if this term appear too ambitious, does it present, in the course of its
evolution, any perceptible regularity? Observation separates out an
empirical law; that is, extracts directly an abridged formula that is
only a condensation of facts. We may enunciate it thus: The creative
imagination in its complete development passes through two periods
separated by a critical phase: a period of autonomy or efflorescence, a
critical moment, a period of definitive constitution presenting several
aspects.

This formula, being only a summary of experience, should be justified
and explained by the latter. For this purpose we can borrow facts from
two distinct sources: (a) individual development, which is the safest,
clearest, and easiest to observe; (b) the development of the species, or
historical development, according to the accepted principle that
phylogenesis and ontogenesis follow the same general line.

I

_First Period._ We are already acquainted with it: it is the imaginative
age. In normal man, it begins at about the age of three, and embraces
infancy, adolescence, youth: sometimes a longer, sometimes a shorter
period. Play, romantic invention, mythic and fantastic conceptions of
the world sum it up first; after that, in most, imagination is dependent
on the influence of the passions, and especially sexual love. For a long
time it remains without any rational element.

Nevertheless, little by little, the latter wins a place.
Reflection--including under the term the working of the
intelligence--begins very late, grows slowly, and the proportion as it
asserts itself, gains an influence over the imaginative activity and
tends to reduce it. This growing antagonism is represented in the
following figure.

The curve IM is that of the imagination during this first period. It
rises at first very slowly, then attains a rapid ascent and keeps at a
height that marks its greatest attainment in this earliest form. The
dotted line RX represents the rational development that begins later,
advances much more slowly, but progressively, and reaches at X the level
of the imaginative curve. The two intellectual forms are present like
two rivals. The position MX on the ordinate marks the beginning of the
second period.

[Illustration]

_Second Period._ This is a critical period of indeterminate length, in
any case, always much briefer than the other two. This critical moment
can be characterized only by its causes and results. Its