VII.

ftatuary, with all the fubjects upon which their genius is exer- CHAP. cifed; and which furnishes to the defcriptive Poet, by far the greater part of the materials of his art. The very etymology of the word Imagination has a reference to visible objects; and, in its moft ordinary acceptation, it is either ufed as fynonymous with the conception of fuch objects, or is applied to cafes in which this is the principal faculty employed. I mention these circumftances, in order to fatisfy the reader, why fo many of the illuftrations which occur in the following inquiries are borrowed from the arts of Painting and of Poetry.

IT was already obferved, that Imagination is a complex power*. It includes Conception or fimple Apprehension, which enables us to form a notion of thofe former objects of perception. or of knowledge, out of which we are to make a felection; Abstraction, which feparates the felected materials from the qualities and circumftances which are connected with them in nature; and Judgment or Tafte, which selects the materials, and directs their combination. To these powers, we may add, that particular habit of affociation to which I formerly gave the name of Fancy; as it is this which prefents to our choice, all the different materials which are fubfervient to the efforts of Imagination, and which may therefore be confidered as forming the ground-work of poetical genius.

To illustrate these obfervations, let us confider the steps by which Milton must have proceeded in creating his imaginary Garden of Eden. When he first proposed to himself that sub

CHAP. ject of defcription, it is reasonable to suppose, that a variety of
VIL the most striking fcenes which he had feen crowded into his

mind. The Affociation of Ideas fuggefted them, and the power
of Conception placed each of them before him with all its beau-
ties and imperfections. In every natural fcene, if we destine it
for any particular purpose, there are defects and redundancies,
which art may fometimes, but cannot always, correct. But the
power of Imagination is unlimited. She can create and anni-
hilate; and difpofe, at pleasure, her woods, her rocks, and
her rivers. Milton, accordingly, would not copy his Eden
from any one scene, but would felect from each the features
which were most eminently beautiful. The
The power of Abstrac-
tion enabled him to make the separation, and Taste directed
him in the felection. Thus he was furnished with his mate-
rials; by a fkilful combination of which, he has created a land-
scape, more perfect probably in all its parts, than was ever
realised in nature; and certainly very different from any thing
which this country exhibited, at the period when he wrote.
It is a curious remark of Mr. Walpole, that Milton's Eden is
free from the defects of the old English garden, and is imagined
on the fame principles which it was referved for the present age
to carry into execution.

FROM what has been faid, it is fufficiently evident, that Imagination is not a fimple power of the mind, like Attention, Conception, or Abftraction; but that it is formed by a combination of various faculties. It is farther evident, that it must appear under very different forms, in the cafe of different individuals; as fome of its component parts are liable to be greatly

influenced

VII.

influenced by habit, and other accidental circumftances. The CHA P. variety, for example, of the materials out of which the combinations of the Poet or the Painter are formed, will depend much on the tendency of external fituation, to store the mind with a multiplicity of Conceptions; and the beauty of these combinations will depend entirely on the fuccefs with which the power of Taste has been cultivated. What we call, therefore, the power of Imagination is not the gift of nature, but the refult of acquired habits, aided by favourable circumftances. It is not an original endowment of the mind, but an accomplishment formed by experience and fituation; and which, in its different gradations, fills up all the interval between the first efforts of untutored genius, and the fublime creations of Raphael or of Milton.

AN uncommon degree of Imagination constitutes poetical genius; a talent which, although chiefly displayed in poetical compofition, is also the foundation (though not precisely in the fame manner) of various other arts. A few remarks on the relation which Imagination bears to fome of the most interefting of thefe, will throw additional light on its nature and office.

CHA P.
VII.

SECTION II.

Of Imagination confidered in its Relation to fome of the

Fine Arts.

AMONG the Arts connected with Imagination, fome not only take their rife from this power, but produce objects which are addreffed to it. Others take their rife from Imagination, but produce objects which are addreffed to the power of Perception.

To the latter of these two claffes of Arts, belongs that of Gardening; or, as it has been lately called, the Art of creating Landscape. In this Art, the defigner is limited in his creation by nature; and his only province is to correct, to improve, and to adorn. As he cannot repeat his experiments, in order to observe the effect, he must call up, in his imaginatiòn, the scene which he means to produce; and apply to this imaginary scene his tafte and his judgment; or, in other words, to a lively conception of vifible objects, he must add a power (which long experience and attentive obfervation alone can give him) of judging beforehand, of the effect which they would produce, if they were actually exhibited to his fenfes. This power forms, what Lord Chatham beautifully and expreffively called, the pro

VII.

phetic Eye of Tafte; that eye which (if I may borrow the lan- CHA P. guage of Mr. Gray,)" fees all the beauties that a place is "fufceptible of, long before they are born; and when it plants

σε

a feedling, already fits under the shade of it, and enjoys the "effect it will have, from every point of view that lies in the "prospect *." But although the artist who creates a landscape, copies it from his imagination, the fcene which he exhibits is addressed to the fenfes, and may produce its full effect on the minds of others, without any effort on their part, either of imagination or of conception.

To prevent being misunderstood, it is neceffary for me to remark, that, in the last observation, I speak merely of the natural effects produced by a landscape, and abstract entirely from the pleasure which may refult from an accidental affociation of ideas with a particular scene. The effect refulting from fuch affociations will depend, in a great measure, on the liveliness with which the affociated objects are conceived, and on the affecting nature of the pictures which a creative imagination, when once roused, will present to the mind; but the pleasures thus arifing from the accidental exercise that a landscape may give to the imagination, must not be confounded with those which it is naturally fitted to produce.

IN Painting, (excepting in those inftances in which it exhibits a faithful copy of a particular object,) the original idea must be