CHAP. VIII. Of the Order and Number of the Passions.
I. Passions are made diffe∣rent from their Ob∣jects. ALthough the Soul depends not upon Corpo∣real Objects, so as to think, and without any material Species, to be able to comprehend all sorts of things: And tho' in the forming of the Passions, it sometimes makes use of its own intelligent faculty alone, and can at pleasure apply it self to conceive sometimes one Object, sometimes another; yet it is manifest from what hath been said before, that the passions may also be excited by Objects which move the Sense: Nay, and that these Ob∣jects are the most especial and common principles: so that to find passions, there needs nothing but to weigh the nature of the Objects, and to take no∣tice of the Effects which proceed from them. But because in man they are many and various, and many times so confus'd among themselves, that they can scarce be distinguisht from each other; we must mind the diversities of Objects which pre∣sent themselves to our Senses, that by the percepti∣on of them, we may the more easily arrive at the knowledge of those affections which are begotten in us. Yet there is no necessity that all the diver∣sities of Objects should be examined; but those alone which can either profit or hurt us, or any other way be relating to us.
II. The Soul is void of partition, and conse∣quently ill divided in∣to Irascible and concu∣piscible. Wherefore the better to enumerate the Passions, we are only to take notice how many several ways Objects may concern us, or may act upon our Senses, so as to profit or hurt us. Nothing is more frequent in Schools, than to take the Soul in pieces and to divide it, I know not by what Art, into Sensitive and Rational, by which they constitute two Appetites in the sensitive part of the Soul; whereof one they call concupiscible, which resides in the Body, and tends wholly to its Conservati∣on; the other Irascible, which comes nearer to Reason, and supplies it with strength and vigor. But hence arose this Error of assigning 2 persons as it were in a Scene, that they did not carefully distingui••h the Functions of the Soul and Body, but attributed to the Soul those Offices which belong to the Body only. For whatsoever opposes Reason, cannot proceed but meerly from the Body, which comes to pass when the Animal Spirits, which are also Bodies, hit by an opposite way upon the Glan∣dule, and by their power endeavour to hinder the effect of the Soul. For in one Body there is to be considered but one Soul, void of all parts, and be∣ing but one and the same, called both Sensitive and Rational.
III. There are divers fa∣culties in the Soul. But if those Authors, who admit 2 Appetites in the Soul, only mean this, that the Soul is indued with 2 Functions, the one of Lusting, the other of being Angry, we shall not gainsay them; but whereas it hath the faculties not only of being Angry, and being Concupiscent, but also the fa∣culty of Admiring, Hoping, Fearing, there seems to be no reason that all affections should be re∣ferred to Concupiscence or Anger; when as Ad∣miration,