Now, whether we call this Human or Poetic Truth, or _inward life_, it matters not; we know by _its effects_, (as we have already said, and we now repeat,) that some such principle does exist, and that it acts upon us, and in a way analogous to the operation of that which we call truth and life in the world about us. And that the cause of this analogy is a real affinity between the two powers seems to us confirmed, not only _positively_ by this acknowledged fact, but also _negatively_ by the absence of the effect above mentioned in all those productions of the mind which we pronounce unnatural. It is therefore in effect, or _quoad_ ourselves, both truth and life, addressed, if we may use the expression, to that inscrutable _instinct_ of the imagination which conducts us to the knowledge of all invisible realities. A distinct apprehension of the reality and of the office of this important principle, we cannot but think, will enable us to ascertain with some degree of precision, at least so far as relates to art, the true limits of the Possible,--the sphere, as premised, of Ideal Invention. As to what some have called our _creative_ powers, we take it for granted that no correct thinker has ever applied such expressions literally. Strictly speaking, we can _make_ nothing: we can only construct. But how vast a theatre is here laid open to the constructive powers of the finite creature; where the physical eye is permitted to travel for millions and millions of miles, while that of the mind may, swifter than light, follow out the journey, from star to star, till it falls back on itself with the humbling conviction that the measureless journey is then but begun! It is needless to dwell on the immeasurable mass of materials which a world like this may supply to the Artist. The very thought of its vastness darkens into wonder. Yet how much deeper the wonder, when the created mind looks into itself, and contemplates the power of impressing its thoughts on all things visible; nay, of giving the likeness of life to things inanimate; and, still more marvellous, by the mere combination of words or colors, of evolving into shape its own Idea, till some unknown form, having no type in the actual, is made to seem to us an organized being. When such is the result of any unknown combination, then it is that we achieve the Possible. And here the Realizing Principle may strictly be said to prove itself.