who ftudy to improve it by the observation and comparison of external objects only.

A cultivated Tafte, combined with a creative Imagination, conftitutes Genius in the Fine Arts. Without tafte, imagination could produce only a random analysis and combination of our conceptions; and without imagination, tafte would be deftitute of the faculty of invention. These two ingredients of genius may be mixed together in all poffible proportions; and where either is poffeffed in a degree remarkably exceeding what falls to the ordinary fhare of mankind, it may compenfate in fome meafure for a deficiency in the other. An uncommonly correct taste, with little imagination, if it does not produce works which excite admiration, produces at leaft nothing which can offend. An uncommon fertility of imagination, even when it offends, excites our wonder by its creative power; and fhews what it could have performed, had its exertions been guided by a more perfect model.

In the infancy of the Arts, an union of thefe two powers in the fame mind is neceffary for the production of every work of genius. Tafte, without imagination, is, in fuch a fituation, impoffible; for, as there are no monuments of antient genius on which it can be formed, it must be the refult of experiments, which nothing but the imagination of every individual can enable him to make. Such a tafte muft neceffarily be imperfect, in confequence of the limited experience of which it is the refult; but, without imagination, it could not have been acquired even in this imperfect degree.

In the progress of the Arts the cafe comes to be altered. The productions of genius accumulate to fuch an extent, that tafte may be formed by a careful ftudy of the works of others; and as formerly imagination had ferved as a neceflary foundation for tafte, so taste begins now to invade the province of

imagination. The combinations which the latter. faculty has been employed in making, during a long fucceffion of ages, approach to infinity; and present fuch ample materials to a judicious selection, that with a high standard of excellence, continually pre, fent to the thoughts, industry, affifted by the most moderate degree of imagination, will, in time, produce performances, not only more free from faults, but incomparably more powerful in their effects, than the most original efforts of untutored genius, which, guided by an uncultivated tafte, copies after an inferior model of perfection. What Reynolds obferves of Painting, may be applied to all the other Fine Arts; that," as the Painter, by bringing togeth "er in one piece, those beauties, which are dispersed amongst a great variety of individuals, produces a figure more beautiful than can be found in nature; "fo that artift who can unite in himself the excel"lencies of the various painters, will approach near"er to perfection than any of his mafters."*

66

SECTION IV.

Of the Influence of Imagination on Human Character and Happiness.

HITHERTO we have confidered the power of Imagination chiefly as it is connected with the Fine Arts. But it deferves our attention ftill more, on account of its extenfive influence on human character and happiness.

The lower animals, as far as we are able to judge, are entirely occupied with the objects of their pref ent perceptions: and the cafe is nearly the fame with the inferior orders of our own fpecies. One

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of the principal effects which a liberal education produces on the mind, is to accuftom us to withdraw our attention from the objects of fenfe, and to direct it, at pleasure, to thofe intellectual combinations which delight the imagination. Even, however, among men of cultivated understandings, this faculty is poffeffed in very unequal degrees by different individuals; and thefe differences (whether refulting from original conftitution or from early education) lay the foundation of some striking varieties in human character.

What we commonly call fenfibility, depends, in a great measure, on the power of imagination. Point out to two men, any object of compaffion ;-a man, for example, reduced by misfortune from eafy circumftances to indigence. The one feels merely in proportion to what he perceives by his fenfes. The other follows, in imagination, the unfortunate man to his dwelling, and partakes with him and his family in their domeftic diftreffes. He liftens to their converfation, while they recal to remembrance the flattering profpects they once indulged; the circle of friends they had been forced to leave; the liberal plans of education which were begun and interrupted; and pictures out to himself all the various refources which delicacy and pride fuggeft, to conceal poverty from the world. As he proceeds in painting, his fenfibility increases, and he weeps, not for what he fees, but for what he imagines. It will be faid, that it was his fenfibility which originally roufed his imagination; and the observation is undoubtedly true; but it is equally evident, on the other hand, that the warmth of his imagination increases and prolongs his fenfibility.

This is beautifully illuftrated in the Sentimental Journey of Sterne. While engaged in a train of reflections on the State Prifons in France, the accidental fight of a starling in a cage fuggefts to him the

idea of a captive in his dungeon. He indulges his imagination," and looks through the twilight of the "grated door to take the picture."

"I beheld," (fays he,) "his body half-wafted a"way with long expectation and confinement, and "felt what kind of fickness of the heart it is, which "arifes from hope deferred. Upon looking nearer, "I faw him pale and feverish; in thirty years the "western breeze had not once fanned his blood: he "had seen no fun, no moon, in all that time, nor had "the voice of friend or kinfman breathed through "his lattice.His children-But here my heart began to bleed, and I was forced to go on with an"other part of the portrait.

"He was fitting upon the ground, in the fartheft "corner of his dungeon, on a little ftraw, which "was alternately his chair and bed: a little calen"der of finall fticks was laid at the head, notched all "over with the difmal days and nights he had paf

fed there:-he had one of these little fticks in his “hand and with a rusty nail he was etching another "day of misery to add to the heap. As I darkened "the little light he had, he lifted up a hopeless eye "towards the door, then caft it down-fhook his "head, and went on with his work of affliction."

The foregoing obfervations may account, in part, for the effect which exhibitions of fictitious diftrefs produce on fome perfons, who do not discover much fenfibility to the diftreffes of real life. In a Novel, or a Tragedy, the picture is completely finished in all its parts; and we are made acquainted not only with every circumftance on which the diftrefs turns, but with the fentiments and feelings of every character with refpect to his fituation. In real life we fee, in general, only detached fcenes of the Tragedy; and the impreffion is flight, unless imagination finishes the characters, and fupplies the incidents that are wanting.

It is not only to fcenes of diftrefs that imagination increafes our fenfibility. It gives us a double fhare in the profperity of others, and enables us to partake, with a more lively intereft, in every fortunate incident that occurs either to individuals or to communities. Even from the productions of the earth, and the viciffitudes of the year, it carries forward our thoughts to the enjoyments they bring to the fenfitive creation, and by interefting our benevolent affections in the scenes we behold, lends a new charm to the beauties of nature.

I have often been inclined to think that the apparent coldness and selfishness of mankind may be traced, in a great measure, to a want of attention and a want of imagination. In the cafe of misfortunes which happen to ourselves, or to our near connections, neither of these powers is necessary to make us acquainted with our fituation; fo that we feel, of neceffity, the correfpondent emotions. But without an uncommon degree of both, it is impoffible for any man to comprehend completely the fituation of his neighbor, or to have an idea of a great part of the diftrefs which exifts in the world. If we feel therefore more for ourselves than for others, the difference is to be ascribed, at least partly, to this; that, in the former cafe, the facts which are the foundation of our feelings, are more fully before us than they poffibly can be in the latter.

In order to prevent misapprehenfions of my meaning, it is necessary for me to add, that I do not mean to deny that it is a law of our nature, in cases in which there is an interference between our own intereft and that of other men, to give a certain degree of preference to ourselves; even fuppofing our neighbor's fituation to be as completely known to us as our own. I only affirm, that, where this preference becomes blameable and unjuft, the effect is to