Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

IMAAGINATION. 339
eye by accurate representations of particular forms, is no lon ger
his aim; but, by the touches of an expressive pencil, to speak
to the imaginations of others.;zitation, therefore, is not the
end which he proposes to himself, but the means which he eimploys.in order to accomplish it; nay, if the imitation be carried
so far as to preclude all exercise of the spectator's imagination,
it will disappoint, in a great measure, the purpose of the artist.
(3.) Poetry.- In poetry, and in every other species of composition, in which one person attempts, by means of language,
to present to the mind of another the objects of his own imiagination, this power is necessary, though not in the same degree, to
the author and to the reader. When we peruse a description,
we naturally feel a disposition to form, in our own minds, a distinct picture of what is described; and in proportion to the
attention and interest which the subject excites, the picture
becomes steady and determinate. It is scarcely possible for us
to hear much of a particular town without forming some notion
of its figure and size and situation; and in reading history and
poetry, I believe it seldom happens that we do not annex imagilaIry appearances to the names of our favorite characters. It
is, at the same time, almost certain, that the imaginations of no
two men coincide upon such occasions; and, therefore, though
both may be pleased, the agreeable impressions which they feel,
mtay be widely different from each other, according as the pic
tures by which they are produced are more or less happily
imagined. Hence it is, that when a person accustomed to
dramatic reading sees, for the first time, one of his favorite
characters represented on the stage, he is generally dissatisfiecd
with the exhibition, however eminent the actor may be; and if
he should happen, before this representation, to have been very
familiarly acquainted with the character, the case may continue
to be the same through life. For my own part, I have never
received from any Falstaff on the stage half the pleasure which
Shakspeare gives m-ne in the closet; and I am persuadecl that I
should.feel some degree of uneasiness, if I were present at any
attempt to personate the figure or the voice of Don Qulixote or
Sancho Panza. It is not always that tile actor, on such occa