But should this brilliant faculty be nurtured on the bosom of enthusiasm or romantic expectation, or be left to revel in all its native wildness of combination, and to plunge into all the visionary terrors of supernatural agency, undiverted by the deductions of truth, or the sober realities of existence, it will too often prove the cause of acute misery, of melancholy, and even of distraction.

In the spring of life, when reason and experience are necessarily confined, almost every object rises clothed in vivid hues; earth appears a paradise, and its inhabitants little short of perfection; alas! as the man advances, as he becomes acquainted with his fellow man, how are all these splendid visions scattered on the winds! he beholds passions the most baneful devastate this beauteous globe, and witnesses, with horror and dismay, its wretched inhabitants immolate each other on the altars of avarice, and ambition. Starting from the dream of youth, he turns disgusted from the loathsome scene; perhaps, retires to commune with himself, to pause upon the lot of mortality.

To this important crisis, many of the characters which adorn or blot the records of humanity, owe their origin. He, who can call religion and literature to his aid, will pass along the road of life intent on other worlds, and alone employed, in this, in accelerating the powers of intellect, and in meliorating the condition of his species. From the crimes and follies of mankind, from the annals of blood, and the orgies of voluptuousness, will this man fly to no unprofitable solitude; here will he trace the finger of the Deity, and here amid the pursuits of science, the charms of music, and the pleasures of poetry, with simplicity of heart, and energy of genius, will adore the God who gave them.

Effects, however, such as these, are, unfortunately, no common result; for that intensity of feeling and ardour of expectation which usually accompany our early years, meeting with a sudden and unexpected check, sometimes lead to a train of idea the very reverse of all that pleased before, and misanthropy, and even scepticism, close the scene, and chill every social and benevolent exertion. But far more common is that character which when

once awakened from the delusion of inexperience, and become acquainted with the vices. of mankind, passes on with wily circumspection, intent only on moulding the crimes and passions which surround it, to instruments of pecuniary gain, or desolating ambition. Many of this class there are, whose principal object being the accumulation of property, preserve, as a mean towards its attainment, an imposing exterior, and travel through life with what is called a fair character, yet possessing no one benevolent feeling or liberal sentiment that can properly designate them for man, or rank them beyond the animal they consume.

But some there are, gifted with an imagination of the most brilliant kind; who are accustomed to expatiate in all the luxury of an ideal world, and who possess a heart glowing with the tenderest sensations. These men too fre-' quently fall a sacrifice to the indulgence of a warm and vigorous fancy, and which is, unhappily, not sufficiently corrected by a knowledge of mankind, or the rigid deduction of scientific study. The lovely scenes they had so rapturously drawn, and coloured, find no architype

in the busy paths of life, but fade beneath the gloomy touch of reality, and leave to the astonished visionary, a cheerless and a barren view; or the mind, long and intensely employed in giving form and place to the fascinating fictions of fancy, or the wild delusions of superstition, is apt, on the first pressure of neglect and misfortune, to suffer derangement, and to assume for truth, the paintings of enthusiasm. Thus, the clear current of exalted thought, or generous feeling, driven from its course by sudden opposition, and vexed with unexpected tempests, not seldom spreads terror and amazement in its

progress.

Many instances might be adduced of the fatal effects of giving up the reins to imagination, and of cherishing a morbid sensibility; but I shall confine myself, in this sketch, to three, and these shall be taken from the class of poets,

Poetry, to attain its highest point of perfection, demands an invention fertile in the extreme, and practised in the art of combination, and which, seizing hold of the supersti

tions and fears of mankind, pours forth fictions. of the most wild and horrible grandeur. The actions and conceptions of superhuman Beings preserve, in the creations of Genius, a certain verisimilitude which rivets attention, and wins even upon incredulity itself; and he who wishes powerfully to impress upon others the mingled emotions of terror and delight, must himself be tinctured with some portion of belief in the interference of immaterial agency. The metaphysic wonders of gothic superstition were in the sixteenth century absolutely a part of the creed of all ranks of society, and the poetic productions of that period, being deeply tinged with the popular ideas, operated an effect upon the mind nearly, or, perhaps, altogether unfelt in our sceptical and philosophic age. The ideas, however, relative to the re-appearance of the departed, still linger among us, and are occasionally known to exert all their wonted influence; and he who has a true taste for poetry, yet dwells, with unsated rapture, on the dreadful and mysterious imagery of our elder bards.

But it is greatly to be lamented, that in some instances, the noblest mind has been laid in