Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
opinions of perturbations, their meaning is, not that merely the
perturbations consist in them, but that the effects likewise of these
perturbations do so; as grief occasions a kind of painful pricking, and
fear engenders a recoil or sudden abandonment of the mind, joy gives
rise to a profuse mirth, while lust is the parent of an unbridled habit
of coveting. But that imagination, which I have included in all the
above definitions, they would have to consist in assenting without
warrantable grounds. Now, every perturbation has many subordinate parts
annexed to it of the same kind. Grief is attended with enviousness
(_invidentia_)--I use that word for instruction's sake, though it is
not so common; because envy (_invidia_) takes in not only the person
who envies, but the person, too, who is envied--emulation, detraction,
pity, vexation, mourning, sadness, tribulation, sorrow, lamentation,
solicitude, disquiet of mind, pain, despair, and many other similar
feelings are so too. Under fear are comprehended sloth, shame, terror,
cowardice, fainting, confusion, astonishment. In pleasure they
comprehend malevolence--that is, pleased at another's
misfortune--delight, boastfulness, and the like. To lust they associate
anger, fury, hatred, enmity, discord, wants, desire, and other feelings
of that kind.
But they define these in this manner:
VIII. Enviousness (_invidentia_), they say, is a grief arising from the
prosperous circumstances of another, which are in no degree injurious
to the person who envies; for where any one grieves at the prosperity
of another, by which he is injured, such a one is not properly said to
envy--as when Agamemnon grieves at Hector's success; but where any one,
who is in no way hurt by the prosperity of another, is in pain at his
success, such a one envies indeed. Now the name "emulation" is taken in
a double sense, so that the same word may stand for praise and
dispraise: for the imitation of virtue is called emulation (however,
that sense of it I shall have no occasion for here, for that carries
praise with it); but emulation is also a term applied to grief at
another's enjoying what I desired to have, and am without. Detraction
(and I mean by that, jealousy) is a grief even at another's enjoying
what I had a great inclination for. Pity is a grief at the misery of
another who suffers wrongfully; for no one is moved by pity at the
punishment of a parricide or of a betrayer of his country. Vexation is
a pressing grief. Mourning is a grief at the bitter death of one who
was dear to you. Sadness is a grief attended with tears. Tribulation is
a painful grief. Sorrow, an excruciating grief. Lamentation, a grief
where we loudly bewail ourselves. Solicitude, a pensive grief. Trouble,
a continued grief. Affliction, a grief that harasses the body. Despair,
a grief that excludes all hope of better things to come. But those
feelings which are included under fear, they define thus: There is
sloth, which is a dread of some ensuing labor; shame and terror, which
affect the body--hence blushing attends shame; a paleness, and tremor,
and chattering of the teeth attend terror--cowardice, which is an
apprehension of some approaching evil; dread, a fear that unhinges the
mind, whence comes that line of Ennius,
Then dread discharged all wisdom from my mind;
fainting is the associate and constant attendant on dread; confusion, a
fear that drives away all thought; alarm, a continued fear.
IX. The different species into which they divide pleasure come under
this description; so that malevolence is a pleasure in the misfortunes
of another, without any advantage to yourself; delight, a pleasure that
soothes the mind by agreeable impressions on the ear. What is said of
the ear may be applied to the sight, to the touch, smell, and taste.
All feelings of this kind are a sort of melting pleasure that dissolves
the mind. Boastfulness is a pleasure that consists in making an
appearance, and setting off yourself with insolence.--The subordinate
species of lust they define in this manner: Anger is a lust of
punishing any one who, as we imagine, has injured us without cause.
Heat is anger just forming and beginning to exist, which the Greeks
call [Greek: thymosis]. Hatred is a settled anger. Enmity is anger
waiting for an opportunity of revenge. Discord is a sharper anger
conceived deeply in the mind and heart. Want an insatiable lust. Regret
is when one eagerly wishes to see a person who is absent. Now here they
have a distinction; so that with them regret is a lust conceived on
hearing of certain things reported of some one, or of many, which the
Greeks call [Greek: kategoremata], or predicaments; as that they are in
possession of riches and honors: but want is a lust for those very
honors and riches. But these definers make intemperance the fountain of
all these perturbations; which is an absolute revolt from the mind and
right reason--a state so averse to all rules of reason that the
appetites of the mind can by no means be governed and restrained. As,
therefore, temperance appeases these desires, making them obey right
reason, and maintains the well-weighed judgments of the mind, so
intemperance, which is in opposition to this, inflames, confounds, and
puts every state of the mind into a violent motion. Thus, grief and
fear, and every other perturbation of the mind, have their rise from
intemperance.
X. Just as distempers and sickness are bred in the body from the
corruption of the blood, and the too great abundance of phlegm and
bile, so the mind is deprived of its health, and disordered with
sickness, from a confusion of depraved opinions that are in opposition
to one another. From these perturbations arise, first, diseases, which
they call [Greek: nosemata]; and also those feelings which are in
opposition to these diseases, and which admit certain faulty distastes
or loathings; then come sicknesses, which are called [Greek:
arrhostemata] by the Stoics, and these two have their opposite
aversions. Here the Stoics, especially Chrysippus, give themselves
unnecessary trouble to show the analogy which the diseases of the mind
have to those of the body: but, overlooking all that they say as of
little consequence, I shall treat only of the thing itself. Let us,
then, understand perturbation to imply a restlessness from the variety
and confusion of contradictory opinions; and that when this heat and
disturbance of the mind is of any standing, and has taken up its
residence, as it were, in the veins and marrow, then commence diseases
and sickness, and those aversions which are in opposition to these
diseases and sicknesses.
XI. What I say here may be distinguished in thought, though they are in
fact the same; inasmuch as they both have their rise from lust and joy.
For should money be the object of our desire, and should we not
instantly apply to reason, as if it were a kind of Socratic medicine to
heal this desire, the evil glides into our veins, and cleaves to our
bowels, and from thence proceeds a distemper or sickness, which, when
it is of any continuance, is incurable, and the name of this disease is
covetousness. It is the same with other diseases; as the desire of
glory, a passion for women, to which the Greeks give the name of
[Greek: philogyneia]: and thus all other diseases and sicknesses are
generated. But those feelings which are the contrary of these are
supposed to have fear for their foundation, as a hatred of women, such
as is displayed in the Woman-hater of Atilius; or the hatred of the
whole human species, as Timon is reported to have done, whom they call
the Misanthrope. Of the same kind is inhospitality. And all these
diseases proceed from a certain dread of such things as they hate and
avoid. But they define sickness of mind to be an overweening opinion,
and that fixed and deeply implanted in the heart, of something as very
desirable which is by no means so. What proceeds from aversion, they
define thus: a vehement idea of something to be avoided, deeply
implanted, and inherent in our minds, when there is no reason for
avoiding it; and this kind of opinion is a deliberate belief that one
understands things of which one is wholly ignorant. Now, sickness of
the mind has all these subordinate divisions: avarice, ambition,
fondness for women, obstinacy, gluttony, drunkenness, covetousness, and
other similar vices. But avarice is a violent opinion about money, as
if it were vehemently to be desired and sought after, which opinion is
deeply implanted and inherent in our minds; and the definition of all
the other similar feelings resembles these. But the definitions of
aversions are of this sort: inhospitality is a vehement opinion, deeply
implanted and inherent in your mind, that you should avoid a stranger.
Thus, too, the hatred of women, like that felt by Hippolytus, is
defined; and the hatred of the human species like that displayed by
Timon.
XII. But to come to the analogy of the state of body and mind, which I
shall sometimes make use of, though more sparingly than the Stoics.
Some men are more inclined to particular disorders than others; and,
therefore, we say that some people are rheumatic, others dropsical, not
because they are so at present, but because they are often so: some are
inclined to fear, others to some other perturbation. Thus in some there
is a continual anxiety, owing to which they are anxious; in some a
hastiness of temper, which differs from anger, as anxiety differs from
anguish: for all are not anxious who are sometimes vexed, nor are they
who are anxious always uneasy in that manner: as there is a difference
between being drunk and drunkenness; and it is one thing to be a lover,
another to be given to women. And this disposition of particular people
to particular disorders is very common: for it relates to all
perturbations; it appears in many vices, though it has no name. Some
are, therefore, said to be envious, malevolent, spiteful, fearful,
pitiful, from a propensity to those perturbations, not from their being
always carried away by them. Now this propensity to these particular
disorders may be called a sickness from analogy with the body; meaning,
that is to say, nothing more than a propensity towards sickness. But
with regard to whatever is good, as some are more inclined to different
good qualities than others, we may call this a facility or tendency:
this tendency to evil is a proclivity or inclination to falling; but
where anything is neither good nor bad, it may have the former name.
XIII. Even as there may be, with respect to the body, a disease, a
sickness, and a defect, so it is with the mind. They call that a
disease where the whole body is corrupted; they call that sickness
where a disease is attended with a weakness, and that a defect where
the parts of the body are not well compacted together; from whence it
follows that the members are misshapen, crooked, and deformed. So that
these two, a disease and sickness, proceed from a violent concussion
and perturbation of the health of the whole body; but a defect
discovers itself even when the body is in perfect health. But a disease
of the mind is distinguishable only in thought from a sickness. But a
viciousness is a habit or affection discordant and inconsistent with
itself through life. Thus it happens that, in the one case, a disease
and sickness may arise from a corruption of opinions; in the other
case, the consequence may be inconstancy and inconsistency. For every
vice of the mind does not imply a disunion of parts; as is the case
with those who are not far from being wise men. With them there is that
affection which is inconsistent with itself while it is foolish; but it
is not distorted, nor depraved. But diseases and sicknesses are parts