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Unit 11: Addison-Pleasures of Imagination ...

The Pleasures of the Imagination, taken in the full Extent, are not so gross as those of Sense, nor Notes
so refined as those of the Understanding. The last are, indeed, more preferable, because they are
founded on some new Knowledge or Improvement in the Mind of Man; yet it must be confest, that
those of the “Pleasures of the Imagination” by Joseph Addison Imagination are as great and as
transporting as the other. A beautiful Prospect delights the Soul, as much as a Demonstration; and
a Description in Homer has charmed more Readers than a Chapter in Aristotle. Besides, the
Pleasures of the Imagination have this Advantage, above those of the Understanding, that they are
more obvious, and more easie to be acquired. It is but opening the Eye, and the Scene enters. The
Colours paint themselves on the Fancy, with very little Attention of Thought or Application of
Mind in the Beholder. We are struck, we know not how, with the Symmetry of any thing we see,
and immediately assent to the Beauty of an Object, without enquiring into the particular Causes
and Occasions of it.

The Pleasures of the Imagination is a long didactic poem by Mark Akenside, first
published in 1744.

There are, indeed, but very few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a Relish of any
Pleasures that are not Criminal; every Diversion they take is at the Expence of some one Virtue or
another, and their very first Step out of Business is into Vice or Folly. A Man should endeavour,
therefore, to make the Sphere of his innocent Pleasures as wide as possible, that he may retire into
them with Safety, and find in them such a Satisfaction as a wise Man would not blush to take. Of
this Nature are those of the Imagination, which do not require such a Bent of Thought as is
necessary to our more serious Employments, nor, at the same time, suffer the Mind to sink into
that Negligence and Remissness, which are apt to accompany our more sensual Delights, but, like
a gentle Exercise to the Faculties, awaken them from Sloth and Idleness, without putting them
upon any Labour or Difficulty.
We might here add, that the Pleasures of the Fancy are more conducive to Health, than those of the
Understanding, which are worked out by Dint of Thinking, and attended with too violent a
Labour of the Brain. Delightful Scenes, whether in Nature, Painting, or Poetry, have a kindly
Influence on the Body, as well as the Mind, and not only serve to clear and brighten the Imagination,
but are able to disperse Grief and Melancholy, and to set the Animal Spirits in pleasing and
agreeable Motions. For this Reason Sir Francis Bacon, in his Essay upon Health, has not thought
it improper to prescribe to his Reader a Poem or a Prospect, where he particularly dissuades him
from knotty and subtile Disquisitions, and advises him to pursue Studies that fill the Mind with
splendid and illustrious Objects, as Histories, Fables, and Contemplations of Nature.

11.2 Sources of Pleasures

I shall first consider those Pleasures of the Imagination, which arise from the actual View and
Survey of outward Objects: And these, I think, all proceed from the Sight of what is Great,
Uncommon, or Beautiful. There may, indeed, be something so terrible or offensive, that the Horror
or Loathsomeness of an Object may over-bear the Pleasure which results from its Greatness,
Novelty, or Beauty; but still there will be such a Mixture of Delight in the very Disgust it gives us,
as any of these three Qualifications are most conspicuous and prevailing.
“Delightful Scenes, whether in Nature, Painting, or Poetry, have a kindly Influence . . . and not
only serve to clear and brighten the Imagination, but are able to disperse Grief and Melancholy”
By Greatness, I do not only mean the Bulk of any single Object, but the Largeness of a whole View,

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