Another Definition of the term Fancy. There is another use of the term Fancy, called " arbitrary Imagination," or Imagination not governed by the pure ideas of truth and beauty." In this use of the faculty of Imagination, instead of the beautiful being shadowed forth, grotesque images are produced with intentional violation of all laws of esthetics. In the present Treatise, the term Fancy will be used in conformity to the definition first given. IMAGINATION AND FANCY ELUCIDATED. Preliminary Remarks. I will here introduce two remarks, which it may be important to keep in mind, in order to a full appreciation of what is to follow, and will then proceed to the illustration and elucidation of the subject before us: 1. The imagination pre-supposes the Fancy, as the aggregative power; while the latter does not pre-suppose the former. 2. Upon these distinctions are founded the epithets commonly applied to each, the Fancy being, in different individuals, denominated rich, luxuriant, or the opposite; the Imagination being denominated sublime, beautiful, or the opposite, according to the nature and character of its creations. Elucidation. We now proceed to a further elucidation of the nature of the Imagination, as distinguished from the Fancy, and of the characteristics of each. We will commence as the basis of our illustrations, with a work familiar to all, and for that reason the more to our purpose, to wit, 'Paradise Lost.' Before Milton existed, the various parts of the entire scene presented in this work, had been for ages before the minds of millions. Every one that had read his Bible was perfectly familiar with the revolt of Satan and his legions-the war in heaven-the creation of man, and his fall, through the wiles of Satan-the Eden of man's first abode, and his subsequent expulsion, &c. These scenes, by the aggregative powers of the Fancy, had often been brought together in the same mind at the same moment. But here they remained in scattered fragments," without form and void," as far as unity and identity are concerned, till a new creative power in the mind of Milton, "moving upon the face of the waters," brought all the disordered and scattered elements into ore harmonious whole. Now what is this power which gave unity to all these endlessly diversified scenes? It is the Imagination. The Fancy first aggregates the materials-the elements. The Imagination then calls into being the “ new heavens and the new earth," formed into a harmonious unity out of the elements thus brought together. The same re marks apply to all the individuals, &c., real or imaginary, presented to our contemplation in the above poem. For the further illustration of these remarks I will now present a few extracts from the poem itself: "He scarced had ceas'd when the superior fiend Was moving towards the shore; his pond'rous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, The character and scene here presented, were created by the Imagination. The comparison of the shield to the moon, was the suggestion of the Fancy. Again: "Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom And princely counsel in his face yet shone, The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look Or summer's noon-tide air, while thus he spake." The operation distinct and separate of the two faculties under consideration, is too obvious here to need any remarks. To the same purpose I make one more quotation : "He, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon. In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds Here you perceive the propriety of the epithets, rich, and luxuriant, beautiful, and sublime, as applied to the Imagination and Fancy.-An Imagination, the creations of which are beautiful, grand, or sublime, is characterized accordingly. As the Fancy adorns such creations with analogies varied, multiplied, and appropriate, it is denominated rich, luxuriant, &c. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CREATIONS OF THE IMAGINATION. The Imagination is exclusively a secondary faculty. It operates only upon elements which the other faculties furnish. As the laws which control the Imagination are the ideas of unity, beauty, grandeur, sublimity, &c., it is by blending, in a peculiar manner, the elements of thought and feeling which lie under the eye of Consciousness, that this faculty shadows forth those forms which correspond to these ideas. My present object is to mark some of the principles in conformity to which a creative Imagination blends, unifies, and shadows forth the forms of beauty, grandeur, and sublimity. 1. Elements of Diverse Scenes blended into one Whole. The first that I mention is that already noticed in the case of Paradise Lost;' that in which the elements of different, and widely diversified scenes, are combined into one harmonious whole-into one beautiful, grand, or sublime conception. The character of the conception will depend upon two circumstances-the elements introduced into it—and the manner in which they are blended. To move upon the elements of thought, and blend them into form, in harmony with some one conception, is the principal law which controls the Imagination, in shadowing forth the beautiful, the grand, and the sublime. Nothing, almost, has greater influence in awakening in us the sense of the beautiful, the grand, or the sublime, than thus to contemplate parts of widely diversified scenes, which, in our thoughts, have lain in scattered fragments, all harmoniously blended into one grand conception. Thought is beautiful, and that which is brought into harmony with thought, has great power in awakening in us the sense of the same. To blend into one that which in thought has before been disconnected, and thus to unify our conceptions, stir in us the sense of the perfect, the true, the beautiful, the grand, and the sublime, is the peculiar function of the Imagination 2. Blending the Diverse. The poet had heard, with feelings of awe and rapture, from the neighboring hills and mountains, the reverberations of the trumpet's notes, as they were sounded forth from some high cliff, on the mountain side. Amid similar scenes he had listened to similar sounds from the waterfall. His Imagination blends the two, and thus shadows forth the conception of the beautiful. "The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep." The Fancy, or associative faculty, may connect, but not blend. This is the peculiar function of the Imagination. Under the influence of the former faculty, the poet would have said, "The cataracts sound like trumpets from the steep." "The sunshine is a glorious birth." To blend the conception of the production of light, with that of a birth, reveals the plastic power of the Imagination. "But now, when every sharp-edged blast Is quiet in its sheath." It requires some reflection, to appreciate the beauty of diverse thoughts here blended. Yet reflection will draw it forth. We have all conceived of the sharp-edged sword,' ceasing from the work of death, and lying quiet in its sheath. We have also heard the chill wind of winter spoken of as having a keen edge. As the poet walks forth amid the bland and mellow air of May, when the keen edge of winter has passed entirely from the atmosphere, his plastic Imagination unites the two conceptions above referred to into one. Hence the beautiful thought, "every sharp-edged blast is quiet in its sheath." I might multiply examples of the kind under consideration to any extent. But these are sufficient to illustrate the principle. 3. Blending Opposites. Another principle in conformity to which the Imagination shadows forth the forms of beauty, grandeur, and sublimity, is by blending things opposite to each other, such as the animate and in nimate, material and mental, the rational and irrational. I will give a few examples, the most of which will illustrate the principle under consideration with such obviousness as to render any particular remarks upon them unnecessary. ""Twas night; the sultry atmosphere Half palpable with darkness seemed, The growling thunders from their lair.” Every one is aroused to a deep sense of the grand and sublime on reading such a stanza. Two circumstances impart special grandeur and sublimity to the thought here presented-separating and presenting as opposites, things sustaining the relation to each other of cause and effect, as the lightning and the thunder-and blending opposites, the` animate and inanimate, and thus representing the thunders as growling monsters in their lair, roused to rage and fury by the lightnings gleaming in grandeur across the fields of air. I cite another passage from the same author-a poet yet unknown to fame. The language quoted, the poet has put into the mouth of an ancient Roman chieftain slave, dying in his humble shed, amid his comrades whom he was about to lead forth in a struggle for liberty, and who were assembled "To hear his last and solemn charge, Ere Death should set his soul at large. Half-raising up his giant form, With awful lustre in his eye, 'Ye spirits of the storm, A glad and glorious jubilee. Like you, unmock'd by man's control, When on the clouds your chariots roll, My free and disembodied soul Soon makes the Elysian fields, long sought, The play-ground of its deathless thought.""&c. I shall not spoil the passage, by particular comments. |