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Objection 1: It would seem that love wounds the lover. For languor
denotes a hurt in the one that languishes. But love causes languor:
for it is written (Cant 2:5): "Stay me up with flowers,
compass me about with apples; because I languish with love."
Therefore love is a wounding passion.
Objection 2: Further, melting is a kind of dissolution. But love
melts that in which it is: for it is written (Cant 5:6): "My
soul melted when my beloved spoke." Therefore love is a dissolvent:
therefore it is a corruptive and a wounding passion.
Objection 3: Further, fervor denotes a certain excess of heat;
which excess has a corruptive effect. But love causes fervor: for
Dionysius (Coel. Hier. vii) in reckoning the properties belonging
to the Seraphim's love, includes "hot" and "piercing" and "most
fervent." Moreover it is said of love (Cant 8:6) that "its
lamps are fire and flames." Therefore love is a wounding and
corruptive passion.
On the contrary, Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv) that
"everything loves itself with a love that holds it together," i.e.
that preserves it. Therefore love is not a wounding passion, but
rather one that preserves and perfects.
I answer that, As stated above (Question 26, Articles 1,2;
Question 27, Article 1), love denotes a certain adapting of the
appetitive power to some good. Now nothing is hurt by being adapted to
that which is suitable to it; rather, if possible, it is perfected
and bettered. But if a thing be adapted to that which is not suitable
to it, it is hurt and made worse thereby. Consequently love of a
suitable good perfects and betters the lover; but love of a good which
is unsuitable to the lover, wounds and worsens him. Wherefore man is
perfected and bettered chiefly by the love of God: but is wounded and
worsened by the love of sin, according to Osee 9:10: "They
became abominable, as those things which they loved."
And let this be understood as applying to love in respect of its formal
element, i.e. in regard to the appetite. But in respect of the
material element in the passion of love, i.e. a certain bodily
change, it happens that love is hurtful, by reason of this change
being excessive: just as it happens in the senses, and in every act of
a power of the soul that is exercised through the change of some bodily
organ.
In reply to the objections, it is to be observed that four proximate
effects may be ascribed to love: viz. melting, enjoyment, languor,
and fervor. Of these the first is "melting," which is opposed to
freezing. For things that are frozen, are closely bound together, so
as to be hard to pierce. But it belongs to love that the appetite is
fitted to receive the good which is loved, inasmuch as the object loved
is in the lover, as stated above (Article 2). Consequently the
freezing or hardening of the heart is a disposition incompatible with
love: while melting denotes a softening of the heart, whereby the
heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved. If,
then, the beloved is present and possessed, pleasure or enjoyment
ensues. But if the beloved be absent, two passions arise; viz.
sadness at its absence, which is denoted by "languor" (hence Cicero
in De Tusc. Quaest. iii, 11 applies the term "ailment" chiefly
to sadness); and an intense desire to possess the beloved, which is
signified by "fervor." And these are the effects of love considered
formally, according to the relation of the appetitive power to its
object. But in the passion of love, other effects ensue,
proportionate to the above, in respect of a change in the organ.
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