its appeal more
and more varied. Art is a type in these respects of many social
enterprises, such as sport, amusement, and even such serious matters
as politics and industry. Each of these is a collection of inventions
that persists because it appeals to human impulses, and each one
appeals to a variety of different impulses.

{517}

The Psychology of Inventive Production

To the consumer, art is play, but to the producer it is work, in the
sense that it is directed towards definite ends and has to stand
criticism according as it does or does not reach those ends. What is
true of the producer of art works is true also of other inventors, and
we may as well consider all sorts of controlled imagination together.

In spite of the element of control that is present in productive
invention, the really gifted inventor seems to make play of his work
to a large extent. Certainly the inventive genius does not always have
his eyes fixed on the financial goal, nor on the appeal which his
inventions are to make to the public. It is astonishing to read in the
lives of inventors what a lot of comparatively useless contrivances
they busied themselves with, apparently from the pure joy of
inventing. One prolific writer said that he "never worked in his life,
only played". The inventor likes to manipulate his materials, and this
playfulness has something to do with his originality, by helping to
keep him out of the rut.

That "necessity is the mother of invention" is only half of the truth;
it points to the importance of a directive tendency, but fails to show
how the inventor manages to leave the beaten path and really invent.
Necessity, or some desire, puts a question, without which the inventor
would not be likely to find the answer; but he needs a kind of
flexibility or playfulness, just because his job is that of seeing
things in a new light. We must allow him to toy with his materials a
bit, and even to be a bit "temperamental", and not expect him to grind
out works of art or other inventions as columns of figures are added.

When inventive geniuses have been requested to indicate their method,
they have been able to give only vague hints. How does the musical
composer, for example, free himself of {518} all the familiar pieces
and bring the notes into a fresh arrangement? All that he can tell
about it is usually that he had an "inspiration"; the new air simply
came to him. Now, of course the air did not really come to h