When the notions of enjoyment or of excellence which imagination has formed, are greatly raised above the ordinary standard, they intereft the paffions too deeply to leave us at all times the cool exercise of reafon, and produce that state of the mind which is commonly known by the name of Enthufiafm; a temper which is one of the most fruitful fources of error and disappointment; but which is a fource, at the fame time, of heroic actions and of exalted characters. To the exaggerated conceptions of eloquence which perpetually revolved in the mind of Cicero; to that idea which haunted his thoughts of aliquid immenfum infinitumque; we are indebted for fome of the moft fplendid displays of human genius: and it is probable that fomething of the fame kind has been felt by every man who has rifen much above the level of humanity, either in fpeculation or in action. It is happy for the individual, when these enthufiaftic defires are directed to events which do not depend on the caprice of fortune. The pleasure we receive from the higher kinds of poetry takes rife, in part, from that diffatisfaction which the objects of imagination inspire us with, for the scenes, the events, and the characters, with which our fenfes are converfant. Tired and difgufted with this world of imperfection, we delight to escape to another of the poet's creation, where the charms of nature wear an eternal bloom, and where fources of enjoyment are opened to us, fuited to the vaft capacities of the human mind. On this natural love of poetical fiction, Lord Bacon has founded a very ingenious argument for the foul's immortality; and, indeed, one of the most important purposes to which it is fubfervient, is to elevate the mind above the pursuits of our prefent condition, and to direct the views to higher objects. In the mean time, it is rendered fubfervient also, in an eminent degree, to the improvement and happiness of mankind, by the tendency which it has to accelerate the progrefs of fociety. As the pictures which the Poet presents to us are never (even in works of pure defcription) faithful copies from nature, but are always meant to be improvements on the original fhe affords, it cannot be doubted that they must have fome effect in refining and exalting our tafte, both with respect to material beauty, and to the objects of our pursuit in life. It has been alleged, that the works of our defcriptive poets have contributed to diffuse that tafte for picturesque beauty, which is fo prevalent in England, and to recal the public admiration from the fantaftic decorations of art, to the more powerful and permanent charms of cultivated nature; and it is certain, that the first ardours of many an illuftrious character have been kindled by the compofitions of Homer and Virgil. It is difficult to fay to what a degree, in the earlier periods of fociety, the rude compofitions of the bard and the minstrel may have been inftrumental in humanizing the minds of favage warriors, and in accelerating the growth of cultivated manners. Among the Scandinavians and the Celta we know that this order of men was held in very peculiar veneration; and, accordingly, it would appear, from the monuments which remain of these nations, that they were diftinguished by a delicacy in the paffion of love, and by a humanity and generosity to the vanquished in war, which feldom appear among barbarous tribes; and with which it is hardly poffible to conceive how men in fuch a state of fociety could have been infpired, but by a feparate clafs of individuals in the community, who devoted themselves to the pacific profeffion of poetry, and to the cultivation of that creative power of the mind, which anticipates the courfe of human affairs; and presents, in prophetic vifion, to the poet and the philofopher, the bleffings which accompany the progrefs of reafon and refinement. Nor muft we omit to mention the important effects of Imagination in multiplying the fources of innocent enjoyment, beyond what this limited scene affords. Not to infift on the nobler efforts of genius, which have rendered this part of our conftitution fubfervient to moral improvement; how much has the sphere of our happiness been extended by those agreeable fictions which introduce us to new worlds, and make us acquainted with new orders of being! What a fund of amufement, through life, is prepared for one who reads, in his childhood, the fables of ancient Greece! They dwell habitually on the memory, and are ready, at all times, to fill up the intervals of business, or of ferious reflection and in his hours of rural retirement and leisure, they warm his mind with the fire of ancient genius, and animate every scene he enters, with the offspring of claffical fancy. It is, however, chiefly in painting future fcenes that Imagination loves to indulge herfelf, and her prophetic dreams are almost always favorable to happiness. By an erroneous education, indeed, it is poffible to render this faculty an inftrument of conftant and of exquifite distress; but in fuch cases (abftracting from the influence of a conftitutional melancholy) the diftreffes of a gloomy imagination are to be ascribed not to nature, but to the force of early impreffions. The common bias of the mind undoubtedly is, (fuch is the benevolent appointment of Providence,) to think favorably of the future; to over-value the chances of poffible good, and to under-rate the risks of poffible evil; and in the cafe of fome fortunate individuals, this difpofition remains after a thoufand disappointments. To what this bias of our nature is owing, it is not material for us to inquire: the fact is certain. and it is an important one to our happiness. It fupports us under the real diftreffes of life, and cheers and animates all our labors and although it is fometimes apt to produce, in a weak and indolent mind, thofe deceitful fuggeftions of ambition and vanity, which lead us to facrifice the duties and the comforts of the prefent moment, to romantic hopes and expectations; yet it must be acknowledged, when connected with habits of activity, and regulated by a folid judgment, to have a favorable effect on the character, by inspiring that ardor and enthusiasm which both prompt to great enterprifes, and are neceffary to enfure their fuccefs. When fuch a temper is united (as it commonly is) with pleafing notions, concerning the order of the univerfe, and in particular concerning the condition and the prospects of man, it places our happiness, in a great measure, beyond the power of fortune. While it adds a double relifh to every enjoyment, it blunts the edge of all our fufferings; and even when human life presents to us no object on which our hopes can reft, it invites the imagination beyond the dark and troubled horizon which terminates all our earthly profpects, to wander unconfined in the regions of futurity. A man of benevolence, whose mind is enlarged by Philofophy, will indulge the fame agreeable anticipations with refpect to fociety; will view all the different improvements in arts, in commerce, and in the fciences, as co-operating to promote the union, the happiness, and the virtue of mankind; and, amidst the political disorders refulting from the prejudices and follies of his own times, will look forward with transport, to the bleffings which are referved for pofterity in a more enlightened age. |