age. He commenced his literary career as a poet, in two volumes of Border Minstrelsy, in 1802. This work was followed by his Lay of the Last Minstel, in 1805; with which he had great success. He subsequently published Marmion; and in 1811, the Lady of the Lake; the last of which carried his fame to the most brilliant height, and yielded him a profit of more than 9,000 dollars.

The appearance of Childe Harold the next year so entirely absorbed public attention, and so far exceeded in depth and power any other work of that period, that after one more trial in the composition of the Lord of the Isles, Scott relinquished poetry, and devoted his undivided attention to writing works of imagination in prose.

§ 217. He commenced by the composition and publication of Waverly, a Tale of Sixty Years Since, and one of the most interesting narratives in the annals of literature. It embraced many original and masterly delineations of character interwoven with historical associations of great interest, and executed in a style of great classic purity and elegance. This production was followed by others of the same high character, going back hundreds of years into English and Scottish history, and illustrating the manners and principles of former times, with great spirit and power. They comprehend several of the ablest productions of the human mind; and have been read by millions with intense and thrilling interest. On a strict analysis these immortal works will be found to be precisely what poetry is, delineations of imaginary objects and events belonging to the category of possibility, considered as types and symbols of realities. The same is true of the works of the other great masters in this department of literature. Their legitimate aim is the representation of the true, by conceptions of the possible and imaginary. In the accomplishment of this object, some are more successful, and others less so; and some are wiser, and others less wise, in the selection of truths which they make it their aim to develop. In this respect, works of imagination, both in prose and poetry, bear a strict analogy to history and other works of reason. Histories are important and useful; in proportion to the importance of the objects and events which they describe, and of the principles which they illustrate; and these being the same, in proportion to the clearness and

force of their illustrations. The same is true of works of imagination. They comprehend the noblest, most true, and most useful productions of the human mind; and also the vilest, meanest, and most pernicious.

CHAPTER XVI.

GENERAL PURPOSES OF THE IMAGINATION.

§ 218. The Saviour of the world subordinated the creations of the imaginations to the promotion of just views on moral and religious subjects in the parables of the New Testament; and by this means made the most grave and serious truths not only intelligible, but attractive. The same thing has been done by others, in imitation of his example, and in pursuance of the principles which it involves. The collective mind of the human race, testifies its interest in this mode of instruction, and of moral discipline, by the patronage which has been accorded to it in all ages. It comes home to the heart of childhood with almost absolute power; later youth and mature years submit to its sway, and are conducted, spell-bound, into its green fields of beauty, and among the towering cliffs and profound depths of its sublimity. All ranks and conditions are among its votaries, and all the unfathomed depths of the human heart respond to the truth and reality of its objects.

Supposed decline of Imagination in modern times.

§ 219. It is a common opinion, that as civilization and science advance, poetry and works of imagination in prose decline. The origin of such a sentiment, so directly at variance with facts, is difficult to be accounted for, except by referring it to the utterly erroneous and absurd theories generally adopted in regard to the precise nature and office of the imagination. Nothing can be more false than the theories generally adopted on this subject. Never was a noble object more entirely misapprehended. But though entirely misconceiving the end and purpose as well as the nature of this noble faculty, the mind still continued to

exercise it, both in its solitary and social hours, and on all subjects, from the gay and sportive, to the most magnificent and sublime. Just in proportion as civilization and refinement have advanced, have the operations of the imagination been extended and improved. The dim outlines of reason in the natural world, are but the starting points of the imagination. Where they stop, imagination starts; and the sublimest elevations in which they terminate, are but the foundation of her beautiful and boundless structures.

§ 220. Imagination is not in her decline, as some suppose. She has no affinities for ignorance and superstition, and is no child of weakness, but is the first-born child of knowledge and truth. In the twilight of the mind, she shines forth illustrious and brilliant; like a beautiful gem in the diadem of night; but as the morning breaks, and light from the sun of reason increases, she also increases the brilliancy and power of her rays, till she lights up a brighter morning, and makes the day trebly glorious. The imagination of the ancients was developed proportionably to their reason; and their immortal works correspond to that development. The imagination of men in modern times is developed proportionably to modern reason, and its creations are of a corresponding order. The great works of imagination in modern times are the works of men disciplined by all the methods of science and philosophy. Paradise Lost, the living fires of passion and the breathing spirit of sentiment and affection in Shakspeare, and the unrivalled majesty and might of Byron, as he swept all the chords of feeling and plunged into the heart's deepest recesses, borne himself and bearing others on ocean tides of soul-stirring melody, have no parallels in ancient literature, and are a standing and unanswerable refutation of the calumny that the progress of reason is the decline of the imagination.

Imagination bears the same relation to Painting and Statuary which it does to Poetry and Romance; and is the handmaid of Reason in all the improvements of civilized life.

Relation of Imagination to the Affections.

§ 221. Imagination is the special servant of the affections, and acts a conspicuous part in their development. We love and hate, are attracted and repelled, to some extent, by the careful and guarded deductions of reason; but the great tide

of our feelings rises only as objects are touched by the magic wand of imagination. This is true to some extent of the love of inanimate objects. Flowers and plants, minerals and gems, mountains and plains, and lands and oceans, are beautiful and sublime, in some degree, to the serious eye of reason. But to the imaginative observer, they are objects of passion. Under his eye they smile and frown; to his ear they sing and shout, or lament and wail; to his heart they perceive and feel. Hence his love for them is proportionable to the heart-moving conceptions by which he apprehends and converses with them. But it is in the love of living and moral beings that imagination acts her most conspicuous and noblest part. Here she is mistress of the noblest scene that has yet been developed to the human mind, and one which can never be surpassed.

§ 222. Moral beings are objects of interest from what we can know of them by the categories of reality; but when we advance on the conclusions derived from this source, to the category of possibility, and bring the immense powers of conception to bear upon them; and when we look into their secret souls by the light of imagination, we acquire an intimacy with them, and make actual discoveries of their capabilities which would otherwise be impossible. The moment we begin to love we begin to decorate the loved objects from the stores of imagination. Every decoration which we add increases our love; and every increase of our love causes us to bring forth new and superior decoratons to adorn the loved object. By the wise, this is wisely done; by the foolish, foolishly; but it is done by all, just in protion as the heart's deep fountains are stirred. Hence the alliance between love and poetry. The lover makes the poet; and the poet makes the lover. Minds unimaginative and unpoetic before, catch the inspiration of the muses from the kindlings of the heart; and hearts unwakened, learn to glow under the burning beams of the imagination. The ideas of the imagination are not illusions, as some erroneously suppose. They have as certain and constant a relation to realities as ideas of judgment. Both may be erroneous and mislead their erring subject, but both may be true and serve as instruments of virtue and happiness.

§ 223. The connexion between imagination and the higher exercises of the affections is constant and unremitted. Men cannot attain these affections except through the medium of

Harps ever tun'd, that, glittering by their side,
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce

Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt; no voice but well could join
Melodious part, such concord is in heaven.

On th' other side, Satan alarmed,
Collecting all his might, dilated stood,
Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd:
His stature reach'd the sky, and on his crest
Sat horror plum'd; nor wanted in his

What seem'd both spear and shield.

grasp

Now the third sacred morn began to shine

Dawning through heaven: forth rush'd with whirlwind

round

The chariot of paternal Deity,

Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn,
Itself instinct with spirit, but convey'd

the wheels

By four cherubic shapes; four faces each
Had wondrous; as with stars their bodies all
And wings were set with eyes, with eyes
Of beryl, and careering fires between ;
And o'er their heads a crystal firmament
Sustained a sapphire throne inlaid with pure
Amber, and colors of the showery arch.
He in celestial panoply all arm'd

Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought,
Ascended; at his right hand victory
Sat eagle-winged; beside him hung his bow
And quiver with three-bolted thunder stor❜d;
And from about him fierce effusion roll'd

Of smoke and bickering flames and sparkles dire:
Attended with ten thousand thousand saints,
He onward came; far off his coming shone ;
And twenty thousand (I their number heard)
Chariots of God, half on each hand were seen:
He on the wings of cherub rode sublime
On the crystaline sky, in sapphire thron'd,
Illustrious far and wide.

So spake the Son, and into terror chang'd His countenance, too severe to be beheld,