E3P44S
Scholium — Part III
Latin
Quamvis res ita se habeat, nemo tamen conabitur rem aliquam odio habere vel tristitia affici ut majore hac lætitia fruatur hoc est nemo spe damnum recuperandi damnum sibi inferri cupiet nec ægrotare desiderabit spe convalescendi. Nam unusquisque suum esse conservare et tristitiam quantum potest amovere semper conabitur. Quod si contra concipi posset hominem posse cupere aliquem odio habere ut eum postea majore amore prosequatur, tum eundem odio habere semper desiderabit. Nam quo odium majus fuerit, eo amor erit major atque adeo desiderabit semper ut odium magis magisque augeatur et eadem de causa homo magis ac magis ægrotare conabitur ut majore lætitia ex restauranda valetudine postea fruatur atque adeo semper ægrotare conabitur, quod (per propositionem 6 hujus) est absurdum.
English (Elwes 1883)
Though this be so, no one will endeavour to hate anything, or to be affected with pain, for the sake of enjoying this greater pleasure; that is, no one will desire that he should be injured, in the hope of recovering from the injury, nor long to be ill for the sake of getting well. For everyone will always endeavour to persist in his being, and to ward off pain as far as he can. If the contrary is conceivable, namely, that a man should desire to hate someone, in order that he might love him the more thereafter, he will always desire to hate him. For the strength of love is in proportion to the strength of the hatred, wherefore the man would desire, that the hatred be continually increased more and more, and, for a similar reason, he would desire to become more and more ill, in order that he might take a greater pleasure in being restored to health: in such a case he would always endeavour to be ill, which (III. vi.) is absurd.
Modern English
Even though this is so, no one will strive to hate something or to be affected with sadness in order to enjoy this greater joy afterward, that is, no one will wish harm done to himself in the hope of recovering from it, nor long to be ill for the sake of getting well. For everyone always strives to preserve his being and to remove sadness as much as he can (E3P6).
If the contrary could be supposed — that a person could desire to hate someone in order to love him more afterward — then he would always desire to hate him. For the greater the hatred, the greater the love would be, and so he would always desire the hatred to grow more and more. By the same reasoning the person would strive to be more and more ill in order to enjoy greater joy from his recovery, and so he would always strive to be ill. This is absurd (E3P6).