the exertion of other faculties in less degree.  Where there is more imagination than fancy in a poem, it is placed under the head of imagination, and vice versa.  Both the above classes might without impropriety have been enlarged from that consisting of ’Poems founded on the Affections;’ as might this latter from those, and from the class ‘proceeding from Sentiment and Reflection.’  The most striking characteristics of each piece, mutual illustration, variety, and proportion, have governed me throughout.

None of the other Classes, except those of Fancy and Imagination, require any particular notice.  But a remark of general application may be made.  All Poets, except the dramatic, have been in the practice of feigning that their works were composed to the music of the harp or lyre:  with what degree of affectation this has been done in modern times, I leave to the judicious to determine.  For my own part, I have not been disposed to violate probability so far, or to make such a large demand upon the Reader’s charity.  Some of these pieces are essentially lyrical; and, therefore, cannot have their due force without a supposed musical accompaniment; but, in much the greatest part, as a substitute for the classic lyre or romantic harp, I require nothing more than an animated or impassioned recitation, adapted to the subject.  Poems, however humble in their kind, if they be good in that kind, cannot read themselves; the law of long syllable and short must not be so inflexible,—­the letter of metre must not be so impassive to the spirit of versification,—­as to deprive the Reader of all voluntary power to modulate, in subordination to the sense, the music of the poem;—­in the same manner as his mind is left at liberty, and even summoned, to act upon its thoughts and images.  But, though the accompaniment of a musical instrument be frequently dispensed with, the true Poet does not therefore abandon his privilege distinct from that of the mere Proseman;

    He murmurs near the running brooks
    A music sweeter than their own.

Let us come now to the consideration of the words Fancy and Imagination, as employed in the classification of the following Poems.  ‘A man,’ says an intelligent author, ’has imagination in proportion as he can distinctly copy in idea the impressions of sense:  it is the faculty which images within the mind the phenomena of sensation.  A man has fancy in proportion as he can call up, connect, or associate, at pleasure, those internal images ([Greek:  phantazein] is to cause to appear) so as to complete ideal representations of absent objects.  Imagination is the power of depicting, and fancy of evoking and combining.  The imagination is formed by patient observation; the fancy by a voluntary activity in shifting the scenery of the mind.  The more accurate the imagination, the more safely may a painter, or a poet, undertake a delineation, or a description, without the presence of the objects to be characterised.  The more versatile the fancy, the more original and striking will be the decorations produced.’—­British Synonyms discriminated, by W. Taylor.