Newspaper Page Text
Three- Dolls . per cnn.~]
Volume V.]
[ MISCELLANEOUS.
- —...
| from the Richmond Tnqmrer.-
ON THE ILLUSIONS OF FANCY.
NO Tingle faculty of the mind
: afferds materials for such various
and curious disquisition as the fan
cy or imagination. The metaphy
sician views it as the mimic of the
-senses, whose funaions it fometirnes
so aptly performs, as to inipofe on
the mind fierion for troth. In thus
substituting the the pictures or im
ages of its own creation, for those
cf nature, he perceives that it on
ly (eparates or combines those i
deas which were imparted by the
\ senses and repofited in the memory
—that it can generate no simple
idea, but is merely the intelle&ual
\ artificer who makes a fabric cf the
the materials with which it is.fur
t rifted by the feni es. In the course
| of his enquiry into the principles of
its operation, he is aftoniihed to
find that even this power of fepa
ratingor combining, has its limits ;
and that with ail the feeminqr ir
*V•* - ! -
l regular r A ai'etrnve movements
| of-the tacy, there are but two or
| three natural relations, which, as
ffrfs enable it to pass from
o region, of thought to auciLcr ;
I and that the mind can mevgE Tnlft
If from idea- to H-a. tthere
t k proximity of time or place, re
fenfflance or contrail between
! therm Thus this lively faculty
whole anomalies seemed at fiiil
| yitw, to ctefy the power of human
| riyeftigation, is found to ad upon
: principles at once regular, Tnuple
jnd few. Different persons poiTefs
iO different degrees the power of
i perceiving what is contiguous in
time or place, and what is like or
g unlike ; according to which de
| S Tees they are said 4 to have an ac
ve, or dull imagination./ and
| Retimes, ‘to possess, or to want,
I hncyg.
I Since eloquence and poetry owe
| their highelt ornaments to the ima
:B®aticn it naturally becomes one
h 01 , ;he principal topics of literary
As it is the officcc of
!’ iue castor to persuade, and of the
I to please, the critic confiders
|| l e anc y merely as an inflrurhent
i‘ 0r purposes, and derives a
|y-et ot ru j eg f rorn p tie j aws of our na
il hy which he afcertaiiis the fit
‘f ;^t s es the means to the ends. • He
\° mts where a loose should be
k l Ve ft to the native impetuosity of
imagination, and wherd its un-
failies ihoufu be curbed:
y v\ Ws w hat passages poifefs the aw-
grandeur of the fublh ne, and
bpf L attra&iye loveliness oi
>’ di(lingoiihes those pic-
J S of ftncy that are dissonant to
rin { r i >m t hose which are hit oft
Mfc a 5 ‘ er h ne fl models. —
js Lj. u , or d, guided at one and the
$ iiifr x et ! n \ e the moft liberal feel
f Ute, - triC rt ant * th e niceil dic
-0 P ra h r es or blames
; iD* t 01 * s pi- imagination accord
>o ° Ue judgment of taste.
—_—
Washington, CGeorgt* >t> ~~” ‘ ■
I OR SaXAII H^ lhouse .
v ■rrg.'7LaatL*jß^
this busy faculty unwo-
S 0t the LalistZ
Our defures and aversions either de
- Jive new vigor from the imaifma-
Uon or owe their exigence to ft al
gether. It is. sometimes their
r" and *' n ayS th - ir iiurfe. By
its extensive influence over our p!ea^
fuies and our pains it goes far to
v ay regulating our moral conduct,
and according to the diretHcn it
niay take, gives birth to the fublim
eh heroiltu or the moft unnatural
depravity.
- j
To fliew the full extent of its in
finence on human happiness, would
laad me into too wide a field ofmo
!" a * and metaphysical speculation :
| but as a branch of the fuhjecf I
! P°. y to how much it tends to
i lubuitute laiichood for truth, by e
numerating fome of the moft ordi
nary idufions of fancy; in which
enumeration, the examples are ei
ther the result of my own observa
tions, or are believed to be in ftrid
j ac s* ic >J7 with the acknowledged
principles of human nature.
Sometimes the suggestions of the
imagination are miltaken for those
of the meimry. This propenfitv
| l p alrnolt always to be perceived
11 chiuiien <.*f very tender years.—*
j I’hey pridle of viiks they never
I • repeat convenations they
never heard, and deferibe objeas
they never thk too with
out the fmallele confcioufnds of
faifehood. The fame predomin
ance of iancy over memory, is oc
casionally leen in grown persons
who deal much in narrative. The
foible of these people never fails
to incur the contempt of the world,
and is generally imputed to vanity;
but where it is united to a charac
ter otherwise irreproachable, as I
have sometimes seen it, it is fair to
presume it proceeds from an imbe
cility of the min i rather than obli
quity cf the heart. Every man
who watches-the operations of his
intellect, muff have uncovered that
he occasionally had formed a new
alTodation of ideas at the very time
he thinks he is merely retracing an
association previously formed.
Women have always been ob
, served to have livelier imaginations
than men. A natural consequence
of this superior facility of associa
ting ideas, is, they are less accurate
in reciting matters of fad. Not
only the merits of a favorite, the
splendor of an exhibition, or the
horrors of a calamity are exagera
ted by the force of their imagina
tions, but what consists in mere
number anff quantity is apt to be
increased mr diminiffiied by the
caufe. One lady boasting of
the bea.ux who have led her daugh
ter out to dance, will convert twelve
into twenty ; while an envious
neighbor, by an opposite deceptiQn,
will reduce the number to Jive or
fix : and yet both these ladies may
be innocent of voluntary falfsOood.
The fad is, that each likened to
that suggestion of fancy wnich j
moft agreeable to her feelings.
I once knew two ladies dffpute.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER u, 1805.
am. at oa the height of
their ifcipedive gallants, who were
well known to both. The gentle
tumed out to be of equal
height, but each lady had been con
ndent that her own favorite was at
iealt two inches taller than the
other.
Very ardent lovers have ofcferv
ed that when they hr ft meet alter
a tong Separation, they feel diiap
poimed m each others appearance*
xt oecaufe the picture of the be
loved objecHs not in the mind
merely as memory had drawn it—
imagination had fuperadded the co
lors ol her own bright pencil.
, Sometimes we fee the imauina
tion 10 lively, so completely maker
or the rnmd, that it prevails over
the prain and direct communica
tion <.\f the senses.
On occasion of a not, Governor
ii * i •3* orlc , put himfelf
at the head of a party to quell the
tumult. Hie (word lie earned was
by.iome accident broken off near
hilt. With this fragment in
his hand he pufiicd forward, and
endeavored to force his way thro’
. the crowd. One mao, feeling the
p refill re of the mbtffated weapon,
looked back, and fixing his e>‘es
on the fpor, exclaimed £ * a dead
man, and fell fegftdefs _cn rite
| ground, under a temporary convic
| non that he was run through the
j body. ° *
iViajor H. whole life was Ipenfc
in mifehievous waggery, having
given a strolling fiddler fome li
quor, prdfed him to repeat his
draught with great earnestness. By
willies and nods to the bystanders,
lufpicions were artfully excited in
the poor fiddler—at length he was
told with a face of gravity and con
dolence, that he had taken an e
metic which would be good for his
health. Warm water was accor
dingly prepared, and the credulous
len of Orpheus was made to vomit
as freely, by the energy of his own
imagination, as he could have been
by the moft powerful drugs of
pharmacy.
A clergyman and his daughter
were once viewing the face of the
full moon. The young woman
was clear file saw in it the figure of
a young mar —but the father rebuk
ing the daughter for not feeing a
.church , fays, 64 why child, don't you
fee the (leeple
To ordinary palates, good wine
at the table of a poor man, will
seem bad, ordinary wine at the
house of a reputed epicure, has a
mod exquisite flavor.
JGiop, by way of charaSerifing
the blind partiality of a mother,
makes the owl, in describing her
young to ,the eagle, dwell with
great emphasis on their pretty fa-
ces./ 7
Persons who feel a dread of ap
paritions, need but meet with a
white cow or linen garment, and
their fancy fuppiies whatever is
wanting^to complete a pi&ure of
horror—gives it form, colour, mo
tion, nay even a distinct and articu
late voice, Gholts ware never yet
in by those who had not preyi
°fL ;Y/-' eac! or of diem,
y hen Wilkes was in the 2£ nith
ol ns popu aiity one of his moft
enthusiastic lemale admirers Would
not admit that he fquiuted. Yie 5 -
ding to the effetb of a nearer infpec.
tion, hie replied to her triumphant
adversary, “ Well, I am furc if ic
is h, tie [qmnts no more than a
gentleman ought to do.”
Ihe wretch who had been for
years the he!ple& viairn of dileafo
aas imagined hi'mfeif cured by the
touch or an iron bodkin : and o
one occaflon 1 knew a rheumatic
patient to be feratched with a cnili
fimpored on him for one o fp-r.
kms points) tia he v. .is able “ to
take up his bed and v alk.”
It is a iirnilar iilufion of fancy
which procures the ready iale cf
tae noui uihs of empires and v s u
ches with such grateful & a l for the
cures they have wrought.
J u So iers ana veiitriioculits owe
their luecefs chiefly tv the deluded
imaginations of ilicir beholders.
Hypocondria, delirium and nrad
tlio. t motel y earned cy corpo
l eci diieafe, are the immediate ef
tccls of an imagination Simulated
to preternatural vigor.
The fiiife pro miles of hope are
nothing but the indenien-t fel afir’ v
liycs its ffrength from one fi.ee:cs
oi iik'iitu: iliUiion, a.;d a varicc qom
anmner. Jeaiouly, envy, revenue,
make the inuigiriatijii convert beau
ty into defonniiy. and virtue into
vice : while love, pity, and admini
t.o*i, came an opposite metamorrh
o(:s. ‘When party fpmtrxms high,
the fame e%, the fume (beech il
thought to have or to want merit,
according to the fentimsrits they
exj>reiu. • This prejudice's It h
commonly called, or this iilufion of
fancy, is often extended moft lu
dreroufiy to the cut of a coat, the.
air of a popular song, or even to a
color that happens to be the badge
of a party. A few yearn fince/a*
black cape probably often excited
more horror in Paris than a fircet
murder.
If imagination is capable nst on
ly of (übftituting its own copies cf
the perceptions of sense for those
of memory, but even of cheating
us out of these perceptions them
ielves, how much and how often
mud it pervert the judgment!—
How liable is every chain of rea
fbning to be turned this or that v. ay
from the right line of truth. when
every link is so likely to be diver
ted! Few are the opinions we can
form which are not connected v/iih.
fome sentiment of pleafme cr pain,
and these sentiments are nounthed
more or less by fancy.
Let these confiderutions teach
charity and moderation-Zo valors
oi every defeription, and let thera
recolleft, that the opinions ol whose
truth they have the deepest convic-
tion, if they were formed when the
mind was much excited by feeling,
are less likely to be the demonltra
tions of reason than the illusions cf
fancy. --V .. *
[T dyable half yearly.
[Number 2SB.