

PLEASURE OF IMAGINATION. 41 



forget to bear in mind, that the case is here the 

 same as it is every where else ; we cannot " gather 

 grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles;" we cannot 

 build palaces of marble, if we have observed only 

 mud and rushes. If our observation has been 

 narrow, our imaginings must be meagre ; and if 

 our observation has been vulgar, they must be 

 mean. 



The formation of those imagined works is per- 

 haps the very highest pleasure we can enjoy, and 

 it is the foundation of all that we invent and the 

 greater part of what we do. If, therefore, we do 

 not, by observation, find the mind sufficient ma- 

 terials whereon it may work, and out of which it 

 may elaborate valuable or splendid combinations, 

 we chain ourselves down, and are humble beings 

 in the estimation of our neighbours, and wretched 

 in our own feelings : we not only cut ourselves off 

 from a vast volume of enjoyment ; but we blight 

 and wither our very powers of enjoying. 



The ennui that comes upon us when we have 

 been long idle and listless, and the reverie and 

 oblivion which are consequent upon excess of 

 mere thought, without the exercise and use of the 

 senses, are proofs of the pleasure that we do derive, 

 and were meant to derive from observation, and 

 especially from the observation of nature. All of 

 us, too, may find practical proofs more convincing 

 than even these. A sleepless night, even when 

 the couch is soft, and the body free from pain, is 

 one of " the miseries of human life." How long, 

 and how lonely it feels ! The clock beats hours 

 instead of seconds ; and it seems an age before it 

 will count to us that hour which is a pledge that 

 the dawn is to break, and the sun to arise and 

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