SECTION III.

IMAGINATION.

In the exercise of IMAGINATION, we take the component elements of real scenes, events, or characters, and combine them anew by a process of the mind itself, so as to form compounds which have no existence in nature. A painter, by this process, depicts a landscape combining the beauties of various real landscapes, and excluding their defects. A poet or a novelist, in the same manner, calls into being a fictitious character, endowed with those qualities with which it suits his purpose to invest him, places him in contact with other beings equally imaginary, and arranges, according to his will, the scenes in which he shall bear a part, and the line of conduct which he shall follow. The compound in these cases is entirely fictitious and arbitrary; but it is expected that the individual elements shall be such as actually occur in nature, and that the combination shall not differ remarkably from what might really happen. When this is not attended to, as in a picture or a novel, we speak of the work being extravagant or out of nature. But, avoiding combinations which are grossly at variance with reality, the framer of such a compound may make it superior to any thing that actually occurs. A painter may draw a combination of beauties in a landscape superior to any thing that is actually known to exist; and a novelist may delineate a more perfect character than is met with in real life. It is remarked by Mr. Stewart, that Milton, in his garden of Eden, "has created a landscape more perfect, probably, in all its parts, than has ever been realized in nature, and certainly very different from any thing that this country exhibited at the time when he wrote. "It is a curious remark of Mr. Walpole," he adds, “that Milton's Eden is free from the defects of the old English garden, and is imagined on the same principles which

Nature of imagination? Examples. How much fictitious, and how much true? Superiority of such creations. Examples. Stewart's remark 2

it was reserved for the present age to carry into execution."

The mode of artificial combination which results from the exercise of imagination is applicable chiefly to four kinds of composition.

1. Fictitious narrative, in which the author delineates imaginary scenes or transactions; and paints imaginary characters, endowing them with such qualities as may suit the purpose which he has in view.

2. Composition or verbal address, directed to the passions, and intended to excite particular mental emotions. To this head are referable many of the combinations of the poet, and addresses calculated to operate upon the feelings of a popular assembly; also, those which derive their character from the language of trope and metaphor. The genius of the orator, and the inventive powers of the poet, are exhibited in the variety and the novelty of the analogies, resemblances, illustrations, and figures, which he thus brings to bear upon his subject.

3. Those unexpected and peculiar associations which form the basis of wit and humor.

4. Combinations of objects of sense, calculated to produce mental emotions of a pleasurable or painful kind, as our impressions of the sublime, the beautiful, the terrible, or the ludicrous. The combinations of this class are chiefly referable to the head of objects of taste, or the fine arts; and are exemplified in the inventions of the painter and the statuary, in decorative architecture and artificial gardening, -we may add, theatrical exhibitions and music.

The facility of rapidly forming in these several depart.ments combinations calculated to produce the effect which is intended, constitutes what we call inventive genius. Similar powers of invention, founded on an exercise of imagination, may also be applied to the investigations of science. It may be employed, for example, in the contrivance of experiments calculated to aid an investigation or to illustrate a doctrine; and in the construction of those legitimate hypotheses which have often led to the most important discoveries.

Kinds of composition, how many and what? First kind, what? Second kind? How different from the first? Third kind? Fourth kind? Examples. Inventive genius, what? How applicable to science ?

The union of elements, in all such productions of the imagination, is regulated by the knowledge, the taste, and the intellectual habits of the author; and, we must add, by his moral principles. According to the views, the habits, and the principles of him who frames them, therefore, they may either contribute to moral and intellectual improvement, or they may tend to mislead the judgment, vitiate the taste, and corrupt the moral feelings.

Similar observations apply to the conduct of the imagination in individuals, and its influence in the cultivation of moral and intellectual character. There is certainly no power of the mind that requires more cautious management and stern control; and the proper regulation of it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the young. The sound and proper exercise of it may be made to contribute to the cultivation of all that is virtuous and estimable in human character. It leads us, in particular, to place ourselves in the situation of others, to enter into their feelings and wants, and to participate in their distresses. It thus tends to the cultivation of sympathy and the benevolent affections; and promotes all those feelings which exert so extensive an influence in the duties of friendship and the harmonies of civil and social intercourse. We may even say that we exercise imagination when we endeavor to act upon that high standard of morals which requires us 66 to do to others as we would that they should do unto us:" for in this mental act we must imagine ourselves in the situation of other men, and, in their character, judge of our own conduct towards them. Thus a man deficient in imagination, though he may be free from any thing unjust or dishonorable, is apt to be cold, contracted, and selfish, regardless of the feelings and indifferent of the distresses of others. Further, we may be said to exercise imagination when we carry our views beyond present and sensible objects, and endeavor to feel the power of " things which are not seen," and the reality of scenes and times which are yet to come. On the other hand, imagination may be employed for calling into being evils which have no existence, or for exaggerating those which

The exercise of imagination, how regulated? Effects? Importance of a proper regulation of it? Its useful effects? Moral effects of a deficiency of imagination? Perverted imagination. Its effects?

are real; for fostering malevolent feelings, and for imputing to those with whom we are connected motives and intentions which have no foundation in truth. Finally, an ill-regulated imagination may be employed in occupying the mind with waking dreams and vain delusions, to the exclusion of all those high pursuits which ought to employ the faculties of a rational being.

There has been considerable difference of opinion in regard to the effects produced upon the mind by fictitious narrative. Without entering minutely upon the merits of this controversy, I think it may be contended, that two evils are likely to arise from much indulgence in works of fiction. The one is a tendency to give way to the wild play of the imagination; a practice most deleterious, both to the intellectual and moral habits. The other is a disruption of the harmony which ought to exist between the moral emotions and the conduct, a principle of extensive and important influence. In the healthy state of the moral feelings, for example, the emotion of sympathy excited by a tale of sorrow ought to be followed by some efforts for the relief of the sufferer. When such relations in real life are listened to from time to time without any such efforts, the emotion gradually becomes weakened, and that moral condition is produced which we call selfishness, or hardness of heart. Fictitious tales of sorrow appear to have a similar tendency; the emotion is produced without the corresponding conduct; and when this habit has been much indulged the result seems to be, that a cold and barren sentimentalism is produced, instead of the habit of active benevolence. If fictitious narratives be employed for depicting scenes of vice, another evil of the greatest magnitude is likely to result from them, even though the conduct exhibited should be shown to end in remorse and misery: for by the mere familiarity with vice an injury is done to the youthful mind, which is in no degree compensated by the moral at the close.

Imagination, therefore, is a mental power of extensive influence, and capable of being turned to important purposes

Fictitious narrative. Two evils resulting from it? Example. What evils from fictitious tales of sorrow? From fictitious tales of vice ? Inference from these views?

in the cultivation of individual character. But to be so, it must be kept under the strict control both of reason and of virtue. If it be allowed to wander at discretion, through scenes of imagined wealth, ambition, frivolity, or pleasure it tends to withdraw the mind from the important pursuits of life, to weaken the habit of attention, and to impair the judgment. It tends, in a most material manner, to prevent the due exercise of those nobler powers which are directed to the cultivation both of science and virtue. The state of a mind which has yielded itself to the influence of this delusive habit cannot be more forcibly represented than in the words of an eloquent writer:-"The influence of this habit of dwelling on the beautiful fallacious forms of imagination will accompany the mind into the most serious speculations, or rather musings, on the real world, and what is to be done in it, and expected; as the image which the eye acquires from looking at any dazzling object still appears before it wherever it turns. The vulgar materials that constitute the actual economy of the world will rise up to its sight in fictitious forms, which it cannot disenchant into plain reality, nor will even suspect to be deceptive. It cannot go about with sober, rational inspection, and ascertain the nature and value of all things around it. Indeed, such a mind is not disposed to examine with any careful minuteness the real condition of things. It is content with ignorance, because environed with something more delicious than such knowledge in the paradise which imagination creates. In that paradise it walks delighted, till some imperious circumstance of real life call it thence, and gladly escapes thither again when the avocation is past. There every thing is beautiful and noble as could be desired to form the residence of an angel. If a tenth part of the felicities that have been enjoyed, the great actions that have been performed, the beneficent institutions that have been established, and the beautiful objects that have been seen in that happy region, could have been imported into this terrestrial place,-what a delightful thing it would have been to awake each morning to see such a world once more."*

• Foster's Essays.

state of mind induced by a perverted imagination? Foster's description of its effects ?