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 ...

350 IMAG INATION.
together in all possible proportions; and wh re either is possessed in a degree remarkably exceeding what falls to the
ordinary share of lankind, it may compensate, in some measure,
for a deficiency in the other. An uncommonly correct taste,
with little imagination, if it does not produce works which excite
admiration, produces at least nothing which can offend. An
uncommon fertility of imagination, even when it offends, excites
our wonder by its creative power; and shows what it could
have performed, had its exertions been guided by a more perfect
irmodel.
In the infancy of the arts, a union of these two powers in the
same mind is necessary for the production of every work of
genius. Taste, without imagination, is, in such a situation, impossible; for, as there are no monuments of ancient genius on
which it can be formed, it must be the result of experiments,
which nothing but the imagination of every individual can enable
him to make. Such a taste must necessarily be imperfect, in
consequence of the limited experience of which it is the result;
but, without imaginaation, it could not have been acquired even
in this imperfect degree.
In the progress of the arts, the case comes to be altered.
The productions of genius accumulate to such an extent, that
taste may be formed by a careful study of the works of others;
and, as formerly imagination had served as a necessary foundation -for taste, so taste begins now to invade the province of
imagination. The combinations which the latter faculty has
been employed in making, during a long succession of ages,
approach to infinity; and present such ample materials to a
judicious selection, that, with a high standard of excellence
continually present to the thoughts, industry, assisted by the
most moderate degree of imagination, will, in time, produce performances not only more free from faults, but incomparably
more powerful in their effects, than the most original efforts of
untutored genius, which, guided by an uncultivated taste, copies
after an inferior model of perfection. What Reynolds observes
of painting, mlay be applied to all the other fine arts; that " as
the painter, by bringing together, in one piece, those beauties,