The passions of the soule in three books the first, treating of the passions in generall, and occasionally of the whole nature of man. The second, of the number, and order of the passions, and the explication of the six primitive ones. The third, of particular passions. By R. des Cartes. And translated out of French into English.

The 90th Article. What is that arising from Liking.

ON the contrary, Liking is peculiarly insti∣tuted by nature to represent the enjoy∣ment of what is liked, as the greatest good be∣longing to man: which causeth a man very ear∣nestly to desire this enjoyment; it is true, there are severall sorts of Liking, and the Desires which arise from them are not all alike power∣full; for example, the lovelinesse of flowers in∣cite us only to look on them, and that of fruits to eat them; but the chiefe is that which pro∣ceeds from the perfections a man imagines in another person, which he thinkes may become another Selfe: for with the distinction of sexes, which nature hath bestowed on man as well as irrationall creatures, she hath also put certain impressions in the brain, which makes a man at a certain age, and at a certain season to look on himself as defective, and as if he were but the halfe of a Whole, whereof a person of the other sex ought to bee the other halfe: so that the acquisition of this halfe is repre∣sented to us confusedly by nature, as the greatest of all imaginable goods; and although he see many persors of the other sex, he doth not therefore Desire many at the same time, by rea∣son nature makes him conceive that he hath need of no more but one halfe, but when hee

observes something in any one, that likes him better then any thing he hath marked at the same time in the rest; that fixes the Soul, to feed all the inclination which nature hath given him to seek after the good, that she represents to him as the greatest hee can possibly possesse on that woman only; and this inclination, or this De∣sire which is bred thus by Liking, is called by the name of Love, more commonly then the Passion of Love formerly described; indeed it hath much more strange effects, and this is he that furnisheth all the Writers of Romances, and Poets with stuffe.