the advancement of learning. It is with knowledge as with wealth; the pleasure of which lies more in making endless additions, than in taking a review of our old store. ments. PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION. Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoy. The sense of feeling can indeed give us a notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except colors; but at the same time it is very much strained and confined in its operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects. Our sight seems designed to supply all these defects, and may be considered, as a more delicate and diffusive kind of touch, that spreads itself over an infinite multitude of bodies, comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote parts of the universe. It is this sense which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that by the pleasures of the imagination or fancy, (which I shall use promiscuously) I here mean such as arise from visible objects, either when we have them actually in our view, or when we call up their ideas into our minds by paintings, statues, descriptions, or any the like occasion. We cannot indeed have a single image in the fancy, that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering and compounding those images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision that are most agree. able to the imagination: for by this faculty a man in a dungeon is capable of entertaining himself with scenes and landskapes more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole compass of nature. There are few words in the English language, which are employed in a more loose and uncircum scribed sense, than those of the fancy and the imagination. By the pleasures of the imagination, I mean only such pleasures as arise originally from sight, or those primary pleasures of the imagination, which entirely proceed from such objects as are before our eyes. The pleasures of the imagination, taken in the full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding. The last are, indeed preferable, because they are founded on some new knowledge or improvement in the mind of man; yet it must be confessed that those of the imagination 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 en ters The colors 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 of any thing we see, and immedi ately assent to the beauty of an object, without inquiring into the particular causes and occasions of it. A man of a refined 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 expense of some one virtue or another, and their very first step out of business is into vice or folly. A manshould endeavor therefore, to make the sphere of hisinnocent 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 labor or difficulty. We might here add that the pleasures of the fancy are more conducive to health, than those of the understanding, which are worked out by dint of thinking and attended by a too violent labor 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 subtle disquisitions, and advises him to pursue studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustrious objects, as his-tories, fables, and contemplations of nature. CULTIVATION OF MEMORY. Memory is the simple natural faculty of recollecting what has been said or done in time past; and it is, like all our other natural faculties, susceptible of improvement by various means of industry and art. But the additional powers of memory, that are thus acquired, do no more form an additional or different memo ry, than an acquisition of strength, health, or beauty to the human frame, forms an additional or a new principle of life. Be this as it may, no man will deny that to him who has to reason, to define, and to persuade, the power of recollection is necessary; since by the exercise of this power he is enabled to call to his aid facts and opinions that may corroborate and illustrate his arguments, which might fail in their effect for want of such timely and powerful auxiliaries. The frequent exercise of this faculty will be found of essential service in promoting its strength and enlargement. Not only the inclination to recollect, but the very powers themselves of recollection are impaired, and at length lost by disuse; whilst on the contrary, a desire to exercise this power, and an increasing pleasure in the exercise itself, will be the natural consequence of daily application. In this it does but resemble the other faculties of the mind, which are roused to more brilliant exertion by unremitting activity, but are depressed and weakened, beyond conception, by a long course of inertion. Whatever is to be committed to memory must first be thoroughly digested and understood, that it may be clearly and comprehensively retained. Who can reeite, with any degree of accuracy or gracefulness, that which appears obscure or incongruous to his judgment? What assistance can be effectually derived to any argument or position by the statement of any extraneous fact or opinion, the causes or connections whereof remain undetermined or unknown? It is in vain, under such circumstances of doubt and confusion, that the memory exerts itself; its powers are enervated or destroyed. The maturing of the memory will not be the work of a moment; he who is anxious to cultivate this valuable faculty must be content to do it by degrees; it will by no means be prudent to set it a heavy task in the first instance. Proceed from light, short, and amusing recitations to those of a dryer and more intricate nature; for although it is certainly true, that the memo ry will be aided by frequent exercise, yet this, like all other cases that relate to the improvement of the human intellect, must be governed by the general law of moderation. Temperance, which may well be recommended as necessary to every other study, is peculiarly necessary here. A continual and excessive indulgence in animal gratifications produces obtuseness both of the bodily and the mental faculties; but it will ever prove particularly injurious to the memory, which, as it requires a more assiduous cultivation, is very easily blunted by being suffered to remain neglected or unexercised. DIVERSITY OF VIEWS AND PASSIONS, Minds differently fashioned, and under the influence of different passions, receive from the same objects dissimilar impressions. Exhibit the same beautiful valley to the miser and to the poet. Elegant and lovely images arise in the poet's mind; dryads preside in the groves, and naiads in the fountains. Millions of wealth seize the heart of the miser; he computes the profits of the meadows and the cornfields, and envies the possessor The mind, dwelling with pleasure on those images which coincide with its present humor, or agree with the present passion, embellishes and improves them. The poet by figuring additional lawns and mountains, renders the landscape more beautiful or more sublime; but the miser moved by no compas sion for wood nymphs or naiads, lays waste the forest, changes the windings of the river into a dead canal, and purchaseth wealth at the expense of beauty. Now as the influence of the passions governs and arranges our ideas, these in return nourish and promote the passions If any object appear to us more striking and excellent than usual, it communicates a stronger impulse, and excites a more yehement desire When the lover discovers new charms in the character of his mistress, if her complexion glow with a softer blush, if her manners seem more engaging, his love becomes |