The word "imagination" is similarly exalted by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the first paragraph
of the Preface (I:Pref:1) he wrote for the first edition and, even moreso, by Mary
Shelley in her Introduction (see 1831:I:Intro:3 and 1831:I:Intro:11) to the third
edition. Yet, clearly the "doubt" that in these sentences is twice juxtaposed against
this power is meant to deflate its pretensions to be an absolute good. As the novel
proceeds, its questioning of the imagination will intensify.