two kinds my design being first of all to discourse of those primary pleasures of the imagination, which entirely proceed from such objects as are before our eyes; and in the next place to speak of those secondary pleasures of the imagination which flow from the ideas of visible objects, when the objects are not actually before the eye, but are called up into our memories, or formed into agreeable visions of things that are either absent or fictitious.1

The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding. The last are, indeed, more preferable," because they are founded on some new knowledge or improvement in the mind of man; yet it must be confest, that those of the imagi nation are as great and as transporting as the other. A beautiful prospect delights the soul, as much as a demonstration; and a description in Homer has charmed more readers than a chapter in Aristotle. Besides, the pleasures of the imagination have this advantage above those of the understanding, that they are more obvious, and more easy to be acquired. It is but opening the eye, and the scene enters. The colours paint themselves on the fancy, with very little attention of thought or application of mind in the beholder. We are struck, we know not how, with the symmetry

1 Stewart says that philosophical precision indispensably requires an exclusive limitation of that title (pleasures of the imagination) to what Mr. Addison calls secondary pleasures'—V. Philos. Essays, Part second, Essay first -Introduction. In a note he adds-What Mr. Addison has called the Pleasures of the Imagination might be denominated, more correctly, the pleasures we receive from the objects of Taste.' Ut sup. p. 182. note. See also a note in Beattie's Essay on Truth, ch. ii. s. 4. p. 61, ed. in 4to.-G.

The degree of comparison is expressed in the adjective itself. The comparative, more, is then to be struck out, as a manifest blunder of the compositor. It is impossible that such an expression should come from Mr. Addison.-H.

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of any thing we see, and immediately assent to the beauty of an object, without inquiring into the particular causes and occasions

of it.

A man of polite imagination is let into a great many pleasures, that the vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable companion in a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows, than another does in the possession. It gives him, indeed, a kind of property in every thing he sees, and makes the most rude uncultivated parts of nature administer to his pleasures: so that he looks upon the world, as it were in another light, and discovers in it a multitude of charms, that conceal themselves from the generality of mankind.

There are, indeed, but very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a relish of any pleasures that are not criminal; every diversion they take is at the expence of some one virtue or another, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly. A man should endeavour, therefore, to make the sphere of his innocent pleasures as wide as possible, that he may retire into them with safety, and find in them such a satisfaction as a wise man would not blush to take. Of this nature are those of the imagination, which do not require such a bent of thought as is necessary to our more serious employments, nor, at the same time, suffer the mind to sink into that negligence and remissness, which are apt to accompany our more sensual delights, but, like a gentle exercise to the faculties, awaken them from sloth and idleness, without putting them upon any labour or difficulty.

We might here add, that the pleasures of the fancy are more

This is an instance, among many others, of that curious felicity, which directed Mr. Addison in the choice of his terms. But the whole paragraph is a master-piece of fine writing.-H.

Another of his inimitable words.-H.

conducive to health, than those of the understanding, which are worked out by dint of thinking, and attended with too violent a labour of the brain. Delightful scenes, whether in nature, painting, or poetry, have a kindly influence on the body, as well as the mind, and not only serve to clear and brighten the imagination, but are able to disperse grief and melancholy, and to set the animal spirits in pleasing and agreeable motions. For this reason Sir Francis Bacon, in his Essay upon Health, has not thought it improper to prescribe to his reader a poem or a prospect, where he particularly dissuades him from knotty and subtile disquisitions, and advises him to pursue studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations of nature.

I have in this paper, by way of introduction, settled the notion of those pleasures of the imagination, which are the subject of my present undertaking, and endeavoured by several considerations, to recommend to my reader the pursuit of these pleasures. I shall, in my next paper, examine the several sources from whence these pleasures are derived.

0.

a In his Essay upon Health. Where i. e. in which essay. But the whole paragraph is a little incorrect. There should be a full stop at prospect. And what follows should stand thus: He particularly dissuades, &c.-H.

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No. 412. MONDAY, JUNE 23.

PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION.

'Three sources of all the pleasures of the imagination, in our survey of outward objects. How what is great pleases the imagination. How what is new pleases the imagination. How what is beautiful in our own species pleases the imagination. How what is beautiful in general pleases the imagination. What other accidental causes may contribute to the heightening of those pleasures.'

I SHALL first consider those pleasures of the imagination, which arise from the actual view and survey of outward objects: and these, I think, all proceed from the sight of what is great, uncommon, or beautiful. There may, indeed, be something so terrible or offensive, that the horror or loathsomeness of an object may over-bear the pleasure which results from its greatness, novelty, or beauty; but still there will be such a mixture of delight in the very disgust it gives us, as any of these three qualifications are most conspicuous and prevailing.

By greatness, I do not only mean the bulk of any single object, but the largeness of a whole view, considered as one entire piece. Such are the prospects of an open champaign country, a vast uncultivated desert, of huge heaps of mountains, high rocks and precipices, or a wide expanse of waters, where we are not struck with the novelty or beauty of the sight, but with that rude kind of magnificence which appears in many of these stupen

dous works of nature. Our imagination loves to be filled with

an object, or to grasp at any thing that is too big for its capacity.

Very incorrrect. It should be thus-There will be a mixture of delight, &c. according as, &c.--or rather thus-There will be such a mixture of delight, as is proportioned to the degree with which any of these three qualifications prevail in it.-H.

conducive to health, than those of the understanding, which are worked out by dint of thinking, and attended with too violent a labour of the brain. Delightful scenes, whether in nature, painting, or poetry, have a kindly influence on the body, as well as the mind, and not only serve to clear and brighten the imagination, but are able to disperse grief and melancholy, and to set the animal spirits in pleasing and agreeable motions. For this reason Sir Francis Bacon, in his Essay upon Health, has not thought it improper to prescribe to his reader a poem or a prospect, where he particularly dissuades him from knotty and subtile disquisitions, and advises him to pursue studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations of nature.

I have in this paper, by way of introduction, settled the notion of those pleasures of the imagination, which are the subject of my present undertaking, and endeavoured by several considerations, to recommend to my reader the pursuit of these pleasures. I shall, in my next paper, examine the several sources from whence these pleasures are derived.

Where i. e. in which essay.

0.

In his Essay upon Health. But the whole paragraph is a little incorrect. There should be a full stop at prospect. And what follows should stand thus: He particularly dissuades, &c.-H.