"We now come to the power of imagination, or the faculty of the power of imagination without the presence of the object. It is more skillful at representing the forms of the object than at representing the sensation; for example, I can always represent the form of a set table, but cannot do this as correctly for the taste or enjoyment I had. There is only one kind of sensation, namely sound, that can be restored well in the power of imagination. Our imagination cannot create anything, and it is true that it cannot produce any sensations in us that we have not already had, but it can create new forms. Someone who was born blind cannot represent light and darkness to himself. Our imagination is reproductive when it makes intuitive to us an object that we have previously perceived. [It is] productive when it portrays for us an object that is not present in our senses. The latter is found particularly among poets, painters, etc. They are different for each human being. Both kinds of power of imagination are either voluntary or involuntary.
1. The reproductive [kind] is involuntary. It gives certain impressions that one can never be rid of. Hypochondriac persons, and in general people that have delicated feeling, are particularly subject to these impressions.
The power of imagination progresses in us involuntarily in an incessant course, without our being able to do anything about it other than give the imagination another direction. In solitary moments every human being occupies himself with castles in the air. However, it is true that we like to occupy ourselves with certain objects the most. But here, too, we merely set the power of imagination going; afterwards it progresses involuntarily. In this way the power of imagination always seems to be active in dreams, for when one awakes one finds oneself surrounded by many foolish images.
But we must always try to keep the power of imagination so much in our control that we can also cease giving it another direction. Otherwise we are in a state of distraction. – The voluntary power of imagination is called imagination, and the involuntary is called fantasy. With fantasy we often play our game, as we intentionally direct it, but it also plays its game with us, as it carries us away involuntarily toward ideas – this is especially so in the case of pain suffered over a great loss; in that case one tolerates no reasons for consolation, as one gets angry that another person believes that one could so easily divert oneself away from the pain. One thus sees that it is folly to agonize over worries for the future about things over which one has no control; but one still cannot dismiss them. It is thus very useful and necessary to accustom oneself to keeping the power of imagination fully in one’s control. If one tries to stop the power of imagination often, it will become more and more manageable in the end. Some people consider themselves geniuses if they have an unruled power of imagination, but that is like riding a staggering horse. In writings, the imagination must be organized according to rules at all times. The imagination is stronger in the evening than in the morning, for my senses are more occupied in the morning because they have rested for so long; in the evening they are already fatigued, hence one thinks of death and eternity, etc., then. Some people enjoy this so much that they like to stay awake into the night, but the mind becomes very worn out through this and the understanding is also already tired. – Hypochondriacs thus like to stay awake at night.
Fantasy is entertained through very insignificant things if they merely provide some material for images; for example, the fire in the fireplace through its various shapes arouses a gentle motion in the mind and gives it ever new material. Likewise tobacco, with the different indefinite shapes of smoke. Thus if one smokes in the dark it never tastes good, and the comfort of the tobacco derives from the fact that it gives our imagination nourishment. So, too, the imagination is served by broad vistas, where I cannot think anything definite about the objects and my fantasy can thus swarm as it pleases. People who do not understand much about music can occupy themselves with objects better if gentle music is playing. It is inexplicable how it happens that, by occupying oneself with insignificant things, one can better sharpen one’s attentiveness. Thus Euler made his best inventions when playing with his children. It is good to study while spinning wool, for the even motion keeps the mind in an even tension. The imagination greatly embellishes the past and the future. That is why one finds one’s childhood years so agreeable when they have passed. But when one thinks about it, they are actually more troublesome than the present years. In one’s youth one is under compulsion; through the spur to activity the mind is anxious first here, then there, and our desires are then untamed and make us unsettled. With more years one becomes calmer. But one forgets the discomfort and remembers only the comfort one enjoyed. It is like this for the Swiss with their homesickness. – It is peculiar that nations where luxury clearly predominates lack homesickness; but the poorer the nation, the more homesickness there is. – Imagination often becomes so strong that it seems as if the object were present, and it also has just that effect. For example, if one represents to himself the great danger of falling into a chasm from a height – the fantasy, which precedes the present, greatly weakens the sensation that one afterwards has in the present. A comedy that one has already read will not please very much when it is on stage. – Hence gardens are designed so that one does not see everything at once, but rather always sees unexpected things. – The imagination directs itself according to the inclinations. If one feels hatred, then the imagination shows everything from its most detestable side. For example, if a delinquent is executed, then for the most part according to the judgment of human beings he looks very treacherous; this happens because we know for the most part that he is a vicious man. Lavater recognized faces well when he knew the persons; in short, everyone believes he sees that of which his head is full. With the imagination, the productive [kind] is also voluntary and involuntary – one must not reproduce thoughts that bear a similarity to some thoughts that are contrary to another representation; otherwise he will reproduce ita according to the law of association.
The French say: “One should not speak of rope in the house of a hanged man.” If one has eaten rhubarb with coffee, then afterwards the thought of rhubarb will always occur to one when drinking coffee. This is a good way of giving up coffee. Even opposita reproduce each other, since they are related in that by positing one, the other is preserved; for example, the cares of old age recall the joys of youth. Reconciled enemies think more about their enmity than friends who have separated think of their former friendship.
The imagination is aroused by miens. I represent to myself the same affects that the other expresses through miens – it is peculiar: when one person who is in the throes of affect makes all kinds of miens to another, the spectator imperceptibly imitates them. – When someone falls in the street, all the spectators make a movement to hold themselves upright, as though they too were going to fall. When I yawn, the other person is often forced to yawn, too. These are kinds of convulsive movements, and of these it is known that they are communicated involuntarily.
The power of imagination can be very harmful. – It embellishes the object of my love, and such love is very hard to eradicate; it is strengthened even more by absence.We commit vice because the power of imagination embellishes it for us and adds a false charm to the thing. So if one wants to be fortunate and virtuous, one must never let the power of imagination go without the reins. He must avail himself of the power of imagination merely for his advantage and enjoyment. Among our mental powers, the power of imagination seems to be the one that is least able to be tamed. One calls a fantast someone who becomes fanatical in his fantasies, and whose fantasy is unreined. The power of imagination’s being unruled is far more worrisome than its being unreined. The former is found among all oriental peoples, as with them everything is based on a play of images, and as far as these images reach, so too their concepts reach, but where the images are missing, so too are their concepts. The power of imagination is the servant of all other powers of understanding, wit, etc.
For it provides for the use of understanding and reason the intuitions that give a meaning to their concepts. The power of imagination can, as it were, carry us out of this world and transfer us into another one. When it industriously plays its game, one hears nothing, sees nothing, and one can thus also drive away pain and procure enjoyment. It is the most necessary of all our powers, because, for instance with regard to the understanding, it provides us with an image, to which our abstract concepts can be applied in concreto. But the power of imagination does not substitute for us a lack of the senses. For if someone is blind from youth, for example, he will not be able to represent to himself, by means of fantasy, images that only the eye can see. But if someone had his vision and lost it later, he will be able to make enough images. For fantasy is much richer than the entire field of intuitions, indeed not in materials, but nevertheless in forms; fantasy is our good genius, but also our evil demon. It is the source of our most enchanted joys, but also of the bitterest sufferings. Thus, for instance, the enjoyment a miser takes in his money is merely the enjoyment of his fantasy, and all his agonizing worries are mere effects of his fantasy. Fantasy extends to the grave, for human beings are very worried that after death their body will lie in a good, comfortable, and safe place. If we had no fantasy, we would have to do without a multitude of pleasures. Since we cannot always enjoy sensible joys, the imagined ones are thus of service for filling in idle hours. This aim is served by novels, stories, travel books, in the reading of which our imagination always plays along, as it always transfers us to the places and into the situations themselves.
Whoever habitually occupies himself with the idea of the good in fantasy is a fantast. For whoever is so taken in by the idea of a perfect good up to the point of passion that he forgets that this is a mere idea and believes that it could actually be realized, is such a fantast in the good, or enthusiast. Thus there are enthusiasts of patriotism, friendship, etc.
But someone who is so taken in by his ideas that they become unruled, is called a dreamer. With enthusiasts, the power of imagination is no doubt unreined, that is, without limits, but not unruled. With the dreamer, the power of imagination is unruled. The imagination, when it is involuntary, is fantasy, and this alone is both unreined and unruled – a fanatic is someone who in intuition exhibits to himself (and wants to do so) spiritual representations that are merely in the understanding. Those who see spirits at every step are visonaries. – The power of imagination forms all representations out of the material presented to us by the senses. This is also why it has the name [it does]." (pp. 383-387).