What are the Passions of the Soul?

87. That it is a passion which has no contrary.

In the School, the passion that tends towards the pursuit of good, which alone is called Desire, is opposed to that which tends towards the avoidance of evil, which is called Aversion.

But since there is no good whose privation is not a bad thing, nor any evil considered as a positive thing whose privation is not a good; and that in seeking, for example, wealth, one necessarily avoids poverty, in avoiding illnesses one seeks health, and so on with others;

It is always the same movement that leads to the pursuit of good, and together to the avoidance of the evil that is contrary to it.

I only note this difference, that the Desire one has when one tends towards some good, is accompanied by Love, and then by Hope and Joy; whereas the same Desire, when one tends to move away from the evil contrary to this good, is accompanied by Hatred, Fear, and Sadness; which causes it to be judged contrary to itself.

But if one wants to consider it when it equally relates at the same time to some good to seek it, and to the opposite evil to avoid it, one can very evidently see that it is only one passion that does both.

88. What are its various species?

There would be more reason to distinguish Desire into as many different species as there are different objects that one pursues.

For example, Curiosity, which is nothing other than a Desire for knowledge, differs greatly from the Desire for glory, and this one from the Desire for vengeance, and so on with others.

But it suffices here to know that there are as many as there are species of Love or Hatred; and that the most considerable and strongest are those which arise from Pleasure and Horror.

89. What is the Desire that arises from Horror?

The same Desire tends towards the pursuit of a good and towards the avoidance of the evil that is contrary to it.

The Desire that arises from Pleasure nevertheless remains very different from that which arises from Horror.

For this Pleasure and this Horror, which are truly contrary, are not the good and the evil that serve as objects for these Desires, but only two emotions of the soul, which dispose it to pursue two very different things.

Namely, Horror is instituted by Nature to represent to the soul a sudden and unexpected death: so that, even though it may sometimes be only the touch of a worm, or the sound of a trembling leaf, or its shadow, that causes Horror, one immediately feels as much emotion as if a very evident peril of death presented itself to the senses.

This immediately gives rise to agitation, which leads the soul to employ all its forces to avoid such a present evil.

It is this kind of Desire, commonly called Flight or Aversion.

90. What is that which arises from Pleasure?

On the contrary, Pleasure is particularly instituted by Nature to represent the enjoyment of that which pleases, as the greatest of all goods that belong to man: which causes one to desire this enjoyment very ardently.

There are various kinds of Pleasures. The Desires that arise from them are not all equally powerful.

For example, the beauty of flowers only incites us to look at them, and that of fruits to eat them.

But the principal one is that which comes from the perfections that one imagines in a person, whom one thinks could become another oneself.

Nature has placed the difference of sex in humans and in animals that do not have reason.

It has also placed certain impressions in the brain, which make one consider oneself at a certain age and time as defective, and as if one is only half of a whole, of which a person of the other sex must be the other half.

This makes the acquisition of this half is confusedly represented by Nature as the greatest of all imaginable goods.

One sees several persons of the other sex. But one does not wish for several at the same time, because Nature does not make one imagine that one needs more than one half.

But when one notices something in one person that pleases more than what one notices at the same time in others, that determines the soul to feel for that one alone, all the inclination that Nature gives it to seek the good, which it represents to it as the greatest that one can possess.

This inclination or Desire that arises thus from Pleasure is called by the name of Love, more commonly than the Passion of Love, which has been described above. Also, it has more strange effects, and it is this which serves as the principal subject matter for the makers of Romances and Poets.

91. The definition of Joy

Joy is a pleasant emotion of the soul, in which consists the enjoyment that it has of the good, which the impressions of the brain represent to it as its own.

It is in this emotion that the enjoyment of the good consists: for in effect the soul receives no other fruit from all the goods that it possesses; and as long as it has no joy from them, one can say that it does not enjoy them any more than if it did not possess them at all.

I add also, that it is of the good that the impressions of the brain represent to it as its own, so as not to confuse this joy which is a passion, with the purely intellectual joy, which comes into the soul by the sole action of the soul, and which one can say is a pleasant emotion excited in it by itself, in which consists the enjoyment that it has of the good that its understanding represents to it as its own.

As long as the soul is joined to the body, this intellectual joy can hardly fail to be accompanied by that which is a passion.

As soon as our understanding perceives that we possess some good, even though this good may be so different from everything that belongs to the body, that it is not at all imaginable, the imagination nevertheless immediately makes some impression in the brain, from which follows the movement of the spirits, which excites the passion of Joy.

92. The definition of Sadness

Sadness is an unpleasant languor, in which consists the inconvenience that the soul receives from the evil, or defect, that the impressions of the brain represent to it as belonging to it.

There is also intellectual Sadness, which is not the passion, but which hardly fails to be accompanied by it.

93. What are the causes of these 2 Passions?

When Joy or intellectual Sadness thus excites that which is a passion, their cause is quite evident.

One sees from their definitions, that Joy comes from the opinion that one has of possessing some good, and Sadness from the opinion that one has of having some evil or defect.

But it often happens that one feels sad or joyful, without being able to thus distinctly notice the good or the evil which are the causes of it; namely when this good or this evil make their impressions in the brain without the intervention of the soul, sometimes because they belong only to the body, and sometimes also because they belong to the soul, because it does not consider them as good and evil, but under some other form, whose impression is joined with that of good and evil in the brain.

94. How these passions are excited by goods and evils that concern only the body: and in what consists tickling and pain.

Thus when one is in good health and the weather is clearer than usual, one feels in oneself a cheerfulness that does not come from any function of the understanding, but only from the impressions that the movement of the spirits makes in the brain.

One feels sad in the same way when the body is indisposed, even though one does not know that it is.

Thus the tickling of the senses is closely followed by Joy, and pain by Sadness, that most people do not distinguish them.

However, they differ so much that one can sometimes endure pains with Joy, and receive ticklings that displease.

But the reason why Joy usually follows tickling is that all that is called tickling or pleasant sensation consists in the fact that the objects of the senses excite some movement in the nerves, which would be capable of harming them if they did not have enough strength to resist it, or if the body were not in good order.

This makes an impression in the brain, which being instituted by Nature to testify to this good disposition and this strength, represents it to the soul as a good which belongs to it, insofar as it is united with the body, and thus excites in it Joy.

It is almost the same reason which makes one naturally take pleasure in feeling moved to all sorts of passions, even to Sadness and Hatred, when these passions are caused only by the strange adventures that one sees represented on a stage, or by other similar subjects, which cannot harm us in any way, seem to tickle our soul by touching it.

Pain usually produces Sadness because pain always comes from some action so violent that it harms the nerves; so that being instituted by nature to signify to the soul the damage that the body receives from this action, and its weakness in that it could not resist it, it represents to it both as evils that are always unpleasant, except when they cause some goods that it estimates more than they.

95. How they can also be excited by goods and evils that the soul does not notice, even though they belong to it.

Examples are the pleasure taken in risking oneself or in remembering past evils.

Young people often get pleasure in:

• undertaking difficult things
• exposing themselves to dangers

This is in spite of the inconvenience and the risk of death.

It comes only from the movement of the animal spirits. These can give to the soul the impression of such goods and such evils.

Similarly, when the same young people have done so often as many before or in the same age, the memories of all the past evils that they have suffered will make them more sad and more sensitive than they have already made.