CHA P. are naturally fitted to excite. A perfon who indulges habitually

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in such studies, may feel a growing defire of his ufual gratification, but he is every day lefs and lefs affected by the scenes which are presented to him. I believe it would be difficult to find an actor long hackneyed on the stage, who is capable of being completely interested by the distresses of a tragedy. The effect of such compofitions and representations, in rendering the mind callous to actual diftrefs, is ftill greater; for as the imagination of the Poet almost always carries him beyond truth and nature, a familiarity with the tragic scenes which he exhibits, can hardly fail to deaden the impreffion produced by the comparatively trifling sufferings which the ordinary course of human affairs presents to us. In real life, a provifion is made for this gradual decay of fenfibility, by the proportional decay of other paffive impreffions, which have an opposite tendency, and by the additional force which our active habits are daily acquiring. Exhibitions of fictitious distress, while they produce the former change on the character, have no influence in producing the latter on the contrary, they tend to ftrengthen thofe paffive impreffions which counteract beneficence. The fcenes into which the Novellift introduces us are, in general, perfectly unlike thofe which occur in the world. As his object is to please, he removes from his defcriptions every circumftance which is dif gufting, and presents us with hiftories of elegant and dignified diftrefs. It is not fuch fcenes that human life exhibits. We have to act, not with refined and elevated characters, but with the mean, the illiterate, the vulgar, and the profligate. The perusal of fictitious hiflory has a tendency to increase that dif

VII.

guft which we naturally feel at the concomitants of diftrefs, and CHA P.
to cultivate a falfe refinement of tafte, inconfiftent with our
condition as members of fociety. Nay, it is poffible for this
refinement to be carried fo far, as to withdraw a man from the
duties of life, and even from the fight of those diftreffes which
he might alleviate. And, accordingly, many are to be found,
who, if the fituations of romance were realised, would not fail
to display the virtues of their favourite characters, whose sense
of duty is not fufficiently strong to engage them in the humble
and private fcenes of human mifery.

To these effects of fictitious hiftory we may add, that it gives no exercise to our active habits. In real life, we proceed from the paffive impreffion to thofe exertions which it was intended to produce. In the contemplation of imaginary sufferings, we stop short at the impreffion, and whatever benevolent difpofitions we may feel, we have no opportunity of carrying them into action.

FROM these reasonings it appears, that an habitual attention to exhibitions of fictitious diftrefs, is in every view calculated to check our moral improvement. It diminishes that uneafiness which we feel at the fight of distress, and which prompts us to relieve it. It ftrengthens that difguft which the loathsome concomitants of distress excite in the mind, and which prompts us to avoid the fight of mifery; while, at the fame time, it has no tendency to confirm thofe habits of active beneficence, without which, the best dispositions are useless. I would not, however, be understood to disapprove entirely of fictitious

narratives,

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CHA P. narratives, or of pathetic compofitions. On the contrary, I think that the perufal of them may be attended with advantage, when the effects which I have mentioned are corrected by habits of real business. They foothe the mind when ruffled by the rude intercourse of fociety, and stealing the attention insensibly from our own cares, substitute, instead of discontent and distress, a tender and pleafing melancholy. By exhibitions of characters a little elevated above the common ftandard, they have a tendency to cultivate the tafte in life; to quicken our disgust at what is mean or offenfive, and to form the mind infenfibly to elegance and dignity. Their tendency to cultivate the powers of moral perception has never been difputed; and when the influence of fuch perceptions is powerfully felt, and is united with an active and manly temper, they render the character not only more amiable, but more happy in itself, and more useful to others; for although a rectitude of judgment with respect to conduct, and ftrong moral feelings, do, by no means, alone conftitute virtue; yet they are frequently necessary to direct our behaviour in the more critical situations of life; and they increase the interest we take in the general profperity of virtue in the world. I believe, likewise, that, by means of fictitious hiftory, displays of character may be most successfully given, and the various weaknesses of the heart expofed. I only meant to infinuate, that a tafte for them may be carried too far; that the fenfibility which terminates in imagination, is but a refined and selfish luxury; and that nothing can effectually advance our moral improvement, but an attention to the active duties which belong to our stations,

1

CHA P.
VII.

SECTION VI.

Continuation of the fame Subject.— -Important Uses to which the Power of Imagination is fubfervient.

THE

HE faculty of Imagination is the great spring of human activity, and the principal fource of human improvement. As it delights in presenting to the mind fcenes and characters more perfect than those which we are acquainted with, it prevents us from ever being completely fatisfied with our present condition, or with our past attainments, and engages us continually in the pursuit of fome untried enjoyment, or of fome ideal excellence. Hence the ardour of the selfish to better their fortunes, and to add to their personal accomplishments; and hence the zeal of the Patriot and the Philofopher to advance the virtue and the happiness of the human race. Destroy this faculty, and the condition of man will become as stationary as that of the brutes.

WHEN the notions of enjoyment or of excellence which imagination has formed, are greatly raised above the ordi3 X

nary

522

С НА Р.

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nary standard, they intereft the paffions too deeply to leave us at all times the cool exercise of reason, and produce that ftate of the mind which is commonly known by the name of Enthusiasm; a temper which is one of the moft fruitful fources of error and disappointment; but which is a fource, at the fame time, of heroic actions and of exalted characters. To the exaggerated conceptions of eloquence which perpetually revolved in the mind of Cicero; to that idea which haunted his thoughts of aliquid immenfum infinitumque; we are indebted for fome of the moft fplendid difplays of human genius: and it is probable that fomething of the fame kind has been felt by every man who has rifen much above the level of humanity, either in fpeculation or in action. It is happy for the individual, when these enthusiastic defires are directed to events which do not depend on the caprice of fortune.

THE pleasure we receive from the higher kinds of poetry takes rise, in part, from that diffatisfaction which the objects of imagination inspire us with, for the scenes, the events, and the characters, with which our fenfes are converfant. Tired and difgufted with this world of imperfection, we delight to escape to another of the poet's creation, where the charms of nature wear an eternal bloom, and where fources of enjoyment are opened to us, fuited to the vaft capacities of the human mind. On this natural love of poetical fiction, lord Bacon has founded a very ingenious argument for the foul's immortality; and, indeed, one of the most important purposes to which it is fub

fervient,