More than cool reason ever comprehends.
Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream, act v. sc. 1.
In the soul
Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief; among them Fancy next
Her office holds; of all external things
Which the five watchful senses represent
She forms imaginations, airy shapes.
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 300.
The devil can act upon the soul by suggesting the ideas and spiritual pictures of things to the imagination. For this is the grand repository of all the ideas and representations which the mind of man can work either upon or by. So that Satan, our skilful artist, can as easily slide his injections into the fancy as present a deluding image to the eye.—South, Sermons, 1737, vol. i. p. 110.