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is so high as to ignore altogether the judgment of others upon him . Now , it is evident that this pride may arise from fancied as well % s from real excellence , by a species of hypochondriasis , and many an ermined Herod , or political Sejanus . considers himself spotless and
unimpeachable by a monomania more fixed and destructive than that which characterizes him who imagines himself a teapot , or who consumes his life in endeavouring to reconcile his two legs , one of which is a stanch Protestant , whilst the other , he is convinced , favours the Bishop of Exeter .
Yet if in alluding to the consolations of imagination , our readers think we would encourage the habit of ideal rumination , our purport will be misconceived . By no mental process does the intellect more surely commit suicide than by the indulgence of visionary fabrication , and " castles in the air" cost their builder a greater outlay from the resources of his mind , than even solid bricks and mortar
draw from the revenues of his pocket . Such warblings of fancy are not only transitory , but deceptive ; they steal from us the treasure of a lifetime , and , like ivy , conceal from self-scrutiny the mind ' s insidious decay ; lull us , like the Danite in the harlot's lap , to the enervating sleep of indolent satisfaction with mistaken powers , until , when the Philistines of care and real want threaten us , we start up
and find our boasted strength is gone ! In intellect , as m moral excellence , satisfaction with the present as the ultimate end of our aspirations , certainly checks further progress ; yet also , since the mind cannot be quiescent , to pause is to retrograde , and contented acquirement is the sign of mental as of moral decline . Hence it is , that if left wholly to imagination , we should be like madmen
crying— 61 Seas of milk and skips of amber ! "St . Giles' and St . James' would change places for the more appropriate precincts of Bedlam and St . Luke's ; and the human war which
is carried on at such fearful odds , at present , between knaves and dupes , would terminate in the overwhelming increase of the latter . Fortunately , " Imagination and we are not all one ; but we have , " as Lord Shaftesbury powerfully expresses it , " a person left within , who has power to correct the appearances and redress the imagination . "
It is evident then , that though in some cases fiction and ideal may be consolatory , and , in their deceptive promises of results , even encouraging , yet , being false , their influence must be evanescent , fitful , and destructive . Sane and beneficial exertion must have two
constitutive elements , —it must aim at the truest good , and it must proceed by the purest way . Observe the purest , that is , the way most in accordance to the Bible , a book which admits neither flattery nor imposture , which ignores policy whore the latter wars with honesty , and does not allow even a statesman to have two consciences , one for
Grod and another for the State . The stimulus to progress drawn by man from himself , in his contemplation of this scene of woe and worthlessness , must be of necessity ephemeral and inefficient , so
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
is so high as to ignore altogether the judgment of others upon him . Now , it is evident that this pride may arise from fancied as well % s from real excellence , by a species of hypochondriasis , and many an ermined Herod , or political Sejanus . considers himself spotless and
unimpeachable by a monomania more fixed and destructive than that which characterizes him who imagines himself a teapot , or who consumes his life in endeavouring to reconcile his two legs , one of which is a stanch Protestant , whilst the other , he is convinced , favours the Bishop of Exeter .
Yet if in alluding to the consolations of imagination , our readers think we would encourage the habit of ideal rumination , our purport will be misconceived . By no mental process does the intellect more surely commit suicide than by the indulgence of visionary fabrication , and " castles in the air" cost their builder a greater outlay from the resources of his mind , than even solid bricks and mortar
draw from the revenues of his pocket . Such warblings of fancy are not only transitory , but deceptive ; they steal from us the treasure of a lifetime , and , like ivy , conceal from self-scrutiny the mind ' s insidious decay ; lull us , like the Danite in the harlot's lap , to the enervating sleep of indolent satisfaction with mistaken powers , until , when the Philistines of care and real want threaten us , we start up
and find our boasted strength is gone ! In intellect , as m moral excellence , satisfaction with the present as the ultimate end of our aspirations , certainly checks further progress ; yet also , since the mind cannot be quiescent , to pause is to retrograde , and contented acquirement is the sign of mental as of moral decline . Hence it is , that if left wholly to imagination , we should be like madmen
crying— 61 Seas of milk and skips of amber ! "St . Giles' and St . James' would change places for the more appropriate precincts of Bedlam and St . Luke's ; and the human war which
is carried on at such fearful odds , at present , between knaves and dupes , would terminate in the overwhelming increase of the latter . Fortunately , " Imagination and we are not all one ; but we have , " as Lord Shaftesbury powerfully expresses it , " a person left within , who has power to correct the appearances and redress the imagination . "
It is evident then , that though in some cases fiction and ideal may be consolatory , and , in their deceptive promises of results , even encouraging , yet , being false , their influence must be evanescent , fitful , and destructive . Sane and beneficial exertion must have two
constitutive elements , —it must aim at the truest good , and it must proceed by the purest way . Observe the purest , that is , the way most in accordance to the Bible , a book which admits neither flattery nor imposture , which ignores policy whore the latter wars with honesty , and does not allow even a statesman to have two consciences , one for
Grod and another for the State . The stimulus to progress drawn by man from himself , in his contemplation of this scene of woe and worthlessness , must be of necessity ephemeral and inefficient , so