that are each of them attended with a different set of planets, and fill difcover new firmaments and new lights that are funk farther in thofe unfathomable depths of æther, fo as not to be feen by the ftrongest of our telescopes, we are loft in fuch a labyrinth of funs and worlds, and confounded with the immenfity and magnificence of nature.

Nothing is more pleafant to the fancy, than to enlarge itfelt by degrees, in its contemplation of the various proportions which its feveral objects bear to each other, when it compares the body of man to the bulk of the whole earth, the earth to the circle it defcribes round the fun, that circle to the fphere of the fixed ftars, the fphere of the fixed ftars to the circuit of the whole creation, the whole creation itfelf to the infinite fpace that is every where diffused about it; or when the imagination works downward and confiders the bulk of a human body in respect of an animal a hundred times lefs than a mite, the particular limbs of fuch an animal, the different fprings which actuate the limbs, the fpirits which fet the fprings a going, and the proportionable minutenefs of thefe feveral parts, before they have arrived at their full growth and perfection: but if, after all this, we take the leaft particle of thefe animal fpirits, and confider its capacity of being wrought into a world that hall contain within thofe narrow dinienfions a heaven and earth, ftars and planets and every different fpecies of living creatures, in the fame analogy and proportion they bear to each other in our own univerfe; fuch a fpeculation, by reafon of its nicety, appears ridiculous to thofe who have not turned their thoughts that way, though at the fame time it is founded on no less than the evidence of a demonftration. Nay, we may yet carry it farther, and difcover in the fmalleft particle of this little world a new inexhaufted fund of matter, capable of being spun out into another universe.

it

I have dwelt the longer on this fubject, because I think may fhew us the proper limits, as well as the defectiveness of our imagination; how it is confined to a very finall quantity of space, and immediately stopt in its operations, when it endeavours to take in any thing that is very great or very little. Let a man try to con

ceive the different bulk of an animal, which is twenty, from another which is an hundred times lefs than a mite, or to compare in his thoughts a length of a thoufand diameters of the earth, with that of a million, and he will quickly find that he has no different measures in his mind adjusted to fuch extraordinary degrees of grandeur or minutenefs. The understanding, indeed, opens an infinite fpace on every fide of us, but the imagination, after a few faint efforts, is immediately at a ftand, and finds herself swallowed up in the immenfity of the void that furrounds it. Our reafon can purfue a particle of matter through an infinite variety of divifions, but the fancy foon lofes fight of it, and feels in itself a kind of chafin, that wants to be filled with matter of a more fenfible bulk. We can neither widen nor contract the faculty to the dimensions of either extreme. The object is too big for our capacity, when we would comprehend the circumference of a world, and dwindles into nothing when we endeavour after the idea of an atom.

It is poffible this defect of imagination may not be in the foul itfelf, but as it acts in conjunction with the body. Perhaps there may not be room in the brain for fuch a variety of impreffions or the animal fpirits may be incapable of figuring them in fuch a manner, as is neceffary to excite fo very large or very minute ideas.

How

ever it be, we may well fuppofe that beings of a higher nature very much excel us in this refpect, as it is prohable the foul of man will be infinitely more perfect hereafter in this faculty, as well as in all the reft; infomuch that, perhaps, the imagination will be able to keep peace with the understanding, and to form in itfelf diftinét ideas of all the different modes and quantities of fpace.

0.

N° 421.

Thursday, July 3.

Ignotis errare locis, ignota videre

Flumina gaudebat ; ftudio minuente laborem.

OVID. Met. 1. 4. v. 294.

He fought fresh fountains in a foreign foil ;
The pleafure leffen'd the attending toil.

ADDISON.

THE pleafures of the imagination are not wholly

confined to fuch particular authors as are converfant in material objects, but are often to be met with among the polite mafters of morality, criticifin, and other fpeculations abftracted from matter, who, though they do not directly treat of the vifible parts of nature, often draw from them their fimilitudes, metaphors, and allegories. By thefe allufions a truth in the understanding is as it were reflected by the imagination; we are able to fee fomething like colour and fhape in a notion, ard to discover a fcheme of thoughts traced out upon matter. And here the mind receives a great deal of fatisfaction, and has two of his faculties gratified at the fame time, while the fancy is bufy in copying after the understanding, and tranfcribing ideas out of the intellectual world into the material.

The great art of a writer fhews itself in the choice of pleafing allufions, which are generally to be taken from the great or beautiful works of art or nature; for though whatever is new or uncommon is apt to delight the imagination, the chief defign of an allufion being to illuftrate. and explain the paffages of an author, it should be always borrowed from what is more known and common, than the paffages which are to be explained..

Allegories, when well chofen, are like fo many tracks of light in a difcourfe, that make every thing about them clear and beautiful. A noble metaphor,

when it is placed to an advantage, cafts a kind of glory round it, and darts a luftre through a whole fentence. Thefe different kinds of allufion are but fo many different manners of fimilitude, and that they may please the imagination, the likeness ought to be very exact, or very agreeable, as we love to fee a picture where the refemblarce is juft, or the pofture and air graceful. But we often find eminent writers very faulty in this refpect; great scholars are apt to fetch their comparifors and allufions from the fciences in which they are most converfant, fo that a man may see the compafs of their learning in a treatise on the most ind fferent subject. I have read a difcourfe upon love, which none but a profound chymift could understand, and have heard many a fermon that fhould only have been preached before a congregation of Cartefians. On the contrary, your men of business usually have recourfe to fuch inftances as are too mean and familiar. They are for drawing the reader into a game of chefs or tennis, or for leading hin from shop to fhop in the cant of particular trades and employments. It is certain, there may be found an infinite variety of very agreeable allufions in both these kinds, but for the generality, the most entertaining ores lie in the works of nature, which are obvious to all capacities, and more delightful than what is to be found in arts and sciences.

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It is this talent of affecting the imagination that gives an embellishment to good fenfe, and makes one man's compofition more agreeable than another's. It fets off all writings in general, but is the very life and highest perfection of poetry; where it fhines in an eminent degree, it has preferved feveral poems for many ages, that have nothing elfe to recommend them and where all the other beauties are prefent the work appears dry and infipid, if this fing'e one be wanting. It has fomething in it like creation; it beftows a kind of existence, and draws up to the reader's view feveral objects which are not to be found in being. It makes additions to nature, and gives greater variety to God's works. In a word, it is able to beautify and adorn the moft illuftrious fcenes in the univerfe, or to fill the mind with more

glorious fhows and apparitions, than can be found in any part of it.

We have now difcovered the feveral originals of those 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 distaste 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 difinal ideas, and terrified with a thoufand hideous monsters of its own framing.

Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus,
Et folem geminum, & duplices fe oftendere Thebas:
Aut Agamemnonius fcenis agitatus Qreftes,
Armatam facitus matrem & ferpentibus atris
Cùm fugit, ultricefque fedent in limine Diræ.

VIRG. Æn. 4. v. 469.

Like Pentheus, when distracted with his fear,
He faw two funs, and double Thebes appear:
Or mad Oreftes, when his mother's ghoft
Full in his face infernal torches toft,

And fhook her fnaky locks: he fhuns the fight,
Flies o'er the stage, furpris'd with mortal fright;
The furies guard the door, and intercept his flight.
DRYDEN.

There is not a fight in nature fo mortifying as that of a diftracted perfon, 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 meafure 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 eafe he conveys into it a variety of imagery; how great a power then may we fuppofe lodged in him, who knows all the ways of affecting the imagiration, who can infufe what