particular objects which exist in every mind. tions are comprised in three classes :

These associa

I. Personal. No man is indifferent to a view of the house where he was born, the school where he was educated, or the scenes amid which his infancy was spent. So many images of past affections and past happiness do they recall, that, common-place as they may seem to others, to him they are a source of indescribable rapture. There are melodies, also, that were learned in infancy, or were sung perhaps by beloved voices now silent, which awake strong feeling within us whenever they are heard, and are through life preferred to all others.

II. National. Next to personal associations, those connected with our country are most calculated to heighten our emotions of pleasure. What American can visit the localities consecrated by the blood of his struggling ancestors, can behold Bunker Hill, Bennington, Valley Forge, Cowpens, or Yorktown, and not feel his heart touched with a far higher and stronger enthusiasm than would be kindled by the mere beauty of the respective scenes? To others, they may be objects of indifference; to us, they are hallowed by their connection with our country's history. In like manner, the fine lines which Virgil, in his Georgics, has dedicated to the praises of his native land, beautiful as they are to us, were undoubtedly read with far greater pleasure by the ancient Roman.

The influence of such associations in increasing the beauty or sublimity of musical compositions must have been generally observed. Swiss soldiers in foreign lands have been so overwhelmed with melancholy on hearing their celebrated national air, that it has been found necessary to forbid its performance in the armies in which they serve. This effect is not attributable to the composition itself, but to the recollections with which it is accompanied; to the images it awakens of peace and domestic pleasures, from which they have been torn, and to which they may never return. So the tune called Bellisle March is said to have owed its popularity in England to the supposition that it was the air played when the British army marched into Bellisle, and to its consequent association with images of conquest and military glory.

III. Historical. Powerful, though in a less degree than the asso

Describe personal associations. Show how they impart additional intensity to the pleasure received from certain melodies. What associations, next to personal ones, are most calculated to heighten our pleasurable emotions? What scenes are likely to kindle enthusiasm in an American's heart? Why? In whom is it likely that the lines dedicated by Virgil to his country awakened the liveliest pleasure? What composi tions have their effect greatly increased by such associations? What illustration is cited, touching the Swiss soldiers? To what is the effect of this national air attributable? In like manner, to what does the air called Bellisle March owe its popularity?

ciations connected with our own land, are those founded on general his tory or the lives of distinguished persons. The valley of Vaucluse is celebrated for its beauty; yet how little would it have been esteemed, had it not been the residence of Petrarch! In like manner, there are many landscapes, no doubt, more beautiful than Runnymede; yet those who remember that this place witnessed the granting of the great charter which has guaranteed the rights and liberties of millions, will find few scenes affect their imaginations so strongly.

LESSON XXXVIII.

SOURCES OF THE PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION.

THE NOVEL.- THE WONDERFUL. THE PICTURESQUE.

§ 256. Of the five senses that have been given to man, three, taste, smell, and touch,-are incapable by themselves of awakening the imagination to pleasure. Coöperating with the other two, they may contribute to the effect produced on this faculty; or, by the associations connected with their sensations, they may occasionally produce pleasing trains of thought: but, independently exercised, they cannot be regarded as sources of the pleasures of Taste. Hence the intensity of the affliction with which the blind and deaf man is visited. off from the manifold enjoyments ensured by sight and hearing, and by these alone, he finds but little solace in the possession of the three inferior senses.

Cut

Taste (in its literal signification) has to do with the body; it flatters and serves the grossest of all masters, the stomach. No sense has less

What is the third class of associations? How do they rank as regards effect? What illustrations are given to prove their power?

§ 256. Which of the five senses are incapable of affecting the imagination? When do they contribute to the effect produced on this faculty? How are they sometimes instrumental in producing pleasing trains of thought? Independently exercised, are they sources of the pleasure of Taste? What follows with respect to the blind and deaf man?

To what does the sense of Taste appeal? What kind of pleasures is it incapable of

connection with the mind, or is so utterly incapable of yielding it pleasure.

Smell may sometimes seem to yield perceptions of the beautiful; but it is because the odor is exhaled from an object that we already know to be beautiful, and that is so independently of its fragrance. Thus tne rose charms us with its symmetrical proportions and the richness and variety of its shades; its odor is agreeable, not beautiful, and suggests the idea of beauty only because we know it to proceed from a beautiful object.

Touch may in a measure judge of smoothness, regularity, and symmetry; but not with sufficient promptness and accuracy to make it a source of pleasure to the imagination, unless sight comes to its aid.

Agreeable trains of thought may, indeed, occasionally be awakened by the taste, smell, and perhaps touch, of particular objects with which striking recollections of the past are connected; yet we cannot on that account say that the sensations produced through these media are a source of mental pleasure.

§ 257. The only senses capable of kindling the imagination and exciting its pleasures are SIGHT and HEARING. The impressions of the former are the more striking, and the enjoyment they yield is both more lasting and more intense. The blind, therefore, apart from the greater helplessness to which they are reduced, lose incomparably more of the pleas ures of the imagination, whether awakened by nature or art, than the deaf.

These senses seem to be particularly in the service of the soul. The sensations they produce are pure, not gross; intellectual, not corporeal. They contribute to the refining rather than the sustaining of life. They procure us pleasures which are not selfish and sensual, but noble and elevating.

258. To these two senses, then, through the operation of which natural objects excite a flow of imagination and con

producing? Of what may smell sometimes seem to yield perceptions? Explain how this is, and illustrate it in the case of the rose. Of what qualities may touch, in a measure, judge? Why is it not, then, a source of pleasure to the imagination? To what are the agreeable trains of thought sometimes awakened by these senses attributable?

Which pro

§ 257. What senses alone are capable of kindling the imagination? duces the more striking inpressions? How, then, does the affliction of the blind com. pare with that of the deaf? What is said of the sensations and pleasures produced by sight and hearing?

sequent pleasure, art must be addressed, in order to make ar impression on the mind. The eye being, as we have seen, the medium of the most vivid and abundant sensations, to it most of the fine arts,-painting, sculpture, architecture, and landscape-gardening, are exclusively addressed. Music, poetry, and rhetoric (which we have seen is a mixed art), address themselves to the ear.

§ 259. We may divide those objects of sight and hearing which constitute the source of pleasure to the imagination, into two great classes, the productions of nature and those of art. Strictly speaking, our subject leads us to treat only of the latter, or rather of that class of the latter which pertains exclusively to the art of composition. Yet, as the relation subsisting between the two is intimate and they often afford striking illustrations of each other, we shall briefly extend our notice to both.

§ 260. The different characteristics which an object must possess to excite the imagination are known as the novel, the wonderful, the picturesque, the sublime, and the beautiful. Of these the last two are by far the most fruitful sources of pleasure.

These five qualities belong alike to natural and artificial objects. Two others must here be mentioned, more limited in extent, because applicable only to the creations of art.

I. Fidelity of imitation. Art in many cases aims at nothing more than a reproduction of nature. In these cases, the closer resemblance the copy bears to the original, the greater pleasure does it afford. Nor is this less true, though the object copied be destitute of beauty, or even repulsive. In a picture we can endure the filthy lazaroni and disgusting dwarf, from whom in life we would turn away with uncontrol

§ 258. To what must art be addressed? Which arts are addressed to the eye? Which, to the ear?

§ 259. Into what two great classes are the objects of sight and hearing divided? What is said of the relation subsisting between them?

§ 260. Enumerate the characteristics which an object must possess, to excite the Imagination. Which of these are the most fruitful sources of pleasure? To what objects do these qualities belong? What two others are more limited in extent? In what cases is fidelity of imitation a source of pleasure? Illustrate the fact that a faith

lable aversion. The mind is pleased with the fidelity of the representation, because in the triumphs of art the whole species may be said to have a common concern and pride.

II. Wit, humor, and ridicule, in literary compositions, are the source of various pleasures. These are of such importance as to require future consideration at some length.

$261. THE NOVEL is an important source of the pleasures of Taste, producing, as it does, a lively and instantaneous effect on the imagination. An object which has no merit to recommend it, except its being uncommon or new, by means of this quality gives a quick and pleasing impulse to the mind. A degree of novelty, indeed, though not essential to the produc tion of impressions by the beautiful or the sublime, considerably heightens them; for objects long familiar, however attractive, are apt to be passed over with indifference.

The emotion produced by novelty is of a livelier and more pungent nature than that excited by beauty; but is proportionally shorter in its continuance. If there is no other charm to rivet our attention, the shining gloss thus communicated soon wears off.

The desire to see and hear what is new is universal, and is known as curiosity. No emotion of the mind is stronger or more general. Conversation is never more interesting than when it turns on strange objects and extraordinary events. Men tear themselves from their families in search of things rare and new, and novelty converts into pleasures the fatigues and even the perils of travelling. By children, also, this feeling is constantly manifested. We see them perpetually running from place to place, to hunt out something new; they catch, with eagerness and often with very little choice, at whatever comes before them. Now, by reason of its nature, novelty cannot for any length of time engross our attention; and hence curiosity is the most versatile of all our

ful representation pleases, though the object copied may be absolutely repulsive Explain the reason. What source of pleasure to the imagination belongs exclusively to literary compositions?

§ 261. What is the effect of the novel on the imagination? What, on the impres sions produced by the beautiful and the sublime? How does the emotion produced by novelty compare with that excited by beauty? What is the desire to see and hear new things called? How do men show that they are under its control? How is it mani ested by children? What is the leading characteristic of curiosity?