which it is suspended in the middle of the brain, and moreover that
the number of different impressions on the gland is the same as that of
the different external objects which propel the animal spirits toward
it. Hence it comes to pass that if the gland, by the will of the soul
moving it in different directions, be afterwards suspended in this or
that way in which it had once been suspended by the spirits agitated in
this or that way, then the gland itself will propel and determine the
animal spirits themselves in the same way as that in which they had
before been repelled by a similar suspension of the gland. Moreover, he
affirmed that each volition of the mind is united in Nature to a certain
motion of the gland. For example, if a person wishes to behold a remote
object, this volition will cause the pupil of the eye to dilate, but if
he thinks merely of the dilation of the pupil, to have that volition
will profit him nothing, because Nature has not connected a motion of
the gland which serves to impel the animal spirits towards the optic
nerve in a way suitable for dilation or contraction of the pupil with
the volition or dilation or contraction, but only with the volition of
beholding objects afar off or close at hand. Finally, he maintained that
although each motion of this gland appears to be connected by Nature
from the commencement of our life with an individual thought, these
motions can nevertheless be connected by habit with other thoughts, a
proposition which he attempts to demonstrate in his "Passions of the
Soul" (art. 50, pt. 1).

From this he concludes that there is no mind so feeble that it cannot,
when properly directed, acquire absolute power over its passions; for
passions, as defined by him, are "perceptions, or sensations, or
emotions of the soul which are related to it specially, and which (N.B.)
are produced, preserved, and strengthened by some motion of the
spirits." (See the "Passions of Soul," art. 27, pt. 1.) But since it is
possible to join to a certain volition any motion of the gland, and
consequently of the spirits, and since the determination of the will
depends solely on our power, we shall be able to acquire absolute
mastery over our passions provided only we determine our will by fixed
and firm decisions by which we desire to direct our actions and bind
with these decisions the movements of the passions we wish to have.

So far as I can gather from his own words, this is the opinion