The interest that speculation on “passion” has for Leopardi is testified to, apart the vastness of references to it in his works in general, also by the fact that he indeed dedicates to a Treatise on passion, human qualities etc. one of the “Polizzine non richiamate nell’Indice” (essays not shown in the Index), “thematic” indications assigned to the Zibaldone and probably written in view of the treatises Leopardi planned but never wrote (the others are dedicated to the themes Of the nature of men and things, Handbook of practical philosophy, Theorisation of the arts, letters etc., Speculative part and Practical part, history etc., Languages, Vernacular Latin and Memories of my life).
Important are the links with the concepts of reason of antiquity:
“Every time man is engaged in some strong passion, he is incapable of thinking about anything else” [97-8] – the populous is composed of people moved by base passions, but to conquer it one needs “general” passions: “amiableness, virtue, courage” [120-1] – passion is necessary for poetry [285-7] – “in a weak body no passion has any strength” [152] – observations on passion drawn from Montesquieu, Byron, Mme de Lambert, Rousseau [198, 269, 223-4, 653-4, 650-1, 4474] – in natural man passions are on the surface, in the one of “mid nature” in the profound, and they torment him, in modern man they re-emerge [266-8] – passion is stronger than reason, thus one should change this last into passion, and not vice versa, as sustained by modern philosophers [293-4] – the arts and works that most express passion are considered the most supreme [2361-2] – all passions in antiquity were stronger, but not joy: because today it is rarer [2434-6] – passion allows also an ordinary man to discover extraordinary things [3269-71] – passion is good for the intellect as well as for the imagination; except for when it obscures both [3553].
Passion
