Muscatine journal. [volume] (Bloomington, Iowa) 1849-185?, 1853-06-17
ORKGFNa1 l..
For the JOURNAL.
Imagination.

IL may % baiu VI imnSinatiou, % VI uro,
ssIt makes an excellent servant, but bad
master.o 1t is a source of great grati6ca-
ton and pleasure, to those who keepit In
sufi cient subsection to use it judiciously.- =
For instance, l can travel the vast distance
intervening between myself and absent
friends, and once more join in quiet chit
chat, or merry frolic with them; orl can
take passage for the blue skies of sunny
Italy, and revel amid the beautiful ruins Of
artistic elegance. l can guide my swift
steeds over the entire globe with the con-
cious pleasure of travelling at the expense of
nobody. Aside from the power of travelling
Imagination gives us, it furnishes us with
beautiful pictures. The hall Of memory is
stored with pictures, but the beautiful and
elegant do not predominant as they do in
the wide gallery of imagination. The pic.
lures memory paints are more durable, and
have q softer coloring, and although some
of them are old, yet we never tire of ga
zing on the most familiar.
With ina gination we need constant
supply of new pictures, and the gallery is
replenished at every caprice of the owner.
All that is rich, costly and beautiful, is here
gathered in one heterogeneous mass. No
hand smoothes and arranges them in sim
plicity and order, as does time, the hall
keeper of memory. The very presence Of
time in Imagination would wither the most
beautiful picture and darken the richest col
oring. But, while Imagination can be rem
dered, it is also made source o. unhappi-
ness and discomfort. have known per-
sons under the influence Of Imagination,
possess every disease that was in the least
fashionable, and every day their disease
would take new name and form. One
day they will prescribe for chill, and the
next day take opium or "cod liver oir' for
the dyspepsia or consumption, (of meli-
cine, | should think,) while the third finds
them suffering from an attack Of nervous
ness or fashionable neuralgia. Do they
get slight cold, (Which, if they did not
coax it to stay, would soon leave them,)
they take Cough Drops or Cherry Pectoral,
and soon find themselves in a blissful state
Of purgatory. For my part, SINGER ly pity
those who tie th h4mselves up in wet sheet
to cool fever occasioned by the extra ex-
ertion Of a journey to the kitchen, or sew
ing a missing button'on their husbands shirt
collar; although, to my mind, it is by far
the most preferable mode of treating them
at the present day, and least likely to do
harm.
Do not think, however, that | disclaim
the need of medicine or physicians. think
both highly useful to US; but do disbelieve
in the too common practice OF sending for
'sthe doctor'' for every finger ache or sore
toe we may have. Agood physician is an
inestimable friend, but is not necessary that
you should swallow his pill boxes to show
your confidence in him. How many physi-
clans testify to the lamentable fact that one
half of the diseases Of the fashionable are
solely imaginative! How many live in the
daily feeding of fancied complaint! How
many physicians are called IN attendance
upon worn-o out, faded bellies, and forced to
administer potions to those who only need
a healthy imagination to make them happy
and useful sisters, wives and mothers. Pep
sin, Cod Liver Oil and Cherry Pectoral are
undoubtedly good in many cases, but sure
ly not in an imaginative one. l would rec
ommend brown bread and the essence OF
cold water, applied after pure air and free
exercise, as far better remedy.
1t is to be deplored that one Of the pow
ers God has given US for keen perception
of the beautiful in his universe should be
SO perverted as to be darkening glass to our
mind and blind to our eyes. Will it not
come home against us in the last great day,
if we have abused this talent, (perhaps our
only one, J and will it not be blessed to give
it back in all its virgin lustre to Him who
gave it
Let us keep our minds free from poi
soned bias, and thus our imagination shall
be pure spring of enjoyment, bestowed by
the Divine hand and used in His righteous
ness. NANNETTE.