[ 442 3 [BookX. 



CHAP. VI. 



OF INVENTION, 



Invention', iv?jat.~ Ideas of Memory and Imagination. In-ventioie 

 akd Judgment. 



TH E miad m?,y be equally employed in making 

 true as falfe combinations of ideas ; in forming 

 a fyftem, and connecting ideas by their natural relations, 

 as in depicting Centaurs, and making witty allufions ; 

 in either of which cafes it is faid>to invent. In the 

 former there feems to be a greater mixture of judgment, 

 and this kind of invention, is fubfervient to real fcience. 

 On the contrary, when the invention confifts in draw- 

 ing ftrong and lively pictures or reprefentations, either 

 falfe in themfeives, or heightening by rhetoric real facts, 

 it is called imagination ; when it confifts in wild and 

 unexpected combinations, it is called fancy*. 



From the two laft chapters it appears, that invention 

 is altogether dependant on the principle of aflbciation. 

 When a perfon is poiTerTed of a mind Efficiently active 

 to be eafily affected with the relations pointed out 

 in the preceding chapters, we fay of him, that he has 

 an inventive genius : a quick difcernment of thofe re-^ 

 lations between complex ideas, will lead him to com- 

 bine them into new ones, or to new arrange the order 

 of his thoughts, which will amount to nearly the farre. 

 In an active mind, the ideas will be more vivid, and fuch 

 a mind will take notice of many relations that would 



* " When ideas, and trains of ideas, occur, or are called up in 

 a vivid manner, and without regard to the order of former a&ual 

 impreflions and perceptions, this is faid to be done by the power of 

 iiragination or fancy." Hart. Introd. 



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