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Jiave studied with peculiar care . In one short but beautiful paragraph under which title
concerning poctiy ( iiiay be comprehended all the various creations of this faculty ) , he has exhausted every thing that philosophy and good sense have yet had to offer , on what has been since called the beau
ideal-, a topic , which has furnished Occasion to so many over-refinements among the French critics , and to so much extravagance and mysticism in the cloud-capt metaphysics of the new German school . * In considering
imagination as connected with the nervous system , more particularly as connected with that species of sympathy to which medical writers have given the name of imitation , he has suggested some very important hints , which none of his successors have
hitherto prosecuted ; and has , at the same time , left an example of cautious inquiry , worthy to be studied by all who may attempt to investigate the laws regulating the union between mind and bodv / f His illustration of
* < c Cum niundus sensibilis sit anima rationuli dignitate inferior , videtur Poesis haec humanae naturae largiri quae historia denegat ; atque ammo umbris rerum utcunque satisfacere , cum solida haberi non possint . Si quis enini rcm acutius introspiciat , firmiim ex Poesi sumitur argumentura , magnitudinem rerum magis illustrem ,
ordiriein rnagis perfectum , et varietatem magis pulcram , animae humanae complacere , quaca in natura ipsa , post lapsum , reperiri ullo modo possit . Quapropter , cum res gestae et eventus , qtii verae historiae suibjiciuntur , non shit ejus amplitudinis , in qua anima huinana sibi satisfaciat ,
praesto est PoSsis , quae facta magis heroica confingat . Cum historia vera successus rerum , minime pro meritis virtutum et scelemin narret , corrigit earn Poesis , et exitus , et fortunas , secundum merita , et ex lege Nemeseos , exhibet . Cum historia vera obvia rerum satietate et similitudine ,
anii » ic humanae fast id 10 sit , reficit earn Poe * sis , inexpectata , et varia , et vicissitudiiium p lena canens . Adeo ut Poesis ista non solum ad delectationem , sed ad animi magnitudinem , et ad mores conferat . " ( De Aug . Scieut * Lib . ii . cap . xiii . ) 4- To this branch of the philosophy of
mind , Bacon gives the title of Docti'ina ( be fvedere , sive de communi vinculo attt 7 iue et cvrpbris . ( De j 4 ug . Scicnt . Lib . iv . xap . i . ) Under this article , he mentions , naiong other desiderata , an inquiry ( which he rofctfuiinends to physicians ) concerning
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the different classes of prejudices bet dent td human nature , is ; in point } practical utility , at least equal to anv thing on that head to be found m Locke ; of whom it is impossible to forbear remarking , as a circu mstance not easily explicable , that he should
have resumed this important discussion , without once mentioning the name of his great predecessor . The chief improvement made by Locke in the farther prosecution of the argu ! ment , is the application of HobWs theory of association , to ex plain in what manner these prejudices are originally generated .
In Bacon ' s scattered hints on to pics connected with the philosophy of the mind , strictly so called , nothing it , more remarkable than the precise and just ideas they display of the proper just ideas they display of the proper
aim of this science . He had manifestly reflected much and successfully on the operations of his own understanding , and had studied with uncommon sagacity the intellectual characters of others . Of his reflections
and observations on both subjects , he has recorded many important fesahs ; and has in general stated them without the slightest reference to any
phythe influence of imagination over the body . His own words arc very remarkable ; more particularly , tbe clause in which be remarks the effect of fixing and concentrating the attention , in giving to ideal objects the power of realities over the belief . " Ad alivid quippiam , quod hue pertinet , pane admodum , nee pro rei subtilitate , ret utilitate , inquisitum est ; quatenus scilicet ips ' a iinaginatio aninue vel cogitatio perquant fixa , et vehiti in / idem quondam
earaltata , valeat ad immutandum corpus imaginantis . " ( Ibid . ) He suggests also , as a curious problem , to ascertain how far it is possible to fortify and exalt the imagination ; and by what means this may most effectually be done . The class oi facts here alluded to , are manifestly of the .. j __ . _• __ *^ i _ 1 . 1 ^ 4- ^ -w ii'ln # > n ttlC descri with those to which the
same ption attention of philosophers has been lately called by the pretensions of Mesmer and oj Perkins : " Atque huic conjuncta - esX disquisitio , quomodo imaginatio intendi et fortificari possit ? Quippe , si iniagmatw fortis tantarum sit virium , opene pieiioa fuerit nosse , quibns modis earn cX " ^' et » c ipsa majorem fieri dctur . ¦ hie oblique , nee minus periculose set sinuat palliatio quaedaui et d efcnsio imae partis Magia ? Ceremomalis- ** ( De Auv . SciknU Lib . iv . cap . ' & , )' ¦
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fe 0 S 5 Estimate of the Philosophical Character of Lord Bacon .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 502, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/2/
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