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 ...

3(b) 1i AG1NAA TIO N.
which might bear an unfavorable construction, he would recollect it, examine it, exaggerate it, perhaps dwell upon it for a
month, and conclude by a total breach with you. Hence it was
that there was scarce a possibility of undeceiving him; for the
light which broke in upon him at once was not sufficient to
efface the wrong impressions which had taken place so gradually
in his mind. It was extremely difficult, too, to continue long
on an intimate footing with him. A word, a gesture, furnished
him with matter of profound meditation; he connected the most
trifling circumstances like so many mathematical. propositions,
and conceived his conclusions to be supported by the evidence
of demonstration." "I believe," continues this ingenious writer,
"that imagination was the strongest of his faculties, and that it
had almost absorbed all the rest. He dreamed rather than
existed, and the events of his life might be said, more properly
to have passed in his mind, than without him; a mode of being,
one should have thought, that ought to have secured him fiom
distrust, as it prevented him from observation; but the truth
was, it did not hinder him from attempting to observe; it only
rendered his observations erroneous. That his soul was tender,
no one can doubt, after having read his works; but his imagination sometimes interposed between his reason and his affections,
and destroyed their influence: lie appeared sometimes void of
sensibility; but it was because he did not perceive objects such.
as they were. Had he seen them with our eyes, his heart
would have been more affected than ours."
In this very striking description, we see the melancholy picture
of sensibility and genius approaching to insanity. It is a case,
probably, that but rarely occurs in the extent here described;
but, I believe, there is no man who has lived much in the world,
who will not trace many resembling features to it, in the circle
of his own acquaintances; perhaps there are few who have not
been occasionally conscious of some resemblance to it in themselves.
1Mistakes in judgment resulting from an ill-regulated imagination. - To these observations we may add, that, by an excessive
indulgence in the pleasures of imagination, the taste may acquire