tude, the latter class of authors is the most useful; as their writings contain the more folid discoveries which others have brought to light, feparated from those errors with which truth is often blended in the first formation of a fystem.

CHAPTER SEVENTH.

Of Imagination.

SECTION I.

Analysis of Imagination.

IN attempting to draw the line between Conception and Imagination, I have already obferved, that the province of the former is to prefent us with an exact tranfcript of what we have formerly felt and perceived; that of the latter, to make a felection of qualities and of circumftances from a variety of different objects, and by combining and difpofing thefe, to form a new creation of its own.

According to the definitions adopted, in general, by modern philofophers, the province of Imagination would appear to be limited to objects of fight. " It "is the sense of fight," (fays Mr. Addison,) “which "furnishes the Imagination with its ideas; fo that by "the pleasures of Imagination, I here mean fuch as " arise from visible objects, either when we have them "actually in view, or when we call up their ideas "into our minds, by paintings, ftatues, defcriptions, "or any the like occafions. We cannot, indeed, "have a fingle image in the fancy, that did not "make its first entrance through the fight." Agreeably to the fame view of the fubject, Dr. Reid obferves, that Imagination properly fignifies lively

"conception of objects of fight; the former power "being distinguished from the latter, as a part from "the whole."

That this limitation of the province of Imagina tion to one particular clafs of our perceptions is altogether arbitrary, feems to me to be evident; for, although the greater part of the materials which Imagination combines be fupplied by this fenfe, it is nevertheless indifputable, that our other perceptive faculties also contribute occafionally their fhare. How many pleasing images have been borrowed from the fragrance of the fields and the melody of the groves; not to mention that fifter art, whofe magical influence over the human frame, it has been, in all ages, the highest boast of poetry to celebrate! In the following paffage, even the more grofs fenfations of Tafte form the subject of an ideal repast, on which it is impoffible not to dwell with fome complacency; particularly after a perufal of the preceding lines, in which the Poet defcribes "the Wonders of the Torrid Zone."

Bear me, Pomona ! to thy citron groves;
To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
With the deep orange, glowing thro' the green,
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclin'd
Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes,
Fann'd by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit:
Or, ftretch'd amid thefe orchards of the fun,
O let me drain the cocoa's milky bowl,
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice
Which Bacchus pours! Nor, on its flender twigs
Low bending, be the full pomegranate scorn'd;
Nor, creeping thro' the woods, the gelid race

Of

Of berries. Oft in humble ftation dwells
Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp.
Witnefs, thou beft Anana, thou the pride
Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er
The Poets imag'd in the golden age:
Quick let me ftrip thee of thy fpiny coat,

Spread thy ambrofial ftores, and feaft with Jove* !

What an affemblage of other conceptions, different from all thofe hitherto mentioned, has the genius of Virgil combined in one distich!

Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori,
Hic nemus: hic ipfo tecum confumerer ævo.

These observations are fufficient to fhew, how inadequate a notion of the province of Imagination (confidered even in its reference to the fenfible world) is conveyed by the definitions of Mr. Addifon and of Dr. Reid.-But the fenfible world, it must be remembered, is not the only field where Imagination exerts her powers. All the objects of human knowledge supply materials to her forming hand; diversifying infinitely the works fhe produces, while the mode of her operation remains effentially uniform. As it is the fame power of Reasoning which enables us to carry on our investigations with refpect to individual objects, and with refpect to claffes or genera; fo it was by the fame proceffes of Analyfis and Combination, that the genius of Milton produced the Garden of Eden; that of Harrington, the Commonwealth of Oceana; and that of Shakespeare, the characters of

*Thomfon's Summer.

Ii2

Hamlet

Hamlet and Falftaff. The difference between these feveral efforts of invention, confifts only in the manner in which the original materials were acquired; as far as the power of Imagination is concerned, the proceffes are perfectly analogous.

The attempts of Mr. Addifon and of Dr. Reid to limit the province of Imagination to objects of fight, have plainly proceeded from a very important fact, which it may be worth while to illuftrate more particularly;―That the mind has a greater facility, and, of confequence, a greater delight in recalling the perceptions of this fenfe than thofe of any of the others; while, at the fame time, the variety of qualities perceived by it is incomparably greater. It is this fenfe, accordingly, which fupplies the painter and the ftatuary with all the fubjects on which their genius is exercifed; and which furnishes to the defcriptive poet the largest and the most valuable portion of the materials which he combines. In that abfurd fpecies of profe compofition, too, which borders on poetry, nothing is more remarkable than the predominance of phrases that recal to the memory, glaring colours, and thofe fplendid appearances of nature, which make a ftrong impreffion on the eye. It has been mentioned by different writers, as a characteristical circumstance in the Oriental or Afiatic ftyle, that the greater part of the metaphors are taken from the celeftial luminaries. "The Works of the Perfians," (fays M. de Voltaire,)" are like the titles of their kings, in which

we are perpetually dazzled with the fun and the "moon." Sir William Jones, in a fhort Effay on the Poetry of Eaftern Nations, has endeavoured to

fhew,