I79I. LITERARY INTELLIGENCER. 25^ 



The moft dull and phlegmatic are not altogether void 

 of it ; and to poliefs it in a high degree, is to poflefs 

 the highefl hoiiovir of genius. 



Though the dilHnftive qualities of judgment, ima- 

 gination, and animal fenfation, be fufficientlj marked ; 

 yet, upon a near infpeftion, we will find thefe three 

 regions ef our nature fo interwoven, as never to exiil 

 feparately. Imagination is fometimes ufed as another 

 word for feelina; ; and without mental images there 

 can be no judgment. Imagination cannot be employed 

 .without allerting the qualities of the objecls with 

 which it is converfaut ; and this is the peculiar province 

 of judgment. 



A lat6 eminent philofopher * has probably gone too 

 far in alTerting, that there is really no diiference at all, 

 betwixt judgment and imagination ; that one endowed 

 with greainefs of mind, mull have necelTarily both theie 

 faculties in equal perfeftion. With vigorous powerg 

 to grafp any great or exalted fubjeft, may befaid equal- 

 ly of the poet and philofopher ; and therefore, fays he, 

 if tlie mind of Newton had been directed to the fubje£b 

 of Milton, he would have been a poet of the firft or- 

 der, and i)ice v:7-Ja 



In this ingenious remark there is fome plaufibility ; 

 but, as I have faid, it is carried too far : for though 

 fruitfuloefs of imagination may be equally afcribed to 

 a Euclid, who invents aprocefs of mathematical reafon- 

 ings, as to a Shakefpear, who brings together a group 

 of human characters, and a feries of actions ; and in 

 other refpecls there may be a fimilarity of operation 

 m the exercife of judgment and imagination ; yet the 

 bbjefts to which they arc feparately directed, form be- 

 twixt them a decided diftinftion ; a diftin^hion which 

 cannot be accounted for, but from an original bias of 

 nature. On the mind of the poet is imprinted, quali- 

 fies of beauty, fublimity, and grandeu;-, which habit 

 ' Coftor Johfifon. 



