Prime mover

Use in the book

In his imagined commonwealth Burton proposes uniform weights and measures, corrected by the Primum mobile and the sun's motion. Here the celestial reference remains direct: astronomical and geometrical measurement supplies the proposed common standard. His miles, paces, feet and inches are retained as historical units rather than converted into a present system. The passage is a prescription within his political scheme, not a report that such a standard had already been universally established. Its practical measuring purpose also shows that the expression is not confined to philosophical ornament.

At the opening of the fuller discussion of love, Burton first promises to distinguish its kinds, objects, powers and effects. He then recalls the earlier discussion of passions: love and hatred are primary and common, with other passions arising from and attending upon them. The first formulation is attributed to Piccolomini; the sphere comparison is introduced with Caussin's name. Burton uses these authorities to organize his exposition, but their historical editions and exact passages remain uncollated in the supplied notes.

Both love and hatred are the grammatical subjects of this motion. They carry the other affections around with them. Extracting only love from the parenthesis would narrow the stated causal pair; treating the other affections as the movers would reverse the direction. The image concerns hierarchy and dependence among passions, while the adjoining discussion asks how love varies with its objects and produces melancholy through deficiency or, more commonly, excessive intensity. It does not mean that every kind of love is itself a disease. The subsequent competing definitions of love make the breadth of the inquiry explicit.

The next occurrence develops attraction rather than a hierarchy of passions. In a discussion of honourable love, some particular grace, such as eloquence, intelligence or integrity, is the primum mobile and a powerful lodestone. The quality draws the favourable attention and affections of others towards its possessor. Christ's gracious speech is one example, followed by the orator's power and the mythical attraction of Orpheus. The surrounding discussion insists that inward virtues can make someone beautiful despite an unprepossessing appearance. The first mover is therefore the attractive quality specified in the sentence, not a claim that physical beauty alone causes affection.

A more extreme dependence appears in the lovesick person's relation to a mistress. She is his sun, his Primum mobile and his “anima informans.” The latter phrase means the soul giving form, locally the animating soul. Burton piles up images rather than identifying soul and celestial sphere as the same technical entity. A flower opening or drooping with the sun gives way to a windmill that has no motion without wind; the lover's fortune then rises and falls with the woman's favour. The metaphor expresses his supposed dependence and loss of self-direction. It should not be mistaken for a literal account of one person's soul residing in another's body.

In religious melancholy, the Devil is called the primum mobile and first mover of all superstition. “Principal agent” restates the causal priority. Burton has just described supposed demonic manipulation through fear, rewards, illness and apparent relief; later he calls politicians, priests and other human actors instruments or agents. The sequence distinguishes a primary supernatural cause from the human means through which Burton believes it operates. The broad charge is part of his theological polemic, not an independently verified explanation of the religions and populations he describes. Here especially, the familiar English phrase first mover must not conceal the explicitly named demonic subject.

The ordinary words first and moving need not invoke this image. In the account of understanding, “The object first moving the Understanding” is something perceived by the senses, after which reasoning proceeds towards corporeal and spiritual substance. That sentence describes an initial stimulus in a sequence of cognition. It contains no primum mobile or celestial sphere and is kept as a contrast rather than an additional astronomical attestation.

Related entries

Astrology; Essence and quintessence; Love; Affections; Sympathy and antipathy; Soul; Superstition

Places to read

1. · paragraph 11–13celestial motion and proposed uniform measures
2. · paragraph 26–28the contrasting first sensory stimulus to understanding
3. · paragraph 26–31love and hatred as movers of other affections, followed by competing definitions
4. · paragraph 25–29personal grace as first mover and lodestone
5. · paragraph 7–12the mistress as sun, moving power and animating soul
6. the Devil's asserted priority and subsequent human instruments

In this edition

“the primum mobile of all other affections” becomes “the first moving sphere of all the other affections.” The modern sentence supplies they are to make the subject love and hatred explicit, then preserves their action of carrying the others around. Sphere makes the historical image readable; it is an explanatory noun supplied in the rendering, not a separately printed noun in Burton's Latin phrase.

At the attraction passage, “primum mobile, first mover” becomes “first mover,” condensing Burton's Latin-English restatement while preserving its function. The mistress's “Primum mobile, or anima informans” becomes “first mover” or “animating soul.” In the superstition passage, the rendering uses “first moving cause” before repeating “first mover.” These varying explanations respond to different local constructions. They should not be treated as evidence that every occurrence has one fixed theological meaning.

first move the understanding

Printed “first moving the Understanding” (English; phrase).

Citation: Normalized phrase key for the printed participial construction; this is not a single-word dictionary lemma.

Meaning: Initially stirring the faculty of understanding.

Here: Initially stirring understanding through a sensible object.

Context: Contrast: ordinary cognitive sequence, not a technical celestial-sphere occurrence.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: The object first moving the Understanding, is some sensible thing

Modern rendering: The object that first stirs understanding is something perceptible to the senses

Word and construction: First moving the Understanding gives that first stirs understanding; that unfolds the participial construction. The object is the grammatical subject, and some sensible thing becomes something perceptible to the senses. Perceptible is not a claim that the object is prudent or reasonable.

Alignment convention

instruments or factors

Printed “instruments or factors” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: Means or agents employed to act.

Here: Human instruments or agents employed in the asserted causal chain.

Context: His refers back to the Devil; the sentence separately compares God’s instruments.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: His ordinary instruments or factors which he useth

Modern rendering: The ordinary instruments or agents he employs

Word and construction: Instruments is retained; factors gives agents. His... which he useth becomes The... he employs, resolving the possessive through the relative clause. The subject he is the Devil; God’s analogous instruments are a separate parenthesis in the full sentence.

Alignment convention

love and hatred

Printed “love and hatred” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: Love and aversion or hatred, named as a coordinated pair.

Here: The pair given causal priority over the other passions.

Context: Piccolomini attribution; neither hatred nor all is omitted from the hierarchy.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: love and hatred are the first and most common passions, from which all the rest arise, and are attendant

Modern rendering: love and hatred are the first and most common passions, from which all the rest arise and on which they attend

Word and construction: Love and hatred is retained as the coordinated subject. First and most common describes their rank and prevalence; all the rest is the quantified dependent group. On which they attend unfolds are attendant and keeps the direction of dependence.

Alignment convention

ni spiret gratia

Printed “ni spiret gratia” (Latin; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: Unless favour breathes.

Here: Unless favour breathes, within the windmill image of dependent motion.

Context: Quoted lover’s conditional voice; the modern supplies lifeless to explain the log image.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Sic tua ni spiret gratia, truncus ero

Modern rendering: So, unless your favour breathes upon me, I shall be a lifeless log

Word and construction: Ni gives unless, spiret breathes, and gratia favour. Sic gives So, tua your, truncus a log or trunk, and ero I shall be. Upon me and lifeless are interpretive supplies explaining the windmill and inert-log images; they are not separate words in the Latin.

Alignment convention

primum mobile · Primum mobile

Printed “Primum mobile” (Latin; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: The first moving celestial sphere in the historical astronomical model.

Here: Outermost moving celestial sphere, invoked for standardizing measures.

Context: Prescription within the imagined commonwealth; the rendering unfolds the celestial reference.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: rectified by the Primum mobile, and Suns motion

Modern rendering: determined by the motion of the outermost celestial sphere and the sun

Word and construction: Primum mobile is unfolded as the outermost celestial sphere; motion is made explicit for that sphere and remains explicit for Suns motion, the sun’s motion. Rectified by gives determined by. The celestial sphere is the indexed term, not the whole act of standardizing measurements.

Alignment convention

primum mobile · local use 1

Printed “primum mobile” (Latin; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: The first moving sphere; here metaphorical governing motion.

Here: First moving sphere, metaphor for love and hatred carrying other passions.

Context: Love and hatred are both subjects; Caussin is the stated authority. Modern they are and sphere make the compressed construction explicit.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the primum mobile of all other affections, which carry them all about them

Modern rendering: they are the first moving sphere of all the other affections, carrying them all around with them

Word and construction: Primum mobile gives first moving sphere; sphere is explanatory supply, not a separate Latin noun. They are is supplied from the parenthetical subjects love and hatred. Of all other affections gives of all the other affections; which carry them all about them becomes carrying them all around with them. The passions are carried, not the movers.

Alignment convention

primum mobile · primum mobile, first mover

Printed “primum mobile, first mover” (Latin and English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: The first moving sphere or first mover.

Here: Initiating force of interpersonal attraction, here a particular grace.

Context: Good discourse, eloquence, wit or honesty is the stated subject; two images cooperate.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the primum mobile, first mover, and a most forcible loadstone

Modern rendering: the “first mover,” a powerful lodestone

Word and construction: Primum mobile and its English restatement first mover are condensed into the single first mover. A most forcible loadstone becomes a powerful lodestone, a distinct attraction metaphor; most is not separately intensified in the modern wording. The initiating quality is specified in the surrounding sentence.

Alignment convention

primum mobile · local use 2

Printed “primum mobile” (Latin; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: The first moving thing; here initiating cause.

Here: The initiating cause of superstition, explicitly identified as the Devil.

Context: Burton’s theological causal claim; all and named subject retained.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: The primum mobile therefore, and first mover of all superstition, is the Devil

Modern rendering: The first moving cause, therefore, the first mover of all superstition, is the Devil

Word and construction: Primum mobile gives first moving cause, with cause supplied to express its local function. First mover is Burton’s separate English restatement; of all superstition retains the scope, and is the Devil names the subject explicitly. Therefore marks the inference from the preceding account.

Alignment convention

primum mobile; anima informans

Printed “Primum mobile, or anima informans” (Latin and English; phrase).

Citation: The key lists two distinct Latin phrases joined by English or in the indexed construction; it does not identify them as one technical entity.

Meaning: First mover, or soul giving form.

Here: The mistress as first mover or soul giving the lover his animating form.

Context: Reported lover-dependence; celestial and soul metaphors are alternatives within the image sequence.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: she is their Sun, their Primum mobile, or anima informans

Modern rendering: she is their sun, their “first mover” or “animating soul.”

Word and construction: Primum mobile gives first mover; anima gives soul and informans giving form, together rendered animating soul. English or keeps the alternative images, while she is their Sun becomes she is their sun. Neither Latin phrase itself means the mistress or supplies the preceding subject.

Alignment convention

principal agent

Printed “principal agent” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: The chief acting cause or agent.

Here: Chief agent in the asserted demonic initiation of superstition.

Context: Restatement of causal priority within Burton’s polemic.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the principal agent

Modern rendering: the chief agent

Word and construction: Principal gives chief; agent is retained. The Devil is the antecedent supplied by the wider sentence, not an unnamed human agent.

Alignment convention