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CHA P. on his mind, and that a confcioufnefs of his inventive powers

VI.

prevented him from taking much pains to treasure them up in his memory. Men of little ingenuity feldom forget the ideas they acquire; because they know that when an occafion occurs for applying their knowledge to use, they must trust to memory, and not to invention. Explain an arithmetical rule to a perfon of common understanding, who is unacquainted with the principles of the science; he will foon get the rule by heart, and become dexterous in the application of it. Another, of more ingenuity, will examine the principle of the rule before he applies it to use, and will fcarcely take the trouble to commit to memory a process, which he knows he can, at any time, with a little reflexion, recover. The confequence will be, that, in the practice of calculation, he will appear more flow and hefitating, than if he followed the received rules of arithmetic without reflexion or reasoning.

SOMETHING of the fame kind happens every day in converfation. By far the greater part of the opinions we announce in it, are not the immediate refult of reafoning on the spot, but have been previously formed in the clofet, or perhaps have been adopted implicitly on the authority of others. The promptitude, therefore, with which a man decides in ordinary dif course, is not a certain teft of the quickness of his apprehension *; as it may perhaps arife from thofe uncommon efforts to furnish the memory with acquired knowledge, by which men of flow

Memoria facit prompti ingenii famam, ut illa quæ dicimus, non domo attuliffe, fed ibi protinus fumpfiffe videamur.

QUINCTIL. Inft. Orat. lib. xi. cap. 2.

parts

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parts endeavour to compenfate for their want of invention; CHAP. while, on the other hand, it is poffible that a consciousness of originality may give rife to a manner apparently embarraffed, by leading the person who feels it, to trust too much to extempore exertions*

IN general, I believe, it may be laid down as a rule, that those who carry about with them a great degree of acquired information, which they have always at command, or who have rendered their own difcoveries fo familiar to them, as always to be in a condition to explain them without recollection, are very feldom poffeffed of much invention, or even of much quickness of apprehenfion. A man of original genius, who is fond of exercifing his reasoning powers anew on every point as it occurs to him, and who cannot fubmit to rehearse the ideas of others, or to repeat by rote the conclufions which he has deduced from previous reflexion, often appears, to fuperficial obfervers, to fall below the level of ordinary underftandings; while another, deftitute both of quicknefs and invention, is admired for that promptitude in his decifions, which arifes from the inferiority of his intellectual abilities.

In the foregoing obfervations it is not meant to be implied, that originality of genius is incompatible with a ready recollection of acquired knowledge; but only that it has a tendency unfavourable to it, and that more time and practice will commonly be neceflary to familiarize the mind of a man of invention to the ideas of others, or even to the conclufions of his own understanding, than are requifite in ordinary cafes. Habits of literary converfation, and, ftill more, habits of extempore discussion in a popular affembly, are peculiarly useful in giving us a ready and practical command of our knowledge. There is much good sense in the following aphorifm of Bacon: "Reading makes a full man, writing a "correct man, and speaking a ready man." See a commentary on this aphorifm in one of the Numbers of the Adventurer.

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CHA P. It must indeed be acknowledged in favour of the last defcription of men, that in ordinary converfation they form the most agreeable, and perhaps the most inftructive, companions. How inexhauftible foever the invention of an individual may be, the variety of his own peculiar ideas can bear no proportion to the whole mafs of useful and curious information of which the world is already poffeffed. The conversation, accordingly, of men of genius, is fometimes extremely limited; and is interesting to the few alone, who know the value, and who can dif tinguifh the marks of originality. In confequence too of that partiality which every man feels for his own fpeculations, they are more in danger of being dogmatical and difputatious, than those who have no fyftem which they are interefted to defend.

THE fame obfervations may be applied to authors. A book which contains the difcoveries of one individual only, may be admired by a few, who are intimately acquainted with the hiftory of the science to which it relates, but it has little chance for popularity with the multitude. An author who poffeffes industry fufficient to collect the ideas of others, and judgment fufficient to arrange them skilfully, is the moft likely perfon to acquire a high degree of literary fame: and although, in the opinion of enlightened judges, invention forms the chief characteristic of genius, yet it commonly happens that the objects of public admiration are men who are much lefs diftinguished by this quality, than by extenfive learning and cultivated taste. Perhaps too, for the multitude, the latter clafs of authors is the most useful; as their writings contain the more folid discoveries which others have brought to light, feparated from thofe errors with which truth is often blended in the firft formation of a fyftem.

CHAPTER SEVENT H.

Of Imagination.

SECTION I

Analyfis of Imagination.

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I HAVE already endeavoured to draw the line between C H A P. Conception and Imagination. 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 selection of qualities and of circumftances, from a variety of different objects, and by combining and difpofing these to form a new creation of its own.

THE operations of Imagination, however, are by no means confined to the materials which Conception furnishes; but may be equally employed about all the different fubjects of our knowledge. As it is the fame power of Reasoning which enables us to carry on our investigations with refpect to individual objects, and with respect to claffes or genera; so it was by the same proceffes of analysis and combination, that the genius of Mil

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CHA P. ton produced the Garden of Eden; that of Harrington, the Commonwealth of Oceana; and that of Shakespeare, the Characters of Hamlet and Falstaff. The difference between these several efforts of genius, confifts only in the manner in which the original materials were acquired: fo far as the power of Imagination is concerned, the proceffes are perfectly analogous.

To all these various modes in which Imagination may display itself, the greater part of the remarks contained in this chapter will be found to apply, under proper limitations; but in order to render the subject more obvious to the reader's examination, I fhall, in the farther profecution of it, endeavour to convey my ideas, rather by means of particular examples, than in the form of general principles; leaving it to his own judgment to determine, with what modifications the conclufions to which we are led, may be extended to other combinations of circumftances.

AMONG the innumerable illuftrations which this extenfive fubject presents to our choice, the combinations which the mind forms out of materials fupplied by the power of Conception, recommend themselves ftrongly, both by their fimplicity, and by the interesting nature of the difcuffions to which they lead. Of these materials, a very large proportion have been originally collected by the sense of fight; a fenfe which introduces a much greater variety of pleasures to the mind, than any of the others; and the perceptions of which, the mind has, upon that account, a peculiar enjoyment in recalling. It is this fenfe, accordingly, which, in the first instance, fupplies the painter and the ftatuary,

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