Formation of a Manly Character Author:George Peck 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: EL-INTELLECTUAL MANHOOD-CONTINUED. THE IMAGINATION. " FOE THE LORD SEAECHETH ALL HEARTS, AND UNDER9TANDETH ALL THE IMAGINATIONS OF THE THOUGHTS.—O LOBD GOD... more » OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND OF ISRAEL, KEEP THIS FOEEVEE Di THE IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF THE HEART OF THY PEOPLE, AND PREPAEE THEIR HEART UNTO THEE."—1 CHRON. xxvm, 9 ; xxnc, 18. The imagination constitutes so important a portion of our mental states, that I have thought best to give it separate consideration. The state of mind or power called imagination, is the power which the mind possesses of grouping its conceptions in new relations, or of originating new accidents of existing things. Pictures of the imagination, by authors upon the subject, are presumed to be above nature. For instance: "A painter,by this process, depicts a landscape, combining the beauties of various real landscapes, and excluding their defects. A poet or a novelist, in the same manner, calls into being a fictitious character, endowed with those qualities with which it suits his purpose to invest him, places him in contact with others equally imaginary, and arranges, according to his will, the scenes in which he shall bear a part and the line of conduct he shall follow. The compound, in these cases, is entirely fictitious and arbitrary; but it is expected that the individual elements shall he such as actually occur in nature, and that the combination shall not differ remarkably from what might really happen."—Abercrom- Ue. An example of this is seen in Milton's description of the garden of Eden. " 1. It is the activity of the mind which, with ease and freedom, unites different images or creates new ones, having been furnished with the materials for them by sensation and conception. Such images of imagination are those of Amazons, Cyclops,...« less