LETTER X.

IMAGINATION AND TASTE.

nagination defined.---Necessity of its operations being guided by judgment.-Illustrations.-Definition of taste.---Mistakes concerning the cultivation of this faculty.---Unionof conception and judgment essential to its cultivation.--Illustrations.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

THE necessity I feel myself under of com. pressing into the limits of a single letter the ob servations that occur to me on the subjects of imagination and taste, will compel me to be concise; I shall, however, endeavour to be as little obscure as possible.

The word imagination has great latitude in its application. It is sometimes employed to de note simple apprehension; it being very usual in common conversation to say that we cannot imagine how such a thing could happen, when we mean, that we cannot conceive it. In this sense, you will observe, that I have carefully avoided employing it. It is sometimes likewise applied in a general way, to express the operation of the mind in thinking; and in this incorrect way of speaking, we frequently observe, that a thing occupies the imagination, when, in reality it is the subject of reflection.

Again; the term imagination is sometimes made use of in describing the intellectual pleasures and pursuits, in contra-distinction to those

of sense. In this way it is applied by D Akenside, whose poem on the Pleasures e Imagination describes the employment of a intellectual faculties.

By imagination, in the sense to which I confined myself, is understood that power o mind, which is exerted in forming new comb tions of ideas. The power of calling up at p sure any particular class of ideas is properly nominated fancy. A creative imagination plies not only the power of fancy, but judgme abstraction, and taste. Where these are wantin the flights of imagination are little better than t ravings of a lunatic.

From the nature of this faculty, it is obviou that it can be exercised but in a very slight degra in childhood, the ideas being at that period to few in number to afford materials for new comb. nations; or should the attempt at forming them be made, they must, from want of taste and judg ment, be weak and imperfect. But long before the mind can combine for itself, the conceptions are sufficiently vigorous to enter with avidity into the combinations made by others. If these are so artfully contrived as to interest the passions, or to excite the emotions of terror, hope, indig. nation, or sympathy, they become the most plea sing exercises of the juvenile mind; but if this exercise be frequently repeated, it will infallibly produce trains of thought, highly unfavourable to the cultivation of those important faculties, without whose aid the creative power of imagination can never be exerted to any useful purpose.

While the mind is occupied in making obser

vations on the nature and properties of the objects of sense, its train of thought is merely a series of simple conceptions; but these conceptions are the materials with which imagination is at a proper time to work. On these conceptions too, does judgment begin its operations; by these, is it exercised into strength; and by such exercise alone it is, that it can ever attain perfection. These operations are, as I suspect, greatly retarded, and in some instances utterly prevented, by a premature disposition to make attempts at combination; the inevitable consequence of having the mind powerfully impressed by interesting fictions. After every such impression, the train of thought flows for a considerable time in the same channel with the emotion that has been excited and before judgment has attained the capability of directing its combinations, the images that are formed must of necessity be wild and incoherent. However incoherent they may be, they have such a tendency to increase the flow of ideas, and of consequence, to augment vivacity, that such children appear to much greater advantage, than those whose faculties are cultivated in the natural order. But when both arrive at maturity, they who have laid in the greatest fund of clear, distinct, and accurate ideas, must possess a a manifest advantage.

Were imagination (as is unfortunately too often supposed,) a simple faculty, which could be exercised to advantage without the assistance of the other faculties, the methods usually taken to cultivate it would be judicious and effectual. But if it be in fact a compound of several other facul

ties, it necessarily follows, that its excellence de pends on the degree of perfection, to which the faculties connected with it have arrived. The Iliad of Homer is a work of imagination; it exhibits a series of combinations, perhaps more as tonishing in their variety, harmony, and consistency, that any that human genius has ever produced; but does it not in every line give a proof of clear and vigorous conceptions, of strong judgment, and profound reflection? When our own Shakspeare, whose elevated genius

"Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new,"

pourtrayed the character of Caliban, (who is cer tainly a creature of the poet's imagination) did not judgment evidently guide the pencil, and lay on the colours? From the incomparable productions of these extraordinary men, we may justly infer, that all the faculties of the mind were by them possessed in an uncommon degree of vigour, and therefore conclude them to have been cultivated according to the order assigned by na

ture.

In a living author, whose remote situation will apologize for a comparison which would otherwise seem invidious, we see a still further proof of our argument. In the power of imagination, (taken according to its simple definition) it is probable, that Kotzebue does not yield to either of the poets above-mentioned. But what are the combinations which his genius has produced? I have no intention of turning critic, and there. fore shall decline answering the question, but

think it not out of my province to observe, that if a deficiency in the powers of accurate conception and sound judgment are laid to his charge, he has given us a clue to lead to the cause of this deficiency in his memoirs, where he describes his mother having, while he was yet a child, assiduously cultivated his imagination by the powerful emotions excited by romantic fiction. He tells us," she was a woman of sensibility, and delighted in inspiring him with a taste for works of imagination, of which he soon grew enthusiastically fond." Of old Mrs. Shakspeare we know nothing; but from the sound judgment exhibited in the works of her son, I think the probability is, that instead of being a woman of sensibility (in the sense Kotzebue employs the term) she was a woman of plain good sense.

To produce a work of genius, the power of imagination must be possessed in a very eminent degree; but unless a certain portion of the same imagination be possessed by the reader, the works of genius will never be perused with delight. Nothing can be relished but in proportion as it is understood; and thoroughly to understand an author, we must be able, with the rapidity of thought, to enter into all his associations. This can never be done by those who possess a very limited stock of ideas. The beautiful allusions which at once illustrate and adorn the works of the learned, are lost upon those who are unacquainted with classical literature; and we may be assured, that many of the beauties of the ancient orators and poets, are in like manner lost upon the learned