffer , who grone vnder the burthen of their tyranny . for although they bee inuironed with their guards ; that they haue powerful alliances ; that they command great armies ; and haue strong townes & forts at their command , yet nothing can assure their consciences , but they are in perpetuall terrour ; which makes their condition like to that of sauage beasts , which flye all the world , and all men abhorre them . thirdly , we haue cause to feare resolute men , who make profession of honour , when we haue offended them : for that beeing sensible of iniuries , it is certaine their courage will carry them to reuenge . lastly , wee should apprehend those which haue iust cause to feare vs , at the least , if they haue power to hurt vs. for beeing in continuall apprehension , lest wee should attempt something against their liues , they had rather preuent vs , then suffer vs to surprize them . from hence it followes , that there are diuers persons whose enterprises we should feare , and haue a speciall care of . first , wee should feare those to whom we haue imparted some great and important secret , which beeing reuealed , may bee the cause of our ruine : for the weakenesse of mans minde is such , as it may bee , they will either be corrupted , or induced by promises to discouer vs ; or the feare to bee found confederates if the matter should be reuealed , they will seeke to iustifie themselues in accusing vs , and ruine vs to saue themselues . secondly , we should apprehend such as haue power to hu●t vs , for that commonly the will followes the power , and they will easily take liberty to effect that which is in their power . thirdly , wee should dread such as we haue offended , or that thinke wee haue wronged them , beeing likely , that they will not leaue this iniurie vnreuenged , but will endeauour to take reuenge when occasion shall be offered . fourthly , wee should feare those which haue wronged vs , and which are subiect to feare vs : for that doubting lest wee should apprehend the iniury wee haue receiued , and hauing forces at command , it is likely they would free themselues of this feare by preuenting vs , as we haue formerly said . fifthly , we shold distrust those which dispute or contend with vs , for honour , or for any good thing , which wee cannot enioy ioyntly together . for to take away this obstacle in their pursuites , it is to be presumed that they wil attempt something against vs. sixthly , wee should dread such as are fearefull to greater personages then our selues . for that if they may strike a terror into the mighty , they wil more easily doe it in them that are weake . seuenthly , wee should bee watchfull of those , which haue already tried their forces against such as are more powerfull then our selues , and haue preuailed ; or that haue vsed some surprize or treachery , to bee reuenged of such as were not equall to vs in power . for that the first may easily perswade themselues to bee able to master vs , hauing vanquished those that did exceede vs. and the second , seeing their successe against the weaker , they will take courage in their crime , and promise themselues the like successe against them that are more powerfull ; to whom they imagine they should be fearefull , by reason of that which they had formerly done . eighthly , we should apprehend the friends of those whom wee haue offended : not such as are prompt to choler , and which speake much , for that it is easie to discouer them , & to beware of them ; but those that are close , dissembling , and full of arte , for that it is a difficult thing to knowe what is in their soules , and to discouer if they practise any thing against our liues . among the things which make an impression of dread , the most fearefull are those which surprize vs , and which wee had not fore-thought . the which happens for two reasons : the one , for that befalling vs thus vnlooked for , they take from vs the meanes to thinke of the remedies , whereof wee doe commonly make vse against the disasters that doe threaten vs : and the other , for that speaking of the accidents of this life , bee they good or bad , the more wee consider of them , the more the opinion which we had formerly conceiued , is extenuated . in regarde whereof , as there is no griefe so violent , but time doth mollifie , so there is no apprehension so great , which is not in some sort diminished by preparing our selues for the miseries which threaten vs. wherefore feare increaseth when we are surprized , and haue not meanes to thinke of the remedies . secondly , those things are most fearefull , when as if wee commit a fault , it is no more in our power to repaire the error , but if there bee any remedy , it depends wholly on the will of our enemies . for this reason wee haue often seene generous resolutions , and great captaines , apprehend much to giue battaile , for that as the euents of war are doubtfull , so if he chance to lose it , there is little means to repaire the error , but most commonly he must receiue a law from the victor , in stead of giuing it him . thirdly , among fearefull things , wee apprehend those which stirre vp compassion in our soules , and mollifie the heart with griefe , if wee see them befall other men : as shipwrackes , burnings , racks , tortures , executions , desperate diseases ; the losse of goods , kinsfolkes , or friends , and al other accidents which may make men miserable . wee must not forget that ●eare augments in vs , when as the causes which produce it come to increase . wherefore as it riseth from the consideration of dangers which threaten vs : so many times , they which doe exactly consider the hazards and dangers which threaten this life , are most subiect to feare ; as wise and discreete men , such as haue had a long experience of worldly affaires : whereas fooles , drunkards , and young men apprehend nothing , but hope for all . moreouer , the excesse of danger encreaseth feare , especially when it is neere vnto vs , when it presseth vs , and when wee see no remedy nor meanes to auoyd it ; as when an army or a city is surprized , and neither captaine , nor souldier endeauours to repulse the enemy . yea , after that any one hath escaped a great danger , the very imagination to haue beene freed from so great a misfortune , is able to kill him ; for that the imagination hath that force , to represent vnto vs the thing , as if it were yet present , and as if wee were in the midst of the danger . as they report of a iew , who hauing by night past a bridge , whereas no man did passe by reason of the danger ; who when hee came to thinke of the perill wherein hee had beene , was so surprized with feare and horror as he died . on the other side , it helpes much to dissipate feare , to imagine there is no kinde of danger in that where-with they would terrifie vs. the which may proceede from two causes , that is to say , either from an exact knowledge of the nature of the things which wee haue carefully obserued and knowne , and find therein no subiect of feare ; and this course is ful of discretion : or else from meer ignorance , which makes vs to iudge of things otherwise then wee ought ; imagining , that there is no danger in places or things which are full of amazement ; which is a signe of want of iudgement . finally , there is a kinde of people which feare nothing ; that is to say , such as haue renounced all feeling of things , whereof we haue iust cause to apprehend the losse . as they which haue lost all honor , abandoned all shame , wasted their fortunes and their goods , and those whose liues are tedious vnto them . for what can they feare , who haue nothing remaining to trouble them ? for this reason wee must greatly apprehend desperate persons , and such as haue abandoned the loue of this life : for as an ancient said , hee that contemnes his owne life , is master of another mans . yet there are diuers things which may free our soules from all feare whatsoeuer presēts it self . for as they that are perswaded that nothing can hurt them , haue no apprehension nor feare : yea , if the heauens should fall , they would not be amazed at their ruines : in like manner men do not feare to lose those things , which they thinke are safe from the outrages of their enemies . as wise and vertuous men doe not feare that the rage of tyrants can preuaile ouer their minds to blemish their constancy . if tyrants threaten them with any shamefull death , they are ready to say , as a resolute spirit did once vnto a prince who threatned to hang him : this ( sayd he ) would amaze the gallant courtiers , but as for mee , it is indifference whether i ro●te in the ayre , or in the earth . thirdly , men feare not those whom they think haue not power to hurt them , although in effect they should apprehend them . this false perswasion hath o●ten ruined great commanders in the warre , who contemning the enemies , and making shew not to feare them , haue lost the victory , and fallen miserably into their power . in like manner , men feare not when as they conceiue that the occasions which should make them feare , are taken away : as they which apprehend the persecution of a tyrant , lose all feare when as they see his power ouerthrowne : whereby it appeares that men feare , when there is apparence that they may suffer some iniury : or when as hee that is threatned is exposed to outrages : or when as they that threaten are powerfull : or that time and occasion fauours him that would do an iniury . by all this we may gather , that there are two kinds of men which are aboue all feared . the first are such as are very happy , which haue many friends , abundance of wealth ; great spirits , great power ; and which haue not yet tryed the miseries of this life . for this great felicity , this immoderate wealth , this exceeding power , and the other aduantages of nature and fortune , make men hardy , insolent , outragious , and to contemne all the world . whereas on the other side , pouerty and weaknesse make men fearefull , for that the callamity which doth presse vs , being the obiect of feare , they which neither haue meanes nor power to defend themselues , haue cause to apprehend . the second sort of men , are they which thinke they haue suffered the cruellist afflictions that can bee endured in this life , and whom the custome of forepas●ed miseries haue made insensible of future calamities , as they that are led to execution , after that they haue bene tortured in prison . but the chiefe reason why these men haue abandoned all feare , is that which aristotle alledgeth , that to haue an apprehension of the things which afflict vs , there must bee some hope or some shew , to be freed from it by industry . and therefore feare makes vs fly to counsells , and to seeke out remedies : for no man consults of a businesse that is desperate . so as these men seeing no reliefe in their affaires , as they haue no more hope , so they cannot feare . and touching that which aristotle saith , that feare makes vs flie to counsells ; some one may make a question , whether that feare doth contribute any thing to make men more wise , and more disperse their feare . whereunto the answere is easie , that feare makes an impression in vs of greater care to seeke for counsell to fortifie vs against the calamities that do threaten vs ; but many times it doth hinder vs from reaping the fruits which we might gather without this apprehension . the reason of the first is , that feare representing the danger hanging ouer our heads , and hard to be auoyded , it binds vs to seeke the meanes to diuert it , and makes vs to craue aduice of our friends , to supply our weaknesse . the reason of the second is , for that they which are troubled with feare , or transported with any other passion , imagine things to be greater or lesse then they are ; so as they that loue , value the things beloued much ; & they that feare , represent them more horrible . wherefore in that regard all passions are enemies to wise counsells , and good resolutions . of the effects of feare . chap. 2. the effects of feare are diuerse & strange ; for to leaue the impression which it makes in the mind of man , ( whereof we will speake hereafter , ) she doth produce all these effects vpon his body . first , shee shrinkes vp his heart , and doth weaken it by the liuely apprehension which she doth giue it of the affliction ; by reason whereof all the heate that is in his face is forced to flie vnto it to succour it : and when as that sufficeth not , the blood of the other parts flow also vnto it : so as they that are affrighted grow pale . for prouident nature to preserue the life of man , hauing thus call'd backe the blood and spirits from all the parts to succour the heart which is the fountaine , speedily leaues the other parts wholy vnfurnisht and naked . in regard whereof the blood being that which giues colour , and makes man to haue a sanguine hew , it being fled , his complexion fades , and hee growes pale . for the same reason they that are amazed , are presently surprized with a continuall shaking , for that the heate which resides in the blood and spirits , being that which supports and fortifies the members of man ; being destitute thereof they can hardly support themselues , but tremble and shake in that manner . and whereas the hands and lippes shew greater signes of alteration then the rest , the reason is , for that those parts haue a more strict bond with the heart , and haue lesse blood then the rest ; and therefore cold doth more easily make an impression vpon them . finally , the members which haue a particular connexion with the heart , haue also a particular feeling of his agitation : wherein it is strange , that as trembling is an effect of the want of heate , and that feare chaseth the heate vnto the heart , to preserue the center of life ; yet they that are terrified , haue their hearts agitated , and they beate in them , as if they were destitute of heate . the reason is , although that prouident nature to preserue the heart sends downe the heate from aboue , yet feare doth not suffer it to subsist long there , but doth chase it lower ; for that in them that feare , their spirits grow thicke , and become more heauy by reason of the cold which imaginatiō doth produce , that they are not able to resist the danger which doth threaten them : so as the spirits being growne thus heauy , by reason of the cold which this imagination leaues , tends downeward , and remaines not about the heart . they that are surprized with feare , feele strange alteration ; and are wonderfully dry ; for that the heate which nature hath drawne about the heart , burnes and filles the bowells with an exceeding heate , which makes him to desire cold and moist things , wherein thirst consists , to quench this troublesome alteration , to refresh the creature , and to free it from this insupportable heate . and for that in this motion of feare , the heate descends , it made homer to say of him that was without courage , that his heart was fallen to his heeles , after which there commonly followes many accidents which slacken and vnknit all the ioynts and ligatures of the body ; but especially they that are terrified haue their tongs tied & can hardly speak , causing them to ●umble in their discourses : yea their voyce is very shrill and weake , for that it is abandoned by the heate which should entertaine her force ; whereas in choler it shewes it selfe more strong , for that the heate which ascends fortifies it , & makes it more powerfull . moreouer feare makes the hayres to stand vp with horror , for that in the absence of hea●e , the cold congealeth , and stoppes the conduicts by which it passeth : so as the haire as it were opprest in the rootes , by the cold which diuerts their naturall nourishment , for that they cannot suffer a strange humour full of excrements which doth rot them , they stand vpright with horror ; the which sometimes workes so strange an effect by her vehemency , as they make young men grow graye in an instant : whereof wee haue a memorable example in the age of our fathers , during the reigne of the emperour charles the fift . for francis gonzague , hauing caused a young man of his house to bee committed to prison , for that he suspected hee had conspired against him ; this miserable young man was so terrified with his affliction , as the same night hee was cast into prison , his haire grew all white . in the morning his keeper seeing him thus changed , went and made report thereof to gonzague , who being amazed at this prodigie , cōceiued that it was a testimony of his innocence ; whereupon he pardoned him . this sudden change of the prisoners haire , proceeded without doubt , for that the vehemency of his feare caused the heate retire from his braine : as in like manner old men grow white , for want of heate , which decayes with age : finally , they that haue little hot blood about the heart are naturally fearefull : so as those creatures which haue great hearts to the proportion of their bodies , ( as stagges and panthers ) are more subiect to feare ; for that hauing little heate , it is weakned , dispersing it selfe into a large extēt , euen as a litle fire cannot so warme a large roome , as it would do one that is lesse . so as the blood growes cold , & is lesse able to warme the heart , which is the seate of courage . whereas other creatures which haue more heat , and the heart proportionably lesse , are more hardy and couragious . for that the heat abounding in them , it is more actiue , and the subiect where it workes , dispersing not her action by extent , shee workes more powerfully : so as she enflames them to all generous enterprizes , and glorious designes . but let vs come to the effects which feare breedes in the minde of man. besides all these strange accidents which she doth produce in the body , shee causeth other disorders in the soule , filling it with such confusion , as shee leaues him neither memory , nor iudgement , nor will , to encounter any danger that threatens his ruine . wherefore it is not the worke of an ordinary courage , to haue a constant resolution in the middest of greatest dangers , and suddenly to finde remedies against the mischiefes that threaten him . as histories giue this commendation of hannibal , iugurth , caesar , alexander , and some few of those great spirits of former ages ; whose iudgements were neuer danted with apprehension of any danger , but in the middest of combates they could speedily redresse all accidents , which happening suddenly , might amaze their armies , and depriue them of the victory . moreouer , feare ( like a feruile and base passion ) depriues man of all courage : and whereas the apprehension of danger is a spurre to generous spirits , to fortifie them , and to make them seek powerfull meanes to auoyde the danger ; it doth so deiect faint-hearted and fearefull men , as they remaine , as it were , immoueable , and vncapable of all action . moreouer , it makes a man ashamed and confounded , and to contemne himselfe ; he crosseth his armes , and flatters them basely and vnworthily , whom hee thinkes may ease his griefe . it fills him also with amazement , and as if it were able to conuert him into a rocke , it reduceth him to that stupiditie , as hee forgets himselfe , and becomes , as it were , insensible of the miseries which oppresse him , althogh they vexe him worse then death . but you must remember that wee speake of a disordered feare , which doth wholly trouble the imagination of man : for there is a kinde of moderate feare , which striking reason but gentlely , makes vs aduised ( to the which the stoickes giue the name of circumspection ) to prouide with iudgement for that which concernes vs : for that it makes vs carefull and atentiue to looke to our affaires , and to giue order for that which is necessary to shelter vs from stormes . of shame . chap. 1. seeing that shame is , as it were , a shoote or a sience of feare , wee must shew wherein it consists , and what effects it doth produce , to the end we may leaue nothing behinde that may concerne this subiect . shame then is , a griefe and a confusion , which growes from the apprehension of some crosses , which may make man infamous : and vnder this kinde wee comprehend those calamities which are presēt , past , or yet to come ; so as they bee of that nature , as they may trouble and breed a confusion in the soule of man. and impudency on the other side , is a contempt of the same misery , for want of feeling . by the definition of shame , we may gather , that men are ashamed of those things that they thinke will breed them infamy , or lay some aspersion vpon them , or their friends , or vpon such as belong vnto them . so as first of all , all vices , and all things that doe resemble or haue any shew of vice , are capable to breede shame in our soules . as for example , it is a shamefull thing to flye from the army in a day of battaile ; for that this flight is a signe of basenesse and want of courage . in like manner it is a shamefull thing to refuse to restore that , which hath beene left with vs in guard , and which hath beene consigned to our fidelity ; for that this refusall is a proofe o● our iniustice & disloyalty . it is also a shamefull thing to run indifferently into all dishonest places , in the which ( as diogenes said to a young man ) the farthe● he enters , the more his infamy encreaseth ; for that it is a testimony of intemperance and dissolutenesse . and againe , it is a very shamefull thing to seeke to reape profite from all base and abiect things ; like ●o that romane emperour , who said , the fauour of gaine was alwayes sweete , from whence soeuer it came : for it is a signe of a prodigious couetousnesse . moreouer , it is a shamefull thing to refuse to releeue them that are in misery , and implore our aide , with money or any other thing ; for it is a signe of our inhumanity : yea , it is a shame not to assist them bountifully according to their meanes . but especially when they are our kinsfolkes , our allies , our friends , or such persons , as at another time may require the offices wee haue done them in their necessity . it is a shame to begge for fauor or to borrow money of an inferiour , or that is poorer then our selues ; and wee cannot but blush to require money of him in lone , who hath first demanded it of vs ; or to require of him , who would gladly bee payd that which we owe him . all these things cannot proceede but from a base minde , and voyde of integrity . moreouer , wee blush when as wee praise any one aboue his merit , and when as we seeke to excuse in him the defects that are inexcusable , to the end that wee may obtaine some fauour , some present , or some assistance from him . and in like manner we cannot but blush , when as to insinuate our selues into the fauour of any one , wee abandon our selues to impudency , to extoll his good fortune , and the successe of his prosperity , without measure . as also wee are ashamed of the extraordinary demonstrations we do vsually make to men afflicted , to witnesse vnto them the feeling wee haue of their griefe : as when to comfort our friend for the death of some one that was deere vnto him , we wish ( although it bee farre from our thought ) that we were able to redeeme him whose losse is so bitter vnto him , with the losse of our owne blood or life ▪ for all these are signes of insupportable flattery , which cause euen our friends to blush when they heare vs. wee blush in like manner , when as wee refuse to endure the toyle of honorable imployments which are offered vs ; and that men of greater age , more vnable , more tender , and of another quality then our selues , accept them freely : for that this refusall is a signe of our effeminacy . moreouer , wee blush to receiue benefites and fauours continually from the same person ; and wee cannot without some shame reproach them we haue bound vnto vs by our fauours , for that it is a signe of great basenesse . finally , we are ashamed when as we attribute praises vnto our selues which are not due vnto vs ; or that we brag vnseasonably , or challenge the glory of goodly actions , which other men haue ended : for that it is a note of our arrogancy and vanity . so al vices , and all the marks of vices , make an impression of shame in all those which are infected with them . secondly , we are ashamed to see our selues destitute of all honest qualities , which recommend all our equalls generally , or at the least most of them . as for example , it is a great shame not to bee adorned with valour , wisedome , knowledge , modesty , and other excellent parts ; which shine commonly in those of our profession , of our age , of our blood , or of our quality . so caesar seeing himselfe two and thirty yeers old , and hauing made no shew of the greatnesse of his courage , nor done any great exployt , hee grew ashamed , and began to weepe , beholding the image of alexander who seemed to reproach him . all these defects are full of shame and infamy , especially when as they proceede from our negligence , which shewes that we haue no cause to accuse any man but to blame our selues . thirdly , men blush when as they are forced to do or suffer things which are vnworthy either of their condition , or of the nature of man. as for example if they would force a man of quality to do seruices vnworthy of his rancke , this fills him with shame , and he cannot endure it , but with great griefe and distaste : yea we reade in histories of generous spirits , who in the middest of their captiuity remembring that they were borne free , had rather precipitate themselues and chuse a voluntary death , then bee forced to do seruices vnworthy of their births . and therefore nero should die for shame to commit that excesse which he did with the scumme of the people vpon the altars and in the publique places of rome : but what graue or serious thing can wee attend from that infamous monster , who hath dishonored mankinde with his impudencies ? in like manner it is a matter which causeth extraordinary shame in men of note and quality , when by the iniuries of fortune , or by their own basenes they see themselues reduced to that extreamity as to suffer indignities and outrages which blemish their first lustre and glory : as those kings who hauing lost battailes , & seene their estates ruined & spoyled , to crowne their miseries were led in triumph to rome , to serue as a spectacle to that world of people , and to be the images and shewes of humane misery , and of the inconstancy of the world . wherefore they branded them with infamous basenes , which did prostitute themselues to this shame either through couetousnesse , or for want of courage . contrariwise according to the custome of the time , when as christian religion had not yet dispersed the vanity of pagan errors , nor conuerted reproches into exercises of patience , they obserued great beames of generosity in a woman borne to pleasures , and bred vp in the middest of all delights : for that being in the power of her enemy , shee chose rather to kill her selfe by the biting of aspicks , then to bee led in shew , to serue as a fatall ornament to his tryumph . but generally it is a very shamefull thing in all conditions to do or to suffer things full of indignitie and reproch : yet we must set a difference betwixt those that suffer them by their owne basenesse , and such as endure them by a violent constraint . for they that suffer them by their owne basenesse , are infamous ; for that they expose thēselues volūtarily to those affronts . but wee must againe set a difference betwixt those that suffer them by constraint : for either they resolue though timerousnesse and by an apprension , which should not fall into a constant soule ; and then it is a signe of their weaknesse : or else for that they cannot resist , being forced by such as are become maisters of their persons ; and then it is rather an effect of their misfortune then a signe of their basenes : as wee see in those that suffer some indignity by them that are more powerfull . but for that shame riseth from a beleefe which wee haue to bee wounded in our reputation , the which wee measure according to the iudgement & esteeme which men make of vs ; it falls out many times that we are ashamed of the disgraces we suffer in the presence of persons which we respect much , and whose blame and censure we apprehend . in which ranke wee put those which haue in their power the good chances whereunto we aspire , and of whom depends the honour or contentment which wee affect with passion . as for example , a souldier will bee much more ashamed to haue fled from the enemy in the view of his captaine ▪ then to haue committed this basenesse in his absence ; and a louer will endure an iniury done him in the presence of his best beloued , more impatiently , then all the affronts that can bee done elsewhere . for the same reason our shame increaseth , when as wee receiue any reproach before vertuous persons , and such as are held to be iust : as when they are wisemen or reuerent old men that accuse vs ; for that wee thinke men will easily giue credit to what they say of vs. wee are also ashamed if any infamous thing befall vs in the presence of our equalls , and of such which are as it were emulators and riualls of what wee pursue ; for that contending with them of honor , it is a wonderfull griefe vnto vs to see this breach made in our reputation in their presence . and generally wee are ashamed of that which is done in the sight of men which obserue it , or which haue a malicious disposition , & which interpret all actions sinisterly . for wee conceiue , that if they do not pardon innocence , they will not spare vs. shame in like manner shewes it selfe in the presence of such which are adorned with vertues contrary to the defects which appeare in our actions , especially if they bee seuere men , who are not accustomed to pardon or excuse the errors which they see committed : as the romans were ashamed to do any vnworthy act before cato , both for that he was a seuere censor of the actions of the cittizens , as also for that he pardoned no man. it troubles vs also to see our selues reproued & scorned by ordinary iesters , and by such as make profession to shew themselues in theaters ; for that wee conceiue it is a testimony that we are publikely defamed , or at the least wee feare that these people to the eternall infamy of our name , will teare our reputation in publique assemblies . we are also ashamed to shew our defects before those whom we thinke wee haue offended , and are not our friends : for that we know they will not faile to publish our imperfections . finally , wee blush when as any thing vnworthy of our condition befalls vs in the view of such whose fauour & friendship wee seeke ambitiously ; apprehending that this misfortune will bee an obstacle to our pursuites , and a subiect to make vs be reiected . as in like manner we blush to see our selues surprized in some notable fault , by such as had vs in good esteeme , especially if they be our familiar friends , or of our owne family , which discouer the error , into which we had neuer before fallen , or had alwaies cunningly concealed it . there are also diuerse other subiects which make an impression of shame ; and for example , at our first speech to any one whom we know not well , we blush , for that being ignorant what account hee makes of vs , or how hee is affected to vs , wee are in suspence betwixt hope & feare , and know not how hee will entertaine our discourse . and in like manner we are surprized with shame , when as wee are to speake before a great multitude and a concourse of people : for that in this great diuersity of minds and humors we thinke it impossible , but there is some one who hath no great disposition to fauour vs. moreouer , when as we are to speake before a person of eminent quality , of exquisite knowledge , or of exact iudgement , wee blush and are amazed , by reason of the great respect wee haue of him ; which makes vs feare to fayle before him , and this feare fills vs with shame , and makes vs blush . wee are also not only ashamed of our defects , but euen of all the signes and tokens of our vices and bad inclinations : as wee blush not only at vncleannesse , but also at all the signes of wantonnesse ; especially we are ashamed at licentious words , which offend chaste eares . wherefore alceus hauing opened his mouth to speake to sapho , & then staying himselfe , and pretending for his excuse , that shame had hindred his speech , she answered ; if you had not had some bad desire , but had meant to speake that which was honest and not licentious , shame had not appeared in your eyes , neither had it tyed your tongue , but you would haue deliuered your thoughts freely . by all that we haue sayd , it followeth , that men are not ashamed to do or say any thing whatsoeuer before such as they do not esteeme , but contemne : whereby it followes , that they neither respect nor feare the eyes of children nor beasts . but those before whom wee are most ashamed to shew our selues in our misfortune ▪ are our enemies , to whom wee know our miseries are a sweete and pleasing spectacle : as caesar seeing himselfe a prisoner in the hands of pirats , said , that his enemy crassus would be glad of the misfortune which had befallen him . to cōclude , mē are ashamed to see thēselues defamed publikely ; as to be led to execution in the midst of a multitude of people , to bee witnesses of their ignominy . and yet the poet antiphon being condemned to dye with many others , by denis the tyrant , when as hee saw his companions going to execution , & passing before a great multitude to hide their faces , as being ashamed ; beeing come out of the city , he said vnto them , what my friends , d ee you feare that some one of these gallants will see you againe to morrow , and reproach you with your misfortune ? but doubtlesse euery man hath not this resolution , nor so great a courage in the last indignities of life . chap. 2. of the effects of shame . as there are certayne plants whose roots are venemous and mortall to such as vse them , but their leaues are indued with excellent qualities , and proper for the preseruation of the health of man : so there are passions of the soule , which on the one side serue man as a spurre to vertue , and on the other side precipitate him to vice . and this is particularly incident to shame , the which doth sometime induce men to decline from wickednesse , and sometime shee diuerts them from commendable & vertuous actions , by the apprehension of an imaginary dishonour . timoleon conceiuing that all the world did hate him , for that he had consented to the death of his brother , who was a plague to his common wealth , wandred vp and down the fields twenty years together , and could not resolue to embrace the defence of his citizens generously . others beeing ashamed to abandon their countrey in publike calamities , haue carried themselues couragiously to vndertake things , for the which they knew , they shold bee vnworthily recompenced by the ingratitude of their citizens . but before wee come to the effects which shame produceth in the soule , let vs see what impressions shee makes in the body : for it seemes shee stirres vp an effect farre different from the cause from whence it proceedes . shame , say the philosophers , is a kinde of feare , which ariseth , for that man doubts some blame and some censure of his actions . as feare then retires the blood , and makes it descend about the heart , how comes it that shame should cause the blood to ascend vnto the countenance , and make the face to blush ? whereunto they answer , that men may be threatned with two kinds of miseries , whereof the one is not onely contrary to the inclination of their senses , but also tends to the destruction of their nature and being , as extreame dangers and perills of death . others are onely contrary to the desires of the senses , but doe not threaten man with death or the decay of his being : as for example , the blame and dishonour which wee apprehend for something we haue done . when man then propounds vnto himselfe the forme of these first kindes of obiects , that is to say , of those calamities which tend to the dissolution of his being : nature beeing amazed by the impressiō which she receiues from the senses , striues to succour them , and drawes the blood and heate vnto the heart , which is ( as wee haue said ) the fountaine of life ; whereupon the countenance being destitute of blood , man growes pale in these great terrors . but when as he apprehends onely the calamities of the second kinde , that is to say , those which tend not to the destruction of his beeing , but onely to the decrease of his glory ; nature is not so powerfully mooued by the senses , for that the ruine of her consistence is not directly in question ; but leaues the griefe in the senses , whose amazement doth not send the heat and blood into the body , but causeth it to mount into the face , which becomes all red and sanguine . some beleeue that this blushing is as it were a veile , which nature extends before her to couer her shame ; as wee see commonly , they that are ashamed carry their hands before their faces and eyes , for that those parts are most afflicted with shame , in regard they are the most noble . and the impression is particularly made in the eies , which the ancients haue called the seate of modesty : and therefore plato brings in socrates couering his eyes , when as hee would make a discourse of loue , wherein hee thought there was some shame for a man , making profession of deepe wisedom . the reason therof is , for that wee are ashamed to see our defects knowne to men , whō we greatly respect and reuerence . the ancients did alwaies hold it for a good signe and presage in young men , to see them blush easily ; wherefore they called this blushing the colour , or vermillion of vertue . yea , that great romane censor said , that hee loued them better that blusht , then such as grew pale , for that to be pale , is a signe they feared some danger : so as they that grow pale , seeme to haue an apprehension to be called in question for some crime , and punished : whereas they that blush , shew they are ashamed , and apprehend euen the very suspition of doing ill . but there is no kinde of people in whom an honest bashfulnesse is more commendable ; yea , vpon the lightest occasions , then in virgins , and women : for to blush for words , for motions , and for the least licencious actions , is a signe of an exact modesty , which is the rarest and the most rich ornament of their sexe . but to returne to young men , as it is a good signe to see them blush , for that being naturally inclined to follow their passions ( by reason of this great heate of blood which abounds in them , and enflames them ) it is a commendable thing to see that shame is , as it were , a bridle to retire them from vice . but this kinde of shame is not much commendable in men of ripe age , who haue not this spurre to incite them to euill ; and moreouer , vertue should haue taken deep root in their hearts , whereby all their actions should be commendable and full of glory , so as they haue no subiect to blush . but if they fall into this defect , it is a signe that they iudge themselues , and that their vertue is not perfect nor compleat proportionable to their age . let vs now come to the effects which shame produceth in the soule : there are some good , as we haue sayde in the beginning , but she also produceth badde . many times shee hath made them valiant , who were faint-hearted and feareful ; yea , we haue seene whole armies beeing amazed and terrified , haue resumed courage by the presence of caesars , alexanders , scipioes , & other great commanders , who haue brought backe their souldiers in battailes ; for that the great esteeme they had of such excellent captains , made them blush to flye before them ; yea , to chuse a most certaine death , rather then to be held cowards by such wotthy men . moreouer , there haue beene souldiers , who hauing faintly maintained an encounter , the next day to wipe away this shame , haue performed wonders , whereof the greeke and romane histories , furnish vs with many examples . besides , shame doth retire vs often from dishonest things , as appeared in him who confessed freely that he plaid not at dice , for that he was ashamed any one should see him lose his time in so bad an exercise . but on the other side , shame diuerts vs many times from commendable things ; yea , and from those which are profitable , and which concerne the preseruation of our liues . as for example , you see at banquets , some being prest to drink extraordinarily , are ashamed to refuse them which inuite them ; and ouer-ruled by their vniust entreaties , fall into surfeits which ruine their health . others in like manner seeing thēselues importuned or coniured in bad companies , not to bee so modest before their friends , suffer themselues to be carried away , to commit great disorders , as with women , or at play , or to do other execrable villanies , for the which they are grieued in their soules , but they haue not the courage to refuse such as presse them : whereby it happens often , that flying the smoake they runne headlong into the flame , that is to say , for that they are not able to resist an imaginary shame , they fall into an eternall reproach , being blamed by all vertuous men , when they heare of their basenesse . there haue bene some also who fearing that there haue bene plots laid to kill them , or to poyson them , yet surmounted by shame , haue abandoned themselues to the danger . so dyon being aduertized of the conspiracy which was practized against him , and his host and friend calippus ; being ashamed to refuse to go whither they were both inuited , which was the place where the murther was intended , he went rashly to his death . so antipater the sonne of cassander , lost himselfe for that he durst not refuse to suppe with demetrius , where he was slaine . young hercules , the sonne of alexander the great , was surprized by polipherchon and cassander , being ashamed to refuse their requests to suppe with them , who tended only to haue a meanes to murther him . by all that we haue sayd , we may gather that shame is sometimes profitable , and sometimes pernicious ; but it is alwayes commendable , when it serues vs as a bridle to retire vs from vice . of hope and despaire . chap. 1. hee which sayd that hope was a dreame which presents it selfe to them that wake , hath excellently described the nature and effects of this passion . for as dreames in the night fill vs with illusions and vaine formes , which abuse vs , and which make vs imagine that wee are rich in our extreamest pouerty , that we are happy in our greatest misery , that wee enioy scepters and crownes , in the midst of bonds and irons , that wee command great empires when we are restraided in a hard and slauish captiuity ; in like manner , hope , abusing our imagination , fills our soules with vaine contentments , and represents vnto vs that all things are subiect to our power , that the whole world should receiue a law from vs ; and if that there appeare any obstacle to hinder our dessignes and desires , that we are able to surmount them . yea in the middest of our greatest disgraces , wee flatter our selues with this conceit , that humane calamities and miseries haue their bounds , and that they are weary to be alwayes about one man ; as the winds and stormes in the end breake , and are pacified after the most violent gustes . wee represent vnto our selues the constitution of heauen and earth ; wee call to mind that the starres which are in the west returne suddenly to the east , that the day followes the night , that a calme season succedes a storme , and that faire weather followes thunder and raine : finally , we beleeue that wee must assure our selues to see a change in the course of this life , and that the day which wee attend will make our condition better , and conuert our misfortunes into incomparable felicities : so as i doubt not but euen among those wretched slaues whom miseries consume in the turkes gallies , there are some which dreame and thinke of the scepter of the empire of asia . wherefore an ancient sayd , that there was nothing so common in the life of men as hope , which remaines euen to them that are depriued of all other good and content : for that the miserable after an absolute shipwracke , entertaine hope , as the last anchor of their ruined fortune . but to leaue the illusion and deceipts which wee frame in our selues ; who knowes not that when they are well ordered , they serue to mollifie the paines , and to incounter all the crosses and accidents of this life ? what had become of the romans after the battaile of cannas , wherein they lost the flower and chiefe of their men of war , if a better hope had not reuiued their courages , to reuenge the losse and disgrace which they had receiued ? had not their common-weath without it , bene a prey to hanniball , and the carthaginians ? had not their estate beene ouerthrowne , and their rich prouinces made desolate ? but these great personages representing vnto themselues that many suffer shipwracke in the port ; and contrariwise others , saue themselues among rockes ; fortified them selues with hope , which made them not only repaire this losse , but also to giue a law vnto the victors . how many other estates , empires , and kingdomes , through hope haue maintained themselues against the iniuries of fortune ? during the reigne of charles the sixt , in that great deluge of english , which ouerflowed in a manner all france ; in those domesticke treacheries , in that generall reuolt of all the orders of the realme , what had become of the fortune of france , if those great ornaments of our history , those worthy men , which liued at that time , by an infamous basenesse had abandoned the ship in the middest of a storme , and had lost all hope to preserue the king , and his crowne ? was not their hope seconded by a thousand miracles which god wrought to preuent the shipwracke of the state ? and in our dayes , amidst the powerfull conspiracies of spaine , and the violent factions of the league , into what misery had this goodly crowne falne , if great henry , the miracle of our age , full of good hope , which neuer abandons great resolutions , had not supported it , and by his va●o●r ouerthrowne all the obstacles , which his enemies had set before his throne to hinder his rising ? but if hope hath great power to maintaine publique fortunes , it hath no lesse to assure those of priuate mē . so as we may say , that most men liue by hope , & entertaine thēselues with the future , this passion neuer abandoning any man vntil he goes to the graue . wherfore if we shold search out the nature of any passiō exactly , it is of this in particular , which hath such power ouer the other affections of our soules . we must then gather the definitions dispersed here and there in the writings of philosophers . hope , said an ancient , is an expectation of good : hope , sayd another , is a cert●●●e cōfidence which we haue , that what we imagine shal befal vs. and a third writes , that hope is a motion and passion of the soule , by the which , vpon the impression which wee haue of a future good , which presents it selfe to our imagination as difficult to obtaine , we endeauour to pursue it , conceiuing that we are able to attain vnto it , and in the end to get the possession . from this last definition , which doth explicate the true nature of hope , wee gather that there are foure conditions required in the obiect . first , it must haue bounty , for that hope tends alwayes to that which is good . wherein it differs from feare , which hath for obiect the euill wherewith man is threatned . secondly , this good which wee hope for must bee to come , for that the presence and enioying of this takes away the hope . so alexander going into india hoped to conquer it , but hauing finished his conquest , this hope vanished , and was conuerted into the enioying and possession of that which hee had hoped for . so in this life we hope for the glory of heauen , but when we shall enioy it ▪ this hope shall bee quencht and extinguished . and therein hope differs from ioy , which is a contentment of a good which we possesse . thirdly , there must bee a paine and difficulty to attain vnto the good whereof wee haue conceiued an hope , for no man hopes for that which is in his power . and therefore the philosophers obserue , that hope is alwayes mixt with some feare , by reason of the obstacles which present themselues , and may hinder mans enioying of the good hee hopes for ; wherein she differs from desire , which extends generally to all kinde of good , without any apprehension of difficulty : and therefore desire belongs to the concupiscible appetite , whereas hope is subiect to the irascible . fourthly , amidst the difficulties which man doth apprehend in getting the good which he hopes for ; yet notwithstanding hee must imagine , that it is in his power to preuent all the obstacles which might hinder his enioying ; for no man did euer hope for things which hee holds impossible . so caesar would neuer haue hoped to finish the conquest of gaule , if he had not first perswaded himselfe that the industry of a generous captaine , might bring that enterprize to a good end , although it were difficult and dangerous . whereby wee may gather , that although hope hath her seat in the irascible appetite , which hath the good for her obiect : yet as it is the property of powers indued with knowledge , to excite those which are capable to desire , representing their obiects vnto them ; her motions depend of the imagination which man frames in himselfe of a good which he beleeues confidently to obtaine , notwithstanding that he apprehends great crosses in the pursuit . for man , who is a credulous creature , and alwayes flatters himselfe in his hopes , doth also assure himselfe to compasse that which he thinkes is not aboue his forces , although hee bee not ignorant that hee shall finde some resistance . so as this beleefe begets in the irascible part a certain confidence , which makes him vndertake that which he desireth , assuring himselfe to surmount all obstacles which may crosse him and hinder his enioying . and it is certaine , that euen bruite beasts haue motions of hope and despaire as well as men . for the interior passions of creatures discouer themselues , and are knowne by their exterior motions , wherewith they are agitated ; whereof we haue daily experience , in the sparrow-hauk , tassel , sacre , lanner , and other hawkes , who seeing their game farre from them , and not in their power to ouertake it , they neuer bate after it , nor offer to pursue it ; whereas if they see it in a reasonable distance , they presently take their flight to seaze vpon it . and in like manner the lyon going to hunt after his prey , to satisfie his hunger , runnes not after those beasts which hee thinkes can easily flye from his fury , but sets vpon those which hee imagines cannot escape him . but wee must vnderstand , that to frame the hope of a-any thing in our soules , it is not necessary that wee know euidently that it shall happen , and that it is in our power to attaine vnto it , but it sufficeth that wee haue some opinion and coniecture grounded vpon the apparēce , which makes vs beleeue that there is meanes to obtaine it : for that when wee perswade our selues vpon any reason whatsoeuer , as imagining that others haue attained vnto it , that it hath at other times succeeded , and that the same euents attend vs ; that time assists vs , that the place is fauourable vnto vs , that we haue friends , or that wee are able enough of our selues to compasse our designes ; we fill our selues with hope , and doubt not but all will succeede happily . so as there is no reason how light soeuer , but it is sufficient to make vs hope for that which we propound vnto our selues ; wherein it seemes , that amidst the miseries of this life , and all publicke and priuate calamities , which otherwise would be intollerable , the wise prouidence of god hath prouided vs this remedy , to fortifie our constancy and to keepe vs from shrinking , and falling vnder the burthen of aduersities . the which the poets would represent vnto vs , vnder the fable of pandora , in whose boxe ( beeing emptied of all good things ) there remained nothing but onely hope vpon the brimme of the vessell . and therefore a rhodian being cast into an obscure and cruell prison , among serpents and venemous beasts , and coniured by some of his friends , to make an end of so many miseries by a voluntary death , he answered wisely , that man hopes still whilst he breathes : as if he would say , that death onely could depriue man of the hopes of life , and a better fortune . the persons which fill themselues with hopes , are first of all those which haue had a long experience and a perfect knowledge of the affaires of the world . as for example , such as haue beene in many incounters , and haue gotten great victories , promise still vnto themselues a power to vanquish , yea , when they haue beene beaten . and therefore that romane consull which escaped from the battaile of cannas , where his companion had beene slaine , and the whole romane army defeated , was commended for that he hoped well of the common-weale . and heere wee must remember what wee haue formerly said , that the obiect of hope is a difficult good , but yet possible to attaine , for thereby followes , that one thing may contribute , and serue to entertaine our hope after two manners ; that is to say , either in making the thing truely possible , and put the effects into our power : or at the least , in making vs beleeue that it is not impossible , and that we may attaine vnto it by meanes , which are not aboue our forces . in the first sort , whatsoeuer makes vs more powerfull increaseth our hopes . and in this kinde wee put riches , armes , courage , crownes , empires , yea , and a long experience of things : for so we see that men powerfull in wealth assure themselues to compasse any thing . as philip of macedon said , that hee could force any place whereas money might enter . and great kings measuring enterprizes , rather by their power and courage , then the obstacles which present themselues , haue an imagination to accomplish them happily . and in like manner experience , by meanes whereof man hath gotten the knowledge of meanes fit to procure things to succeed easily , makes him cōceiue a certain hope , to haue good successe of that which hee proiects . wherefore an ancient said , that no man apprehends to vndertake that which hee hath learned well and can do accordingly , in the second sort , whatsoeuer makes vs esteeme things easie , or which diminish the difficulties , may also serue to fortifie our hopes . and of this sort an exquisite knowlege , or a powerfull remonstrance may contribute much . and therefore in great battailes , generalls haue beene accustomed to represent vnto their souldiers their valours tryed in many occasions , the little courage of their enemies ; and whatsoeuer may assure them of the victory . in this manner their experience may preuaile much : for by the experience which a man hath of things , he perswades himselfe that what others hold impossible , may notwithstanding succeede happily . it is true also that experiēce may weaken hope , according to the resolution or want of courage where it resides . wherefore aristotle said , that old men haue weak or bad hopes , for that the long experience they haue of things , the changes they haue seene , the deceits which they haue tried , the fraudes wherewith they haue beene circumuented , the practises wherewith they haue beene abused , and the little integrity and sincerity they haue found in the actions of men ; fills them with iealousie and distrust . adding moreouer , that they liue rather by memory then hope ; for that they haue a small share in future things , which is the ground of hope , and that they haue a great idea of what is past , which serues to entertaine the memory . but contrariwise young men are full of hopes , for three reasons grounded vpon three conditions , required in the obiect of this passion , which we haue sayd should bee a good not yet present ; difficult , but yet possible to obtaine ; for young men haue little knowledge of what is past , and haue a great part in the future , by reason of their age : in regard whereof memory being of things past , and hope of things to come , they do not much build vppon their memory , but feed themselues with hopes , which are many times vaine . and moreouer young men haue much heate , and aboundance of spirit , which puffes vp their hearts , and makes them aspire to great matters , little esteeming any difficulties which present themselues . thirdly , as they that haue receiued no repulse in their enterprizes , nor found any obstacles in their dessignes , they perswade themselues easily that they shal attaine vnto their desires , young men hauing no experience of the crosses , and hinderance which are found in affaires , imagine that all will succeed happily , and therefore they are still full of hope . they also which are surprized with wine conceiue great hopes , both by reason of the heate and aboundance of spirits , caused by the excesse of wine , as also for that their spirits being drowned in wine , cannot apprehend the dangers , nor foresee the obstacles which they may find in their dessignes . for the same reason mad men , who are neither capable of counsell nor iudgement , are easily carried to hope , for all that which they imagine ; and they vndertake foolishly whatsoeuer comes into their fancies ; for as aristotle sayth , to speake of all things and leaue nothing vncensured , is a marke of folly ; so to attempt all things , and to hope for all , is a signe of little iudgement . if against this which we haue propounded , ( that young men , such as are ouertaken with wine , and mad-men are commonly full of great hopes ) they obiect , that neither the one nor the other haue any kind of experience whereof they may make vse , nor any firme resolution , neither yet any great power to effect their dessignes , all which are necessary conditions to frame hopes ; they must remēber that although these men in effect haue none of these qualities , but are for the most part vnprouided , yet they are rich in imagination , and thinke they enioy them . and we haue sayd , that the obiects of hope , make not their impression in our soules , by the truth alone of things , but also by the vaine imaginations which wee frame in our selues . wherefore although they bee without experience , without resolution , and without great meanes to effect what they haue propounded , yet they do promise much vnto themselues , and hope for all . and although that loue be the fountaine of all the passions of the soule , yet hope may be the cause that we loue any one . for hope may propound vnto it selfe two things , that is to say , the good which wee hope for , and the meanes to obtaine it . wherefore an obiect of good presenting it selfe vnto vs , which wee are not able to attaine vnto , but by the assistance of some other ; for this reason , hope doth also regard those that assist vs , and make the thing easie . seeing then that hope regards the obiects which wee propound vnto our selues , vndoubtedly loue is the root and cause of hope ; for that we hope not for any thing but that wherewith wee are in loue , and whereunto we haue tied our affections , desiring passionately to enioy it . but for that hope regards him which doth open to vs the meanes , and makes the thing possible ; loue is a bud of hope , seeing that we loue him , for that we hope to attaine vnto our desires by his assistance . so as the first impression which the obiect wee pursue makes in our soules , is an effect of the loue wee beare it , conceiuing it to bee a good fit for vs. but the consideration of the meanes to attaine vnto it , which comes from others , makes a second impression in vs , and induceth vs to loue him that doth procure it , representing him vnto vs as profitable vnto our dessigne , and therefore worthy to be beloued . touching that which concernes the effects of hope , we will not make any particular discourse , but content our selues to say , that as the north star is the marriners guide who looke continually vpon her light to assure their nauigation : so hope is that which inflames vs to all the difficult actions wee vndertake . and as the brightnes of this star doth fill them with ioy that saile by sea , but when as it shines not they are dismaide , & feare hourely to perish by the violence of some storme , or to see their ship split vpon some rocke : so whilest wee haue any remander of hope , our soules are content ; but if it bee quite vanished , we hold out selues miserable , and begin to neglect and forget our selues . the first effect of hope is , that it breeds a singular contēt in vs , which makes our pursuites pleasing . wherefore all the philosophers concurre in this maxime , that hope fortifies our resolutions , and makes them more prompt in their actions . the which is for two reasons . the first , for that she hath for her obiect a good hard to bee obtained . but the apprehension of the difficulty , which presents it selfe in the pursuite of the good whereunto wee doe aspire , doth vsually make vs gather our forces together , to vanquish all obstacles , and to attaine vnto it , notwithstanding all the difficulties that may bee encountered : and therefore wee imploy more care and diligence , by meanes whereof wee attaine more easily to the end of our dessignes . secondly , hope breeds this pleasure and sweetnes whereof wee haue spoken , which makes vs more actiue and more ready to pursue that which we desire ; for that we behold nothing painful wherin we take deligh● ▪ wee must then remember here , what we haue spoken elsewhere , that hope is a sweete imagination which we frame in our selues , of a good whereunto wee aspire . and that this imagination begetts in our soules a second contentment , for that it is accompanied with this beleefe , that wee may attaine vnto it . wherefore as pleasure makes all actions delightfull vnto men , so the content we receiue from our hopes ( according vnto the philosophers ) makes vs to pursue with more heate and lesse paine , that which wee haue once conceiued in our thoughts . this ioy which proceeds from a certaine hope we haue of enioying , deriuing from the soule , disperseth it selfe into all the members of man , the which do ioyfully receiue the impressions of the mouing faculty , yeelding vpon this occasion a more prompt obedience to execute the commandements of the irascible , the which of the one side is inflamed with desire to incounter & vanquish whatsoeuer opposeth it selfe against her , and on the other she is sweetly entertained in this resolution , by the pleasure which imaginatiō giues her , representing that shee may vanquish all these obstacles , and be victorious in this combate , and in the end obtaine the good whereunto she aspires . but particularly , this ioy falles about the heart , which sends it backe againe and makes it ascend vnto the eies and countenance . wherefore we reade in their faces that are full of good hope , the contentment which their imagination giues them . in regard of the ioy and cōtentment which hope giues vs , wee do easily deuoure all the toyles and paines which present themselues in our pursuites , especially when the good which we pursue is endued with some excellent perfection , which makes vs to esteeme it greatly , or to loue it ardently . as for example , at the seege of troy , the grecians were not discouraged with the tediousnesse of the time , nor with the toyles and dangers of warre ; for that they imagined the beauty of hellen deserued their long labor to restore her to her husband , and to reuenge the reproach and infamy of greece . so iacob being passionately in loue with faire rachell , hee patiently endured the rigors of her father , the toyles of his seruice , and the afflictions of his mind , for that he liued daily in hope of this in comparable beauty : and therefore hope hath so great power in humane affaires , in which there is found some kinde of difficulty . the laborer would not expose himselfe so freely to the rigor of the aire , nor endure with such patience the iniuries of times , in tilling his land , if hee did not promise vnto himselfe a rich haruest for the fruit of his labour : the souldier would not cast himselfe into dangers , he would not mount vp to breaches , nor thrust himselfe into the fury of combates , if the expectance of glory , or hope of booty did not animate his courage . the merchant would not passe through rockes , fires , waues , and stormes , running from sea to sea , and from port to port , if hee did not promise vnto himselfe great wealth , in recompence of his voyages and trauailes . yea , alexander himselfe going to the warre of asia , where hee should expose himselfe to a thousand dangers , protested that he was wholly thrust on by hope to enioy all the glory and treasures of the east , by subduing those barbarians . so as hope is as it were , the soule of goodliest actions , making vs to surmount all the difficulties and obstacles , which might hinder the execution by the mollifying of our resolutions . yea , it is certaine , that courage hath alwayes beene held an effect of good hope : for when as man hopes to surmount those fearefull things , which seeme to threaten him , he goes couragiously to encounter them ; whereas when he is surprized by feare , he faints , and abandons himselfe vnto the misfortune , his despaire rising from the difficulties which he apprehends in the good which he should hope for . but to haue full knowledge of this subiect , and of the whole matter , we must in the end of this chapter shew , how despaire is contrary to hope , and seek the reason why it may sometimes make men valiant , and to winne great victories . first of all , you must remember what wee haue formerly sayd , that among the passions of the soule , they obserue two kinds of opposition . the first is found among those that haue contrary things for obiects : and that is onely a-among the passions of the concupiscible part : as for example , betwixt loue and hatred , whereof the one regards the good , and the other the euill . the second is obserued betwixt those that in truth regard the same obiect , but with diuerse considerations , and that is found among the irascible passions , whereof the one seekes the good , and the other flies it , by reason of the difficulty which doth inuiron it . as for example , courage and feare do both regard an imminent danger , which presents it selfe to the imagination ; but courage lookes vppon it to encounter and vanquish it , and feare regards it to auoyd it and flye from it , if it be in her power . after this manner then despaire is contrary to hope , for that the obiect of hope which is a good difficult to obtaine , drawes vs of the one side , that is to say , so farre as wee doe imagine a power to obtaine it . but it doth reiect vs on the other side , as when we apprehend , that wee haue no meanes to enioy it : for this apprehension daunts our resolution : or that , as aristotle teacheth , the impossibility which wee imagine in things , makes vs to giue ouer their pursuit . wherefore in this consideration , despaire is quite contrary to hope . but some one may say , how comes it that many times in warre , despaire makes men valiant , and giues them great victories , as well as hope , for that it is not the custom of nature to produce the like effects from contrary causes ? to which we answer , that when in the midst of despaire men resolue to fight valiantly , as we reade of the english in the plaines of poictiers , where they tooke one of our kings prisoner ; it happens for that they haue not lost all hope : for they that see no apparence of safety by flying , and apprehend that it cannot preserue them from falling into their enemies hands , but will purchase them eternall shame with their miserie ; losing all hope of that side , they resume new courage , and resolue to sell their liues dearely , and to reuenge their deaths gloriously . wherefore great captaines haue alwaies held opinion , that enemies should not bee thrust into despaire beeing put to flight , but rather make them a bridge of gold , & to giue them meanes to passe riuers , lest that finding themselues staied , and despairing of all safety , they should take more courage , and generously reuenge their first basenesse , by a cruell slaughter of their enemies . of choler . chap. 1. of all the passions of the soule , there is not any one that takes such deepe root , or extends her branches farther then choler ; wherof , neither age , condition , people , nor nation , are fully exempt . there are whole countries which liuing vnder a sharp & rough climate , are not acquainted with pleasures : there are others , who contenting ▪ themselues with those benefits which nature presents vnto them , are not enflamed with any ambition . some there be , to whom misery is familiar , as they fear not any accidents of fortune . but there is not any , ouer whom choler doth not exercise her power , and shew the excesse of her rage : yea , she enflames whole kingdomes and empires ; whereas the other passions doe onely trouble and agitate priuate persons . wee haue neuer seene a whole nation surprized with the loue of one woman . it was neuer foūd , that a whole city hath beene transported with a desire to heape vp treasure : ambition doth puffe vp but certaine spirits . but we see cities , prouinces , and whole states , enflamed with choler , and transported by this fury , with a publicke conspiracy of great & small , young and olde , men , and children , magistrates , and multitude : we see commonalties , whom this fury hath incensed , runne all to armes , to reuenge a disgrace , or a wrong , which they pretend hath beene done them . wee haue also seene great and powerfull armies , which haue bene the terror of the world , ruine themselues by this fury , which hath thrust them into mutiny against their commanders . wherefore if there be any passion which is pernicious vnto man-kind , it is this , which seemes neither to haue bounds nor limits , nor any shew of reason . it shall bee therefore fit to know the nature , properties , and effects thereof ; to the end , wee may finde out some remedy , to diuert the miseries which shee brings into the world . let vs begin by the definition , which giues a full light of the essence of the thing , and makes vs to know perfectly . choler is an ardent passion , which vpon the apparence there is to be able to reuenge our selues , incites vs to a feeling of a contempt and sensible iniury , which we beleeue hath been vniustly done , either to our selues , or to those we loue . whereby it appeares first , that choler is accompanied with a heate , which is framed and ingendred in vs , for that this passion enflames the blood and spirits , which are about the heart , by meanes of the gall , which in this heat exhales it selfe , and ascends vnto the braine , where it troubles our imagination . this heate differs from that which proceedes from loue , for that the heate which is found in loue , tending to the thing beloued to vnite it selfe with it , is mixt with a certaine sweetenesse , so as the philosophers compare it to the moderate heate of the ayre or blood . wherefore we say , that sanguine complexions are most capable of loue , & that the bounty of the liuer wheras the blood is framed , induceth to loue . but the heate of choler is boyling , full of bitternesse , and accompanied with sharpenes , which tends to the destruction of the obiect which it pursues , and is properly like to the heate of a great fire , or to adust choler extraordinarily mooued , which consumes the subiect whereunto it is fixed , and therefore the philosophers maintaine , that it proceedes from the gall . it appeares also by the definition of choler , that she hath alwayes for obiect the particular persons which haue wronged vs. wherein she differs from hatred , which extends to a multitude of men . as for example , wee detest all murtherers , all theeues , all poysoners , and all slanderers : euen as wee abhorre all serpents , vipers and venemous beasts . and therefore it is not sufficient to satisfie our choler , that he that hath done vs wrong fall into some disaster , which might suffice to giue satisfaction to our hatred : but moreouer ( to giue vs full contentment ) hee must know that we haue procured him this crosse , and that wee are the authors of the reuenge and afflictions which he endures . so vlysses hauing put out the eye of cyclops , dissembled his name no longer , as he had done before , but would make himselfe knowne vnto him ; as if he had not bene sufficiently reuenged of this monster , vnlesse hee had let him know that he was the author of his disaster . we learne also by the same definition , that to incense vs to choller , it is necessary , that he who is theobiect haue done vs wrōg ; or to some one whō we loue , or that belongs vnto vs. as for example , wee are discontented with those that wound our reputation , which attempt against our liues ; which crosse our pleasures , or vndertake any thing against our kinsfolkes or friends : but wee cannot bee angry with him which causeth a iew to be put vnto the chaine at constantinople , or a moore to be whipt at rome ; for that the outrage done vnto these persons doth nothing concerne vs. but if it doe casually happen that one man is angry against another , hauing receiued no cause of distaste from him , only by a certaine antipathy and contrariety of humors ▪ the reason is , for that in this naturall antipathy , he that is angry against the other , conceiues in his imaginatiō that hee is able to do him some wrong , or at the least he hath such a distaste of him as it is troublesome vnto him to looke on him . so as this antipathy supplies the place of an iniury , and workes the same effect that the imagination did to haue receiued some wrong . wee gather also from the same definitiō , that to excite choler we must imagine that wee are able to execute the reuenge whereunto we aspire : and therefore wee dare not be angry , or at the least verie lightly , against kings , and great personages that haue wronged vs ; for that wee know their authority protects them from our reuenge . yea there hath bene a father , whose son a great king hauing slaine in the middest of his cups with the shot of an arrow , supprest his griefe in such sort ( seeing hee could not reuenge it ) as forbearing to complaine of this monstous cruelty , hee commended the princes dexterity in shooting . but we may say , that this actiō sauored more of flattery then of constancy , for the last obseruation we must remember that the causes which excite choler are not alwayes true , but many times are such as we frame in our owne imaginations ; for this passion with her other defects hath also that euill , that she is witty to finde out meanes to cloake her violence and fury . as it appeared in that roman , who transported with this fury , supposed three crimes to put three innocents to death , vnder some colour of iustice. by that which we haue formerly sayd , it may be gathered that choler is alwayes accompanied with some kind of pleasure , which proceeds from the hope we haue to reuenge the wrong which hath beene done vs. for there is a content to promise vnto our selues to bee able to attaine vnto that which wee desire passionately ; whereas no man man wisheth for those things which he thinkes are aboue his power . wherefore as he that is incensed against any one , pursues a reuenge whereunto hee thinkes hee may attaine , this hope fills his soule with ioy , and giues him a singular content ; wherefore homer makes achilles to say , that choler disperseth it selfe in the hearts of generous men , with a sweetnes which exceeds that of hony . but this great content doth not only arise from the hope wee haue to bee able to reuenge our selues ; but it also proceeds from the working of our imagination , which thinking continually of the same obiect of reuenge , breeds in vs a pleasure like vnto that which they feele that haue delightful dreams , and which take pleasure in their vaine apparitions . yet we must remember that choler is also full of griefe and bitternesse , for that it propounds the iniury receiued , the which shee cannot easily disgest , presupposing that it is accompanied with some notable contempt which tends to the impayring of his honor and reputation . so as the sweetnesse which is found growes from the opinion of reuenge ; and the bitternesse proceeds from the conceite of the iniury which we cannot endure . finally , as our choler is inflamed by the contempt and bad opinion which they seeme to haue of vs ; as there are diuerse kinds of contempt , so it may grow from diuerse subiects . for many times although the contempt be not accompanied with any iniury , making only a shew that they do not hold vs in such esteeme as we thinke wee are worthy of , this simple contempt prouoketh vs to choler , holding our selues wronged , for that wee are not honored as we thinke wee haue deserued . as if we should yeeld to a king all the honors of the world , and yet forbeare to giue him the title of a king , this were sufficient to enflame his choler : at it appeared in alexander , to whom darius hauing written a letter full of great and large offers , but had forgot to giue him the title of king ; this generous spirit bare it so impatiently , as in the end of that which he sent for an answere , hee added for the last conclusion of all their conferences by writing , finally , when thou writest vnto me , remember that it is not only to a king , but euen to thy king that thou writest . the which hee added for that hee had defeated darius in battaile . in truth he that yeelds not to any one the honour that is due vnto him , makes shew to contemne him , and that he deserues not the honor which he doth enioy : for that if hee regarded him as hee ought , hee would not seeke to diminish those honors which all the world besides yeeld vnto him . and therefore we may prouoke any one to choler by our silence , for that it may bee a signe of our contempt . but the wrong wee receiue from those which depraue vs openly , and dishonor vs either in deed or word without any cause , is more hard to disgest . for that he which doth this outrage without any subiect , makes a visible demonstration that he doth not esteeme vs : it being most euident that when as wee hold any good regard of a man , we are careful not to offend him without cause ; yea wee endeauor to insinuate our selues into his friendship . there is another kind of contempt which prouokes choler more then that whereof wee haue spoken ; as when any one takes a pleasure to wrong vs and to crosse our dessignes , reaping no profit by the crosses which he giues vs , but the contentment to haue crost vs , and to haue hindred the course of our intentions . for it is an apparent signe of a wonderful contempt , seeing that he wrongs vs in a thing whereof hee reapes no profit but the discontent hee giues vs , & withall he shewes to haue an opinion that wee are not able to hurt him ; otherwise he would apprehend to wrong vs vpon so weake a subiect : and that hee attends no kind of goodnesse from vs ; for if hee did hope to reape any profit by our friendship , hee would seeke it and cherish it by all good offices , and not take that liberty to discontent vs. so as hauing so many testimonies of contempt , and of the little esteeme hee makes of vs , we thinke wee haue iust cause to bee moued , and to reuenge our selues of him . but when as this contempt proceeds to outrages , and that any one without cause seekes to blemish our reputation by scandalous reports made in companies : then our choler hath no bounds , but is inflamed beyond measure , and makes vs burne with desire to reuenge so great an affront . in like manner he , who without prouocation doth vs wrong both by word and deed , and who dissembles not his bad disposition , but doth publish it in all places , makes shew that hee doth wonderfully contemne vs. for as he is not ignorant , that so sensible an iniury deserues reuēge , seeing that he makes no difficulty to doe it , but in despight defames vs in all companies where he comes ; hee shewes plainely how basely he esteemes vs , and that hee thinkes wee are either too faint-hearted to vndertake , or to weake to execute the reuenge , which so sensible an affront deserues . in the meane time we suppose that hee which hath wronged vs in this manner , doth it for his pleasure , hauing not giuen him any apparent subiect of discontent : for if it were to repell a former iniury which hee had receiued from vs , it were no more a contempt or an outrage , but a reuenge which he would take of vs. but you must not wonder at that which we haue said , that there are some people , which take a delight to commit outrages : and the reason is , for that naturally men cannot endure that any one should exceede them in those things wherein they take delight : yea , they desire to excell those whom they thinke are competitors with them in that which they vndertake . wherefore if they encounter any one that is able to oppose himselfe against thē , they contend with him , and vpon the first occasion doe him some affront , to the end they may shewe how much they exceede him in power . and therefore yong men , and such as are rich and powerfull , doe most commonly fall into this excesse . for young men , and such as haue their blood hot and boyling , are wonderfully ready to commit insolencies : and as if they wanted better imployments , they busie thēselues to doe harme ; yea , vnto those which haue not offended them . whereof wee haue great and notable examples in the life of alcibiades , who scandalized the whole city of athens , by the insolency of his actions . rich men in like manner , and such as are powerfull , are full of this vaine ambition to seem great , by the outrages they doe to their inferiours , imagining that this insolency is a marke of their greatnesse . for they presuppose that they are farre aduanced aboue those , whom they dare so visibly wrong . and therefore they take a certaine kinde of content , to do them some affront , which is also the ordinary end that they propound vnto themselues , which take a delight to wrong others . finally , we must remember , that men are commonly moued to choler , when as they see themselues contemned in any of those manners which we haue related . and if we shall seeke the cause in the center , wee shall finde that the reason is , for that men desire passionately to see themselues honoured , and they beleeue , that such as are inferior vnto them , bee it in nobility , power , vertue , or any other eminent quality , are bound to yeeld them all sorts of duty and respect . rich men also will bee reuerenced and respected by the poorer sort , who are inferior vnto them in the goods of fortune . and hee that is indowed with singular eloquence , desires that such as haue not attained to the like perfection , should acknowledge the aduantage he hath ouer them . in like manner men of authority and command , will haue such as are subiect to their gouernement , honour them with their seruice . and if their inferiours faile to yeeld them the honor which they think is due vnto them , they cannot endure this iniury , but fall into rage ; which makes them to seeke all occasions to punish this contempt . and therefore it was truly said , that the indignation of a king is great and fearefull ; for that when as a great king is incensed against any one that is not of his quality , although he temper and moderate his choler for a time , yet hee smothers it in his brest , and is neuer satisfied vntill hee hath made him feele the effects of his power , that durst presume to offend him . wherefore an ancient said , that choler encountering with a great power , was like a thunder-bolt , which breakes in peeces whatsoeuer stands in its way . but not onely kings , but euery priuate person is impatient to see himselfe contemned by those which are his inferiours . and to speake truth , there is nothing but the wisedome of god , and the law of iesus christ , that can pull out of our soules , this feeling of a contempt , or of an iniurie receiued vnworthily . for a conclusion of this chapter , we will obserue , that philosophers make three kindes of choler : and that as among serpents , there are aspickes , vipers , and dragons , whose poyson encreaseth daily ; so they hold opinion , that of these diuerse kindes of choler , some are accompanied with more violence , and shew more fire then the rest . for there is a kinde of choler , whose motions are sudden and prompt and which enflame vpon the first occasions , and the first obiects which present themselues . aristotle calls those that are subiect to this passion , sudden , actiue , cholerick , and adust ; for that this suddennesse to bee mooued , riseth from the abundance of adust choler , or from the gall . but as it is kindled suddenly , so it is quencht with little paine , like vnto the waues of the sea , which rise and breake at the same instant there is another kind of choler , which takes roote , and is fashioned in the soule , by a long continuance of time , during the which , man doth represent vnto himselfe the forme of that party which hath wronged him , and preserues the memory of the iniury he hath receiued . aristotle tearmes these men sharpe , bitter , and secret : such was the choler of achilles , which the death o● so many braue princes slaine at the siege of troy , during his despight , could hardly mollifie . there is a third kinde ( although it differs not much from the second ) the which doth wholly transport men , torments them perpetually , and neuer giues them any rest , vntill they haue satisfied their reuenge . aristotle calls those that are agitated-with this frenzy , violent , outragious , and insupportable . the first is found in the best dispositions , but the two other are signes of bad inclinations . to conclude , there is not any one of them , but we should auoyde and flie from , as a poyson which kills charity , which should shine in all the motions and actions of christians . and if we are at any time surprized , let vs bee angry , but sinne not ; let nature worke her first effect , but let vs stay her violence , and aboue all , let not the sunne go downe vpon our wrath . of those against whom we are angry . chap. 2. hee which said that man was a creature which is passionate for glory , seemes to haue discouered all the roots of choler : for if we obserue the obiects which excite it , and against whom we are angry , we shall finde it generally true , that it neuer discloseth it selfe in our hearts , nor is framed in our soules , but vpon a conceit we haue , that they seeke to diminish our glory , and to blemish our reputation , with some notable contempt , or by some great outrage which wee cannot beare : so as this passion is kindled first , by a contempt and an iniury which we imagine we haue receiued , the which maketh an impression in our soules : the griefe and discontent to haue beene wronged , makes vs to seeke meanes for reuenge , beeing thrust on by the nature of griefe , which alwayes seekes ease , and which in this occasion cannot finde it but onely in reuenge , the desire whereof makes his heart to swell , and stirres vp his courage . for it is certaine , that reuenge quencheth the heate of choler , and we are pacified , when as wee see the wrong which we haue receiued , sufficiently punished : for that we conceiue by this meanes that our reputation is repaired , and the contempt reuenged . but before this reuenge , the griefe of the iniury stickes fast vnto our soules and imflames , vs to seeke reparation . an empresse of constantinople hauing let slippe certaine words of contempt against narses that generous captaine , who had reduced italy vnder the obedience of the empire : and sayd in disdaine that they must send for that eunuch and make him spinne amongst her women ; this valiant man being incensed at this outrage , protested in the middest of his griefe , that hee would weaue such a webbe for the emperour and his empresse , as all their power and industry should not be able to vndo : and thereupon he drew the lombards into italy , and dismembred those goodly prouinces from the empire : whereby it appeares how dangerous it is to incense a great spirit . secondly , when we are much transported with passion , and do vehemently affect any one thing , wherein we are crost & haue some obstacle giuen vs , be it directly or indirectly , by ouert meanes , or secret practizes , our choler is inflamed against those that are the authors of this let : and therefore sicke men are angry with such as to repaire their health , refuse them water or fruits , or some other thing which they earnestly desire : and they that are in loue , frowne on them that flatter not their passion , and which seeke to diuert them from the pursuite of that they loue . but aboue all , men are bitterly incensed , when as they contemne their present condition , and the estate whereunto some calamity or their owne indiscretion hath brought them . hence grow the complaints and vexations of the miserable , of poore people , of the diseased , of those which apprehend some notable afafliction , and of those which see themselues exposed to the violence of the mighty , yea there haue beene men which haue died of sorrow & griefe , for that they were reprocht with an imperfection of nature which they broght with them into the world . moreouer we are discontented against those who wee thinke are the authors or abettors of any disastrous accident which wee expected not , holding them for our friends . for as any great felicity which befalls vs beyond our expectation , fills vs with extraordinary ioy ; so great misfortunes which happen , not foreseene , and contrary to our expectance , afflicts vs strangely , and excites vs wonderfully to choler . and sometimes the circumstance of places where wee are , the humors , wherein we are , the time wherein they take vs , with a thousand such like serue to prouoke vs to wrath . as for example when wee are sad and full of sorrow , choler doth easily become mistresse of our senses opprest with griefe : and in like manner , if they giue vs any words of cōtempt in cōpany or before such persons as we loue , we beare thē impatiently , and let slippe the reines to choler . these are the chiefe roots of anger which breeds in our soules , and these are the powerfull obiects that may excite it . but moreouer there are other mouing causes which haue power to prouoke it , although they bee alwayes grounded vpō the contempt which is done vs : for men are also discontented against those that cause them to suffer some indignity , or that scoffe at them , or at such persons whose reputations are as deere vnto them as their owne . so the cittizens of millan being beseeged by the emperour frederike , hauing spoken something against the honor of the empresse , the emperour bare it so impatiently , as hauing them in his power , he caused them to suffer all the indignities that might bee inflicted vpon the vanquished ; yea hee ruined their citty and sowed it with salt , to take from them all hope of rising or to see it built againe . the reason of this extraordinary choler is , for that these opprobrious scoffes are signes of a notable contempt . men are also moued against those which do them some sensible outrage , the which brings no profit to the author , but dishonors him that receiues it . wherefore choler made a powerfull impression in the soule of the emperour iustinian the second , by reason of the outrage which they of constantinople ( deposing him from the empire ) caused him to suffer , in cutting off his nose ; who being restored to his estate , whensoeuer there distilled any humor from his wound , hee sent for some one of them whom he thought to haue had a part in the conspiracy , and put him presently to death , or sent him into exile . the reason is , for that these kinds of outrages blemish the things wherein they take any kind of content , as they that are passionatly affected to armes , canno● endure to heare the profession taxed without choler : neither had it bene the meanes to winne any great fauour with caesar , alexander , and great henry , to haue made discourses vnto them in disgrace of martiall exercise . and in like manner they that loue philosophy , cannot see it contemned without perturbation . yet wee must obserue , that such as thinke they haue attained to the perfection of any thing , are not so apt to bee moued for words that are spoken to the disgrace of their profession , as they that haue but weake beginnings , and are but new apprentices ; and which thinke they haue no great opinion of them , or which know their owne defects : for these men are easily incensed for any thing that is spoken against the profession they imbrace : whereas the others being assured by the knowledge they haue of their owne merits , make shew to neglect the blame is giuen thē without iudgement . but there is no contempt more insupporable then that we receiue from our friends , and from such as wee thinke are bound to contribute to our glory : for when as wee see that insteed of aduancing our honour they seeke to blemish it , we can no longer maister our despight . wherefore we haue seene great personages , who finding themselues vnworthily intreated by their common-weale , or by their cittizens , for whose preseruations they had exposed themselues to a thousand deaths , haue borne this iniury so impatiently , as they haue giuen way to despight ; and hauing no other meanes to reuenge this ingratitude , for the last monument of their wrath , haue denied their ashes vnto their country , desiring to be buried in other places . wherefore the ancients held opinion , that the choler of brethren was cruell and hard to pacifie : for that the loue of brethren being tyed by the most powerfull bonds of nature , being once broken , choler turnes into fury , which continues euen after death . againe , men are mooued against those which hauing made profession to honour them , grow cold againe , and yeeld them not that respect which they had formerly done : for that they imagine this coldnesse proceeds from some kind of contempt , as if they had discouered some imperfection in them , the which they had not formerly obserued : for they discourse in themselues ; if these men had not changed their opinions , and if they had not conceiued some new contempt , which withdrawes thē from vs , they would liue as they had formerly done ; the which they neglecting , they attribute it to an opinion which those men haue conceiued , that insteed of honoring them , they should bee honored by them . men are also incensed against such as they hold ingrateful , and who they think haue no feeling of the benefits they haue receiued from them : for they imagine that this ingratitude is a meere contempt both of them and of their fauors , as if they had bene due vnto them , or that they were much their inferiors . they are also discontented against those which take a contrary part to that which they imbrace , which contradict their counsells ; oppose their resolutions , and which are of another opiniō in all occasions which are offred : for they conceiue that this contradiction proceeds from the little esteeme the opponent makes of their sufficiency & industry , and also from a concyit they haue to bee more capable and sufficient , which is a visible contempt . but men are wonderfully incensed to see themselues disdained by the baser sort , which are in no estimation , holding this contempt to be much more insupportable , then that of eminent persons , and which are in reputation . the reason is , for that as wee haue said , choler riseth from the indignity of the contempt ; but we cannot endure a contempt accōpanied with a greater indignity , or a more sensible outrage then that which comes from base persons , and which are our inferiours , who should yeeld all honour and respect to those that exceed him in dignity and merit . wherefore men of honor cannot endure but with much impatiency , to see themselues contemned by the scum of the people . men are also discontented against their friends , if they refuse to commend them , or to oblige them by their courtesies and fauours , but especially if they doe the contrary : that is to say , if they braue them , and reiect them , seeming to bee ignorant of their necessities , or if they accommodate not themselues to their desires and passions . and in truth it is a great signe of contempt , when as any one feignes not to know that which his friend desires and affects with passion : for that we striue to know the affaires and inclinations of those , of whom we haue any care and loue dearely . men are also incensed against those which reioyce at their calamities , or haue not the true feeling they ought . for to scorne , or take delight in them , is a marke of hatred ; and not to care for them , is a signe of contempt . men are also discontented with such as neglect them , and hold it an indifferent thing to displease them , or to doe an act that may offend them . wherefore we doe commonly hate such as bring ill newes , conceiuing that if they had borne vs the respect they ought , they would not haue beene the messēgers of that which they knew wold afflict vs , lest they shold giue vs occasion of discontent , but would haue left the cōmission to some other . in like manner they are mooued against those which take delight in scandalous speeches made to the preiudice of their reputation , or which laugh with the rest , or take pleasure to be spectators of their miseries : for that the first argues a contempt , and the second shewes an hatred . so as wee see true friends vndertake wordes of reproach deliuered in the absence of their friends , and are mooued with griefe , when as they happen to be spectators of their misfortunes . as it chanced to that poore man , who held himselfe happy to be vpon the coast of egypt , not farre from alexandria , where as pompeys slaues performed his last funerall rites , to the end hee might witnesse his griefe , and pitty for the misery of so great a personage . but men are particularly mooued against those which contemne them before foure kindes of people : that is to say , before those with whom they contend for honour and glory . as alexander could not endure the contempt of those which preferred darius before him : nor caesar such as equalled pompey vnto him . or before such as they admire , or by whom they desire to be admired : as alexander could not without griefe endure they should blemish the glory of his conquests before the athenians : for that hauing their vertue in singular recommendation , he desired in like manner to bee admired by them , and attended from them the most glorious ornaments of his triumphes . or before such as they loue and honour , as children grow into choler against those that contemne them before their parents ; and he that is passionate in loue with a woman , cannot endure an affront which is done him in her presence . or else before those by whom he will be reuerenced : as fathers grow bitter against such as discouer their imperfections to their children , by whom they cannot endure to be contemned . moreouer , men are discontented with those that contemne or offend such as are deare vnto them , whom they are bound to assist , vnlesse they will be partakers of their disgrace : the which hath bene the cause of great warres to reuenge an iniury done to the wiues , daughters sisters , and mothers of kings : princes hold thēselues interessed to reuēge the reproch done vnto those persōs , that nature hath tied vnto them by so powerfull bonds . moreouer , they are angry with such as doe not thanke them , nor acknowledge the fauours they haue receiued from them : for when as they see themselues depriued of this iust acknowledgement , which they had propounded vnto themselues , for the fruite of their good turnes ; or at the least , which they expect from the good disposition of those they held obliged vnto them , they attribute it vnto a meere contempt . and their choler is kindled against those which haue depriued them of an honour whereof they helde not themselues vnworthy . they are angry also with such as dissemble things , and make a ieast of that which they haue done seriously : for this dissimulation and diuersion of their intensions , is a signe of scorne . finally , men are discontented with those which doe good to all the world , yet do none to them in particular : for they are conceited , that such as haue no care to bind them vnto them , shewing an inclination to oblige all the world , witnesse thereby , that they esteeme them not as they do other men , but haue a most base conceit of their merit . this consideration hath bred discōtents in the courts of great princes ; for euery one holding himselfe as worthy as his companion to attain vnto the offices of state , when as any one is aduanced without mention made of them , they conceiue that his good fortune is a blemish to their glory , & makes them to be esteemed inferiour to his merite . to cōclude , forgetfulnesse prouokes choler , for that forgetfulnesse is a signe of the little care they haue of men . and this little care is a mark of contempt , for that the things whereof they make account , are most carefully recommended to memory . chap. 3. of the effects and remedies of choler . among all the passions that trouble & transport the soule of man , there is not any accompanied with so great violence , which shewes such brutishnesse , or that produce such fatall and tragicall effects , as choler ; which seemes properly to be the spring frō whence flowes all the miseries and ruines which happen in the world . for whereas other passiōs , as loue and ioy , desire and hope , haue certain beams of sweetnesse , which makes them pleasing ; choler is full of bitternes , & hath no sweeter obiects thē punishments , blood and slaughter , which serue to glut her reuenge . these be her delights , these are her ioyes , these are the sweetest and most pleasing spectacles which she can behold . but if you desire to see how shee is the fountaine of all the horrors which are dispersed ouer the world , and make it desolate : reade in histories of the sacking of townes , of prouinces ruined and made deserts , obseruing the euersion and ouerthrow of empires ; diademes troden vnder foote ; princes basely betrayed , and smothered by poyson ; kings murthered ; great commanders in warre cast into chaines ; and seruing as an example of humane miserie . consider that whole multitudes haue beene put to the sword , or made gallyslaues ; whole natiōs rooted out ; the temples ( wheras diuinity dwels ) prophaned ; the altars beaten down ; and whatsoeuer was most holy and most reuerend among men , vnworthily violated , and they shall find that all these tragicall spectacles are the effects of that cruell and inhumane fury . but setting apart the horror of the effects which shee produceth generally , let vs obserue the miseries whereof she is the cause in priuate persons that suffer themselues to bee transported with this passion . first then if the saying of physitians be true , that of all the infirmities wherewith we are afflicted , there are none worse nor more dangerous then those which disfigure the face of man , and which make it deformed and vnlike vnto himselfe ; we must conclude by the same reason , that of all the passions of man , there is not any one more pernitious , nor more dreadfull then choler , which alters the gracefull countenance and the whole constitution of man. for as furious and mad men shew the excesse of their rage , by the violent changes which appeare in their bodies ; euen so a man transported with choler giues great signes of the frenzie that doth afflict him : his eyes full of fire and flame which this passion doth kindle , seeme fiery & sparckling ; his face is wonderfully inflamed as by a certaine refluxe of blood which ascends from the heart : his haire stands vpright and staring with horror , his mouth cannot deliuer his words : his tongue falters , his feete and hands are in perpetuall motion . he vomits out nothing but threats , hee speakes of nothing but blood and vengeance : finally , his constitution is so altered , and his lookes so terrible , as he seemes hideous and fearefull euen to his dearest friends . what must the soule then be within , whose outward image is so horrible ? wherefor an ancient sayd , that choler was a short fury : and another maintained , that all violent choler turned into madnesse : the which we may confirme by that which is written of hercules , who growing furious knew not his owne wife and children , vpon whom he exercised his rage , tearing them inhumanely in peeces ; euen so they ouer whom choler hath gotten absolute power , forget all affinity and friendship , and without any respect make their owne kinsfolkes and friends feele the effects of their fury . for it is a passion which growes bitter against all the world , which springs aswell from loue as from hatred , and is excited aswell in sport as in the most serious actions . so as it imports not from what cause it proceeds , but with what spirit it incounters : as it imports not how great the fire is , but where it falles ; for the most violent cannot fire marble , whereas the smallest sparkles will burne straw . hereby wee gather , that this passion domineers principally in hot and fiery constitutions ; for that heate is actiue and wilfull , and giues an inclination to these kinds of violence , making vs to grow bitter easily , yea vpon the least subiect that may be . finally , to returne to our first purpose , choler doth not only disfigure the body , but many times it ruines it wholy : for some being extraordinarily moued , haue broken their veines , and vomited out their soule with the blood ; yea they which haue slaine themselues , owe their misfortune to choler which hath forced them to this last fury : hauing then left such cruell signes of rage vpon the body , she assailes the mind , shee doth outrage to the soule , and smothers reason in man , and like vnto a thicke cloud , will not suffer it to enlighten him , and by this meanes fills him with disorder and confusion . so as hee begins to shut his eare to all good aduice , he will no more heare speake of that which may helpe to mollifie his courage , which is full of bitternesse and violence ; so as taking pleasure in his owne affliction , he abhorres all remedies , and flies the hand of the physitian which might cure him : yea in this transport hee is offended at any thing , and imitates the sauage beasts , whom the most cheerefull colours thrust into fury : an innocent smile , a shaking of the head which signifies nothing , a glance of the eye without dessigne , is capable to draw him to the field . but how often haue wee seene this inhumaine fury dissolue euen the most sacred friendship vpon very friuolous subiects ? hath shee not prouoked dearest friends to duells , and made them serue as spectacles of infamy both to heauen and earth , for quarrells imbraced without any ground ? it is then very apparant , that this passion is not only infamous , but also most wretched , seeing that vnder an weake pretext of reuenge she doth precipitate men into most horrible villanies , & makes them tread all diuine and humaine lawes vnder feete , to satiate her in●olency and rage . wherein doubtles she is more to bee blamed then all the other passions wherewith the soule of man is afflicted : for that the other passions haue this property , that euen at the very instant when as they are as it were in the height of their transport , giue way somewhat to reason , and yeeld in some sort vnto her commandements , when as shee presents her self to pacifie them ▪ whereas choler doth like vnto marriners which are amazed or corrupted , and will giue no eare to the voice of their pilot : or as mutinous souldiers , which will not heare the aduice of their leaders : yea shee despi●es truth if shee opposeth against her rage ; and although she come to know the innocency of the party whom shee persecutes , yet she holds obstinacy more honorable then repentance : so as nothing shal be able to make her desist from her vniust and violent pursuites . and continuing this iniustice against himselfe , shee sometimes constraines the most couetous profusely to cast away their most pretious treasure , and to make a heape of their wealth , and then to set fire on it ; and many times also shee forceth ambitious men to refuse and reiect the honours which they had passionatly affected before their despight : who doth not then see that this passion , ( more then any other ) quencheth the light of reason ? the cause is , for that of all the passions , whether they haue the good for their obiect , or regard the euill , those cause the greatest perturbations in our soules which are the most violent ; there is not any that doth exceed or equall choler in violence , which doth inflame the whole blood , and all the spirits which flowe about the heart , which is the most powerfull organ of passions : by reason whereof there followes a wonderfull disorder not onely in the sensible and corporeall powers , but euen in the reason . for although she vse no corporeall organs in her proper functions , yet to produce them forth shee hath need of the powers of the sences , whose actions are crost and disquieted by the trouble which riseth in the heart and the whole body ; by reason whereof choler doth darken , yea hinder the whole light which she striues to cast forth : whereof wee haue two apparant signes , for that the members , wherein the image of the heart doth most shine , as the tong , the eies , & the countenance , feele the most violent force of this fury . it is true that aristotle sayth , that choler doth in some sort giue eare to reason : but that must be vnderstood touching the report which she makes of the iniury receiued , wherein shee takes a singular content ; but shee giues no ●are vnto her , but reiects her aduertizements in the measure and moderation which shee ought to hold in the reuenge . so as in truth there must bee some kind of reason to prouoke choler ; for that men which are stupid & dull are not capable of these motions ; but when this passion is fully inflamed , then she doth wholy darken reason . and as the same philosopher sayth , that they which are full of wine and drinke , are not mooued with any thing for that their reason being drowned in wine , they are not capable to ballance an iniury , or to obserue a contempt : but such as are not fully drunke , are moued to choler , for that there remaines some weake beames of iudgement to discerne that which hath an apparance of iniury or outrage ; but this passiō riseth in them without subiect and without any great occasion , for that their reason is captiuated by the wine which hath gotten the maistry . euen so in the beginning of choler , reason may giue some light to the irascible power ; but whē she hath gotten the absolute cōmand , and is become mistresse of the senses , reason is darkened , and is of no vse in a soule thus transported . but we must not conceiue that this mischief is absolutely incurable , but wee must rather imagine , that as helleborum hath power to cure mad men , so there are remedies against choler . the most powerful are those which are taken from the law of god , who teacheth vs nothing but patience , charity , mildenesse , humanity and sufferance . but wee will rest satisfied to set downe the instructions of philosophy , which may serue to this effect : first of all , philosophers aduise vs to entreate this passion as they do monsters and serpents , whom they striue to smother as soone as they are disclosed : for they will that man should haue a care to the beginning of choler , which many times ariseth from so light an occasion , and so poore a subiect , as it is vnworthy a great spirite should bee transported therewith and as it is easie to quench a fire of straw in the beginning , but if we suffer it to take holde of more solid matter , it passeth all our labour and industry , and makes a pittifull ruine : euen so , he that will obserue choler from the beginning , seeing it beginne to fume and kindle for some light quarrell and small offence ; it is easie for him to suppresse it , and to stay her course . but if shee be once setled and beginnes to swell , and that he himselfe blowes the bellowes ; that is to say , if hee stirres it vppe and enflames it , it will bee hard for him afterwards to quench it , whereas he might easily haue done it before by silence , wherefore as pilots foreseeing a tempest , doe vsually retire themselues into a road or vnder the lee of some rock , before the storme come ; so he that feeles the first motions of choler , should haue recourse to reason , and oppose it to the passion , to controule her violence . for the first meanes to vanquish choler as an vniust tyrant , is not to yeelde any obedience to her , nor to beleeue her in any thing she saith or doth , to inflame vs to reuenge , we finde in other passions , that the liberty wee giue them , brings some ease . as when young men which are enflamed with loue , goe in maske , make dances , combates , or feasts , in fauour of the party they loue ; all this giues some ease vnto their passion : and when as they suffer those that are afflicted to weep in the midst of their afflictions , the teares they powre forth , carry with them a part of their griefe , but choler hath nothing of al this , she growes bitter , and is incensed by the liberty wee giue her , and is enflamed the more in that we giue way to her fury . and as they that are subiect vnto the falling sickenesse , hauing any signe or beginning of their fit , retire themselues suddainly , and take all the remedies which may diuert so troublesome an accident , or at least , hide the shame ; so they which see themselues transported with choler , should retaine themselues , and striue to moderate their passion , and diuert the infirmity which seekes to seaze vpon them . wherevnto they should the more willingly resolue , for that all other passions doe but draw men to euill , but this doth precipitate them ; those doe shake them , but this doth ouerthrow them ; those when they haue the vpper hand , suffer themselues to bee curbed , but this beeing mistresse will obey no law ; like vnto the thunder-bolt , which being once falne from the cloud wherein it was enclosed , can no more bee stayed . other passions stray from reason , but choler treades it vnder feete , and leads it as it were , in triumph . wherefore by all these considerations , men should be carefull not to fall into the hands of so furious a mistresse . the second remedy that may be giuen , is to represent the defects of this passion , & the miseries wherewith she is accompanied ; the which are such , as it seemes they carry the palme of vice , and to bee more detestable then all other crimes , wherewith the soule may be polluted . auarice , in truth , is a shamefull greedinesse of getting , but yet it sometimes gathers together that , which falls into the hands of a good man that succeedes a miser : whereas choler scatters all . for what expences , what profusiō doth she not to attaine vnto the reuenge which shee doth meditate ? how often doth shee make a man ruine his owne fortune ? the husband to separate himselfe from his wife ; the sonne abandons his father ; the people arme against the magistrate ; and he which aspired to honour , checks himselfe , and giues ouer his pursuite . choler is also worse then voluptuousnesse , for that lusts make men to plunge themselues in particular plesures ; whereas choler makes them of so bad a disposition , as he is delighted in another mans miseries . it is much more wicked then enuy : for that if enuy desires to see any one miserable , it is choler which procures the misery . but we must not continue our great desires in the reuenges of choler , for generous spirits are as it were , impenetrable to offences ; whereas they that cannot resist , shew their weakenesse ; whereby we see that women , children , sicke folkes , and olde men are most subiect to these motions and impressions . the highest and goodliest part of the world , and neerest to the firmament and starres , is neuer couered with clouds ; and in whose bosome there is neuer any haile , rain , windes , nor other tempests congealed : there is neuer any thunder nor lightning , although the thunder-bolts fal from thence vpon the earth . in like manner , a spirit truely eleuated , a generous soule , is alwayes quiet , moderate , and graue , neuer suffering it selfe to bee transported with the furious motions of choler ; shee represents vnto her selfe the defects of this passion , shee sees that they which abandon themselues vnto it , disrobe themselues of all shame , and lose all reason : for who is he that in the middest of his despight & wrath , seems not to haue renounc'd all moderation , and modesty ? can hee refraine his tongue , or containe the other parts of his body in their duty ? but how many great personages haue we seene expose themselues to bee a scorne of the world by the excesse of their choler ? witnesse that famous prince , who wrote letters to a mountaine , and who caused a riuer to bee whipped , which had beene an obstacle to his passage . wherefore as in seeing the shamefull motions of them that are drunke , we conceiue a certaine horror of the excesse of wine : so great spirits seeing the deformity of choler , endeauour what they can not to bee infected with a vice , which is as it were a reproach to humane nature . but to preuent it , wee must first flye all affaires that are aboue our reach , lest that finding our selues opprest , as with an insupportable burthen , griefe kindle our waywardnesse and choler . we must also flye the company of quarrelsome persons , lest by a certaine contagion they poyson vs with their passions . drunkards prouoke to drinke , voluptuous men mollifie the most couragious , and auarice poysons those that haunt the couetous . in like māner , cholericke men infuse into vs their troublesome humours , or at the least in frequenting them , wee expose our selues to the dangers of quarrels with them ; whereas conuersing with quiet men ( besides the good example ) we are freed from that danger . philosophers produce other remedies to cure choler , aduising them that haue any inclination to this passion , to leaue al great and waighty occupations of the minde , yea , the most serious studies : and they exhort them to imitate those that are weake sighted , who ease themselues in fixing their eyes vpon the most cheerefull colors ; aboue all things they coniure them to auoyde the occasions and subiects which are giuen thē , to remember that it is not expedient for man to see all nor to heare all , and that wee must let many things passe which are spoken against vs ; for that many times hauing neglected them , it is a kinde of iustification . that which prouokes vs to choler ( say they ) is the opinion we haue to haue beene outraged ; but we must not so suddenly giue credit to this opinion , nor presently receiue the reports which are made vnto vs , how cleere and euident soeuer the proofes of the iniury may seeme vnto vs ; for there are many things which hauing a shew of truth , are notwithstanding false ; so as wee must reserue one eare to heare the reasons of him that is accused , or else shut them both to the reporters , who many times take a delight to sowe discord , and to breed quarrells for their owne pleasures . and doubtles we may many times repent to haue run rashly to reuenge , whereas we haue cause to bee glad to haue deferred it . for the same reason wee must flie suspitions and iealousies , which many times incense vs , as well as the iustest subiects of choler ; for that taking in ill part a looke , a smile , or some other light action , wee conceiue a despight , and runne to field against those that are innocent , and which had no desire to wrong vs. finally of things that offend vs , some wee haue by report , others wee haue either seene or heard ourselues . as for those which are reported wee must not easily giue credit vnto them , considering the practizes which are vsed at this day to abuse the most credulous : a flatterer will seeke to insinuate himselfe into fauour by accusing an innocent ; he wil suggest an outrage & make a bad discourse to perswade that hee hath heard it with griefe of mind ; another will seeke an occasion to dissolue the most sacred bonds of friendship : another full of venome & poyson will desire to haue the sport of a quarrell , and will bee glad to bee spectator of a combate which he hath kindled , so as he be none of the party . it is then a notable lightnesse to condemne a friend suddenly before he be heard , and without an exact knowledge of the matter whereof he is accused ; and it is a prodigious iniustice to bee incensed against him before that hee know who accuseth him , or what crime is imposed vpon him . as for those things whereof we our selues are witnesses , we must cōsider the disposition & will of those that haue committed them ; if it bee a young man , let vs impute it to his age and beare with his youth . is it a father ? hauing receiued so many other benefits from him , it is reason wee should endure , and that remembrance of things past should mollifie our present bitternesse ; and we must duely consider with our selues whether hee hath not iust cause to entreat vs with that rigor , whereof wee now complaine . if it be a woman , this sexe doth not alwayes follow the motions of reason , and her weakenesse should serue her for an excuse . if they bee persons subiect to a greater power , it may be they haue bene forced , and being solicited by such as they could not disobey , would you then bee angry against necessity ? another may offend vs after that he hath bene outraged by vs : and what wonder is it if hee requite vs with the like ? if he be a magistrate or a iudge from whom wee pretend to haue receiued some iniustice , his sufficiency must bee of more weight then our priuate opinion , and wee should rather accuse our owne crime then suspect him of corruption . if it bee a king or prince , that punisheth some malefactor , we must beleeue that hee doth it iustly : but if hee oppresse an innocent , we must not complaine , but giue way to the miseries of humane nature , remembring that the weaker are subiect to the lawes of mighty . if it bee a bruite beast or a peece of timber or stone that hurts vs , we must beware that we become not more stupid then sencelesse things , thinking to reuenge our iniuries of them . if it be a good man , we should not thinke that he had any will to hurt vs , beeing confident of his innocency . if hee bee a wicked man , why are wee amazed if the effects resemble the cause ? moreouer if we thinke that wee are wrongfully opprest , let vs remember that many times wee thinke that vniust , which is not so in effect : this proc●eeds from too great a loue which wee beare vnto our selues : and in a word , it is ignorance or insolency that thrusts vs into choler , neuer remembring that humane nature ( like vnto a field full of weeds and thornes ) brings foorth spirits that are ingrate , trecherous , enuious and wicked . hee that shall duely consider this , will not easily giue way to choler . these are parts of the remedies which philosophers propound against this furious passion . there are others which were too long to relate ; and to say the truth , most of them are rather remedies of emperickes which palliate the euill , then solide medicines which cure our passions . the soueraigne remedy is to cast our eyes vpon the examples of patience which the seruants of god and the saints haue taught vs in this world , and especially to fixe them vpon those which the sonne of god hath left vs , who being outraged by men did not curse them ; being persecuted , hee did not threaten his excutioners ; being crucified , hee prayed for his enemies ; and who in the end by a philosophy farre different from that of the world , hath put our saluation in his crosse , our triumphs in his reproches , and our glory in his punishments . of mildnesse and gentlenesse . chap. 1. as choler enflaming man to reuēge , transports him in such sort as many times he seemes to be depriued of all kind of humanity ; and that it hath conuerted him into a sauage and cruell beast , which breathes nothing but blood & slaughter , so there is a motion contrary to this passion which restores man to the estate of man , and casting as it were water vpon the fire of his wrath , makes him tractable to pardon the outrages which hee pretends to haue beene done him vnworthily . this passion hath no proper name , but may be called gentlenesse , mildnesse , or clemency , according to the subiects where it encounters ; and it is no other thing but a motion which reduceth the soule to a quiet estate , and makes him forget all kinds of iniuries & reuenges . wherefore as men are ordinarily incensed against those that contemne them , & this contempt being an iniury which proceeds from the will of him that offends vs , it is visible that our choler is easily pacified when as wee see there is no cause of contempt in vs ; for that they of whom we might complaine , haue done it against their inclination , and not by any affected malice : and the reason is , for that humane actions depend of the intention of him that doth them . wherefore imagining that they haue no bad intention against vs , we hold them free from crime . by the same reason we do easily forget the choler which wee haue conceiued against those , who being mistaken shew their griefe , and desire to liue otherwise ; for that this desire is a testimony that their will hath beene surprized . as for example , a friend in our infirmity may giue vs a receipt which hee thinkes fit to cure our disease , but hauing taken it , our paine increaseth ; yet wee are not bitterly incensed against him , for that it appeares his will was to giue vs ease , although our paine increased . and particularly wee shew our selues easie to pardon those which doe vnto themselues what they haue done vnto vs : for that we cannot conceiue that they haue contemned vs in those things wherein themselues are ingaged ; being apparent that no man contemnes himselfe . we also pardon those easily which confesse their faults freely , and shew repentance for their offences ; for that wee imagine this griefe is a sufficient punishment for their wrong . whereof we haue a familiar example in our seruants ; reprehending more sharply , and punishing more seuerely , those that palliate their offences , or that answer vs arrogantly ; and we entreat them more graciously which acknowledge their faults and demand pardon . and the reason is , for that it is a signe of impudency to maintaine an error which is apparent , and th●s impudency is a notable cōtempt of him against whom they contest so boldly : for that wee contemne those with whom we shew no respect or reuerence . we are easily pacified , when as they whom we pretend haue offended vs , humble themselues before vs , endure our reproofe , and doe not contradict vs ; for that this submission is as it were , a signe of feare or reuerence which they beare vs , whereby they silently confesse , that they are our inferiours : so as we conceiue they doe not contemne vs : for that no man contemnes him whom he feares . wherefore euery man layes aside all choler against those that humble themselues : we haue an example in the lyon , a generous beast , who neuer shewes his fury , but pardons those that lye prostrate vpon the ground to saue themselues . we also shew our selues mild to those which making the same profession , honour vs , and speake not slanderously of vs : for that this respect shewes they haue vs in good esteeme , and that they contemne vs not . wee also pardon those willingly , from whom wee haue receiued some notable fauour , & particularly when they entreat vs and coniure vs with passionate prayers , to forget the iniuries they haue done vs , and not to take reuenge of them ; for that these kinde of ●ntreaties are signes of their submission . wee also pardon those willingly , which are not reputed to be insolent , slanderers , mockers , or contemners of others , but are knowne to be good men , doing outrage to no man vnlesse it be to the wicked , among whom we desire not to sort our selues . wee checke and controule our choler , when as we know that they that haue offended vs are powerful persons , from whom wee might feare some greater iniurie , if wee should attempt to reuenge that which they haue done vs ▪ for wee seldome make demonstration of choler against those whom we feare , beeing vnpossible that at the same instant wee should feare any man , and yet bee in choler against him . yea , wee passe ouer their faults lightly that haue wronged vs in the heate of their choler : so as if wee are incensed against them , it is with lesse feeling and bitternesse , for that we conceiue that what they haue done , was not through contempt , seeing that no man euer contemned him whom hee held worthy of his choler : for that contempt is without griefe and apprehension , but choler is full of griefe and feeling of the iniury receiued . places , times , imployments , companies , helpe many times to make vs mild and quiet , and to keepe vs from being transported with choler , if it bee not for some outragious iniury : for in sports , at banquets , and publique feasts , among our friends , in the midst of our great prosperities , during the happy successe of our affaires , and in the midst of our good hopes , we doe not easily receiue any impressions of choler , vnlesse ( as we haue sayd ) they do vs some notable outrage which exceedes all patience . in like manner , when as we suffer much time to passe before wee seeke reuenge of the iniury , by little and little we forget it , and time hauing asswaged our heate , wee lose all desire of reuenge . but one of the things which helpes most to quench our choler , is , when as some other then that party against whom it is enflamed , hath beene seuerely punished or sent to execution , before wee could satisfie our reuenge against him . wherefore philocrates , being demanded why hee did not purge himselfe of the crimes whereof he was accused , during the time the people were in choler against him ; answered , that the reason was , for that he expected some other should be vniustly accused and condemned before him ; imagining ( as it is true ) that when as men haue powred forth their choler and splene vpon any one , then they grow more milde , and their rage is turned to pitty . as it happened to ergophilus , against whom although his iudges were more incensed then against calisthenes ; yet they pronounced him innocent , and freed him from punishment ; for that the day before they had condemned calisthenes . moreouer , men shew themselues milde and tractable to those ouer whom they haue gotten some fauourable decree , and also to such as they see exposed to more cruell afflictions , then they would haue imposed vpon them for their reuenge : for they conceiue that they are punished sufficiently for their offence , and that for their part they are fully reuenged of the iniury they haue receiued . but particularly our choler is not often enflamed when as we conceiue the iniury that we suffer is done vs iustly , & that wee haue well deserued that chastisement ; for then it rather makes shew of a reuenge iustly pursued , then of a contempt or iniury vniustly procured . choler hath iniustice for her obiect , bee it true or apparent : for that as we haue obserued in the definition , it is a feeling of an indignity which wee thinke we haue receiued wrongfully , and without merite : wherefore when as we apprehend there is no iniustice in the wrong wee receiue , our choler breakes not forth and runs not hastily to reuenge . and therefore when we will reprehend any one , it is fit to represent vnto him the subiect wherefore we vse this seuerity , that making him know wee haue iust occasion , it may stay him from choler . the which wee should practise particularly with our seruants , who will take our reprehensions in better part , and serue vs with more affection when wee shew them that they haue erred , and let them know the offēce which hath moued vs to this rigor . our choler is not easily moued against such as wee hold insensible of any thing that we shall doe or say ; for that choler will haue her effects knowne . wherefore no man of iudgement will bee angry against insensible things . but the choler which we shew against the liuing , is mortified in regard of the dead , for that they haue endured the last misery of life , and they haue no more feeling nor knowledge of iniuries , which choler doth wonderfully desire . wherefore homer to pacifie aclilles , who insulted ouer the dead body of hector , let him know , that he did but beate the earth , and outrage an insensible thing . these are briefly the persons to whom mildnesse or clemency extends , and which can command their choler . this mildnesse is commendable in all men , for that it is a bud of true humility , or rather a true character of the children of god. but it hath a greater lustre and a more eminent shew when it is found in the soules of kings and monarchs of the earth : for what praise , what triumph , and what glory is it to a great prince , to haue the command of so many millions of men , to bee arbitrator of their liues , to be master of their goods and fortunes , to be able in an instant to leuy fearefull armies , and in the twinckling of an eye to ruine townes & countriee , without the feare of any lawes ? and yet in this prodigious power , not to suffer his eyes to be daxeled with so great a splendour , nor to bee transported with choler , and in offences not to vse seuerity ; to spare blood , to containe his passions , and to make it his whole glory to doe good to those that are subiect to his authority . wherefore this bounty and clemency in princes , makes them not onely to bee beloued , but euen to be adored by their subiects , who are rauished with a sweete excesse of ioy , when as they see themselues subiect to a power which hath nothing insolent , but all things tend to their preseruation , and propound vnto themselues no more glorious obiects then their safety . subiects hide not thēselues from these good princes , and flye not from them , as if a tiger , a lyon , or some other sauage and cruel beast , did present it selfe ; but they runne to meete them , to behold them , and admire them , as starres of good influence , of whom depend all their happinesse . the subiects runne vnto their temples for such good princes , & poure out their vowes and prayers for their honors and safety . it is for them they watch and are in care , and it is for them they are ready to suffer a thousand deathes , rather then any attempt shold be made against their liues , whereunto they know their safeties are tyed : for their mildenesse and clemency , as a powerful charme bindes the affections of their subiects vnto them , and doth purchase their loue , which is the most powerfull bond and the safest guard wherby monarches may assure their estates : for there is no empire nor gouernement , more firme then that which pleaseth the subiects ; whereas those that are odious , are soone ruined : yea , they that could temper their authority by clemency , haue alwayes enioyed a happy successe in their gouernement . and to speake in a word , clemency is as a soueraign ornament to all the other royall vertues ; yea ; it is to princes as a way to heauen , and immortality to vse so eminent and fearefull a power moderately ; to loue their subiects , to pardon the humble , to abstaine from all cruelty , to do no violence , not to bathe their hands in blood , to let their time passe , to pacifie their choler , and to procure peace and quietnesse to the world . for these reasons their subiects apprehend not them , but apprehend onely for them : whereas the violence of princes striks a terror into the minds of their subiects , but it makes them neither more powerfull , nor to be more respected by them . and these feares and terrors of the subiects are weake tyes and bands of their affection and loue : for when as they imagine they haue no more subiect of feare , they beginne to hate . but admit that the horror of punishments and tortures were able to settle empires : who knows not , that as it is an incomparable shame for phisitians to fill vp graues , putting their skill in practize : so it is a great reproach to princes to mainetaine their greatnesse by tortures . they should vnderstand all the defects of their estate , but wisedome binds him to excuse some : and if they be forced to vse seuerity , they must doe it in punishing crimes which deserue no pardon ; yet with a testimony of griefe and remorse . and finally , they must shew their clemency to those where there is some hope of amendement , not alwayes seeking to inflict punishments , but sometimes to bee satisfied with the repentance of them that haue offended . they must remember that it is a glorious thing to pardon him whose offence hath already made miserable , and that it is a seuere punishmēt to be forced to craue pardon for his crime . they must imagine that cruell and violent commands are more sharpe then durable ; that no man can bee feared of many , but he must feare much : and that the life of princes , is as a perpetuall warre , and a perpetuall death , if they bee forced to distrust , and to guard thēselues from so many millions of men which hate their power , if it bee insolent and insupportable . chap. 1. of the diuerse passions of men , according to their ages and conditions . as all the countries and parts of the world , are not equally shaken with the tempests of the aire , yet there is not any corner of the earth , nor portion of the vniuerse , in which there riseth not some little winde , or some small stormes : euen so , although that all men are not subiect to the furious motions of the same passions , yet there is not any age nor condition which doth not feele some effects , & is not in some sort agitated . onely there is this difference , that the one haue a feeling of one sort , & the other of another : some are more violent , and other haue them more quiet and temperate . for some are passions befitting yong men ; others are incident to men of perfect age ; and some are those of olde men : some the rich and mighty are subiect vnto , and others transport the poore and miserable . and first touching that which concernes the passions of young men , they are hot and fiery by reason of the blood which boyles in their veines ; and what they once desire they affect with vehemency . yet they shew this heate more particularly in the motions of loue , whereunto their age which is in the flower , giues them a violent inclination , which appeares in the heate of their pursuites . but they are subiect to all kindes of changes , and haue no constancy in their affections ; so as their passions are properly like to the hunger and thirst of sicke persons , which passe away with the fit of their disease . or to speake more properly , they resemble meteors , or wandring fires which are kindled in the aire , and suddainely extinct . they are in like manner very ready to the motions of choler , and are easily transported with disdaine , especially when as they seek to blemish their honour , or to doe them any kinde of outrage . they are also ambitious , and loue glory passionatly , so as they preferre victory before any other thing , for that it is the highest degree of excellency whereunto they aspire . but they are not couetous , neither doe they loue money , for that they haue not yet tried the miseries of pouerty : like vnto him whom an ancient reproached , that the contempt hee made of gold , was a signe that hee had not yet felt the sweetnesse thereof ; for if he had tasted it , his hands would be more ready , and he would bee more diligent to gather it together . neither are they maliciously disposed , but shew more plainenesse then cunning in their actions , for that they haue not yet learned the subtilties , nor tried the malice of the world . but they are credulous , and doe easily beleeue what is said vnto them : for that they haue not yet tried the fraudes of men , nor haue bin often abused . moreouer , they are full of great hopes , like vnto thē that are surprized with wine ; both in regard of the heate which abounds in them , as for that they haue not yet felt the iniuries of fortune : and therefore they liue in hope ; for that hope regards future things , as memory is imployed about that which is past . and as for them , they apprehend , that the time they haue to liue , is long ; and they make no account of that which is past . and for the same reason in the flower of their age , they remember not what is slipt away before their time , but hope for all that is to come , so as they are easie to bee deceiued : for that hauing this beleefe and hope , it is easie to make them beleeue and hope for that which is not . by consequence they are valiant and hardy , both for that they are cholerick , and also for that they are full of good hopes : for choler takes from them al feare , and hope makes them hardy ; whereby they haue a great confidence of the successe of that they vndertake . moreouer , yong mē are bashfull , knowing nothing in this life , but what they haue learned from the lawes , or from their education : wherefore when as any thing presents it selfe , of whose nature they are not well instructed , they remain as it were in suspence , and know not what to resolue , and therefore they are commonly subiect to blushing . they are also magnanimous and generous , both for that they haue a good opinion of themselues , as also for that they haue a proud conceit of their courage , holding themselues fit for any great action : and in like manner , for that they haue not yet tried the calamities and miseries , which ouerthrow the fortune and constancy of men , but are ignorant of the afflictions whereunto this life is subiect . finally , they desire rather to vndertake those things which are honorable , then that which concernes profit . for that they gouerne themselues rather by their owne courage , and the bounty of their nature , which hath the honesty of things for obiect , then by the discourse of reason , which doth commonly propound for end , that which is most profitable . young men doe also loue indifferently the company of such as are of their age and condition , not making any curious choyce of their friends ; the which shewes , that they haue more curiosity then care of that which may auaile them in the course of their liues . they are also violent , and obserue no moderation in their motions and actions : so as if they loue , they loue furiously ; and if they hate , it is extreame : and so in all other things they keepe no mediocrity . the which grows from their presumption , and for that they haue a conceit to know any thing ; which makes them to speake boldly , and to defend their impertinencies wilfully . they commit many errors , but commonly they are the defects of youth , which proceede from the heat of blood , so as there is more insolency in their actions , then affected crimes . they are moreouer pittifull and gentle ; for that measuring others by their own innocency , they beleeue that al the world is good ; and that they which suffer any extraordinary miserie , haue not deserued it : and for that reason they haue compassion of them . finally , young men are pleasant , witty , and loue to laugh , and to heare a witty ieast , which they thinke is a signe of a good spirit , and therefore admire him . they also loue horses , dogges , huntings , combates , and other exercises , which haue some kinde of violence or pleasure . to conclude young men are commonly rich in inuention , but poore in matters of iudgement : they are fit for execution , but incapable for any great dessigne . they are borne to excite troubles , but are not able to pacifie them : they imbrace much , but hold little : they aspire to the end , but looke not to the meanes : and when they haue committed an error , they will hardly acknowledge it and leaue it ; like vnto those resty horses , which leape and bound ▪ and will neither stand still nor go forward . as for those that grow to age , they haue passions in a manner quite contrary to young men : for hauing liued long , and beene often deceiued , hauing themselues committed many errors , and knowing also that the world is full of subtilty and villainy ; they are not assured of any thing , but looke vpon all things with distrust : and if they deliuer their opinion in any businesse , it is with a kind of feare : so as it seemes they will make it knowne , that in all things there is more coniecture then certainty : wherfore their ordinary restriction in their answers and discourses , is , it may be , peraduenture it is true . the which proceedes frō the great idea they haue of the inconstancy of things , & the deceits of men . for the same reason they are malicious , being a meere malice to interpret , as they doe , all things in the worst sence ; and for the same reason they are also distrustfull and suspitious : suspitious by reason of their distrust , and distrustfull , in regard of the experience they haue of things . finally , they neuer loue entirely , neither is their hatred furious , but they loue commonly as if they should hate , and they hate as if they shold he moued to loue . moreouer , their courage is weake , both in respect of the coldnes of their blood and spirits , as also by reason of calamities past , and the miseries which they haue tried . and for this reason , vnlesse they haue some spice of folly , they doe seldome attempt any hardy enterprizes , nor hazard their fortunes and honors , but they are content to seeke that which may protect them from necessity : whereby they are couetous and fast , fearing to diminish that which they thinke is necessary for them : whereunto they are drawne by experience which hath taught them , how hard a thing it is to gather great wealth , and how easie it is to lose it . they are in like manner fearefull , and encrease their apprehensions by imagination , and by the fore-sight of the future : wherewith they are alwayes troubled ; the which proceeds from the coldnesse of their blood . for this coldnesse which is common to olde men , makes them enclined to feare , whereas heate incites courage and resolution . moreouer , they loue life much , and especially vpon the declining of their dayes ; for that men desire that naturally , whereof they haue great neede ; and when as they feare it should fly from them , then they desire it more passionately . they commonly powre forth cōplaints , which are signes of their weaknesse , and which makes them importune : and then they rather imbrace that which is profitable , then what is honorable : wherein they shew themselues commonly extreame , euen base , the which growes from the loue they beare vnto themselues : for profit is the good of that priuate person that doth enioy it , but honour tends to good absolutely , without consideration of the interest of any particular . after this they are rather impudent then bashfull ; for respecting not honour so much as their owne commodities , they care not for the opinion of the world , but contemne it . finally , they renounce in a manner all good hopes , and haue none but bad , both for that they are distrustfull and fearefull ; as for that experience hath taught them , that most things are bad , and that they impaire daily : so as they liue rather by memory then hope , for that they haue not long to liue , and haue liued long : for hope is of future things , and memory of what is past . and this is the cause that old men are great talkers , for that they take a singular content to commend the times past : in our times ( say they ) we did this , wee did that : taking a wonderfull content to remember what is past . as for their choler , it is sudden and violent ; but it is like a fire of straw , that is soon quencht . their desires are mortified or weake , and cannot bee quickened , or receiue any vigor , vnlesse the loue of money possesse them . and therefore they are temperate , and loue frugality , which is a kinde of sparing , for that they gouerne themselues rather by the discourse of reason , then by their owne genius , or their proper inclination : for ( as wee haue said ) discourse aymes at the end ; and courage hath a respect to honesty as a companion to vertue . their faults sauour more of iniustice then insolency or outrage . they are inclined to mercy , yea , more then young men , but for diuers reasons ; for young men are pittifull by humanity , and old men by weaknesse , whose age makes them apprehend the miseries wherewith they see other men afflicted , as if it hung ouer their heads ; which is a consideration ( as wee haue said else-where ) moues to mercy and pitty : and for this reason they doe nothing but complaine , and they loue not to see any one laugh , neither doe they willingly frequent any that are pleasant and iouiall ; for that their age hath cooled the blood , and made an impression of melancholy which loues seuerity . as for vigorous and perfect men , such as are betwixt these two ages , they participate of both their humours , yet they prune of● that which proceedes both in youth and age . wherefore they obserue a mediocrity in all things , so as they are neither too audacious nor too timerous , but they hold a meane , neither trusting in all the world , nor distrusting euery thing , but they examin al affaires by the rules of wisdom & truth . and in like manner they are neither , miserable nor prodigall , but measure their expences by the lawes of their power & by honesty . and in like maner they obserue this mediocrity in the other motions of the irascible and concupiscible powers . their valour is tempered , and their temperance is accompanied with courage , wherein they participate both with young and old : for yong men are valiant , but without moderation ; and old men are temperate , but full of apprehension and feare . and to say in a word ; all the good qualities which are found diuided both in young and olde , are as it were vnited and tied together in a middle age , which containes it selfe within the bounds of his temper , and naturall inclination : and as for those which haue any excesse or superfluity , either in youth or age ; a man that is in this middle age , checks them and cuts them off , reducing them to the point of vertue and honesty . we must now see what the passions of men be , in regard of their fortunes : that is to say , wee must know the passions of noblemen , of rich , and of the powerfull of the earth ; namely of kings , and princes . noblemen haue this particular passion , to desire honors vehemently : for as all men naturally wish to encrease the goods they enioy ; noblemen seeing themselues rich in glory , and full of honor , desire to augment their treasure , to the end they may not seeme to plant their triumphes vpon that which their predecessors haue left them . but as they haue giuen them light by their glory , so they desire to transferre the same beames of brightnesse to their posterity : and commonly , noblemen hold it a generous vanity not to continue in the same ranke , with those which haue beene equal to their ancestors ; yea , many times they contemne them . wherefore they desire to adde some thing to the ornaments of their birth , and to haue a subiect to recommend themselues aboue others . for in truth , the trophees of families are sometimes so ancient , and so worn with time , as it is an easie thing to surmise any thing . wherefore generous spirits should preserue that which nature and their birth giues them ; otherwise , if they degenerate , it is a famous spectacle of infamy & reproach . as in truth there are some , which degenerating from the magnanimity of their fathers , make vs to see thicke clouds in the midst of their shining glory , as it was said of the sonne of great scipio . this misery happens to families as to fieldes where corne and fruites grow ; for whilest the soile is good , it yeelds good fruites and rich haruests , but growing barren , it yeeldes nothing that is pure and excellent . so good families continuing in their vigor , produce worthy plants for a time : but this generous vigor decaying by little and little , they yeelde not such braue and valiant men as formerly they did . in this realme alone , how many great and worthy families ( whose names are so many starres , and so many flowers which beautifie our ancient histories ) are extinct and lost ? or if there remaine any reliques , they rest vnknowne . finally , when as nobility comes to degenerate , it giues vs monsters of fury : for he that is puft vp with the glory of his ancestors , and will stray from their vertues , imagineth , that hee cannot make better shew of the splendour of his birth , then by the insolencies and violencies which accompany their actions : whereof wee haue seene prodigious examples in the carriages of the descendants of dionysius the tyrant , and alcibiades . and it is a misery in humane things , that as good trees grow wild and sauage , either for want of pruning and manuring , or for that the soyle is not fauourable : so great families lose the glory of those that were their founders . and as philosophers affirme , that there is no worse corruption then that which growes from things soueraignly excellent , as we finde in the corruption of perfumes : so it happens that families full of magnanimity and courage , degenerate into dull and stupid spirits , as wee haue seene in the posterities of symon , berides , and socrates , forbearing to speake of our owne age . as for the passions of rich men , they are knowne to all the world , for that euery man sees that these menare proud , insolent , and outragious . for feeling themselues supported by their wealth , they imagine that all things are in their power . for that riches , through the couetousnesse of men , set as it were , a price of all other things which they may buy . rich men are also voluptuous , effeminate , and full of ostentation , and vanity , that makes them to glory of their treasure ; they are voluptuous and effeminate by reason of the cōtinuall delights wherein they plunge themselues : they are vaine , and glory of their wealth , for that their thoughts are perpetually imployed in the imagination of their aboundance , whereof they are rather slaues and idolaters , then true possessors and masters . and moreouer they imagine , that all the world loues what they loue . wherein they are not much deceiued , for that infinite numbers of persons haue neede of the assistance of riches . wherefore a philosopher beeing demaunded by a princesse , whether it were better to be rich or wise : he answered , that it was better to be rich ; for , said hee , wee commonly see wise men at rich mens gates to beg their fauours . rich men also haue commonly this vanity , that they hold themselues worthy of great imploymēts , because they are rich , in regard wherof , they thinke it reasonable they shold command others : and to speake in a word , the riches of a happy man ( destitute of wisedome ) discouers his inclination . but there is great difference betwixt the passions of those that are newly raised to great fortunes , & such as haue enioyed them long : and we must not doubt , but that they that haue newly gotten their wealth , are more vicious and more insolent , then such as haue enioyed it from their ancestors ; for they enter into their riches as into a new possession , in the which they are altogether ignorant . as for the crimes which either of them commit , they sauour more of insolency & incontinency , then of malice ; for commonly they are polluted with adulteries , and doe outrage to such as resist their desires . it rests now to speake of princes , kings , and the great men of the earth , whose passions also are well knowne , for that they much resemble those of rich men ; yet wee must confesse , that they haue sometimes bin more moderat and more milde ; for great men are commonly more iealous of their honour , and more generous then the rich : for that they are imployed in greater actions , and haue a more eminent glory to preserue . wherefore they are contented to mainetaine their dignity , not caring for any affected grauity : for that dignity giues a greater splendour vnto men . and therefore they shew themselues temperate , and hold a mediocrity , for that dignity is sweete , and grauity is reuerend . finally , when they once breake out , they commit no small mischiefes ; for that commonly the effects are proportionable to their causes ; and finding themselues armed and powerfull , they execute their passions violently , and doe vnspeakeable wrongs ; like vnto great riuers , which breaking forth spoyle the haruest , and ruine the labourers hope . whereunto we may adde , that prosperity doth also make them more insolent ; for that seeing thēselues powerful in means , and fortunate in their dessignes , they grow proud , and liue without any consideration of vertue or vice , by reason of the fauours of fortune which blind their eyes . and yet there are some good natures , who in steed of growing proud , or forgetting themselues in the height of their fortune , become more temperate , more religious , and more fearing god : for that they acknowledge their greatnesse as a guift and fauour of his prouidence , to the which for this consideration they are more affectionate , and more deuout then other men , considering the great benefits they haue receiued . finis .