The Sun.
London, England, 1824-02-19 00:00:00

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]

A letter from an extremely respectable person,
written in Lisbon, and received by the last
packet, distinctly mentions that the Portuguese
Government had by no means abandoned the
hope of regaining its ascendancy in the Brazils,
either by means of intrigue or main force, and
that its attention was particularly turned to
this subject at the present moment. The same
letter adds, that so great was the eagerness
of the Government, that preparations were
already going forward in order to send out an
expedition in the course of the ensuing spring,
accompanied by a considerable naval force. The
late dissolution of the Brazilian Congress, by the
Emperor's mandate (the encouraging conse-
quences of which, we observe, are vauntingly put
forth in the last Lisbon Papers), together with
the disunion and confusion so apparent in the
Provinces, has, no doubt, served to revive the
drooping spirits of the Lisbon Cabinet, and, as the
latter imagine, afforded a favourable opening for a
fresh attempt. This ought to convince not only the
Brazilian Provinces, but also the whole of the
Independent sections of South America, how ne-
cessary it is to be unanimous and consistent, and
in order that the people may be disposed to sup-
port the new Government placed over them, how
requisite is it to teach the by by practical results,
the great benefits they hdve derived from dis-
lodging the old one. If this is not done, the
work of consolidation cannot fail to be slow
in countries where a national character is not
yet formed, and the new institutions have scarcely
taken root. We are far, however, from think-
ing, that the reviving hopes of the Lisbon Go-
vernment are exclusively derived from the un-
settled state of Brazil. The affairs of the New
World must have been discussed by the Allied
, Powers since the late changes in the Peninsula
were effected,and at least some general understand-
ing must have been come to with respect to them,
and the result in all probability has led to the de -
claration of free trade on the part of Spain, in what
she still calls her ultra-marine possessions, and
tended to encourage the pretensions of Portugal.
From the downfall• of the Constitutional cause in
the two countries, we always anticipated fresh
hostility to the independent cause of America on
the part of Monarchs incapable of any act of
enlightened policy, and who are at the same time
anxious to render themselves popular at home,
and secure their own despotic thrones. Fortu-
nately, the power of both is extremely weak,
through the want of means, and from their
threats or intrigues nodanger is to be apprehended
as long as union prevails, and the several Govern-
ments in the Southern Continent of America pos-
sess the confidence and,suPport of the people.—
They must look to Spain and Portugal, and avoid
the errors which there ruined the Patriotic cause,
and always be prepared for the worst.

OR THE SUN.

MARYBONE.

' Ma. EDITOtt--I am tired of seeing the ma-
jority of our Newspapers perpetually mentioning
one of the largest parishes in the metropolis by
a false name--MarN-la.bonne. They might just
as well call St. Mary-le-bow, in Cheapside, St.
Mary-la-belle ; and then suppose that they were
their French, as probably
bentithoseuerculiltly correctorsdoNv nhio now print la-bonne. There
could not be a St. Mary that was not bonne; so
that epithet would be no distinction at all.
A modern history of London, now open before
me*, puts the matter on its right footing. It
prints in large characters, " ST. M A It Y-AT-BOURN,
vulgarly ST. AI A RY-LA-BONNE. Being thus de-
clared vulgar, I hope the gentlemen will be
ashamed of it. The parish is properly called the
parish of St. Mary-
le-bourn, the /e agreeing with
the bourn, not with the Saint, or St. Mary at
bourn, as equivalent. Bourn is an *ld word for
brook, and the same brook which gave a name to
Mary-bourn, gave one also to the place where
criminals were anciently tied up, namely 7y-
bourn. Another brook, it is well; known, gave
the name to Holbourn; which Stowe wrote Old-
bourn.

should any scrupulous grammarian object to
the union of a French article with an English
name ; let him recollect St. Mary-le-Strand, and
St. Martin-le-Grand; also St. Mary-le-born, and
Stratford-le-bow, both named from the bozo or
arch, which distinguished them. We may add
Chester-le-street ; and. others may occur to those
who are conversant in topography.

I have to hope, therefore, that we shall see no
more, in papers published in. the Metropolis of
the British Empire, of St. Mary-la-benne. Whe-
ther they may choose to write Matwbone, as so
long practised, or Marybourn, which would be
better ; or the more correct, but less convenient
and popular, St. Mary-le-bourn, may be left en-
tirely to their option. Popular use will filially
confirm one or other of them, as it may happen.
Nor does it much signify which.—Your's,
GLOSSARius.
• Huglison's, vol. iv. p. SA.

SUICIDE BY A BOY.—Au inquisition was taken
yesterday evening, at the Prince of Orange,
Phillip-street, St. George's in the East, on view
of the body of Edward Day, a youth of. only 15
years of age, who hung himself in the water-
closet of that house. Mr. Henry Chapfield deposed
that he is landlord of the Prince of Orange ; the de-
ceased has lived with him,as pot-boy, for the last 6
months; he was.a very wild sort of youth, and very
much addicted to drinking, and, whenever ine-
briated, conducted himself in a strange way ; he
was fifteen last December, and there can be no
doubt but he committed the rash act himself,,but-
what could have prompted him to the commission',
.of such a dreadful deed witness cannot develOpe ; ,
he was, generally speaking, very honest, and was
only a trifling sum in arrear of his beer money.—
The Jury returned a verdict of " Insanity."

FOR THE SUN.

IMAGINATION.

MR. EDITOR—Such is the extensive influence
which the imagination has upon the human mind,
that a few words upon the =timer of enlarging
its powers, and directing its energies to proper
objects, may not prove wholly uninteresting.
Vast as is the field which the imagination can
embrace, its power is still limited, to the for-
mation of new combinations of ideas that are pre-
viously known, and that have been acquired
through the medium of the senses. It is by in-
creasing this stock of ideas, and by giving more
energy to that faculty of the mind by which new
combinations can be formed, that the imagination
may be rendered more vigorous. To accomplish
the first of these objects, nature and her name.

roux and varied phenomena, must be diligently.
studied, We must examine her amidst the rich-
ness of well cultivated plains ; the barren heath ;
the rugged and peaked mountains ; the gloomy
forest, and the smiling pastures ; when the tem-
pest rages, when the thunder rolls, and the light.
ning plays amidst the dense clouds—these are
the objects that fill the soul with the highest
emotions, and raise it above the usual level
of humanity. They must have been seen
and heard, and felt; they must be obedient to
the call of imagination, and, at her command,
stand forth in all the awful splendour of their
varied and fleeting forms. The mind that can
find delight in contemplating scenes like those
just now enumerated, is alone capable of receiv-
ing the strongest impressions of any one of the
fine arts.
Fertile as is the imagination, it can still repre-
sent to itself only such objects as the senses have
perceived. Not, however, the grosser senses, but
those only from which the most pleasing and
elevated emotions are produced. With what
profit and effect does a mind properly disposed,
witness the glories of creation, the magnificence
of the universe ! With what emotions of delight
will it listen to the sighing breeze, or hear the
voice of the Lord of nature, in the awful
roar of the thunder; It is upon the readiness
and facility of either associating simple ideas of
a similar nature, or of conbining those that are
dissimilar, that depend the powers of imagina-
tion. To acquire this facility little more is
requisite than an intimate acquaintance with
language. Our mental, as well as our bodily
faculties, are all, equally susceptible of improve-
ment. By attaching definite ideas to arbitrary
signs, and by forming abstract, when definite no-
tions cannot be obtained, the power of associa-
tion, and of imagination, may, like every other fa-
culty of the mind, be strengthened and rendered
more perfect, in proportion as we call them into
practice. That such is the case, is proved abun-
dantly, comparing the richness and grandeur of
the works of Homer, of Milton, &c. with the
barrenness of imagination discoverable in the
poems of Osian.
The imagination has been often taxed with
either impeding or counteracting the understand-
ing. Very far,
however, from this being the case,
it
may be more justly considered as conducive to
the perfection of this highest faculty of the mind.
In all our pursuits we have only one object in
view,' the attainment of knowledge : but the
means we employ to accomplish this purpose,
must of necessity differ according
to the nature
of the object.
In mathematical pursuits we are led
by a series of
simple and determinate principles to
' a conclusion which is not less determinate and im-
mutable : and the links of the chain which we
have to follow, are so obvious, that common sense
is alone sufficient to lead us to this conclusion.
Still a person endowed with a brilliant imagina-
tion, instead of following each intermediate
link, will perceive at one glance the conclusion,
at which a duller mind can arrive only after
plodding over every inch of the ground.
In physical, or in moral researches, the case
is, however, Widely different. Here, in addition
to these immutable and determinate causes, the
mind has to call up at once all the accessory, or
adventitious circumstances which may influence
the general conclusion. This has proved a fertile
source of error, when mathematical principles, or
reasonings, have been applied to subjects to which
they are totally foreign. The first principles of
our reason are alone requisite to guide us in, ma-
thematical pursuits : and as these principles are
the same in all minds, they must inevitably
always lead to the same conclusions. We are
placed in a path from which we cannot possibly
deviate, and we are necessarily compelled to go
on wheresoever it leads. But in physical sciences,
we tread on less sure ground, and have frequently
no better nor safer guide than analogy. Igno-
rant of the great and immutable laws which go-
vern the operations of nature, we endeavour to
discover them by analogy ; but as no two causes
can be perfectly similar, in the physical world,
we are ever exposed to come to an erroneous con-
clusion.

In the moral world every thing depends on the

human mind, which being itself influenced by the
different states of society, by igno!ance or by
prejudice render the discovery of truth a matter
of much uncertainty. If we look into the dif-
ferent states of society we shall discover that in
morality, our knowledge is less simple than .in
physics, whence it follows that a proper exercise
of the imagination is essentially requisite for the
investigation of both moral and physical truths.
The rash, or insidious method of applying mere
methernatical reasoning to moral or physical sub-
jects, has proved a fertile source of error, be-
cause such a method of reasoning can- lead only
through partial promises to a partial conclusion.
And this method of reasoning can exist only in
those minds that never feel the influence of
imagination. It must be confessed, howeVer, that
too vivid, and too ardent a fancy frequently lead to
eroneons conclusions. Men endowed with this es-

timable gift, are too.apt to overlook the sugges-
tions of judgment, and to mistake the visions' of
a lively mind, for the sober conclusions of reason.
This is indeed, a melancholy truth, one of those
which must convince us that human reason, when
left to its own limited powers, is ever liable to
become the sport of error.

Having shewn how far imagination is necessary
to perfect human reason, and the evils resulting

from its excess or deficiency, it is necessary t:
indicate how these evils may be removed. The
perfection of the human mind depends chioni
upon a proper culture of the understanding,
upon keeping the imagination within rational
bounds. Much of the evils arising from too ar-
dent an imagination, have their origin in the tin-
capacity to perceive all the causes upon which
the conclusion must depend. To perceive at once,
and distinctly, all that can influence truths/
whether moral or physical, and then to drag
from these premises just and natural conclusionaff,
is one of the noblest but most difficult efforts of
the human mind. As we receive all our ideas fro°l
our senses, or through a medium unavoidabir
fallacious, it behoves us, before we give credit t°
their evidence, to study with attention their power
and their limits. This study, which is of infinite,
importance, is attended with no mean difficult)
but it is still within the compass of every well
regulated mind, since it requires only a proper
investigation of the faculties of the soul. I°
moral pursuits this is not, however, sufficient, he'
cause nothing can be more varied or different
than the minds, or dispositions of men. In these
pursuits to a proper knowledge of our own mind'
land of the general principles of the understand'
ing, must be superadded an acquaintance with
all the various prejudices, and caprices, and wall:
derings, of the human intellect, and with the di{'
ferent causes by which the moral world is rogue
lated. The culture and improvement of our reed
soning powers, is the best, if not, indeed, the onlft
method of discovering the truth ; and the ma'
thematical and physical sciences, are the most
conducive to the perfection of our judgment, and
are, consequently the best calculated to keep the
imagination within proper bounds, and, thus t°
enable it, even while it roves amidst the pleasing
paths of fancy, never to lose sight of. the °nit
road that leads to truth.
midliurst. A.