Of Sense, Imagination, and the Consequence or Trayne of Imagination
By FRANTZ
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
Chapter 1, Of Sense:
Hobbes speaks of the 5 senses and the impressions made on them by "External Body, or Object". He distinguishes his doctrine from that of the Aristotelian school, which he accuses of using too many words to describe Sense.
Chapter 2, Of Imagination:
Inertia, the idea that objects in motion stay in motion, means that Human Sense is driven to Imagination in order to stimulate the senses after External Bodies no longer "presseth the organ".
Similar to how the Sun's light makes the light of the Stars negligible, senses which are stronger obscure senses which are weaker.
This is why senses in the present are more dominant than senses from the past (imaginations). This decay of Imagination/Sense is called "Memory" or "Experience".
Imagination distinguishes itself between Simple and Compound Imagination.
Simple Imagination is Imagination of things perceived by the senses "all at once", like a man or a horse
Compound Imagination is more novel, it's the kind of imagination we use in fiction e.g. Hercules
Dreams are Imagination during sleep.
The ancients, being unable to distinguish Dreams from Vision and Sense, formulated the "Religion of the Gentiles" that worshipped Satyres, Fawnes, Nymphs, etc.
Likewise people in Hobbes' time imagine Fayries, Ghosts, and Goblins for the same reasons.
Hobbes attributes much of this storytelling to the "crafty ambitions" of liars abusing peoples' trust, and blames the "superstitious fear of Spirits" for civil disobedience.
The Imagination that gets invoked by words or signs is what Hobbes calls "Understanding".
Man is uniquely able to not just Understand signs, but combined them into Affirmations, Negations, and other forms of Speech. This is what Hobbes calls "the Consequence of Trayne of Imaginations" or "Mentall Discourse" (Conscious Thought)
Chapter 3, Of the Consequence or Trayne of Imaginations