Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul, Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Of the affection of Love, of Love naturall, of generall communion, of Love rationall, the object and generall cause thereof.
NOw the two first and fundamentall Passions of all the rest, are Love and Hatred. Concerning the Passion of Love, we will therein consider first its object, and its causes; both which being of a like nature, (for every morall object is a cause, thoug… not every cause an object) will fall into one.
Love then consists in a kind of expansion o… egresse of the heat and spirits to the object loved, or to that whereby it is drawne and attracted whatsoever therefore hath such an attractive power, is in that respect the object and general… cause of Love. Now, as in Nature, so in the Affections likewise, we may observe from their objects a double attraction: The first, is tha… naturall or impressed sympathie of things, wher… by one doth inwardly incline an union with the other, by reason of some secret vertues and occ… qualities disposing either subject to that … all friendship, as betweene Iron and the Loa… stone: The other, is that common and mo… discernable attraction which every thing receiv… from those natures, or places, whereon they … ordained and directed by the Wisedome an… Providence of the first Cause, to depend both in respect of the perfection and conservation of their being. For, as God in his Temple, the Church, so is He in his Pallace, (if I may so call it) the World, a God of Order, disposing every thing in Number, Weight, and Measure, so sweetly, as that all is harmonious, (from which harmonie, the Philosophers have concluded aArrian. Epist. lib. 1. c. 6. Divine Providence) and so powerfully, as that all things depend on his Government, without violence, breach, or variation.
And this Order and Wisdome is seene chiefely in that sweet subordination of things each to other, and happie inclination of all to their particular ends, till all be reduced finally unto Him who is the Fountaine, whence issue all their streames of their limited being, and the fulnesse of which, all his creatures have received. Which the Poet, though something too Poetically, seemeth to have express'd:
Principio Coelum ac Terras camposque liquentesAeneid. lib. 6. P…. Crini…. lib. 6. c. 12.
Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque Astra
Spiritus intus al…, …otamque infusa per Artus
Mens agitat molem, & magno se corpore miscet.
Heaven, Earth, and Seas, with all those glorious Lights,
Which beautifie the Day, and rule the Nights,
A Divine inward Vigour, like a Soule,
Diffus'd through ev'ry joint of this great*Graeci eni… foreign vocant. Whole,
Doth vegetate, and with a constant force
Guideth each Nature through its fixed course.
And such is the naturall motion of each thing to its owne Sphere and Center; where is both the most proper place of its consisting, and withall, the greatest freedome from sorraine injurie or violence.
But we must here withall, take notice of the generall care of the Creator; whereby he hath fastned on all creatures, not onelyonly his private desire to satisfie the demands of their owne nature, but hath also stamp'd upon them a generall charitie and feeling of Communion, as they are sociable parts of the Vniverse or common Body; wherein cannot possible be admitted (by reason of that necessarie mutuall connexion between… the parts thereof) any confusion or divulsion, without immediate danger to all the members. And therefore God hath inclin'd the nature of these necessarie agents, so to worke of their discords the perfect harmonie of the whole, that i… by any casualtie it fall out, that the Body of Nature be like to suffer any rupture, deformitie, o… any other contumely, though haply occasioned by the uniforme and naturall motions of th… particulars; they then must prevent such damag… and reproach, by a relinquishing and forgetting of their owne natures, and by acquainting themselves with motions, whereunto considered i… their owne determinate qualities, they have a… essentiall reluctancie. Which propertie and sense of Nature in common, the Apostle hath excellently set downe in 1 Cor. 12. where he renders this reason of all, that there might be … Schisme in the Body: which likewise he divinely applyeth in the mysticall sense, that all the severall gifts of the Spirit to the Church, should drive1 Cor. 8. 1. Ephes. 4. 12. to one common end, as they were all derived from one common Fountaine; and should never be used, without that knitting qualitie of Love, to which he elsewhere properly ascribeth the building, continuation, and perfecting of the Saints.
Now, as it hath pleased the infinite Wisdome of God to guide and moderate, by his owne immediate direction, the motions of necessarie agents, after the manner declared to their particular, or to the generall end, (which motion may therefore, as I before observed, be called the naturall Passion of things) so hath it given unto Man a reasonable Soule, to be as it were his Vice-gerent in all the motions of Mans little World.
To apply then these proportions in Nature to the affection of Love in Man, we shall finde first a Secret, which I will call Naturall; and next, a Manifest, which I call a Morall and more discursive attraction. The first of these, is that naturall sympathie wrought betweene the affection and the obj…ct, in the first meeting of them, without any suspension of the person, …ll farther inquirie after the disposition of the object; which comes immediately from the outward, naturall, and sensitive Vertues thereof, whether in shape, feature, beautie, motion, …, behaviour; all which comming under the spheare of Sense, I include under the name of Iudiciarie Physiognomie: Which is not a bare delight in the outward qualities, but a farther presumption of the Iudgement; concluding thence, a lovely disposition of that Soule, which animateth and quickneth those outward Graces.
And indeed, if it be true which Aristotle inEthic. li…. 8. his Ethicks tels us, That similitude is the ground of Love; and if there be no naturall Love stronger than that which is betweene the Body and the Soule, we may well ground some good presumption of similitude in the qualities of the Soule with those lovely impressions of Nature which we find in the Body, and may by the same reason collect a mutuall discoverie, by which we acknowledge a mutuall sympathie betweene them. And therefore it was no ill counsell (though not alwayes to be heeded) Cave tibi ab iis quos natura signavit, to take heed of such, who like Cain have any marke of notorious deformitie set upon them by Nature. And therefore Homer speaking of the garrulous, impudent, envious, and reviling qualities of Thersites, fits him with a Body answerable to such a Mind.
foreignIliad. …. …17.
The most ill-shapen man that to Troy came,
With eye distorted, and in each foot laine,
His shoulders crooked, to his brest shrunke downe,
A sharpe wrye head, here and there patcht with downe.
But yet herein, though it be injurious for a man out of too much austeritie of Mind, to reject the judgement of sense, and to quarrell with this naturall instinct; yet it is fit, that in this case, considering the deceitfulnesse of things, and what a divers habit, Education or Hypocrisie hath wrought in many, betweene the out and inside of their Natures; that we should, I say, bring a fearefull judgement, like love of B…as the Philosopher, which may easily, upon good warrant and assurance, alter it selfe: otherwise, when a thing is throughly knowne to be lovely, our hearts may boldly quiet and repose themselves in it.
But here likewise we must observe that proportion of Nature, That if our affection cannot stand in private towards one particular, without dammage and inconvenience to the publique Body, Politique or Ecclesiasticall, whereof we are members, the generall must ever be esteemed more deare and precious. A scandall to the Body, and a Schisme from the whole, is more dangerous and unnaturall, than any private Divisions: for, if there be a wound or swelling in one part of the Body, the parts adjoyning will be content to submit themselves unto paine, for the recoverie of that; and rather than it shall perish, … any … ble which may conduce to the … …. And this is the Love of fellow-members, amongst themselves. But then, if any part be so farre corrupted, as that it doth more easier derive its contagion upon others, than admit of any succour from them, so that by the continuance thereof in the Body, the whole is endangered; or, if the whole Body be readie to perish by Famine; then doth the Sense of Communitie so swallow up that other more private respect, as that the members will be even cruell amongst themselves, to the cutting and devouring each of other, that thereby the safetie of the whole may be procured. And therefore, the Fable of the Faction betweene the Belly and the Members, was wisely applyed by Menenius Agrippa, in a Rebellion amongst the people of Rome; to shew how unnaturall a thing it is, and how pernicious to the parts themselves, to nourish their owne private Discontents, when the Weale publique is together therewithall endangered.