IMAGINATION

From Agepedia

IMAGINATION ; the faculty of the mind which forms images or representations of things. It acts either in presenting images to the mind of things without, or by reproducing those whose originals are not, at the moment, present to the mind or the sense. We therefore distinguish(1.) original imagination, or the faculty of forming images of things in the mindthat is, the faculty which produces the picture of an object which the mind perceives by the actual impression of the objectfrom the (2.) reproductive imagination, or the faculty which recalls the image of an object in the mind without the presence of the object. Besides the power of forming, preserving and recalling such conceptions, the imagination has also the power (3.) to combine different conceptions, and*thus.create new images. In this case, it operates involuntarily, according to the laws of the association of ideas, when the mind is abandoned to the current of ideas, as in waking dreams or reveries. The association of ideas is either directed to a definite object by the understanding, or it operates only in subjection to the general laws of the underStanding. In the former case, the imagination is confined ; in the latter, its operations are free, but not lawless, the general law of tendency to a definite end fixing limits to its action, within which it may have free play, but which must not be overstepped. The free and yet regulated action of the imagination alone can give birth to the productions of the fine arts. In this case, it forms images according to ideas. It composes, creates, and is called the poetical faculty. From the twofold action of the imagination, we may distinguish two spheres, within which it movesthe prosaic and the poetical. In the former, it presents subjects on which the understanding operates for the common purposes of life. Here it is restricted by the definite object for which we put it in action. In the latter, it gives life to the soul, by a free, yet regulated action, elevates the mind by ideal creations, and representations above common realities, and thus ennobles existence. Imagination operates in all classes, all ages, all situations, all climates, in the most exalted hero, the profound thinker, the passionate lover, in joy and grief, in hope and fear, and makes man truly man.