This is Fancy. But in describing Satan exploring his way
through the air, no less an image will suit him, as a standard of
comparison, than a fleet descried afar off at sea, which seems
to hang in the clouds. This is Imagination. The description of
morning in Beaumont and Fletcher,

See, the day begins to break,

And the light shoots like a streak of subtile fire ;

and in the elder Marston's " Antonio and Melida,"

Is not yon gleam the shuddering morn that flakes
With silver tincture the east verge of heaven ?

are both instances of exquisite Fancy.
* " Inferno," canto 31, v. 34. t " Faery Queen," b. i., c. 7, st. 32.
24 ESTIMATE OF MODERN ENGLISH POETS.
But Shakespeare's description of the same object :

The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
And flecked darkness like a drunkard's reels ; *



and Byron's :



The morn is up again, the blushing mom,

With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom,

Laughing away the clouds with playful scorn ;t



and Kirke White's :



Mom, like a traveller girt for travel, comes,
And from his tower of mist,
Night's watchman hurries down j

and Spenser's :

The joyous day 'gan early to appear,

And fair Aurora from her dewy bed

Of aged Tithon 'gan herself to rear

With rosy cheeks, for shame, as blushing red, J

are each instances of the Imagination.
