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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 11: Addison-Pleasures of Imagination ...

Unit 11: Addison-Pleasures of Imagination : Detailed Notes
Study and Critical Appreciation

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Text -Pleasures of the Imagination
11.2 Sources of Pleasures
11.3 Final Causes of Beauty
11.4 The Art of Nature
11.5 Important Points of Addison’s Essays
11.6 Critical Appreciation
11.7 Summary
11.8 Key-Words
11.9 Review Questions
11.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Understand Addison’s Pleaures of Imagination
• Discuss various aspects of Addison essays
• Critically examine Pleasures of Imagination
Introduction

Joseph Addison (1672-1719), studied classics at Queen’s College, Oxford and subsequently became
a Fellow of Magdalen College. During his life, he held several governmental posts but is perhaps
best known for his founding of the daily The Spectator with Richard Steele. Addison’s Cato, a play
tracing the Roman statesman and stoic Cato’s opposition to Cæsar, was immensely popular; in
fact, George Washington had the play performed for his troops at Valley Forge. Addison’s optimistic
writing style constructed with gracious mannerisms is a major reason for his abiding influence in
English literature. Samuel Johnson praised his work, “Whoever wishes to attain an English style,
familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the
study of Addison.”
In his and Richard Steele’s The Spectator, 2 Addison developed an essay style which greatly
influenced the writings in eighteenth-century periodicals. In the short well-known passages in our
readings on the pleasures of the imagination, Addison clearly notes some first suggestions towards
a theory of æsthetics. His contribution represents a shift in emphasis from the creations of the
artist to the leasures of the connoisseur; for this reason, Addison’s essays had great appeal to the
rising middle class seeking to improve their refinement and taste. Addison notes that of the
pleasures of sense, the understanding and the imagination, only the latter pleasures originate
from sight. Whether or not imaginative pleasures derive from the appearance or the ideas of
visible objects, the pleasure, he thinks, is due to their expansiveness, novelty, or beauty. He argues
that the purpose of such pleasure is attributable to the Supreme Being providing light and color to
behold His works. Accordingly, Addison believes beauty in nature surpasses that of art, even
though different aspects of beauty in each form enhance the beauty of the other.

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