In the progress of the Arts the cafe comes to be altered. The productions of genius accumulate to fuch an extent, that taste may be formed by a careful ftudy of the works of others; and, as formerly ima gination had ferved as a neceffary foundation for taste, fo tafte 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 prefent fuch ample materials to a judicious felection, that with a high standard of excellence, continually present to the thoughts, induftry, affifted by the most moderate degree of imagination, will, in time, produce performances, not only more free from faults, but incompa rably more powerful in their effects, than the most original efforts of untutored genius, which, guided by an uncultivated taste, 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 va"riety of individuals, produces a figure more beau"tiful 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 *."

* P. 226.

SECTION IV.

Of the Influence of Imagination on Human Character and Happiness.

H

ITHERTO 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 prefent perceptions and the cafe is nearly the fame with the inferior orders of our own fpecies. One of the prin cipal 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 those 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 these 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

511 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 prospects 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 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 away "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 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

66

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 "fmall sticks was laid at the head, notched all over "with the difinal days and nights he had paffed "there:-he had one of thefe little fticks in his hand "and with a rusty nail he was etching another day of mifery 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-hook 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 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 circumstance 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 im preffion is flight, unless imagination finishes the cha racters, 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

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 coldnefs and felfishness 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 ourfelves, or to our near connexions, neither of thefe powers is neceffary 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 neighbour, 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 afcribed, 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 misapprehensions of my meaning, it is neceffary for me to add, that I do not mean to deny that it is a law of our nature, in cafes 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 neighbour's fituation to be as completely known to us as our own. I only affirm, that, where this preference becomes blameable and unjust, the effect is to be accounted for partly in the way I mentioned *. One striking proof of this is,

* I say partly; for habits of inattention to the fituation of other men, undoubtedly prefuppofe fome defect in the focial affections.