IDEA, THOUGHT, IMAGINATION.

Idea, in Latin idea, Greek idéa, signifies the form or image of an object, from eidéw to see, that is, the thing seen in the mind. Thought literally signifies the thing thought, and imagination the thing imagined.

The idea is the simple representation of an object; the thought is the reflection; and the imagination is the combination of ideas: we have ideas of the sun, the moon, and all material objects; we have thoughts on moral subjects; we have imaginations drawn from the ideas already existing in the mind. The ideas are formed; they are the rude materials with which the thinking faculty exerts itself: the thoughts arise in the mind by means of association, or recur in the mind by the power of the memory; they are the materials with which the thinking faculty employs itself: the imaginations are created by the mind's reaction on itself; they are the materials with which the understanding seeks to enrich itself.

The word idea is not only the most general in sense, but the most universal in application; thought and imagination are particular terms used only in connexion with the agent thinking or imagining. All these words have therefore a distinct office, in which they cannot properly be confounded with each other. Idea is used in all cases for the mental representation, abstractedly from the agent that represents them : hence ideas are either clear or distinct; ideas are attached to words; ideas are analyzed, confounded, and the like; in which cases the word thought could not be substituted; Every one finds that many of the ideas which he desired to retain have slipped away irretrievably.' JOHNSON. The thought belongs only to thinking and rational beings: the brutes may be said to have ideas, but not thoughts: hence thoughts are either mean, fine, grovelling, or sublime, according to the nature of the mind in which they exist:

The warring passions, and tumultuous thoughts
That rage within thee! RowE.

Hence we say with more propriety, to indulge a thought, than to indulge an idea; to express one's thoughts, rather than one's ideas, on any subject: although the latter term idea, on account of its comprehensive use, may without violation of any express rule be indifferently employed in general discourse for thought; but the former term does not on this account lose its characteristic meaning.

The imagination is not only the fruit of thought, but of peculiar thought: the thought may be another's; the imagination is one's own: the thought occurs and recurs; it comes and it goes; it is retained or rejected at the pleasure of the thinking being: the imagination is framed by special desire; it is cherished with the partiality of a parent for its offspring. The thoughts are busied with the surrounding objects; the imaginations are employed on distant and strange objects: hence the thoughts are denominated

sober, chaste, and the like; the imaginations, wild and extravagant. The thoughts engage the mind as circumstances give rise to them; they are always supposed to have a foundation in some thing: the imaginations, on the other hand, are often the mere fruit of a disordered brain; they are always regarded as unsubstantial, if not unreal; they frequently owe their origin to the suggestions of the appetites and passions; whence they are termed the imaginations of the heart: 'Different climates produce in men by a different mixture of the humours, a different and unequal course of imaginations and passions.' TEMPLE.

IDEAL, IMAGINARY.

Ideal does not strictly adhere to the sense of its primitive idea (v. Idea): the idea is the representation of a real object in the mind; but ideal signifies belonging to the idea independant of the reality or the external object. Imaginary preserves the signification of its primitive imagination (v. Fancy, also v. Idea), as denoting what is created by the mind itself.

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The ideal is not directly opposed to, but abstracted from the reality; There is not, perhaps, in all the stores of ideal anguish, a thought more painful than the consciousness of having propagated corruption." JOHNSON. The imaginary, on the other hand, is directly opposed to the reality; it is the unreal thing formed by the imagination; Superior beings know well the vanity of those imaginary perfections that swell the heart of man.' ADDISON. Ideal happiness is the happiness which is formed in the mind, without having any direct and actual prototype in nature; but it may, nevertheless, be something possible to be realised; it may be above nature, but not in direct contradiction to it: the imaginary is that which is opposite to some positive existing reality; the pleasure which a lunatic derives from the conceit of being a king is altogether imaginary.

INHERENT, INBRED, INBORN, INNATE.

The inherent, from hæreo to stick, denotes a permanent quality or property, as opposed to that which is adventitious and transitory. Inbred denotes that property which is derived principally from habit or by a gradual process, as opposed to the one acquired by actual efforts. Inborn denotes that which is purely natural, in opposition to the artificial. Inherent is in its sense the most general; for what is inbred and inborn is naturally inherent; but all is not inbred and inborn which is inherent. Inanimate objects have inherent properties; but the inbred and inborn exist only in that which receives life; solidity is an inherent, but not an inbred or inborn property of matter: a love of truth is an inborn property of

the human mind; it is consequently inherent, in as much as nothing can totally destroy it;

When my new mind had no infusion known,
Thou gav'st so deep a tincture of thine own,
That ever since I vainly try

To wash away th' inherent dye. CoWLEY. That which is inbred is bred or nurtured in us from our birth; hence, likewise, the properties of animals are inbred in them, in as much as they are derived through the medium of the breed of which the parent partakes ; that which is inborn is simply born in us: a property may be inborn, but not inbred; it cannot, however, be inbred and not inborn. Habits which are ingrafted into the natural disposition are properly inbred; whence the vulgar proverb that what is bred in the bone will never be out of the flesh;' to denote the influence which parents have on the characters of their children, both physically and morally;

But he, my inbred enemy,
Forth issu'd, brandishing his fatal dart,
Made to destroy; I fled, and cry'd out death!

MILTON.

Propensities, on the other hand, which are totally independent of education or external circumstances, are properly inborn, as an inborn love of freedom;

Despair, and secret shame, and conscious thought
Of inborn worth, his lab'ring soul oppress'd. DRYDEN.

Inborn and innate, from the Latin natus born, are precisely the same in meaning, yet they differ somewhat in application. Poetry and the grave style have adopted inborn; philosophy has adopted innate: genius is inborn in some men; nobleness is inborn in others: there is an inborn talent in some men to command, and an inborn fitness in others to obey. Mr. Locke and his followers are pleased to say, there is no such thing as innate ideas; and if they only mean that there are no sensible impressions on the soul, until it is acted upon by external objects, they may be right: but if they mean to say that there are no inborn characters or powers in the soul, which predispose it for the reception of certain impressions, they contradict the experience of the learned and the unlearned in all ages, who believe, and that from close observation on themselves and others, that man has, from his birth, not only the general character, which belongs to him in common with his species, but also those peculiar characteristics which distinguish individuals from their earliest infancy: all these characters or characteristics are, therefore, not supposed to be produced, but elicited, by circumstances; and the ideas, which are but the sensible forms that the soul assumes in its connection with the body, are, on that account, in vulgar language termed innate;

Grant these inventions of the crafty priest,
Yet such inventions never could subsist,
Unless some glimmerings of a future state
Were with the mind coeval and innate. JENYNS.

TO CONCEIVE, APPREHEND, SUPPOSE, IMAGINE.

To conceive, from the Latin concipio, or con and capio to put together, is to put an image together in the mind, or to form an idea; to apprehend, from apprehendo to lay hold of, is to seize with the understanding; to suppose, in French supposer, Latin supposui, perfect of suppono, or sub and pono to put one thing in the place of another, is to have one thing in one's mind in lieu of another; to imagine, in French imaginer, Latin imagino, from mago an image, signifies to reflect as an image or phantom in the mind.

Conceive, in the strict sense of the word, is the appregeneric, the others the specific terms: since in hending, imagining, and supposing, we always con

ceive or form an idea, but not vice versâ; the difference consists in the mode and object of the action: we conceive of things as proper or improper, and just or unjust, right or wrong, good or bad, this is an act of the judgment; Conceive of things clearly and distinctly in their own natures; conceive of things completely in all their own parts; conceive of things comprehensively in all their properties and relations; conceive of things extensively in all their kinds; conceive of things orderly, or in a proper method.' WATTS. We apprehend the meaning of another; this is by the power of simple perception;

Yet this I apprehend not, why to those Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth So many and so various laws are given. MILTON. Apprehension is considered by logicians as the first power or operation of the mind being employed on the simplest objects; Simple apprehension denotes no more than the soul's naked intellection of an object, without either composition or deduction.' GLANVILLE.

Conceiving is applied to objects of any magnitude which are not above the stretch of human power;

O, what avails me now that honour high
To have conceived of God, or that salute
Hail highly favour'd, among women blest. MILTON.

Apprehending is a momentary or sudden act;
I named them as they pass'd, and understood
Their nature, with such knowledge God indued
My sudden apprehension. MILTON.

Conceiving, which is a process of nature, is often slow and gradual, as to conceive a design; This man conceived the duke's death, but what was the motive of that felonious conception is in the clouds.' WOLTON.

What is conceived is conclusive, or at least determinate; A state of innocence and happiness is so remote from all that we have ever seen, that although we can easily conceive it is possible, yet our speculations upon it must be general and confused.' JOHNSON. What is apprehended may be dubious or indetermi

nate: hence the term apprehend is taken in the sense of fear;

Nothing is a misery,

Unless our weakness apprehend it so. Conceive and apprehend are exercises of the understanding; suppose and imagine of the imagination; but the former commonly rests on some ground of reality, the latter may be the mere offspring of the brain. Suppose is used in opposition to positive knowledge; no person supposes that, of which he is positively informed; It can scarce be supposed that the mind is more vigorous when we sleep, than when we are awake.' HAWKESWORTH. Imagine is employed for that which, in all probability, does not exist; we shall not imagine what is evident and undeniable; The Earl of Rivers did not imagine there could exist, in a human form, a mother that would ruin her own son without enriching herself.' JOHNSON (Life of Savage).

TO CONCEIVE, UNDERSTAND,

COMPREHEND.

These terms indicate the intellectual operations of forming ideas, that is, ideas of the complex kind in distinction from the simple ideas formed by the act of perception. To conceive, is to put together in the mind; to understand, is to stand under, or near to the mind; to comprehend, from the Latin com or cum and prehendo to take, signifies to seize or embrace in the mind.

Conception is the simplest operation of the three; when we conceive we may have but one idea, when we understand or comprehend we have all the ideas which the subject is capable of presenting. We cannot understand or comprehend without conceiving; but we may often conceive that which we neither understand nor comprehend; Whatever they cannot immediately conceive they consider as too high to be reached, or too extensive to be comprehended." JOHN

SON.

That which we cannot conceive is to us nothing; but the conception of it gives it an existence, at least in our minds; but understanding and comprehending is not essential to the belief of a thing's existence. So long as we have reasons sufficient to conceive a thing as possible or probable, it is not necessary either to understand or comprehend them in order to authorize our belief. The mysteries of our holy religion are objects of conception, but not of comprehension;

Our finite knowledge cannot comprehend

The principles of an abounded sway. SHIRLEY. We conceive that a thing may be done without understanding how it is done; we conceive that a thing may exist without comprehending the nature of its existence. We conceive clearly, understand fully, comprehend minutely.

Conception is a species of invention; it is the fruit of the mind's operation within itself; If, by a more noble and more adequate conception that be considered as wit, which is at once natural and new, that which, though not obvious, is, upon its first production, acknowledged to be just; if it be that, which he that never found it, wonders how he missed; to wit of this kind the metaphysical poets have seldom risen.' JOHNSON. Understanding and comprehension are employed solely on external objects; we understand and comprehend that which actually exists before us, and presents itself to our observation; Swift pays no court to the passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration; he always understands himself, and Conhis readers always understand him.' JOHNSON. ceiving is the office of the imagination, as well as the judgment; understanding and comprehension are the office of the reasoning faculties exclusively.

* Conceiving is employed with regard to matters of taste, to arrangements, designs, and projects; understanding is employed on familiar objects which present themselves in the ordinary discourse and business of men; comprehending respects principles, lessons, and speculative knowledge in general. The artist conceives a design, and he who will execute it must understand it; the poet conceives that which is grand and sublime, and he who will enjoy the perusal of his conceptions must have refinement of mind, and capacity to comprehend the grand and sublime. The builder conceives plans, the scholar understands languages, the metaphysician comprehends subtle ques

tions.

A ready conception supplies us with a stock of ideas on all subjects; a quick understanding catches the intentions of others with half a word; a penetrating mind comprehends the abstrusest points. There are human beings involved in such profound ignorance, that they cannot conceive of the most ordinary things that exist in civilized life: there are those who, though slow at understanding words, will be quick at understanding looks and signs: and there are others who, though dull at conceiving or understanding common matters, will have a power for comprehending the abstruser parts of the mathematics.

CONCEPTION, NOTION.

Conception, from conceive (v. To conceive), signifies the thing conceived; notion, in French notion, Latin notio, from notus participle of nosco to know, signifies the thing known.

Conception is the mind's own work, what it pictures to itself from the exercise of its own powers; Words signify not immediately and primely things themselves, but the conceptions of the mind concerning things." SOUTH. Notion is the representation of objects as they are drawn from observation; The story of Telemachus is formed altogether in the spirit of

Homer, and will give an unlearned reader a notion of that great poet's manner of writing.' ADDISON. Conceptions are the fruit of the imagination; It is natural for the imaginations of men who lead their lives in too solitary a manner to prey upon themselves, and form from their own conceptions beings and things which have no place in nature.' STEELE. Notions are the result of reflection and experience; Considering that the happiness of the other world is to be the happiness of the whole man, who can question, but there is an infinite variety in those pleasures we are speaking of? Revelation, likewise, very much confirms this notion under the different views it gives us of our future happiness.' ADDISON. Conceptions are formed; notions are entertained. Conceptions are either grand or mean, gross or sublime, either clear or indistinct, crude or distinct; notions are either true or false, just or absurd. Intellectual culture serves to elevate the conceptions; the extension of knowledge serves to correct and refine the notions.

Some heathen philosophers had an indistinct conception of the Deity, whose attributes and character are unfolded to us in his revelation: the ignorant have often false notions of their duty and obligations to their superiors. The unenlightened express their gross and crude conceptions of a Superior Being by some material and visible object: the vulgar notion of ghosts and spirits is not entirely banished from the most cultivated parts of England.

If we present objects to our minds, according to different images which have already been impressed, we are said to have a conception of them: in this case, however, it is not necessary for the objects really to exist; they may be the offspring of the mind's operation within itself; It is not a head that is filled with extravagant conceptions, which is capable of furnishing the world with diversions of this nature (from humour).' ADDISON. But with regard to notions it is different, for they are formed respecting objects that do really exist, although perhaps the properties or circumstances which we assign to them are not real; Those notions which are to be collected by reason, in opposition to the senses, will seldom stand forward in the mind, but be treasured in the remoter repositories of the memory.' JOHNSON. If I look at the moon, I have a perception of it; if it disappear from my sight, and the impression remains, I have an idea of it; if an object, differing in shape and color from that or any thing else which I may have seen, present itself to my mind, it is a conception; if of this moon I conceive that it is no bigger than what it appears to my eye, this is a notion, which, in the present instance, assigns an unreal property to a real object.

PERCEPTION, IDEA, CONCEPTION, NOTION.

Perception expresses either the act of perceiving or the impression produced by that act; in this latter sense it is analogous to an idea (v. Idea). The impression of an object that is present to us is termed a perception; the revival of that impression, when the object is removed, is an idea. A combination of ideas by which any image is presented to the mind is a conception (v. To comprehend); the association of two or more ideas, so as to constitute it a decision, is a notion. Perceptions are clear or confused, according to the state of the sensible organs, and the perceptive faculty; ideas are faint or vivid, vague or distinct, according to the nature of the perception; conceptions are gross or refined according to the number and extent of one's ideas; notions are true or false, correct or incorrect, according to the extent of one's knowledge. The perception which we have of remote objects is sometimes so indistinct as to leave hardly any traces of the image on the mind; we have in that case a perception, but not an idea ;

What can the fondest mother wish for more,
Ev'n for her darling son, than solid sense,
Perceptions clear, and flowing eloquence. WYNNE.

If we read the description of any object, we may have an idea of it; but we need not have any immediate

TO THINK, SUPPOSE, IMAGINE,

BELIEVE, DEEM.

To think, in Saxon thincan, German denken, &c. from the Hebrew to rule or judge, is the generic term. It expresses, in common with the other terms, the act of having a particular idea in the mind; but it is indefinite as to the mode and the object of the action. To think may be the act of the understanding, or merely of the imagination: to suppose and imagine are rather the acts of the imagination than of the understanding. To think, that is, to have any thought or opinion upon a subject, requires reflection; it is the work of time;

If to conceive how any thing can be
From shape extracted, and locality,

Is hard: what think you of the Deity? JENYNS.

To suppose and imagine may be the acts of the moment. We think a thing right or wrong; we suppose it to be true or false; It is absurd to suppose that while the relations, in which we stand to our fellowcreatures, naturally call forth certain sentiments and affections, there should be none to correspond to the first and greatest of all beings.' BLAIR. We imagine it to be real or unreal. To think is employed promiscuously in regard to all objects, whether actually existing or not to suppose applies to those which are uncertain or precarious; imagine, to those which are unreal; How ridiculous must it be to imagine that

the clergy of England favour popery, when they cannot be clergymen without renouncing it.' BEVERIDGE. Think and imagine are said of that which affects the senses immediately; suppose is only said of that which occupies the mind. We think that we hear a noise as soon as the sound catches our attention; in certain states of the body or mind we imagine we hear noises which were never made: we think that a person will come to-day, because he has informed us that he intends to do so; we suppose that he will come to-day, at a certain hour, because he came at the same hour yesterday.

When applied to the events and circumstances of life, to think may be applied to any time, past, present, or to come, or where no time is expressed; to suppose is more aptly applied to a future time; and imagine to a past or present time. We think that a person has done a thing, is doing it, or will do it; we suppose that he will do it; we imagine that he has done it, or is doing it. A person thinks that he will die; imagines that he is in a dangerous way; think that the weather will be fine to-day; we suppose that the affair will be decided.

we

In regard to moral points, in which case the word deem may be compared with the others; to think is a conclusion drawn from certain premises. I think that a man has acted wrong: to suppose is to take up an idea arbitrarily or at pleasure; we argue upon a supposed case, merely for the sake of argument: to imagine is to take up an idea by accident, or without any connection with the truth or reality; we imagine that a person is offended with us, without being able to assign a single reason for the idea; imaginary evils are even more numerous than those which are real: to deem is to form a conclusion; things are deemed hurtful or otherwise in consequence of observation; An empty house is by the players deemed the most dreadful sign of popular disapprobation.' HAWKES

WORTH.

To think and believe are both opposite to knowing or perceiving; but to think is a more partial action than to believe: we think as the thing strikes us at the time; we believe from a settled deduction: hence it expresses much less to say that I think a person speaks the truth, than that I believe that he speaks the truth;

For they can conquer who believe they can. DRYDEN. I think from what I can recollect that such and such were the words, is a vague mode of speech, not admissible in a court of law as positive evidence: the natural question which follows upon this is, do you firmly believe it? to which, whoever can answer in the affirmative, with the appearance of sincerity, must be admitted as a testimony. Hence it arises that the word can only be employed in matters that require but little thought in order to come to a conclusion; and believe is applicable to things that must be admitted only on substantial evidence. We are at liberty to say that I think, or I believe, that the account is made out right; but, we must say, that I believe, not think, that the Bible is the word of God.

TO THINK, REFLECT, PONDER, MUSE.

Think, in Saxon thincan, German denken, &c. comes from the Hebrew 7, to direct, rule, or judge; reflect, in Latin reflecto, signifies literally to bend back, that is, to bend the mind back on itself; ponder, from pondus a weight, signifies to weigh; muse, from musa a song, signifies to dwell upon with the imagination.

To think is a general and indefinite term; to reflect is a particular mode of thinking; to ponder and muse are different modes of reflecting, the former on grave matters, the latter on matters that interest either the affections or the imagination: we think whenever we receive or recall an idea to the mind; but we reflect only by recalling, not one only, but many ideas: we think if we only suffer the ideas to revolve in succession in the mind: but in reflecting we compare, combine, and judge of those ideas which thus pass in the mind we think, therefore, of things past, as they are pleasurable or otherwise; we reflect upon them as they are applicable to our present condition: we may think on things past, present, or to come; we reflect, ponder, and muse mostly on that which is past or present. The man thinks on the days of his childhood, and wishes them back; the child thinks on the time when he shall be a man, and is impatient until it is come; 'No man was ever weary of thinking, much less of thinking that he had done well or virtuously.' SOUTH. by experience; Let men but reflect upon their own A man reflects on his past follies, and tries to profit observation, and consider impartially with themselves how few in the world they have known made better by age.' SOUTH. One ponders on any serious concern that affects his destiny;

Stood on the brink of hell, and look'd awhile
Pond'ring his voyage. MILTON.