Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul, Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII. Rules touching our Desires. Desires of lower Objects must not be either hastie, or unbounded; such are unnaturall, turbid, unfruitfull, unthankfull: Desires of heavenly Objects fixed, permanent, industrious: Connexion of vertues, sluggish Desires.
VNtoUnto the things already delivered touching this affection, I shall here add two or three Rules pertaining to the morall use, and managing of it. And they are, First, concerning Objects of an Inferiour and Transitory nature, that our Desires be neither Hastie and precipitate, nor Vaste, and unlimited. And in matters more High and Noble, that they be not either wavering and interrupted Desires, or Lazie and negligent Desires.
1 For the first of these, we have a rule in Solomon, concerning Riches, which will hold in all other Objects of an immoderate desire: He that Prov. 28. 20. 20. 21.maketh haste to be rich, shall not be without sinne; I may add, Not without cares neither: for we know the nature of all Earthly things, they have something of the Serpent in them, to Deceive. The way of riches and profit, is a thorny way; the way of Honour and Ambition, a slippery and giddy way; the way of carnall Pleasures, a deep and a fowle way, the way of learning it selfe (the noblest of all sublunary things) an involved and intricate way. And certainely he had need have better eyes then a blinde Passion, who in so ill ground will make good haste and good speed together. In foreign. C…ilo …pud …. lib. 1.labyrintho properantes ipsa velocitas implicat. He is the likeliest man to get first out of a Maze, who runnes fastest. An over nimble Desire is like the stomacke of a sicke man newly recovered, more greedy, then strong, and fuller of Appetit… then Digestion. Whence arise immature and unconcocted counsels, blinde and ungoverned Resolutions: like those monstrous people, which Plinie speakes of, whose feet goe backeward, and behinde their eyes. For when the minde of man is once possessed with conceit of Contentment to be found in worldly glories, when the insinuations and sweet inchantments of Honour, Profit, Pleasure, Power, and Satans Hac omnia, hath once crept upon the affection, and lulled reason asleep; it is then sufficient that we know the end, which we desire; we have not the patience to inquire after the right way unto it: because it is the suspition of our greedy Desires, that the true means are commonly the most tedious, and that honesty for the most part goes the fa…thest way about. And hence withall it usually commeth to passe that these hasty and preproperous Appetitions do hinder ends, and intercept Advantages which slownesse with maturity might have made use of. As the Romane Souldiers by their greedinessePlutarch. in Lacull…. on their prey, missed of taking Mithridates, who otherwise could not have escaped them. And therefore it was wise counsell of Nest…r in the Poet.
foreign… liad. …. 70.
foreign
foreign
foreign
Let none goe lingring after spoyle, and stay
To load himselfe with a too hasty prey.
But first let's kill: W'are sure after such fight▪
Carcasses being risled cannot bite.
2 The next Rule to keepe this Passion inSenec. de Tranq. l. …. Arian. Epict. lib. 1. …. 26. order with reference unto inferiour Objects is, that it be not an infinite and unlimited Desire. Appetite should answere our power to procure, and our strength to beare and to digest. Wee should not goe about to swallow a Camell, when a G…at doth make us straine, Immoderate Desires can neither be satisfied, nor concocted. And this unboundednesse of Desires we are to take heed off▪ for these reasons.
1 First, for the unnaturalnesse of it: for allArist. Po…it. lib. c. cap. 6. …. Ep. 16. 39. de ben…fit. lib. 2. c. 27. unnaturall and unnecessary Desires are infinite, as the Philosopher hath observed▪ As he that is out of his way may wander infinitely. An unlimited Desire is onelyonly there requisite, where the Object thereof is Infinite, and ordained to perfect Mans Nature; but not where it is onelyonly a means appointed for his benefit and comfort. WhereinExtrani… non augent bonum, sed condi…nt. Senec. Epi…. 66. he ought therefore then to enjoy his Contentment, when it is sufficient not to fill his Minde which is immortall; and therefore not able to bee replenished with any perishing happinesse) nor to outreach the vastnesse of his opinion, which which being Erronious is likewise Infinite (For Omnis Error immensus, as Seneca speaks▪ but thenNurquam … invenit …ibide. Cic…r. …usc. Malum … nitum. Arist. …thi▪ lib. 2. cap. 6. P…it. l. 2. c. 5. Exig…um natu… opinio imm…nsarium …pic. apud Sen. only when it affords such conveniences, as wherewithall the seasonable and vertuous imploiments of Nature may with content be exercised. It is then a corrupt Desire which proceeds not from our Want, but from our Vice. As that is not a naturall thirst, but a disease and distemper of the Body, which can never be satisfied.
Now the miseries of unnaturall Desires are first,1. that they corrupt and expell those which arePlutarch. in Gry… ▪ & de …. … ▪ Naturall: as multitudes of strangers in a City doe eat out the Natives; thus in luxurious Men, strange Love doth extinguish that which is Conjugall.
Secondly, they ever bring vexation to the2. minde with them. As immoderate laughter, so immoderate Lusts are never without paine and… ▪ convulsions of Nature. Morbid desires of the Mind are like an Itch or Vicer in the Body,…. which is with the same nayles both angered and delighted, and hath no pleasure but with vexation.
Thirdly, they are ever attended with Repentance,3. both because in promises they disappoint,…. and in performances they deceive; and when they make offers of pleasure, do expire in pains; as those delicates which are sweet in the mouth, are many times heavy in the stomacke; and after they have pleased the Palat doe torment the bowels. The Minde surfets on nothing sooner than on unnaturall Desires.
Fourthly, for this reason they are ever changing4. and making new experiments; as weakeS…n de … …. …. 1. 3. c. 3. and wanton stomacks which are presently cloy'd with an uniforme dyet, and must have not onelyonly a painefull but a witty Cooke, whose inventionsQuod Ministe… suera…, Ars haberi Capt…. … l. 39 foreign Ethi. …. 3. c. 12. may be able with new varieties to gratifie and humour the nicenesse of their appetite. As Nero had an officer who was called Elegantiae Arbiter, the inventor of new Lusts for him.
Lastly, unlimited Desires are for the most part5. Envious and Malignant: For he who desires every…. Annal. …. 16. thing, cannot chuse but repine to see another have that which himselfe wanteth. And therefore Dionysius the Tyrant did punish Philoxenus the Musitian,Plut. de Tranq because he could sing, and Plato the Philosopher, because he could dispute better than himselfe. In which respect hee did wisely, who…. was contented not to be esteemed a better Orator than he who could command thirty legions.
Secondly, unbounded Desires doe worke Anxiety and Perturbation of Minde; and by that means disappoint Nature of that proper end which this Passion was ordained unto; namely, to be a means of obtaining some further good; whereas those Desires which are in their executions Turbid, or in their continuance Permanent, are no more likely to lead unto some farther end, than either a misty and darke, or a winding and circular way is to bring a Man at last unto his journeyes end; whereof the one is dangerous, the other vaine. And together with this they doe distract our noble Cares, and quite avert our thoughts from more high and holy desires. Martha her Many things, and Maries One thing will very hardly consist together.
Lastly, there is one Corruption more in these unlimited Desires, they make a man unthankfull forSen. de Bene…. lib. 3. former benefits: as first, because Caduca memoria f…turo imminentium. It is a strong presumption that he seldome looks backe upon what is past, who is earnest in pursuing some thing to come. It is S. Pauls Profession and Argument in a matter of greater consequence, I forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are before. And secondly, though a man should looke backe; yet the thoughts of such a benefit would be but sleight and vanishing, because the Mind finding present content in the liberty of a roving Desire, is marvellous unwilling to give permanent entertainment unto thoughts of another Nature, which likewise (were they entertained) would be rather thoughts of murmuring than of thankful▪ fulnesse: every such man being willing rather to conceive the benefit small, than to acknowledge the vice and vastnesse of his owne Desires.
The next rule which I observed for the government of these Passions, do respect those Higher and more glorious Objects of Mans Felicity: And herein,
1 Our Desires are not to be Wavering and In constant, but Resolute and full of Quicknesse and Perseverance: First, because though we be poore and shallow vessels; yet so narrow and almost shut▪ up are those passages, by which wee should give admittance unto the matter of our true happines▪ yea so full are we already of contrary qualities, as that our greatest vehemency wil not be enough, either to empty our selves of the one, or to fill our selves with the other. And therefore the true Desires of this Nature are in the Scripture set forth by the most patheticall and strong similitudes of Hunger and Thirst; and those not common neither; but by the pant…ng of a tyred▪ Hart after the rivers of water, and the gaping of the dry ground after a seasonable showre. Secondly, overy desirable Object the higher it goes, is ever the more united within it selfe, and drives the faster unto an unity: It is the property of Errours to be at variance; whereas Truth is One, and all the parts thereof doe mutually strengthen and give light unto each other: So likewise in things Good▪ the more noble, the more knit they are▪ Scelera disi…dent: It is for sinnes to be at variance amongst themselves. Andforeign …. l. 7. c. 14. those lower Goods of Riches, Pleasure, Nobility, Beauty, though they are not Incomparable; yet they have no naturall Connexion to each other; & have therfore the lesse power to draw a consla… and continued Desire. But for nobler and immateriall goods wee see how the Philosopher hath…. l. 6. c. 12. observed a connextion betweene all his morall vertues, whereby a man that hath one, is naturally drawne to a desire of all the rest: for the minde being once acquainted with the sweetnes of one, doth not onelyonly apprehend the same sweetnesse in the others, but besides findeth it selfe not sufficiently possest of that which it hath, unlesse it bee thereby drawne to procure the rest: all whose properties it is by an excellent mutuall service to give light and lustre, strength and validity, and in some sort greater Vnity unto each other.
And lastly for the highest and divinest good; the truth of Religion, that is in it selfe most of all other One, as being a Beame of that Light and Revelation of that Will, which is Vnity it selfe. And therefore though we distinguish the Creed into twelve Articles, yet Saint Paul calleth them all but foreign one Faith, as having but one LordEph. 4. 5. for the Object and End of them. Now then where the parts of good are so united, as that the one draweth on the other, there is manifestly required united desire to carry the soule thereunto.
II. The last Rule which I observed was that our Desires ought not to bee faint and sluggish, but industrious and painefull, both for the arming us to avoid and withstand all oppositions and difficulties, which we are every where likely to meet withall in the pursuit of our happinesse; and also for the wise and discreet applying of the severall furtherances requisite thereunto. And indeed that is no True, which is not an Operative Desire: a Velleity it may be, but a Will it is not. For what ever a man will have, hee will seek in the use of such meanes, as are proper to procure it. Children may wish for Mountaines of gold, and Balaam may wish for an happy death, and an A theist may wish for a soule as earthly in substance as in Affection; but these are all the ejaculations rather of a Speculative fancie, than of an industrious affection. True desires as they are right in regard of their object, so are they laborious in respect of their motion. And therefore those which are idle and impatient of any paines, which stand like the Carman in the Fable, crying to Hercules when his Wuine fluck in the mud to helpe it out, without stretching out his owne hands to touch it, are first unnaturall desires, it being the formall property of this Passion to put the Soule upon some motion or other. And therefore wee see wheresoever Nature hath given it, she hath given likewise some manner of motion or other to serve it. And secondly they are by consequence undutifull and disobedient Desires, in that they submit not themselves unto that Law, which requireth that wee manifest the life and strength of our Love by the quicknesse and operation of it in our Desires. And lastly, such Desires are unusefull and fruitlesse: for how can an object▪ which standeth in a fixed distance from the Nature, which it should perfect, be procured by idle and standing affections? The desires of the sluggard (saith Salomon) slay him, because hisPro. 21. 25: 13. 4. hands refuse to labour. These affections must have life in them, which bring life after them: Dead desires are deadly desires.