t is true that the answer to so mysterious a question cannot rest alone
upon internal evidence; but it is well that you should know what might,
from that evidence alone, be concluded. And the more impartially you
examine the phenomena of imagination, the more firmly you will be led to
conclude that they are the result of the influence of the common and
vital, but not, therefore, less Divine, spirit, of which some portion is
given to all living creatures in such manner as may be adapted to their
rank in creation; and that everything which men rightly accomplish is
indeed done by Divine help, but under a consistent law which is never
departed from.

The strength of this spiritual life within us may be increased or
lessened by our own conduct; it varies from time to time, as physical
strength varies; it is summoned on different occasions by our will, and
dejected by our distress, or our sin; but it is always _equally human_,
and _equally Divine_. We are men, and not mere animals, because a
special form of it is with us always; we are nobler and baser men, as it
is with us more or less; but it is never given to us in any degree which
can make us more than men.

45. Observe:--I give you this general statement doubtfully, and only as
that towards which an impartial reasoner will, I think, be inclined by
existing data. But I shall be able to show you, without any doubt, in
the course of our studies, that the achievements of art which have been
usually looked upon as the results of peculiar inspiration have been
arrived at only through long courses of wisely directed labour, and
under the influence of feelings which are common to all humanity.

But of these feelings and powers which in different degrees are common
to humanity, you are to note that there are three principal divisions:
first, the instincts of construction or melody, which we share with
lower animals, and which are in us as native as the instinct of the bee
or nightingale; secondly, the faculty of vision, or of dreaming, whether
in sleep or in conscious trance, or by voluntarily exerted fancy; and
lastly, the power of rational inference and collection, of both the laws
and forms of beauty.

46. Now the faculty of vision, being closely associated with the
innermost spiritual nature, is the one which has by most reasoners been
held for the peculiar channel of Divine teaching: and it is a fact that
great part of purely didactic art has been the record, whether