Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- MODERN PAINTERS
- AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE RE-ARRANGED EDITION (1883)
- AUTHOR'S SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
- PART III OF IDEAS OF BEAUTY
- SECTION I OF THE THEORETIC FACULTY
- SECTION II OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY
- INTRODUCTORY NOTE (1883)
- CHAPTER I OF THE THREE FORMS OF IMAGINATION
- CHAPTER II OF IMAGINATION ASSOCIATIVE
- CHAPTER III OF IMAGINATION PENETRATIVE
- CHAPTER IV OF IMAGINATION CONTEMPLATIVE
- CHAPTER V OF THE SUPERHUMAN IDEAL
- ADDENDA (1848)
- AUTHOR'S EPILOGUE TO THE RE-ARRANGED EDITION (1883)
- APPENDIX
- Plate section
CHAPTER III - OF IMAGINATION PENETRATIVE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- MODERN PAINTERS
- AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE RE-ARRANGED EDITION (1883)
- AUTHOR'S SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
- PART III OF IDEAS OF BEAUTY
- SECTION I OF THE THEORETIC FACULTY
- SECTION II OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY
- INTRODUCTORY NOTE (1883)
- CHAPTER I OF THE THREE FORMS OF IMAGINATION
- CHAPTER II OF IMAGINATION ASSOCIATIVE
- CHAPTER III OF IMAGINATION PENETRATIVE
- CHAPTER IV OF IMAGINATION CONTEMPLATIVE
- CHAPTER V OF THE SUPERHUMAN IDEAL
- ADDENDA (1848)
- AUTHOR'S EPILOGUE TO THE RE-ARRANGED EDITION (1883)
- APPENDIX
- Plate section
Summary
Imagination penetrative is concerned, not with the combining, but the apprehending of things
Thus far we have been defining that combining operation of the Imagination, which appears to be in a sort mechanical, yet takes place in the same inexplicable modes, whatever be the order of conception submitted to it, though I choose to illustrate it by its dealings with mere matter before taking cognizance of any nobler subjects of imagery. We must now examine the dealing of the Imagination with its separate conceptions, and endeavour to understand, not only its principles of selection, but its modes of apprehension with respect to what it selects.
Milton's and Dante's description of flame
When Milton's Satan first “rears from off the pool his mighty stature,” the image of leviathan before suggested not being yet abandoned, the effect on the fire-wave is described as of the upheaved monster on the ocean-stream.”
“On each hand the flames
Driven backward, slope their pointed spires, and, rolled
In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale.”
And then follows a fiercely restless piece of volcanic imagery:
“As when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side
Of thundering Ætna, whose combustible
And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire,
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a singed bottom all involved
With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole
Of unblest feet.”
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- The Works of John Ruskin , pp. 249 - 288Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1903