glorious fhows and apparitions, than can be found in any part of it. We have now difcovered the feveral originals of thofe pleasures that gratify the fancy; and here, perhaps, it would not be very difficult to caft under their proper heads thofe contrary objects, which are apt to fill it with diftafte and terror; for the imagination is as liable to pain as pleasure. When the brain is hurt by any accident, or the mind difordered by dreams or fickness, the fancy is over-run with wild dismal ideas, and terrified with a thousand hideous monfters of its own framing. Eumenidum veluti demens vidét agmina Pentheus, Virg. Æn. 4. v. 469. Like Pentheus, when, distracted with his fear, And shook her fnaky locks: he fhuns the fight, There is not a fight in nature fo mortifying as that of a diftracted person, when his imagination is troubled, and his whole foul difordered and confused. Babylon in ruins is not fo melancholy a fpectacle. But to quit fo difagreeable a fubject, I fhall only confider by way of conclufion, what an infinite advantage this faculty gives an almighty Being over the foul of man, and how great a measure of happiness or mifery we are capable of receiving from the imagination only. We have already feen the influence that one man has over the fancy of another, and with what ease he conveys into it a variety of imagery; how great a power then may we fuppofe lodged in him, who knows al the ways of affecting the imagination, who can infufe what ideas he pleafes, and fill thofe ideas with terror and delight to what degree he thinks fit? He can excite images in the mind without the help of words, and make fcenes rife up before us and feem prefent to the eye without the affiftance of bodies or exterior objects. He can tranfport the imagination with fuch beautiful and glorious vifions, as cannot poffibly enter into our prefent conceptions, or haunt it with fuch ghaftly spectres and apparitions, as would make us hope for annihilation, and think existence no better than a curfe. In short, he can fo exquifitely ravish or torture the foul through this fingle faculty, as might fuffice to make the whole heaven or hell of any finite being. This effay on the Pleasures of the imagination having been published in feparate papers, I fhall conclude it with a table of the principal contents of each paper. T The CONTENTS. PAPER I. HE perfection of our fight above our other fenfes. The Pleafures of the imagination arife originally from fight. The pleasures of the imagination divided under two heads. The pleasures of the imagination in fome respects equal to thofe of the understanding. The extent of the pleaJures of the imagination. The advantages a man receives from a relish of thefe pleasures. In what refpect they are preferable to those of the understanding. PAPER II. Three fources of all the pleasures of the imagina· nation, in our Survey of outward objects. How what is great pleases the imagination. How what is new pleafes the imagination. How what is beautiful in our own fpecies pleafes the imagination. How what is beautiful in general pleases the imagination. What other accidental caufes may contribute to the heightning of these pleasures. PAPER JII. Why the neceffary cause of our being pleafed with what is great, new, or beautiful, unknown. Why the E 4 final final caufe more known and more useful. The final caufe of our being pleafed with what is great. of our being pleafed with what is new. of our being pleafed with what is beautiful in our own fpecies. The final caufe of our being pleafed with what is beautiful in general. PAPER IV. The works of nature more pleasant to the imagination than those of art. The works of nature fill more pleafant, the more they resemble thofe of art. The works of art more pleasant, the more they resemble thofe of nature. Our English plantations and gardens confidered in the foregoing light. PAPER V. Of architecture, as it affects the imagination. Greatnefs in architecture relates either to the bulk or to the manner. Greatness of bulk in the ancient oriental buildings. The ancient accounts of thefe buildings confirm'd, 1. From the advantages for raifing fuch works, in the first ages of the world, and in the eastern climates: 2. From Jeveral of them which are fill extant. Inftances how greatness of manner affects the imagination. A French author's obervation on this fubject. Why concave and convex figures give a greatness of manner to works of architecture. Every thing that pleafes the imagination in architecture is either great, beautiful, or new. PAPER VI. The fecondary pleafures of the imagination. The ferveral fources of th je pl'afures, (ftatuary, painting, defcription and mufic) compared together. The final caufe of our receiving pleasure from thefe feveral fources. Of descriptions in particular. The power of words over the imagination by one reader more pleafed with defcriptions than another. PAPER VII. How a while fet of ideas hang together, &c. A natural caufe agred for it. How to perfect the imagina tion of a writer. Who among the ancient poets had this faculty in its greatest perfection. Homer excelled in ima gining what is great; Virgil in imagining what is beautiful; Ovid in imagining what is new. Our own countryman Milton very perfect in all these three refpects. PAPER VIII. Why any thing that is unpleasant to behold, pleafes the imagination when well defcribed. Why the imagination receives a more exquifite pleasure from the defcription of what is great, new, or beautiful. The pleasure fill heightened. if what is defcribed rafes palion in the mind. Difagreeable paffions pleafing when raised by apt defcriptions. Why terror and grief are pleafing to the mind when excited by defcription. A particular advantage the writers in poetry and fiction have to please the imagination. What liberties are allowed them. PAPER IX. Of that kind of poetry which Mr. Dryden calls the fairy way of writing. How a poet frould be qualified for it. The pleafures of the imagination that arife from: it. In this repect why the moderns excel the ancients. Why the English excel the moderns. Who the best among the English. Of emblematical perfons. PAPER X. What authors please the imagination. Who have nothing to do with fiction. How hiftory pleafes the imagi nation How the authors of the new philofophy pleafe the imagination. The bounds and defects of the imagination. Whether thefe defects are effential to the imagination. PAPER XI. How thofe pleafe the imagination, who treat of fubjects abftract from matter, by allufiors taken from it, "What allufions most pleafing to the imagination. Great writers how faulty in this respect. Of the art of imagin ing in general. The imagination capable of pain as well as pleajure. In what degree the imagination is capable eitber of pain or pleasure. Friday, Hæc fcripfi non otii abundantiâ, fed ameris erga te. Tul!. Epift. Have written this, not out of abundance of leifure, but of my affection towards you. I to Do not know any thing which gives greater difturbance to converfation, than the falfe notion which people have of rallery. It ought certainly to be the first point to be aimed at in fociety, to gain the good. will of those with whom you converfe. The way that, is to fhew you are well inclined towards them; what then can be more abfurd, than to set up for being extremely fharp and biting, as the term is, in your expreffions to your familiars? A man who has no good quality but courage, is in a very ill way towards making an agreeable figure in the world, because that which he has fuperior to other people cannot be exerted, without raifing himself an enemy. Your gentleman of a fatirical vein is in the like condition. To fay a thing which perplexes the heart of him you speak to, or brings blushes into his face, is a degree of murder; and it is, I think, an unpardonable offence to fhew a man you do not care, whether he is pleased or displeased. But won't you then take a jeft? Yes : but pray let it be a jeft. It is no jest to put me, who am fo unhappy as to have an utter averfion to fpeaking to more than one man at a time, under a neceffity to explain myfelf in much company, and reducing me to shame and derifion, except I perform what my infirmity of filence difables me to do. Callifthenes has great wit, accompanied with that quality, without which a man can have no wit at all, a found judgment. This gentleman rallies the beft of any man I know, for he forms his ridicule upon a circumftance which vou are in vour heart not unwil |