IMBONATI
674
IMMACULATE
virtue, yield through analysis just those elements
which are taken from the purely sensible order, and
are presented by the imagination. Consequently,
there can be no doubt as to the objective co-operation
of the imaginative faculty in the phenomenon of
ideation. But certain dangerous errors in this matter
must be guarded against. Hitherto we have insisted
on the distinction to be observed between the sche-
matic image and the idea. It would be a serious mis-
take to admit that any combination of images, however
summary and refined, can furnish the object of the
idea. Abstraction is often explained as though its
initial process, the leaving aside of the individualizing
notes, applied to the image itself, and as though the
residue of that operation were the intellectual deter-
minant, the species impressa, which starts the intellect
itself into action. This is clearly an illusion. The
image in its own essence is, and remains, individual;
no separation of parts can bring to view the universal,
the non-quantitive, in it. We must consider the role
of the image in ideation as something quite different.
It determines, not the intellectus agens, which would
be inconceivable, but the con.scious subject, to produce
the intellectual object. There is no proportion, so far
as the nature of the processes goes, between the image
and the object of the intellect. Only a spiritual fac-
ulty (the intellectus agens) is proportioned to such an
object: but the image is, as it were, a bait, which, in
accordance with the nature of its own object, draws
oui the superior powers of the conscious subject.
Hence, although everything in our intellectual knowl-
edge is derivetl from the images, everything in it
transcen<ls them. These two aspects of the question,
the essential dependence of the intellect on the images,
and its transcendency in respect to them, must always
be considered if we are to imderstand accurately the
part played l)y the image in the process of ideation.
There result therefrom important consequences the
study of which pertains to the psychology of intelli-
gence.
To conclude; we conceive the higher realities only by analogy with sensible things, but it in no way fol- lows that we conceive nothing liut what is material. Images play a very important part in all the activities of the intellectual order; but they do not constitute that order itself. The very spirituality of the human soul depends on this latter truth.
.AH general works on Psycholog>' treat of the Imagination, and in most cases in a satisfactory manner. The foliowinc in particular mav be cited; Jame-s, Principles of Psychology (.New York. 1892);' Maher, Psycholoay (London, 1905); Ribot, Eaaai sur Vimaginalion crcatrice (Paris. 1904); .1. M., A propoa du sentiment de presence chez les profanes et lea muatitiuea in Reinte dea questions scientifiques (Brussels, 1908-9): v'an BieR; VLiET, Images sensitives et images matrices in Rev. Philos.. XLIV (1897), pp. li;S-128: BlN-ET, La pensie sans images. Ibid., LV (1903). pp. 138-152; De Craene, .\'oa representations sensibles intiTicures in Rev. NA>-Seol., HI (1S96), pp. 45-69; Dugas, Vimaginalion (Paris, 1903); Greenwood, Imagination in Dreams (New York, 1894); Joly, De f imagination {Varis, 1877); Peillacbe, L'imagination etc. in Rev. de Pfiilos., II (1902). pp. 701-718; Idem. Thcorie des concepts (Paris, 1895); SuRBLED, L'imagination in Science Cath. (1896).
M. P. DE MUNNTNCK,
Imbonati, C.uilo Giuseppe, Cistercian of the Re- form of St. Bernard, orientalist, biographer, theo- logian; b. at Milan; flourished in the latter half of the seventeenth centurJ^ The date of his death is dis- puted ; yet it certainly did not occur before the year 1696. He occupied the chairs of theology and Hebrew in Rome and was raised to the dignity of abbot. A former pupil of Giulio Bartolocci, who was a rnember of the same order and projector of the "Bibliotheca magna rabbinica", Imbonati eventually became his master's collaborator. Upon the demise of the latter he completed and edited the fourth volume (Rome, 1693) of this monumental work, which, notwithstand- ing its shortcomings, bears witness to the untiring industry and vast erudition of its authors, and laid the foundation for Wolf's "Bibliotheca hebraica" and
other works of the kind. Imlionati brought out a
supplementary fifth volume under the title "Biblio-
theca latino-hebraica, sive de Scriptoribus latinis, qui
ex diversis nationibus contra Judajos vel de re he-
braica utcumque scripsere" (Rome, 1694). This vol-
ume also contains a "Chronology of .Sacred Scripture",
and two dissertations of an apologetico-polemical
character (viz., on the Messias, and on the Divinity
and Humanity of Christ) based upon miscellaneous
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin writings. Imbonati's
" Chronicon Tragicum, sive de eventibus tragicis Prin-
cipum" (Rome, 1696) has a didactic as well as a
scientific aim, and was WTitten chiefly for the guidance
of "Principes veritatis amatores". The dedicatory
letter, prefixed to this work and addressed to Card.
Ccelestinus Sfondratus, O.S.B., is dated from the
Monastery of St. Bernard in the Baths of Diocletian,
1 April, 1696. This is the latest date ascertainable
concerning Imbonati's career. (See Bartolocci,
Giulio.)
TtRABoscHi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, VIII (Rome. 1785), 346; Bibliotheca Casanatenaia, O.P. Catalogus, IV (Rome, 1788), 242 sq. ; Nouvelle Biographic Gentrale, s. v.; Wolf, Bibliotheca hthrtsa, I, 7; Ft'RST, Bibliotheca judaica, II, 91, III, LXXV; Jewish Encyclopedia, s. v. Bartolocci.
Thomas Plassmann.
Imhof, MAXi.\rus von, German physicist; b. 26 July, 1758, at Rissbach, in Bavaria; d. 11 April, 1817, at Munich. He was the son of a shoemaker. After preliminary studies at Landshut he entered the Augus- tinian Order in 17S0 and taught, in the monastery at Munich, physics, mathematics, and philosophy from 1786 to 1791. In 1790 he became a member of the class in physics of the Munich Academy of Sciences, of which he was made director in 1800. In 1790 he received the appointment of Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the Electoral Lyceum, and in 1792 he was called by the academy to lecture in public on experimental physics and chemistry. He was elected prior of his monastery in 1798. In 1802 he left the order and was made canon of the Frauenkirche in Munich. Dviring twenty-one years he superintended the installation of lightning-rods in Bavaria. His important published works are: "Theoria electri- citatis", Munich, 1790; " Institutiones physices", Munich, 1796; " Experimental-Naturlehre", Munich, 179.5; " .\nfangsgruende der Chemie", Munich, 1802; " Anweis ueber Blitzableiter ", Munich, 1816.
LoMMEL. .Mlgemeine Deutache Biographic, XIV (Leipzig, 1881). 56-57. ^
WlLUAM Fox.
Imitation of Christ, a work of spiritual devotion, also sometimes called the "Following of Christ ". Its purpose is to instruct the soul in Christian perfection with Christ as the Divine Model. It consists of a series of counsels of perfection written in Latin in a familiar and even colloquial style, and is divided into four parts or books: (1) Useful admonitions for a spiritual life; (2) Admonitions concerning spiritual things; (3) Of interior consolation; (4) Of the Blessed Sacrament. With the exception of the Bible, it is perhaps the most widely read spiritual book in the world. It was first published anonymously in a. d. 1418. Its authorship was until recently in dispute, being attributed to various spiritual writers, St. Ber- nard, St. Bonavcnture, Innocent III, Henry of Kalkar, John a Kcmpis, Walter Hilton, Jean Charlier de Ger- son, and Giovanni Gersen. The claim of Thomas a Kempis has been completely vindicated in recent years. For details as regards the authorship and the nature of the work itself see Thomas a Kempis.
Immaculate Conception. — The Doctrine. — In the Constitution "Incff;ibilis Deus" of 8 December, 1.S.54, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary " in the first instant of her concep-
