of thinking, a desire
which in a man who is not guided by reason is a passion which is called
ambition, and is not very different from pride; while, on the other
hand, in a man who lives according to the dictates of reason it is an
action or virtue which is called piety. In the same manner, all the
appetites or desires are passions only in so far as they arise from
inadequate ideas, and are classed among the virtues whenever they are
excited or begotten by adequate ideas; for all the desires by which we
are determined to any action may arise either from adequate or
inadequate ideas. To return, therefore, to the point from which we set
out: there is no remedy within our power which can be conceived more
excellent for the emotions than that which consists in true knowledge of
them, since the mind possesses no other power than that of thinking and
forming adequate ideas, as we have shown above.

II

_The Natural Basis of Rational Control_

The greater the number of objects to which an image or emotion is
related, the greater is the number of causes by which it can be excited
and cherished. All these causes the mind contemplates simultaneously by
means of the emotion (by hypothesis), and therefore the more constant is
the emotion, or the more frequently does it present itself, and the
more does it occupy the mind.

Things which we clearly and distinctly understand are either the common
properties of things or what are deduced from them, and consequently are
more frequently excited in us; and therefore it is easier for us to
contemplate other things together with these which we clearly and
distinctly understand than with any others, and consequently it is
easier to connect things with these which we clearly and distinctly
understand than with any others.

The greater the number of other things with which any image is
connected, the more frequently does it present itself. For the greater
the number of other things with which an image is connected, the greater
is the number of causes by which it may be excited.

There is no modification of the body of which the mind cannot form some
clear and distinct conception and therefore it can cause all the
modifications of the body to be related to the idea of God.

III

_The Function of the Intellectual Order_

The emotions which are contrary to our nature, that is to say, which are
evil, are evil so far as they hinder the mind from understanding. So
long, therefore, a