Premeditation as a general remedy against the Passions

211. A general remedy against the Passions: Premeditation

These passions are all good by nature.

We should avoid their bad uses or their excesses.

I have explained the remedies for them. These are sufficient if everyone took enough care to practice them.

Premeditation is among these remedies.

People should practice to separate in themselves the movements of the blood and spirits from the thoughts to which they are usually joined to.

There are few people who have prepared themselves in this way against all kinds of encounters.

The objects of the Passions excite these movements in the blood so quickly from the impressions made in:

• the brain and
• the disposition of the organs

This is even though the soul does not contribute to those movements in any way.

No human wisdom can resist them if one is not sufficiently prepared.

So many people cannot refrain from laughing when tickled, even if they do not take pleasure in it.

This is because the impression of Joy and surprise made them laugh before by the same moverments of the blood and animal spirits.

The tickling awakens these movements in their imagination and causes their lungs to be suddenly inflated by the blood sent to them by the heart.

The people who are naturally prone to emotions of Joy, Pity, Fear, or Anger are those whose imaginations are strongly touched by the object of any of these Passions.

• Such people cannot help but faint, or cry, or tremble, or have their blood stirred up, as if they had a fever.

The most general and easiest remedy against all the excesses of the Passions is to remember that everything that presents itself to the imagination tends to deceive the soul.

This makes the objects of the passion seem much stronger than they really are, instead of making them feel weaker.

We should remember this when our blood gets stirred up.

When the Passion persuades to act impulsively, we must refrain from making any judgment on the spot.

We should distract ourselves with other thoughts until the emotion in the blood has calmed down through time and rest.

When the passion forces us to make an immediate decision, we must choose the options that go against our Passion even if they appear weaker.

For example, when we are suddenly attacked by an enemy, we do not have time to deliberate.

But I think that those who are used to reflecting on their actions can always deliberate quickly.

When they are seized by Fear, they will divert their thoughts towards resisting than fleeing, since resisting will give more security and honor.

When they feel the Desire for vengeance and Anger against their enemy, they will think that:

• it is imprudent to lose oneself when one can escape without dishonor
• it is better to retreat or surrender honorably than to risk death when the odds are very unequal

212. It is from them alone that depends all the good and evil of this life.

The soul can have its own pleasures separately.

But for those that are common to it with the body, they depend entirely on the Passions, so that those who can be most moved by them are capable of tasting the most sweetness in this life.

It is true that they can also find the most bitterness in it, when they do not know how to employ them well, and when fortune is against them.

But Wisdom is mainly useful in this point, as it teaches to master them so well, and to manage them with such skill, that the ills they cause are very bearable, and even that one can derive joy from all of them.