Liber I, Pars III — Quae praedictarum passionum sunt priores, et quae posteriores, et quem ordinem habent adinvicem. Cap. II.

Liber I, Pars III — Quae praedictarum passionum sunt priores, et quae posteriores, et quem ordinem habent adinvicem. Cap. II.

Since no one can govern themselves well unless they know which passions to avoid and which to pursue, and since in this first book we intend to determine the governance of oneself, we need to see how many passions there are, what order they have with respect to one another, which are more principal, which are less so, and how one passion can be reduced to another. For from all these, the nature of the passions themselves becomes clearer to us, and by examining them, we can understand which are praiseworthy and which are blameworthy, which are to be followed and which are to be avoided. Therefore, we need to see how many passions there are and how their number is understood. The order of these passions can be understood in two ways: either individually or in combination. By understanding this order according to combination, we can say that the primary passions are love and hatred. In the second degree, there are desire and aversion. In the third degree, there are hope, fear, and despair. In the fourth degree, there are fear and boldness. In the fifth degree, there are anger and gentleness. The last passions are pleasure and sadness. Pleasure and sadness follow all the other passions. For whoever experiences any passion will either feel pleasure or sadness. Therefore, these two passions should be placed after all the others. Love and hatred are simply the primary passions. For pleasure and sadness follow all the other passions, since all other passions either lead to pleasure or to sadness: likewise, love and hatred precede the other passions. Therefore, all other passions take their origin either from love or from hatred, for whoever experiences any passion does so either because they love or because they hate. After love and hatred, there are desire and aversion. Desire is immediately rooted in love. For when we love something, we either desire to possess it, or if we have it, we desire to keep it. Hatred, on the other hand, is immediately rooted in aversion, because as soon as we hate something, we abhor it. Thus, just as love and hatred are the primary passions, desire and aversion are the secondary passions. In place of aversion, hope and despair should be considered. For hope and despair, when considered in relation to good, precede fear, boldness, anger, and gentleness, which are considered in relation to evil. Fear and boldness precede anger and gentleness. For when something is perceived as future rather than present, fear and boldness, which are considered in relation to future evils, precede anger and gentleness, which are considered in relation to present evils. It’s clear what order these passions have if we consider them in pairs. However, they should be arranged in this way: love is prior to hatred; desire is prior to aversion; hope is prior to despair; fear is prior to boldness; anger is prior to gentleness; pleasure is prior to sorrow. For love is indeed prior to hatred, because passion taken in relation to good (insofar as it is such) is prior to passion taken in relation to evil. The appetite is naturally inclined to good. If, however, it flees from evil, this is consequently because fleeing from evil has the nature of good. Therefore, love is entirely the first movement and the primary passion. For hatred takes its origin from love: if we did not love something, we would not abhor anything, nor would we have hatred. For we love the good and justice, and we hate injustice and thieves. Desire, which is rooted in love, comes before aversion, which is rooted in hatred. Hope, on the other hand, comes before despair. For if the first desire is for the good, and what is desired is desired under the aspect of good, then the passion that more closely unites us to the good, in this sense, comes before other passions; and because striving for the good is more about being united to the good than falling away from it, the hope through which we strive for the good comes before the despair through which we fall away from it. Fear, however, comes before boldness. For just as the appetite tends to unite with the good, the passion that aims at the good is prior to the passion that falls away from it; similarly, since fleeing from evil has the aspect of good, fear through which we flee from evil is prior to boldness through which we attack it. Anger, however, is prior to gentleness in the realm of passions. For gentleness is not properly a passion, but rather it is more about falling away from passion. Therefore, in the realm of passions, anger precedes gentleness. However, to investigate whether gentleness precedes anger in some other way is not relevant to the present matter. However, pleasure, which relates to what is good, precedes sadness, which relates to what is bad. Since it has been observed how many passions there are and how they are ordered in relation to one another, from what has been said, the nature of these passions becomes somewhat clear to us: knowing this, we can understand how they should be pursued and how the aforementioned passions should be avoided. It is especially fitting for kings and princes to know this, as their passions can lead them into greater evils and can more significantly hinder the good. However, this will be discussed more extensively below.