Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Of Imagination [from Dissertations Moral and Critical]

London

Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell ... and W. Creech

1783

"Besides, when the senses have nothing to employ them, the mind is left (if I may so speak) a prey to its own thoughts; the Imagination becomes unmanageable; the nerves lose their wonted vigour"

So much are we accustomed to the bustle of active life, that profound silence alone startles the Imagination, and, as many accurate observers of nature have remarked, is apt to produce fear. Silence , as well as darkness, implies some degree of danger; by intimating that we are at a distance from the protection and other [end page 91] comforts of society.--Besides, when the senses have nothing to employ them, the mind is left (if I may so speak) a prey to its own thoughts; the Imagination becomes unmanageable; the nerves lose their wonted vigour; and now, the smallest sound is alarming, and the most common object appears to the eye distorted and disproportioned; nay we may fancy that we see, and that we hear, what exists only in our own Imagination. When the human frame is thus prepared for the reception of extravagant ideas, the senses are as easily imposed on, as when one raves in a fever: and then, if we be inclined to superstition, and in circumstances that favour it; who can tell what may follow!
(II.ii, pp. 91-2)

Animals::Prey

Reading

At least 2 entries in ESTC (1783).

Beattie, James. Dissertations Moral and Critical. Printed for Strahan, Cadell, and Creech: London, 1783. Facsimile-Reprint: Friedrich Frommann Verlag, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1970.

07/26/2005