4p44sc.md (1323B)
1 Mirth, which I have stated to be good, can be conceived 2 more easily than it can be observed. For the emotions, whereby 3 we are daily assailed, are generally referred to some part of the 4 body which is affected more than the rest; hence the emotions 5 are generally excessive, and so fix the mind in the contemplation 6 of one object, that it is unable to think of others; and 7 although men, as a rule, are a prey to many emotions–and very few 8 are found who are always assailed by one and the same–yet there 9 are cases, where one and the same emotion remains obstinately 10 fixed. We sometimes see men so absorbed in one object, that, 11 although it be not present, they think they have it before them; 12 when this is the case with a man who is not asleep, we say he is 13 delirious or mad; nor are those persons who are inflamed with 14 love, and who dream all night and all day about nothing but their 15 mistress, or some woman, considered as less mad, for they are 16 made objects of ridicule. But when a miser thinks of nothing but 17 gain or money, or when an ambitious man thinks of nothing but 18 glory, they are not reckoned to be mad, because they are 19 generally harmful, and are thought worthy of being hated. But, 20 in reality, Avarice, Ambition, Lust, &c., are species of madness, 21 though they may not be reckoned among diseases. 22 23