Whether Love Is a Passion That Wounds the Lover?
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.
Obj. 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.
Obj. 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 (Q. 26, AA. 1, 2; Q. 27, A. 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 (A. 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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