T H E C O N C E P T O F M I N D I N E M M A ROBERT JAMES MERRETT University of Alberta It is the proper ambition of the heroes in literature to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by discovering new regions of the intellectual world. sa m u el J o h n so n , The Rambler no. 137 1 1 is well known that the eighteenth-century philosophical debate about the relation of fancy and understanding influenced Jane Austen’s composition of Emma,1 but how this debate actually informs the novel remains to be deter mined. Too often the relation in the novel is viewed simplistically and in isolation from other issues, whereas what makes it engaging in Emma is that it is inseparable from ideological conflicts between egoism and benevolence2 and between empiricism and rationalism. Furthermore, the relation depends much upon Jane Austen’s eclectic sense of mind. Although from the beginning of the book Emma fancifully wishes for impossible things,3 her self-indulgence is not just to be explained in terms of an imagination that dominates understanding.4 For she can exert herself to suppress her father’s morbidly selfish ideas, even though, when alone, she suffers from the same ideas. That is, she has sufficient self-awareness and insight into others, possesses a keen enough alertness to actuality and social circumstance, and is adequately guided by affection to allay from time to time the harmful effects of imagination: her understanding of herself and society is never insignificant. From the start, then, Emma is neither a feeble nor an unbalanced character, and Mrs. Weston’s testimony that Emma “was more equal to her situation than most girls would have been, and had sense and energy and spirits that might be hoped would bear her well and happily through .. . little difficulties and privations” (p. 15) seems creditable and accurate. Even when Emma begins to scheme about Harriet and to allow such imaginings to distract her from household duties, she can make amends quickly for her lack of engagement: E n g l is h St u d ie s in C anada, vi, i , Spring 1980 With an alacrity beyond the common impulse of a spirit which yet was never indifferent to the credit of doing every thing well and attentively, with the real good-will of a mind delighted with its own ideas, did she then do all the honours of the meal, and help and recommend the minced chicken and scalloped oysters with an urgency which she knew would be acceptable to the early hours and civil scruples of their guests. (P. 20) But, since the novelist amusingly presents Emma’s reaction to daydreaming as a very self-possessed enthusiasm to serve, the thematic issue concerns more than the relationship of fancy to understanding. For while Emma attends to her father and guests with a speed that reveals some sense of social commit ment, her responsiveness is self-consciously unique and pretentious because it stems from a shallowly satisfied imagination. That Emma is excessively earnest in her wish to be recognized for conducting relatively trivial affairs well, and that she exercises a real goodwill while her mind is turned in upon itself, shows her to be assertive as well as kind and remote while socially active. Emma’s self-contained imaginings do not dull her social awareness; rather her imagination and intelligence so easily satisfy one another that their lack of real integration enfeebles her moral will. Certainly, Emma’s reaction to her imaginings suggests that there is a poignant gap in her mind between altruism and egoism and between benevolence and intellectual pride. The lack of real integration between Emma’s imagination and intelligence is not hard to seek. For example, the ideas about Harriet which Emma enjoys are rarely informed by a sympathetic imagination; instead they are coldly rational and categorical.5 Emma sees her friend generically as “a Harriet Smith” and her views of Harriet as “a valuable addition to her privileges” and as “the something her home required” (p. 22) are calculating and unkindly objective. Scornful of Harriet’s lack of penetration, Emma...