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 ...

IM:AGINATION. 371
underrate the risk of possible evil; and, in the case of some
fortunate individuals, this disposition remains after a thousand
disappointments. To what this bias of our nature is owing, it
is not material for us to inquire; the fact is certain, and it is
an important one to our happiness. It supports us under the
real distresses of life, and cheers and animates all our labors;
and although it is sometimes apt to produce, in a weak and
indolent mind, those deceitful suggestions of ambition and vanity, which lead us to sacrifice the duties and the comforts of the
present moment to romantic hopes and expectations; yet, it
must be acknowledged, when connected with habits of' activity,
and regulated by a solid judgment, to have a favorable effect
on the character, by inspiring that ardor and enthusiasm which
both prompt to great enterprises, and are necessary to insure
their success. When such a temper is united (as it commonly
is) with pleasing notions concerning the order of the universe,
and, in particular, concerning the condition and the prospects
of man, it places our happiness, in a great measure, beyond the
power of fortune. While it adds a double relish to every enjoyment, it blunts the edge of all our suf.ferings; and, even
when human life presents to us no object on which our hopes
can rest, it invites the imagination beyond the dark and troubled
horizon, which terminates all our earthly prospects, to wander
unconfined in the regions of futurity. A man of benevolence,
whose mind is enlarged by philosophy, will indulge the same
agreeable anticipations with respect to society; will view all
the different improvements in arts, in commerce, and in the sciences, as cooperating to promote the union, the happiness, and
the virtue of mankind; and amidst the political disorders resulting from the prejudices and follies of his own times, will look
forward with transport to the blessings which are reserved for
posterity in a more enlightened age.