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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.