PASSIONS AND THEIR BODILY SIGNS. BY RENÉ DESCARTES. (Translated for this work.) [RENÉ DESCARTES, French mathematician and philosopher of the first rank, was born in Touraine, 1596; educated at the Jesuit College of La Flèche; spent 1613-1618 in Paris; traveled over Europe, studying and observing, 1618–1629; was a volunteer at the siege of La Rochelle in 1628; and lived in Holland 1629-1649, studying and writing expository and polemic works, especially in defense of his new conceptions. In 1649 he went to Stockholm on the invitation of Queen Christina, but died of pneumonia five months after (1650). His novel ideas in substance were all published together in 1637: the chief parts being "Discourse on Method," a new science of thought, and "Geometry," a new basis for that and for algebra. There were also essays on dioptrics and meteors. He also published "Meditationes de Prima Philosophia" (1641), "Principles of Philosophy" (1644), "On the Passions of the Soul" (1649), here excerpted, and polemics. Others were published after his death.] LAUGHTER. Laughter consists in the blood which comes from the right cavity of the heart, through the arterial vein, and inflates the lungs suddenly and in various repetitions, forcing the air they contain to leave them with impetuosity through the windpipe, where it forms an inarticulate and broken voice; and the lungs becoming so much inflated that the air in passing presses against all the muscles of the diaphragm, of the chest, and of the throat, by means of which they move those of the visage which have any connection with them; and it is only that action of the visage, with that inarticulate and broken voice, which one calls laughter. Now, though it seems that laughter is one of the principal signs of joy, the latter, nevertheless, cannot cause it save when it is but moderate, and there is some wonder or some aversion mixed with it; for one finds by experience that when he is unusually joyful, the subject of that joy never makes him burst into laughter, and even that he cannot be so easily summoned to that state by any other cause as when he is sad; of which the reason is, that in great joys the lungs are always so full of blood that they can be no more inflated by repetitions. I can only note two causes which give rise to this sudden inflation of the lungs. The first is the surprise of wonder, which, being added to joy, is able to open the orifices of the heart so promptly that a great abundance of blood, entering all at once on its right side through the vena cava, is rarefied, and passing thence through the arterial vein, inflates the lungs. The other is the mixture of some fluid which augments the rarefaction of the blood; and I find nothing in it adapted to this except the more fluid part of that which comes from the spleen, which part of the blood being driven toward the heart by some light emotion of aversion, aided by the surprise of wonder, and mingling itself with the blood which comes from other channels of the body, which joy causes to enter there in abundance, is able to make the blood expand there to a more than ordinary degree: just as one sees a quantity of other fluids expand all at once, while over the fire, when he throws a little vinegar into the vessel where they are; for the more fluid part of the blood which comes from the spleen is of a nature like vinegar Experience also shows us that in all the meetings which can produce that broken laughter which comes from the lungs, there is always some little subject of aversion, or at least of wonder. And those in whom the spleen is not very sound are subject to being not alone more sad, but also at intervals more gay and more disposed to laugh, than others, inasmuch as the spleen carries two kinds of blood to the heart, the one very thick and heavy, which causes sadness, the other very fluid and refined, which causes joy. And often, after having laughed greatly, one feels himself naturally inclined to sadness, because, the more fluid part of the blood from the spleen becoming thickened, the other, the heavier, follows it toward the heart. Tears. As laughter is never caused by the greatest joys, so tears do not come from an extreme sadness, but only from that which is moderate, and accompanied or followed by some sentiment of love, or even of joy. And to understand their origin well, it must be observed that although a quantity of vapors continually depart from all portions of our bodies, there is none whence they depart so much as from the eyes, because of the large size of the optic nerves and the multitude of little arteries by which they reach there; and that as the perspiration is composed only of vapors which, leaving other parts, convert themselves into water on the surface, so tears are made of vapors which leave the eyes. Courage and Boldness. Courage, when it is a passion and not a natural habitude or inclination, is a certain warmth or agitation which disposes the mind to urge itself powerfully |