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 ...

IMAGINATION, 341
to different individuals, and that hence arises much of the ambiguity of language. The same observation holds, in no inconsiderable degree, with respect to the names of sensible objects.
When the words river, mountain, grove, occur in a description,
a person of lively conceptions naturally thinks of some particular river, mountain, and grove, that have made an impression
on his mind; and whatever the notions are, which he is led by
his imagination to form of these objects, they must necessarily
approach to the standard of what he has seen. Hence it is evident that, according to the different habits and education of individuals, according to the liveliness of their conceptions, and
according to the creative power of their imaginations, the same
-words will produce very different effects on different minds.
When a person who has received his education in the country,
reads a description of a rural retirement, the house, the river,
the woods, to which he was first accustomed, present themselves
spontaneously to his conception, accompanied, perhaps, with the
recollection of his early friendships, and all those pleasing ideas
which are commonly associated with the scenes of childhood
and of youth. How different is the effect of the description
upon his mind, from what it would produce on one who has
passed his tender years at a distance from the beauties of nature, and whose infant sports are connected in his memory with
the gloomy alleys of a commercial city!
But it is not only in interpreting the particular words of a
description, that the powers of imagination and conception are
employed. They are further necessary for filling up the different parts of that picture, of which the most minute describer can
only trace the outline. In the best description, there is much
left to the reader to supply; and the effect which it produces on
his mind will depend, in a considerable degree, on the invention
and taste with which the picture is finished. It is therefore
possible, on the one hand, that the happiest efforts of poetical
genius may be perused with perfect indifference by a man of
sound judgment, and not destitute of natural sensibility; and on
the other hand, that a cold and common-place description may
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