t about to make an attack upon you with an enormous club. You
walk forward to confront the monster with perfect coolness. Why? Not
because you are a Mr Greatheart, accustomed to deal with giants, but
because, in fact, the illusion does not keep possession of your mind
even for a moment. Imagination merely suggests the false image; but
memory and reason, with a rapidity of action which cannot be
described, instantly correct the mistake, and tell you it is only the
old elm-tree; so that here, and in a thousand similar instances, there
is really no sufficient time allowed for any display of the power of
imagination.

A tale is told--we cannot say on what authority--which, whether it be
a fact or a fiction, is natural, and may serve very well to shew what
would be the effect of imagination if reason did not interfere. It is
said that the companions of a young man, who was very 'wild,' had
foolishly resolved to try to frighten him into better conduct. For
this purpose, one of the party was arrayed in a white sheet, with a
lighted lantern carried under it, and was to visit the young man a
little after midnight, and address to him a solemn warning. The
business, however, was rather dangerous, as the subject of this
experiment generally slept with loaded pistols near him. Previously to
the time fixed for the apparition, the bullets were abstracted from
these weapons, leaving them charged only with gunpowder. When the
spectre stalked into the chamber, the youth instantly suspected a
trick, and, presenting one of the pistols, said: 'Take care of
yourself: if you do not walk off, I shall fire!' Still stood the
goblin, staring fixedly on the angry man. He fired; and when he saw
the object still standing--when he believed that the bullet had
innocuously passed through it--in other words, as soon as reason
failed to explain it and imagination prevailed--he fell back upon his
pillow in extreme terror.

2. The point upon which we would insist is that, in the normal
condition of the mind and the body, the power of imagination is so
governed, that a display of the effects it produces while under the
control of reason, can give us but a feeble notion of what its power
might be in other circumstances. To make this plain, we add a few
suggestions respecting the nature and extent of the control exercised
by reason over imagination; and we shall next proceed to shew, that
_the activity of reason is dependent upon certain physical
condition