VII.

CHAP. to the ordinary fhare of mankind, it may compenfate in fome measure for a deficiency in the other. An uncommonly correct tafte, with little imagination, if it does not produce works which excite admiration, produces at least 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 these 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 result of experiments, which nothing but the imagination of every individual can enable him to make. Such a taste must 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 progrefs 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 study of the works of others; and, as formerly imagination had ferved as a neceffary foundation for tafte, fo tafte begins now to invade the province of imaginaThe 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 felection, that with a high standard of excellence, continually prefent

tion.

to

VII.

to the thoughts, induftry, affifted by the moft moderate degree CHAP. 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 together in one piece, those beauties, which are difperfed amongst a great variety of individuals, produces a figure more beautiful than can be found in nature; fo that "artist who can unite in himself the excellencies of the various "painters, will approach nearer to perfection than any of his "masters *."

SECTION IV.

Of the Influence of Imagination on Human Character and

Happiness.

ITHERTO we have confidered the power of Imagination

HITHE

chiefly as it is connected with the Fine Arts. But it deferves our attention ftill more, on account of its extensive 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 prefent perceptions:

VII.

CHAP. and the cafe is nearly the fame with the inferior orders of our own fpecies. One 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 pleafure, to those intellectual combinations which delight the imagination. Even, however, among men of cultivated underftandings, this faculty is poffeffed in very unequal degrees by different individuals; and thefe differences (whether refulting from original conflitution or from early education) lay the foundation of fome ftriking 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 diftrefs;-a man, for example, reduced by miffortune from easy 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 domestic diftreffes. He liftens to their converfation, while they recal to remembrance the flattering profpects which 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 the 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 roused his imagination; and the obfervation is undoubtedly true; but

VII.

it is equally evident, on the other hand, that the warmth of his CHA P. 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 ftate prisons 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 away with "long expectation and confinement, and felt what kind of fick"nefs of the heart it is, which arifes from hope deferred. Upon looking nearer, I faw him pale and feverish : in thirty 66 years the western breeze had not once fanned his blood: he "had feen 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 another part of the portrait.

"HE was fitting upon the ground, in the farthest corner of "his dungeon, on a little ftraw, which was alternately his chair "and bed a little calender of finall fticks was laid at the head, "notched all over with the difinal days and nights he had paffed. "there he had one of thefe little flicks in his hand, and "with a rusty nail he was etching another day of misery to add

66

to the heap. As I darkened the little light he had, he lifted.

up a hopeless eye towards the door, then caft it down-hook

"his head, and went on with his work of affliction."

THE

CHA P.
VII.

THE foregoing obfervations may account, in part, for the effect which exhibitions of fictitious diftrefs produce on fome perfons, who do not difcover 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 respect 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 increases 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 fcenes 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 miffortunes which happen to ourselves, or to our near connexions, neither of these powers is neceffary to make us acquainted with our fituation; fo that we feel, of neceffity, the correspondent emotions. But without an uncommon degree of both, it is impoffible