IT is the most agreeable Talent of an Historian to be able to draw up his Armies and fight his Battles in proper Expreffions, to fet before our Eyes the Divifions, Cabals and Jealoufies of great Men, and to lead us Step by Step into the feveral Actions and Events of his Hiftory. We love to see the Subject unfolding itself by juft Degrees, and breaking upon us infenfibly, that fo we may be kept in a pleafing Sufpence, and have time given us to raise our Expectations, and to fide with one of the Parties concerned in the Relation. I confess this shews more the Art than the Veracity of the Hiftorian, but I am only to speak of him as he is qualified to please the Imagination. And in this respect Livy has, perhaps, excelled all who went before him, or have written fince his Time. He defcribes every thing in fo lively a Manner, that his whole History is an admirable Picture, and touches on fuch proper Circumftances in every Story, that his Reader becomes a kind of Spectator, and feels in himself all the Variety of Paffions which are correfpondent to the feveral parts of the Relation. BUT among this Set of Writers there are none who more gratify and enlarge the Imagination, than the Au thors of the new Philofophy, whether we confider their Theories of the Earth or Heavens, the Discoveries they have made by Glaffes, or any other of their Contemplations on Nature. We are not a little pleased to find every green Leaf fwarm with Millions of Animals, that at their largest Growth are not visible to the naked Eye. There is fomething very engaging to the Fancy, as well as to our Reason, in the Treatifes of Metals, Minerals, Plants, and Meteors. But when we furvey the whole Earth at once, and the feveral Planets that lie within its Neighbourhood we are filled with a pleafing Aftonishment, to fee fo many Worlds hanging one above another, and fliding round their Axles in fuch an amazing Pomp and Solemnity. If, after this, we contemplate those wild Fields of Æther, that reach in Height as far as from Saturn to the fix'd Stars, and run abroad almost to an Infinitude, our Imagination finds its Capacity filled with fo immenfe a Prospect, and puts it felf upon the Stretch to comprehend it. But if we yet rife higher, and confider the fix'd Stars as fo many vaft Oceans of Flame, VOL. VI. E that that are each of them attended with a different Set of Planets, and ftill discover new Firmaments and new Lights that are funk farther in those unfathomable Depths of Ether, fo as not to be feen by the strongest of our Telescopes, we are loft in such a Labyrinth of Suns and Worlds, and confounded with the Immenfity and Magnificence of Nature. NOTHING is more pleasant to the Fancy, than to enlarge it self by Degrees, in its Contemplation of the various Proportions which its several Objects bear to each other, when it compares the Body of Man to the Bulk of the whole Earth, the Earth to the Circle it describes round the Sun, that Circle to the Sphere of the fix'd Stars, the Sphere of the fix'd Stars to the Circuit of the whole Creation, the whole Creation itself to the infinite Space that is every where diffufed about it; or when the Imagination works downward, and confiders the Bulk of a human Body, in refpect of an Animal, a hundred times less than a Mite, the particular Limbs of such an Animal, the different Springs which actuate the Limbs, the Spirits which fet thefe Springs a going, and the proportionable Minuteness of these feveral Parts, before they have arrived at their full Growth and Perfection. But if, after all this, we take the least Particle of thefe Animal Spirits, and confider its Capacity of being wrought into a World, that fhall contain within thofe narrow Dimenfions a Heaven and Earth, Stars and Planets, and every different Species of living Creatures, in the fame Analogy and Proportion they bear to each other in our own Univerfe; fuch a Speculation, by reafon of its Nicety, appears ridiculous to thofe who have not turned their Thoughts that way, though at the fame time it is founded on no less than the Evidence of a Demonflration. Nay, we may yet carry it farther, and discover in the smallest Particle of this little World a new inexhaufted Fund of Matter, capable of being fpun out into another Universe. I have dwelt the longer on this Subject, because I think it may fhew us the proper Limits,, as well as the Defectiveness, of our Imagination; how it is confined to a very finall Quantity of Space, and immediately stopt in its Operations, when it endeavours to take in any thing that is very great, or very little. Let a Man try to con ceive the different Bulk of an animal, which is twenty, from another which is a hundred times less than a Mite, or to compare, in his Thoughts, a length of a thousand Diameters of the Earth, with that of a Million, and he will quickly find that he has no different Measures in his Mind, adjusted to fuch extraordinary Degrees of Grandeur or Minutenefs. The Understanding, indeed, opens an infinite Space on every fide of us, but the Imagination, after a few faint Efforts, is immediately at a itand, and finds her self swallowed up in the Immenfity of the Void that furrounds it: Our Reason can pursue a Particle of Matter through an infinite Variety of Divifions, but the Fancy foon lofes fight of it, and feels in it felf a kind of Chasm, that wants to be filled with Matter of a more fenfible Bulk. We can neither widen, nor contract the Faculty to the Dimensions of either Extreme. The Object is too big for our Capacity, when we would comprehend the Circumference of a World, and dwindles into nothing, when we endeavour after the Idea of an Atom. IT is poffible this Defect of Imagination may not be in the Soul it felf, but as it acts in Conjunction with the Body. Perhaps there may not be room in the Brain for fuch a variety of Impreffions, or the Animal Spirits may be incapable of figuring them in fuch a manner, as is neceffary to excite fo very large or very minute Ideas. However it be, we may well fuppofe that Beings of a higher Nature very much excel us in this refpect, as it is probable the Soul of Man will be infinitely more perfect hereafter in this Faculty, as well as in all the reft; infomuch that, perhaps, the Imagination will be able to keep Pace with the Understanding, and to form in it felf distinct Ideas of all the different Modes and Quantities. of Space. Ignotis errare locis, ignota videre Ovid. Met. 1. 4. v. 294. He fought fresh Fountains in a foreign. Soil: T ADDISON. HE Pleasures of the Imagination are not wholly confined to fuch particular Authors as are converfant in material Objects, but are often to be met with among the Polite Mafters of Morality, Criticifm, and other Speculations abftracted from Matter, who, tho' they do not directly treat of the visible Parts of Nature, often draw from them their Similitudes, Metaphors, and Allegories. By thefe Allufions a Truth in the Understanding is as it were reflected by the Imagination; we are able to fee fomething like Colour and Shape in a Notion, and to discover a Scheme of Thoughts traced out upon MatAnd here the Mind receives a great deal of Satisfaction, and has two of its Faculties gratified at the fame time, while the Fancy is bufy in copying after the Understanding, and tranfcribing ideas out of the Intellectual World into the Material. ter. THE Great Art of a Writer fhews itself in the Choice of pleafing Allufions, which are generally to be taken from the great or beautiful Works of Art or Nature; for though whatever is New or Uncommon is apt to delight the Imagination, the chief Defign of an Allufion being to illuftrate and explain the Paffages of an Author, it fhould be always borrowed from what is more known and common, than the Paffages which are to be explained. ALLEGORIES, when well chofen, are like fo many Tracks of Light in a Difcourfe, that make every thing about them clear and beautiful. A noble Metaphor, when when it is placed to an Advantage, cafts a kind of Glory round it, and darts a Luftre through a whole Sentence. These different Kinds of Allufion are but so many different Manners of Similitude, and, that they may please the Imagination, the Likeness ought to be very exact, or very agreeable, as we love to fee a Picture where the Refemblance is juft, or the Pofture and Air graceful. But we often find eminent Writers very faulty in this refpe&t; Great Scholars are apt to fetch their Comparisons and Allufions from the Sciences in which they are moft converfant, fo that a Man may fee the Compass of their Learning in a Treatise on the most indifferent Subject. I have read a Discourse upon Love, which none but a profound Chymift could understand, and have heard many a Sermon that should only have been preached before a Congregation of Cartefians. On the contrary, your Men of Bufinefs usually have recourse to fuch Inftances as are too mean and familiar. They are for drawing the Reader into a Game of Chefs or Tennis, or for leading him from Shop to Shop, in the Cant of particular Trades and Employments. It is certain, there may be found an infinite Variety of very agreeable Allufions in both thefe kinds, but, for the generality, the most entertaining ones lie in the Works of Nature, which are obvious to all Capacities, and more delightful than what is to be found in Arts and Sciences. IT is this Talent of affecting the Imagination, that gives an Embellishment to good Senfe, and makes one Man's Compofitions more agreeable than another's. It fets off all Writings in general, but is the very Life and highest Perfection of Poetry: Where it fhines in an Eminent Degree, it has preferved feveral Poems for many Ages, that have nothing else to recommend them; and where all the other Beauties are prefent, the Work appears dry and infipid, if this fingle one be wanting. It has fomething in it like Creation: It bestows a kind of Exiftence, and draws up to the Reader's View several Objects which are not to be found in Being. It makes Additions to Nature, and gives greater Variety to God's Works. In a word, it is able to beautify and adorn the moft illustrious Scenes in the Universe, or to fill the Mind with more E 3 glorious |