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 ...

344 IIMAGINATION.
iences damlp our enjoyments, and where no clouds darken our
1prospects.
Edmcntnd Butrke's theory of poetry stated and controverted.That the pleasures of poetry arise chiefly from the agreeable
feelings which it conveys to the mind, by awakening the imagination, is a proposition which may seem too obvious to stand
in need of proof. As the ingenious inquirer, however, into
"the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," [Edmund Burke,] has disputed the common notions on this subject,
I shall consider some of the principal arguments by which he
las supported his opinion.
The leading principle of the theory which I am now to examine is, " That the common effect of poetry is not to raise ideas
of things;" or, as I would rather choose to express it, its comnmnon effect is not to give exercise to the powers of conception
and imagination. That I may not be accused of misrepresentation, I shall state the doctrine at length in the words of the
author. "If words have all their possible extent of power,
three effects arise in the mind of the hearer. The first is the
sotcnd, the second, the pictlure or representation of the thing signified by the sound, the thirdc is, the affection of the soul produced by one or by both of the foregoing. Compounded abstract words, (honor, justice, liberty, and the like,) produce the
first and the last of these effects, but not the second. Simple
abstracts are used to signify some one simple idea, without much
adverting to others which may chance to attend it; as blaue,
green, hot, cold, and the like: these are capable of affecting all
three of the purposes of words; as the aggregate words, man,
castle, horse, etc. are, in a yet higher degree. But I am of opinion, that the most general effect even of these words does not
arise from their forming pictures of the general things they
would represent in the imagination; because, on a very diligent
examination of my own mind, and getting others to consider
theirs, I do not find that, once in twenty times, any such picture
is formed; and when it is, there is most commonly a particular
effort of' the imagination for that purpose. But the aggregate
words operate, as I said of the compound abstracts, not by pie