PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



Without this faculty we would never even attempt to know 

 what a day might bring forth. 



The mind appears to retain, and the memory to recall, 

 both the retrospective and the prospective ideas which the 

 imagination has formed ; and, what may appear surprising, 

 the latter with the greatest readiness. This faculty, like 

 those of attention and memory, is greatly improved by ex- 

 ercise, and appears in the greatest degree of perfection in 

 those who have received a liberal education, and habituated 

 themselves to attend to their intellectual operations. In 

 the savage state, this faculty is probably chiefly occupied in 

 prospective efforts to secure food or shelter. 



In the lower animals, the faculty of the imagination cer- 

 tainly exists, although, from the imperfect communication 

 which subsists betwixt us and them, its operations, as distinct 

 from memory, cannot be traced with any degree of certainty. 

 The pointer, who exhibits impatience to travel when his 

 master takes his gun in his hand, recollects the pleasure of his 

 former sports, and wishes to have them renewed. What is 

 it but imagination that persuades him that they may return, 

 and even points out the channel of their course ! A dog- 

 howls when his master is absent, and will anxiously look for 

 his return in particular directions. Here is anticipation of 

 a future event ; and action founded on the certainty of its 

 occurrence. We have seen a dog, evidently entertaining 

 suspicions that his master would prevent him being a com- 

 panion in his journey, steal away unobserved, and wait 

 on the road, at a considerable distance from the house. 

 Here we have the anticipation of the master's going 

 from home; apprehension of being detained; the pro- 

 spect of gratification from the journey ; an expectation of 

 his master's road ; and the success which would crown the 

 plan ; all of these efforts of the imagination. As we de- 

 scend iu the scale, these displays of the imagination can 



