appear unto her; whereupon she excused it after this manner, Αὐτὰρ μὴ νῦν μοι τόδε χώεο, μηδὲ νεμέσσα, &c. My dear Ulysses, let it not offend, To have ensnar'd me, and, with these false sounds, CHAP. XXII. Of the affection of Sorrow, the object of it evil, sensitive, intellectual, as present in itself, or to the mind, by memory, or suspicion, particular causes, effects of it: Fear, care, experience, erudition, irresolution, despair, execration, distempers of body. THE opposite passion to this of delight, is grief and sorrow; which is nothing but a perturbation and unquietness, wrought by the pressure of some present evil, which the mind, in vain, struggleth with, as finding itself, alone, too impotent for the conflict: Evil, I say, either formally, as in sin, or pain, present, or feared; or privately, such as is any good thing which we have lost, or whereof we do despair, or have been disappointed. And this is, in respect of its object, as the former passion, either sensitive or intellectual. Sensitive is that anguish and distress of nature, which lieth upon the body. A passion, in this sense, little conducing to the advancement of nature, being always joined with some measure of its decay, but only as it serves sometimes for the better fortifying it against the same or greater evils; it being the condition, as of corporal delights, by custom to grow burthensome and distasteful; so of pains, to become easy and familiar. The other and greater grief is intellectual, which in Solomon's phrase is, "a wounded spirit:"-so much certainly the more quick and piercing, by how much a spirit is more vital than a body. Besides, the anguish of the soul finds always, or works the same sympathy in the body; but outward sorrows reach not ever so far, as the spiritual and higher part of the soul. And therefore we see many men, out of a mistake that the distress of their souls hath been wrought by a union to their bodies, have voluntarily spoiled this, to deliver and quiet that. The causes of this passion are, as in the former, whatsoever hath in it power to disturb the mind by its union thereunto. There are then two conditions in respect of the object, that it be evil and present. Evil first, and that not only formally in itself, but apprehensively to the understanding. And therefore we see, that many things which are, in their nature, evil,-yet, out of the particular distemper of the mind, and deceitfulness in them, may prove pleasant thereunto. And this is the chief corruption of this passion; I mean, the misplacing, or the undue suspending of it: for although strictly, in its own property, it be not an advancement of nature, nor adds any perfection, but rather weakens it; yet in regard of the reference which it bears, either to a superior law, as testifying our love unto the obedience, by our grief for the breach thereof;-or to our consequent carriage and actions, as governing them with greater wisdom and providence; it may be said to add much perfection to the mind of man, because it serves as an inducement to more cautelous living. The next condition, in respect of the object, is, that it be present: which may fall out either by memory, and then our grief is called repentance ;'—or fancy and suspicion, and so it may be called anxiety of mind;'--or by sense and present union, which is the principal kind, and so I call it 'anguish.' For the first, nothing can properly and truly work grief by ministry of memory, when the object or evil is long since past, but those things, which do withal stain our nature, and work impressions of permanent deformity. For as it falleth out, that many things in their exercise pleasant, prove after, in their operations, offensive and burthensome ;-so on the other side, many things which, for the time of their continuance, are irksome and heavy, prove yet, after, occasions of greater joy; whether they be means used for the procuring of further good : "Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum, Through various great mishaps, and danger's store, Where fates do promise rest, where Troy revives; Or whether they be evils which, by our wisdom, we have broken through and avoided: "Sed et hæc olim meminisse juvabit." When we are arriv'd at ease, Remembrance of a storm doth please. The objects, then, of repentance are not our passive, but our active evils: not the evils of suffering, but the evils of doing for the memory of afflictions past, represents unto us nature loosed and delivered; and should so much the more increase our joy, by how much redemption is, for the most part, a more felt blessing than immunity. But the memory of sins past represents nature obliged, guilty, and imprisoned; and so leaves a double ground for grief, the stain or pollution, and the guilt or malediction, a deformity to the law, and a curse from it. It would be improper here to wander into a digression touching repentance; only in a word, it is then a godly sorrow,' when it proceeds from the memory of evil, not so much in respect of the punishment, as of the stain when we grieve more, because our sin hath made us unholy, than because it hath made us unhappy; and not only because we are run into the danger of the law, but because we are run out of the way of the law :when it teacheth us to cry, not only with Pharaoh, 'Take away this plague; but with Israel in the Prophet, Take away iniquity.' Concerning grief of pre-occupation, arising out of suspicious fear and expectation of evil, I know not what worth it can have in it, unless haply thus,-that by fore-accustoming the mind to evil, it is the better strengthened to b с stand under it for evils, by premeditation, are either prevented or mitigated; the mind gathering strength and wisdom together to meet it. And therefore it is prudent advice of Plutarch, that we should have a prepared mind, which, when any evil falleth out, might not be surprised by it. To say as Anaxagoras did, when he heard of the death of his son, Scio me genuisse mortalem, I know that I begat a mortal son.' I know that my riches had wings, and that my comforts were mutable. Preparedness composeth the mind to patience. Ulysses wept when he saw his dog; which he did not, when he saw his wife: he came prepared for the one; but was surprised by the other. 'Hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem, Et perferre, soror, potero.' Had I foreseen this grief, or could but fear it, Which is the reason, why philosophers prescribe the whole course of man's life, to be only a meditation upon death; because that being so great an evil in itself, and so sure to us, it ought to be expected, that it may not come sudden, and find us unprepared to meet the King of Terrors. For it is the property of custom and acquaintance, not only to alleviate and assuage evils; (to which purpose Senecad speaks Perdidisti tot mala, si nondum misera esse didicisti, Thou hast lost thy affections if they have not yet taught thee to be miserable') but further, as Aristotle notes, to work some manner of delight in things, at first troublesome and tedious and therefore he reckoneth mourning amongst pleasant things; and tears are, by nature, made the witnesses as well of joy as of grief': Καὶ κύνει ἁπλόμενος ἣν πατρίδα· πολλὰ δ ̓ ἀπ ̓ αὐτου He kiss'd the shore, fast tears ran from his eyes, And Seneca (whether philosophically or rhetorically) observes, that obstinacy and resolvedness in grief, doth so Plut. de Aud. Præcogitati mali mollis ictus. Sen. Epist. 77. Tusc. Qa. 1. 3.-Plut. de Tranq. d Consolatio ad Helviam. e Cic. • Khet. 1. 1. Odyss. . 522. alter the nature of it, "ut fiat tandem infelicis animi prava voluptas dolor," that at length it turns into a kind of pleasant pain ". Sure I am, the apostle biddeth us "count it joy, when we fall into temptation." The last presence of grief was real, when some ponderous evil, either of affliction or of sin,-the loss of some good wherein we delighted,-the disappointment of some hope whereon we relied, meeting with impotency in ourselves to remove what we suffer, to recover what we lose, to supply what we want,-doth bruise and lie with a heavy weight upon the tenderest part of man, his soul and spirit. And in this, I cannot find, considered merely in itself, any worth at all, it being nothing else but the violation and wounding of nature but in order to the effects which it produceth, it may have sundry denominations, either of a serviceable or of a corrupt affection. I shall but briefly name them, and pass over to the next. : The profitable effects are principally these: First, as it is an instrument of public administration and discipline. It is, as it were, both a schoolmaster and a physician, to teach and to cure. So the philosopher telleth us, that, by pleasure and pain, children are trained up unto arts and sciences, the rod being unto the mind, as a rudder unto a ship. So the prophet David putteth chastisement and instruction together: "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, and teachest out of thy law;" and again, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy commandments." Therefore God gave the law in the wilderness, where the people were in want and under discipline; to note that grief is a good instrument' unto learning; for after, in their prosperity, they would not hear. And as it is a means to teach, so it is a means to cure too: for therefore pain is usually made the matter of punishment, that as men offend by sinful pleasure, so they may be amended by wholesome sorrow m. Αἱ γὰρ ἰατρείαι διὰ τῶν ivavríav: cures are usually wrought by contraries. Est quædam etiam dolendi voluptas: Plin. 1. 8. ep. 6. 1. 1. c. 9. Ethic. 1. 2. c. 3. |