The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 · Thomas Hobbes
CHAPTER IX.
1. Glory aspiring, false glory, vain glory. 2. Humility and dejection. 3. Shame. 4. Courage. 5. Anger. 6. Revengefulness. 7. Repentance. 8. Hope, despair, diffidence. 9. Trust. 10. Pity and hardness of heart. 11. Indignation. 12. Emulation and envy. 13. Laughter. 14. Weeping. 15. Lust. 16. Love. 17. Charity. 18. Admiration and curiosity. 19. Of the passion of them that flock to see danger. 20. Of magnanimity and pusillanimity. 21. A view of the passions represented in a race. [Sidenote: Glory aspiring, false glory, vain glory.] 1. Glory, or internal gloriation or triumph of the mind, is the passion which proceedeth from the imagination or conception of our _own power_ above the power of him that contendeth with us; the _signs_ whereof, besides those in the countenance, and other gestures of the body which cannot be described, are, _ostentation_ in words, and _insolency_ in actions: and this passion, of them whom it displeaseth, is called _pride_; by them whom it pleaseth, it is termed a _just valuation_ of himself. This imagination of our power or worth, may be from an assured and certain _experience_ of our own actions; and then is that glory _just_, and well grounded, and begetteth an opinion of _increasing_ the same by other actions to follow; in which consisteth the appetite which we call _aspiring_, or proceeding from one degree of power to another. The same passion may proceed _not_ from any _conscience_ of our own actions, but from fame and trust of _others_, whereby one may think well of himself, and yet be deceived; and this is _false glory_, and the aspiring consequent thereto procureth ill success.
Further, the _fiction_, which is also imagination, of actions done by ourselves, which never were done, is _glorying_; but because it begetteth no appetite nor endeavour to any further attempt, it is merely _vain_ and unprofitable; as when a man imagineth himself to do the actions whereof he readeth in some _romance_, or to be like unto some other man whose acts he admireth: and this is called _vain glory_; and is exemplified in the fable, by the fly sitting on the axletree, and saying to himself, What a dust do I make rise! The expression of _vain glory_ is that wish, which some of the Schools mistaking for some appetite distinct from all the rest, have called _velleity_, making a new word, as they made a new passion which was not before. _Signs_ of _vain glory_ in the _gesture_ are, _imitation_ of others, counterfeiting and usurping the signs of virtue they have not, affectation of fashions, captation of honour from their dreams, and other little stories of themselves, from their country, from their names, and from the like. [Sidenote: Humility and dejection.] 2. The passion _contrary to glory_, proceeding from apprehension of our own infirmity, is called _humility_ by those by whom it is approved; by the rest, _dejection_ and poorness: which conception may be well or ill grounded; if well, it produceth fear to attempt any thing rashly; if ill, it utterly cows a man, that he neither dares speak publicly, nor expect good success in any action.
6. _Revengefulness_ is that passion which ariseth from an expectation or _imagination_ of _making_ him that hath _hurt_ us, _find_ his _own action hurtful_ to himself, and to _acknowledge_ the same; and this is the height of revenge: for though it be not hard, by returning evil for evil, to make one’s adversary displeased with his own fact; yet to make him acknowledge the same, is so difficult, that many a man had rather die than do it. Revenge aimeth not at the death, but at the captivity or subjection of an enemy; which was well expressed in the exclamation of Tiberius Cæsar, concerning one, that, to frustrate his revenge, had killed himself in prison; _Hath he escaped me?_ To _kill_, is the aim of them that _hate_, to _rid_ themselves out of fear: _revenge_ aimeth at _triumph_, which over the dead is not. [Sidenote: Repentance.] 7. _Repentance_ is the passion which proceedeth from _opinion_ or knowledge that the _action_ they have done is _out of the way_ to the _end_ they would attain: the effect whereof is, to pursue that way no longer, but, by the consideration of the end, to direct themselves into a better. The first motion therefore in this passion is _grief_; but the expectation or conception of returning again into the way, is _joy_; and consequently, the passion of _repentance_ is compounded and allayed of both: but the _predominant_ is _joy_; else were the whole grief, which cannot be, forasmuch as he that proceedeth towards the end, he conceiveth good, proceedeth with appetite; and appetite is joy, as hath been said, chapter VII. section 2.
10. _Pity_ is _imagination_ or _fiction_ of _future_ calamity to _ourselves_, proceeding from the sense of _another_ man’s calamity. But when it lighteth on such as we think have not deserved the same, the compassion is greater, because then there appeareth more probability that the same may happen to us: for, the evil that happeneth to an innocent man, may happen to every man. But when we see a man suffer for great crimes, which we cannot easily think will fall upon ourselves, the pity is the less. And therefore men are apt to pity those whom they love: for, whom they love, they think worthy of good, and therefore not worthy of calamity. Thence it is also, that men pity the vices of some persons at the first sight only, out of love to their aspect. The contrary of pity is _hardness of heart_, proceeding either from _slowness_ of imagination, or some extreme great _opinion_ of their own _exemption_ from the like calamity, or from hatred of all or most men. [Sidenote: Indignation.] 11. _Indignation_ is that _grief_ which consisteth in the conception of _good success_ happening to them whom they think _unworthy_ thereof. Seeing therefore men think all those unworthy whom they hate, they think them not only unworthy of the good fortune they have, but also of their own virtues. And of all the passions of the mind, these two, indignation and pity, are most raised and increased by eloquence: for, the _aggravation_ of _the calamity_, and _extenuation_ of the _fault_, augmenteth _pity_; and the _extenuation_ of the _worth_ of the person, together with the magnifying of his success, which are the parts of an orator, are able to turn these two passions into _fury_.
Also men laugh at _jests_, the _wit_ whereof always consisteth in the elegant _discovering_ and conveying to our minds some _absurdity_ of _another_: and in this case also the passion of laughter proceedeth from the _sudden_ imagination of our own odds and eminency: for what is else the recommending of ourselves to our own good opinion, by comparison with another man’s infirmity or absurdity? For when a jest is broken upon ourselves, or friends of whose dishonour we participate, we never laugh thereat. I may therefore conclude, that the passion of laughter is nothing else but _sudden glory_ arising from some sudden _conception_ of some _eminency_ in ourselves, by _comparison_ with the _infirmity_ of others, or with our own formerly: for men laugh at the follies of themselves past, when they come suddenly to remembrance, except they bring with them any present dishonour. It is no wonder therefore that men take heinously to be laughed at or derided, that is, triumphed over. Laughter _without offence_, must be at _absurdities_ and infirmities _abstracted_ from persons, and when all the company may laugh together: for laughing to one’s-self putteth all the rest into jealousy and examination of themselves. Besides, it is vain glory, and an argument of little worth, to think the infirmity of another, sufficient matter for his triumph. [Sidenote: Weeping.]
14. The passion opposite hereunto, whose signs are another distortion of the face with tears, called _weeping_, is the _sudden falling out with_ ourselves, or sudden conception of defect; and therefore _children_ weep often; for seeing they think that every thing ought to be given them which they desire, of necessity every repulse must be a check of their expectation, and puts them in mind of their too much weakness to make themselves masters of all they look for. For the same cause _women_ are more apt to weep than men, as being not only more accustomed to have their wills, but also to measure their powers by the power and love of others that protect them. Men are apt to weep that prosecute revenge, when the revenge is suddenly stopped or frustrated by the repentance of their adversary; and such are the tears of _reconciliation_. Also revengeful men are subject to this passion upon the beholding those men they pity, and suddenly remember they cannot help. Other weeping in men proceedeth for the most part from the same cause it proceedeth from in women and children. [Sidenote: Lust.] 15. The appetite which men call _lust_, and the fruition that appertaineth thereunto, is a _sensual_ pleasure, but _not only_ that; there is in it also a delight of the mind: for it consisteth of two appetites together, to _please_, and to _be pleased_; and the delight men take in delighting, is not sensual, but a pleasure or joy of the mind consisting in the imagination of the power they have so much to please. But the name _lust_ is used where it is condemned; otherwise it is called by the general word _love_: for the passion is one and the same indefinite desire of different sex, as natural as hunger.
And from this beginning is derived all _philosophy_; as _astronomy_ from the admiration of the course of heaven; _natural philosophy_ from the strange effects of the elements and other bodies. And from the degrees of curiosity, proceed also the degrees of knowledge amongst men: for, to a man in the chase of riches or authority, (which in respect of knowledge are but sensuality) it is a diversity of little pleasure, whether it be the motion of the sun or the earth that maketh the day, or to enter into other contemplations of any strange accident, otherwise than whether it conduce or not to the end he pursueth. Because _curiosity_ is _delight_, therefore also _novelty_ is so, but especially that novelty from which a man conceiveth an _opinion_ true or false of _bettering_ his own estate; for, in such case, they stand affected with the hope that all gamesters have while the cards are shuffling. [Sidenote: Of the passion of them that flock to see danger.] 19. Divers other passions there be, but they want names: whereof some nevertheless have been by most men observed: for example; from what passion proceedeth it, that men take _pleasure_ to _behold_ from the shore the _danger_ of them that are at sea in a tempest, or in fight, or from a safe castle to behold two armies charge one another in the field? It is certainly, in the whole sum, _joy_; else men would never flock to such a spectacle. Nevertheless there is in it both _joy_ and _grief_: for as there is novelty and remembrance of our own security present, which is _delight_; so there is also _pity_, which is grief; but the delight is so far predominant, that men usually are content in such a case to be spectators of the misery of their friends.
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