Chapter 17: Of Other Causes and Effects of Desire

Other causes of desires are infirmity, rashness, and mutability of mind, which three I put in one, as having a near relation and dependence within themselves. For commonly impotent appetites, as those of children, of sick, of incontinent persons, are both temerarious in [reconstructed: precipitating] the mind, and anticipating the [reconstructed: dictates] of reason which should regulate or [reconstructed: restrain] them: as also mutable and wandering like [reconstructed: the] bee from one flower to another; infirmity [reconstructed: not] suffering a man to hold fast his decrees, and [reconstructed: temerity] not suffering him to resolve on any; and [reconstructed: lastly,] mutability making him weary of those [reconstructed: things] which weakness and rashness had unadvisedly transported him to. Omnium Imperitorum animus in lubric[reconstructed: o] est: weak minds have ever wavering and unfixed resolutions. Like fickle and nauseating stomachs, which long for many things and can eat none. Like sick bodies, [reconstructed: qui mutationi loco ut remedio utuntur], as Seneca speaks, which toss from side to side, and think by changing of their place they can leave their pain behind them. Like Achilles in the Poet:

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Now he leans on his side, now supine lies, then grovels on his face, and straight does rise.

This sickness and inconstancy of desires is thus elegantly described by the old poet [reconstructed: Lucretius]:

—Ut nunc plerumque videmus, Quid sibi quisque velit nescire & quarere semper. Commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit. Exit sape foras magnis ex adibus ille, Esse domi quam pertasum est [reconstructed: subit], rever[reconstructed: titur]. Currit agens [reconstructed: manus] ad villam [reconstructed: praecipitanter] Auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instet. Oscitat extemplo tetigit cum limina Villae, Aut abit in somnum gravis, atque oblivia quarit: Aut etiam properans Vrbem petit, atque [reconstructed: re]visit. Hoc se quisque modo fugit. At, quod scilicet ut [illegible]. Effugere haud potis est, ingratis haret & ange[reconstructed: t]. We see how troubled mortals still inquire, yet never can find what it is which they desire. One changes place, as if he could unload and leave his weights behind him. Runs abroad, weary of a great palace; straight turns back, and has not found the thing which he did lack. Wearied both here and there, he mounts his steed, and runs to the neighbor town with swifter speed than if he went to quench a fire. Being set, he gapes and sleeps, and studies to forget why he came there, haply turns his rein, and to the city posts back again. Thus guilty man does study how to shun, and escape himself, but never can get it done. He bears the thing he flies. What he would leave, unwelcome self to itself does cleave, and cleaving does torment.—

The more simple, one, and perfect nature is (as the philosopher divinely notes) the more it delights in one and the same uniform operation. Mutability is not pleasant in itself; but [reconstructed: the] delight of it arises out of the [reconstructed: depravity] and [reconstructed: defect] of nature.

I might here insist on other more obvious causes of desire: as,

1 Knowledge and experience of the goodness of that which we desire: as the Apostle also tells us, that experience works hope: and we use to say, Ignoti n[reconstructed: u]lla Cupido. A man cannot desire that of which he has no apprehension. [reconstructed: K]nowledge is appetite's taster.

2 [reconstructed: Grief] and repentance for the evils we feel, the contrary of which we are the more induced to desire. We never desire health so eagerly as when sickness teaches us to value it: for as in colors, so in actions or affections, contraries do set forth and sharpen one another. And as labor natural makes a man earnestly desire the shadow, as Job speaks, so sorrow which is labor mental, does make a man earnestly thirst after that which can remove the thing which [reconstructed: causes] that sorrow. The Apostle tells us, that desire and zeal are the fruits of godly sorrow. David never panted so earnestly after God's favor and presence, as when he felt what a grief it was to be without it. For in this case there is an apprehension of [illegible] double goodness in the thing we desire, both as perfective to nature indigent, and as medicinal to nature wronged.

Lastly, hope of succeeding in our desires: for the stronger any man's persuasions are, the more cheerful and vigorous will be his endeavors to succeed. But I shall content myself with the intimation of these things. And in the next, very briefly to run over some effects and consequents of this affection: which are,

1 In regard of desires at large, labor and pains: for they are only velleities and not volitions: half and broken wishes, not whole desires, which are not industrious; but [illegible] away in sluggish and empty speculations. The fisherman that will take the fish, must be contented to be dashed with the water. And he that will expect to have his desires answered, must put as well his hands as his prayers to them:

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Who takes God in his mouth, but takes no pain, by devout sloth shall never gather gain.

It was the just reproach of him in the poet who was upbraided with coming to the feasts, but withdrew himself from the labor of other men. Nature has often made the roots of those plants bitter, whose fruits are sweet, to teach us that delight is the fruit of labor. And therefore the philosopher tells us, that desire is usually accompanied with sorrow.

Again, desires do commonly work a languor and fainting towards the thing desired, if they be either strong or hasty: for hope deferred makes the heart sick (Proverbs 13:12). As Ahab's eager desire of Naboth's vineyard, cast him upon his bed. And David expresses his longings towards God's law, by the breaking and fainting of his soul. Cum expectatio longior est consenescit animus, & debilitatur mens: delayed expectation weakens and withers the minds of men. And therefore the Apostle expresses strength of desire by groaning, which is the language of sickness.

2 In regard of reasonable and spiritual desires. The effects of this affection are:

1 Large-heartedness and liberality. That which a man earnestly desires he will give much for, and bestow much upon. As when Christ became the desire of all nations, they did dedicate all their desirable things to him, as the [illegible] and trophies of his merciful triumph over them. One man adorns the gospel with his power, another with his wit, another with his wealth, another with his wisdom.

Those abilities of nature, art, or industry, which were before the armor of sin, are then become the spoils of Christ. Antonius out of the strength of his desires towards Cleopatra, bestowed many countries upon her.

2 Grief for any loss or hazard of the thing desired. As the seaman's needle which is jogged and troubled, never leaves moving till it finds the north point again. Flagrantia sunt animorum desideria cum solatia perdiderunt, as the orator spoke. Desires burn hottest when they are in danger of disappointment.

3 Weariness and Indignation against anything which stands between Desire and the fruition of that which is desired. Vehementior per me[illegible]us & pericula exibit: That which resists increases it. As a River goes with more strength where it is hindered and withstood. The Church did venture blows when she sought her Love, and like the Palm Tree rose up above her pressures: plures efficimur quóties metimur a vobis, as Tertullian speaks to the Heathen. The more you mow us down, the thicker we grow; the more we suffer for him, the more we love and desire him. Saint Paul cares not for a dissolution that he may go to Christ, as a stone is contented to be broken in pieces, that it may move to its place.

Thirdly, For Corrupt and vicious Desires; their effects are first, Deception, and hauling of Reason as it were captive from determining, advising, or duly weighing the pravity and obliquity of them. So that the things which a man knows in thesi, and at large, in hypothesi; and as to his own particular interest or inconvenience he does not at all attend. He can say them, he cannot apply them. As he who acts a part on a Stage, knows the things which he speaks, but is not a whit affected with them. And the Philosopher gives the reason of it, the very same with Saint James, [in non-Latin alphabet], That Reason which overcomes Lust must be [in non-Latin alphabet], Reason engrafted; or to use the phrase of another Apostle, [in non-Latin alphabet], immixed and contempered with the soul, and not only extrinsically irradiating it. And these kind of men are elegantly called by Julius Pollux, [in non-Latin alphabet] men willingly slavish, and [in non-Latin alphabet] subdued and brought under by their own affections. As Plutarch says of Agesilaus, that he was ruled by Lysander his servant, he having only the name, but the other the execution of his power. This slavery of men's minds under the tyranny of lustful desires is thus described by the Satyrist.

Mane piger stertis? surge, inquit Avaritia, eja Surge, negas? Instat, surge inquit, non queo surge. Ecquid agam rogitas? En saperdam adv[illegible]ho ponto, Castoreum, stupas, h[illegible]benum, thus, lubrica Co[illegible]. What sluggard snores so long? says lust, up rise, Awake, get out. Dare you say no? it cries the same again, up, rise; I cannot. No? Rise though you cannot, when I'll have it so. What must I do? what do? up, wipe your eyes — See, here's a goodly Ship of merchandise; Shellfish, Castoreum, Flax, black Indian woods, Frankincense, Wines of Coos and other goods.

Thus sordidly do vain men sell themselves, and as it were render up their Reason into the hands of vicious and greedy Affections, giving leave to their souls to suffer a shipwreck in that vessel which brings goods into their Cellars, and trafficking their own judgment in exchange for a ship of wares.

Secondly, These kind of Desires make men ungrateful and forgetful of any kindness which has already been done them. Memoria minimum tribuit, quisquis spei plurimum. As in buckets at a well, the longer the line of the one is which moves downward, the shorter is the line of the other which rises upward; so the larger our Desires are towards the future, the narrower our memories are of things past. And usually men's valuations of things are more in the performance, than when they are performed. And the reason is, because as nature has set our eyes forward, and not behind us: so the appetites of men, for which the eyes are the principal factors, look naturally before them, not to what they have, but to what they hope. The eye whereby we look backward into our lives is the eye of repentance, we there either see ourselves bad, or little. And a man is an unwelcome object to himself in both these relations. But the eye whereby we look forward, is an eye of hope, and desire, and by that we are represented to ourselves better and greater than we are already. Iron moves not upward except the Loadstone be very near it; But it moves downward, though the Center be never so remote. So much stronger are the motions of Desire, than those of acknowledgment and retribution.

And in truth the apprehensions of goodness in a thing are much other in the desire than in the review: as usually the Sun and the Moon look bigger at their rising, than when they are come over our heads. Desire looks on nothing in them but that which pleases, review finds that in them which displeases. When we desire Wine we think only on the sweetness, when we review it, we remember the headache. Besides, what we desire is apprehended as the matter of our life, what is past, men apprehend as in the hand of death. Quicquid retro est mors tenet. As in our life, so in our delights, so much of them is dead as is over and gone. We love our food when it is meat, we loathe it when it is excrement. When it goes into us we desire it, when it passes through us we despise it. And the secret work of concoction, (which is as it were the review of our meat) does distinguish that in them which the first Appetite took in a lump, and together.

And in truth in all secular and sublunary desires we shall ever find that they are like the Apples of Sodom, [reconstructed: Quae contacta cinerescunt], which have ashes hidden within their beauty, and death lurking under them. All the matter of our secular or sensitive Desires are just like the meats we ate, which go much more into excrement, than into nourishment and substance. Like the Cyprus tree which they say is very fair, but bears no fruit. Like the Egyptian Temples which are beautiful in frontispicio, but ridiculous in penetrali. And if we look well on them, we shall find, that as they are mortal themselves, so they come to us through mortality. It was a bold, but true [in non-Latin alphabet] of Seneca: [illegible] We live by the deaths of other things. Our fullest Tables furnished with death — nothing but feretra, the biers of birds and [illegible]. Our richest garments the bowels and skins of other creatures, which work out their own [illegible] to preserve ours. Silk is a grave to the [illegible] that weaves it, before it is a garment for us. Our Offices and Honours seldom come to us but by the mortality of those that prepossessed them. And our mortality makes them the fitter object of other men's Desires.

3 These desires as they are forgetful, so they are envious, and look with an evil eye upon others' competition, accounting their success our own damage. If a man should draw the genealogy of all the injuries and emulations of the world, we should find the root of that great tree to be nothing but lust. It was desire and inordinate appetite by which the devil persuaded our first parents to pick a quarrel with their Maker. From where come wars and fightings, says Saint James, but from lusts which war in your members? When a man has war within, no wonder if he have no peace without. He that cannot agree with himself, will disagree with all the world besides. The sea tosses every thing which comes into it, not because it is wronged, but because it is unquiet. And a lustful man will contend with every innocent man that prospers, not because this man does him injury, but because he grudges this man's prosperity. As the sea represents every straight thing that is put into it crooked, so lust every harmless thing perverse, and as Seneca speaks, has *Odium sine inimico*, hatred without an enemy. Greedy desires are like a swollen and envious spleen, which sucks away substance from all the rest of the body.

4 These desires are hydroptical, and like a [illegible] in the stomach which is not quenched, but enraged with that which feeds it. Unnatural desires being herein very like to natural [reconstructed: passions], the further they proceed, the stronger and swifter they are. Like wind in a bladder they never fill the heart, but enlarge it. The Grecians began their drinkings in little cups, but proceeded to flagons: and many times those appetites which begin in modesty go on to impudence, and the more our lives hastens to leave the world, the more our lust hastens to possess it. As it is noted of the Parthians, that the more they drink, the more they thirst. And, which is a marvelous illogical stupidity, the more continual experience men have of the vanity of the world, the more greedy experiments they make to find out solidity in it. Like your melancholy searchers after the Philosopher's Stone, that never dote so much upon their project as then when it has deluded them, and never flatter themselves with stronger hopes to be enriched by their art, than when it has brought them to beggary.

Lastly, hence it comes to pass that these kinds of desires are base, and [reconstructed: deject] the mind to [reconstructed: sordid] and ignoble resolutions. For [illegible] nihil satis, nihil [reconstructed: turpe]. He that has never enough will count nothing base whereby he may [reconstructed: get] more. As the historian says of Otho, that he [reconstructed: did] *Adorare vulgus, jacere oscula, & omnia serviliter* [reconstructed: pro] *Imperio*. Adore the people, dispense and [reconstructed: scatter] abroad his courtesies, crouch to any [reconstructed: servile] expressions, to advance his ambitious designs. Like Antaeus in the poets, fall to the earth, [reconstructed: so that] he may grow the stronger by it. As [reconstructed: Solon] and Pisistratus who wounded, mangled, deformed themselves, that they might thereby insinuate, and gain their ends. As the Scripture notes of Absalom, and the historian of Julian, that out of affectation of popularity, they stooped and delighted to converse with the lowest of the people. Which cunning humility, or rather sordidness of ambition, [reconstructed: Menelaus] in the tragedian, has thus elegantly objected in a contentious debate to [reconstructed: Agamemnon].

[illegible] [illegible] [illegible]. [illegible] [illegible] [illegible]. You know how you the rule over Grecians got, in show declining what in truth you [reconstructed: sought]: how low, how plausible you apprehended the hands of meanest men: how then you bent to all you met: how your gates open flew, and spoke large welcome to the popular crew: what sweetened words you gave even to those who did decline, and hate to see you gloze. [reconstructed: How] thus with serpentine and guileful arts you screwed and wound yourself into the hearts of the vulgar: and thus bought the power, which now makes you forget how then you used to bow.