Love is a Joy, accompanied by the idea of an external cause.

Exp.: This definition explains the essence of Love clearly enough. But the definition of those authors41 who define Love as a will of the lover to join himself to the thing loved expresses a property of Love, not its essence. And because these Authors did not see clearly enough the essence of Love, they could not have any clear concept of this property.

Hence everyone has judged their definition quite obscure.

But it should be noted that when I say it is a property in the lover, that he wills to join himself to the thing loved, I do not understand by will a consent, or a deliberation of the mind, or free decision (for we have demonstrated that this is a fiction in IIP48). Nor do I understand a Desire of joining oneself to the thing loved when it is absent or continuing in its presence when it is present.44 For love can be conceived without either of these Desires. Rather, by will I understand a Satisfaction in the lover on account of the presence of the thing loved, by which the lover’s Joy is strengthened or at least encouraged.