14 IMAGINATION. 



habit of reasoning closely, ^nd in train ; not that I think i 

 necessary that all men should be deep mathematicians ; bu 

 that having got the way of reasoning, to which that stud 

 necessarily brings the mind, they might be able to transfe 

 it to other parts of knowledge, as they shdl have occasion; 

 Mathematics, according to their proper definition, const 

 tute the science of quantity, either as subject to measure c 

 number. They are pure and mixed. The former conside 

 Quantity abstractedly, without any regard to matter or pai 

 ticular bodies ; the latter treat of quantity as subsisting i 

 bodies, and consequently they are intermixed with the coi 

 sjderation of physics, or experimental philosophy. 



Rett's Elements of General Knowledge. ^ 



Questions. — 1. Whnt habit does an early attention to mathemi 

 tical studies produce ? 2. What is said of their practical utility 

 3. What are they calculated to teach ? 4. How is the benefit to I 

 derived from them stated by Mr. Locke ? 5. Give a definition ( 

 mathematics. C. Mow do pure mathematics consider quantity ? 

 Mixed.? 



Note. Pure mathematics are arithmetic, algebra, geometry, ar 

 fluxions : mixed consist chiefly of mochanics, pneumatics, hydn 

 statics, optics, and astronomy. 



^ i 



LESSON 8. ^ 



Imagi7iation. 



We do not merely perceive objects, and conceive or r* 

 member them simply as they were, but we have the power c 

 combining them in various new assemblages, — of formin 

 at our will, with a sort of delegated omnipotence, noti 

 single universe merely, but a iieii^ and varied universe, wit 

 every succession of our thought. The materials of whic 

 we form them are, indeed, materials that exist in ever 

 mind ; but they exist in every mind only as the stones exii 

 shapelessly in the quarry, that require little more than m( 

 chanic labour to convert them into cornmon dwellings, bi 

 that rise into palaces and temples only at the command o 

 architectural genius. This power of combining our coi 

 ceptions or remembrances in new assemblages is terme 

 imagination. 



The most sublime exertions of imagination are made b 



