Joy and Sadness

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.

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.