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Author had expressed himself thus: " The sense of " feeling can, indeed, give us the idea of extension, "figure, and all the other properties of matter which " are perceived by the eye, except colours."

The latter part of the sentence is still more embarrassed. For what meaning can we make of the sense of feeling being confined in its operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects? Surely, every sense is confined, as much as the sense of feeling, to the number, bulk, and distance of its own objects. Sight and feeling are, in this respect, perfectly on a level; neither of them can extend beyond its own objects. The turn of expression is so inaccurate here, that one would be apt to suspect two words to have been omitted in the printing, which were originally in Mr. Addison's manuscript; because the insertion of them would render the sense much more intelligible and clear. These two words are, with regard: - it is very much straitened, and confined, in its operations, with regard to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects. The meaning then would be, that feeling is more limited than sight in this respect; that it is confined to a narrower circle, to a smaller number of objects.

The epithet particular, applied to objects, in the conclusion of the sentence, is redundant, and conveys no meaning whatever. Mr. Addison seems to have used it in place of peculiar, as indeed he does often in other passages of his writings. But particular and peculiar, though they are too often confounded, are words of different import from each other. Particular stands opposed to general; peculiar stands opposed to what is possessed in common with others. Particular expresses what in the logical Style is called Species; peculiar what is called differentia. Its peculiar objects would have signified in this place, the objects of the sense of feeling, as distinguished from the objects of any other sense; and would have had more meaning than its particular objects. Though, in truth, neither the one nor the other epithet was requisite. It was sufficient to have said simply, its objects.

Our sight seems designed to supply all these defects, and may be considered as a more delicate and diffusive kind of touch, that spreads itself over an infinite multitude of bodies, comprehends the largest figures, and brings into our reach some of the most remote parts of the universe.

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Here again the Author's Style returns upon us in all its beauty. This is a sentence distinct, graceful, well arranged, and highly musical. In the latter part of it, it is constructed with three members, which are formed much in the same manner with those of the second sentence, on which I bestowed so much praise. The construction is so similar, that if it had followed immediately after it, we should have been sensible of a faulty monotony. But the interposition of another sentence between them prevents this effect.

It is this sense which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that by the pleasures of the Imagination or Fancy (which I shall use promiscuously) I here mean such as arise from visible objects, either when we have them actually in our view; or when we call up their ideas into our minds by painting, statues, descriptions, or any the like occasion.

In place of, It is this sense which furnishesthe Author might have said more shortly, This

sense furnishes. But the mode of expression which he has used, is here more proper. This sort of full and ample assertion, it is this which, is fit to be used when a proposition of importance is laid down, to which we seek to call the reader's attention. It is. like pointing with the hand at the object of which we speak. The parenthesis in the middle of the sentence, which I shall use promiscuously, is not clear. He ought to have said, terms which I shall use promiscuously; as the verb use relates not to the pleasures of the imagination, but to the terms of fancy and imagination, which he was to employ as synonymous. Any the like occasion - to call a painting or a statue an occasion is not a happy expression, nor is it very proper to speak of calling up ideas by occasion. The common phrase, any such means, would have been more natural.

We cannot indeed have a single image in the fancy, that did not make its first entrance through the sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering, and compounding those images which we have once received, into all the varieties of picture and vision that are most agreeable to the imagination; for, by this faculty, a man in a dungeon is capable of entertaining himself with scenes and landscapes more beautiful than any that can be found in the whole compass of nature.

It may be of use to remark, that in one member of this sentence there is an inaccuracy in syntax. It is very proper to say, altering and compounding those images which we have once received into all the varieties of picture and vision. But we can with no propriety say, retaining them into all the varieties; and yet, according to the manner in which the words are ranged, this construction is unavoidable. For, re.

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taining, altering, and compounding, are participles, each of which equally refers to, and governs the subsequent noun, those images; and that noun again is necessarily connected with the following preposition, into. This instance shews the importance of carefully attending to the rules of Grammar and Syntax; when so pure a writer as Mr. Addison could, through inadvertence, be guilty of such an error. The construction might easily have been rectified, by disjoining the participle retaining from the other two participles in this way: "We have the power of re"taining those images which we have once received; " and of altering and compounding them into all the " varieties of picture and vision;" or better perhaps thus: "We have the power of retaining, altering, and " compounding those images which we have once " received ; and of forming them into all the varieties " of picture and vision." - The latter part of the sentence is clear and elegant.

There are few words in the English Language, which are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed sense than those of the Fancy and the Imagination.

There are few words which are employed.It had been better, if our Author here had said more simply - Few words in the English Language are employed. - Mr. Addison, whose Style is of the free and full, rather than the nervouskind, deals, on all occasions, in this extended sort of phraseology. But it is proper only when some assertion of consequence is advanced, and which can bear an emphasis such as that in the first sentence of the former paragraph. On other occasions, these little words, it is, and there are, ought to be avoided as redundant and enfeebling.Those of the Fancy and the Imagination. The article

ought to have been omitted here. As he does not mean the powers of the Fancy and the Imagination, but the words only, the article certainly had no proper place; neither, indeed, was there any occasion for other two words, those of. Better, if the sentence had run thus: "Few words in the English Language " are employed in a more loose and uncircumscribed "sense, than Fancy and Imagination."

I therefore thought it necessary to fix and determine the notion of these two words, as I intend to make use of them in the thread of my following speculations, that the reader may conceive rightly what is the subject which I proceed upon.

Though fix and determine may appear synonymous words, yet a difference between them may be remarked, and they may be viewed, as applied here, with peculiar delicacy. The author had just said, that the words of which he is speaking were loose and uncircumscribed. Fix relates to the first of these, determine to the last. We fir what is loose; that is, we confine the word to its proper place, that it may not fluctuate in our imagination, and pass from one idea to another; and we determine what is uncircumscribed, that is, we ascertain its termini or limits, we draw the circle round it, that we may see its boundaries. For we cannot conceive the meaning of a word, nor indeed of any other thing, clearly, till we see its limits, and know how far it extends. These two words, therefore, have grace and beauty as they are here applied, though a writer more frugal of words than Mr. Addison would have preferred the single word ascertain, which conveys, without any metaphor, the import of them both.

The notion of these words is somewhat of a harsh

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