The Poetical Works of Akenside and Beattie

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TI1K PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. A POEM, IN THREE BOOKS. A.aeSov( ftiv iimv ia/SpCrnou ruf irapa Tov Qeov;fopmzf dri- fuifrn. ? Ei'icr. apud Arrian. II. 23. THE DESIGN. There are certain powers in human nature which seem to hold a middle place between the organs of bodily sense and the faculties of moral perception: they have been called by a very general name, the Powers of Imagination. Like the external senses, they relate to matter nnd motion; and, at the same time, give the mind ideas analogous to those of moral approbation and dislike. As they are the inlets of some of the most exquisite pleasures with which we are acquainted, it has naturally happened that Tnen of warm and sensible tempers have sought 'means to recall the delightful perceptions which they afford, independent of the objects which originally produced them. This gave rise to the imitative or designing arts; some of which, as painting and sculpture, directly copy the external appearances which were admired in nature; others, as. music and poetry, bring them back to remembrance by igns universally established and understood. But these arts, as they grew more correct and deliberate, were of course led to extend their imitation beyond the peculiar objects of the imaginative powers; especially poetry, which, making use of language as the instrument by which it imitates, U consequent ) become an unlimited representative of every species and mode of being. Yet, as their intention was only to express the objects of imagination, and as they still abound chiefly in ideas of that class, they of course retain their original character; and all the different pleasures which they excite are termed, in general, Pleasures of Imagination. The design of the following poem is to give a view of these, in the larg...