e, the man of affairs.

If the intuitive imagination is combined with the deductive spirit we
have the analytical talent of the systematic naturalist, of the
geometrician. In Linnaeus and Cuvier the intuitive element predominates;
in Gauss, the analytical element.

The combining imagination joined to the inductive spirit constitutes
"the talent for invention strictly so-called," in industry, in the
technique of science; it gives the artist and the poet the power of
composing their works.

The combining imagination plus the deductive spirit gives the
speculative talent of the mathematician and philosopher; deduction
predominates in the former, imagination in the latter.[78]

FOOTNOTES:

[78] Wundt, _Physiologische Psychologie_, 4th German edition, Vol.
II, pp. 490-95.

CHAPTER I

THE PLASTIC IMAGINATION

I

By "plastic imagination" I understand that which has for its special
characters clearness and precision of form; more explicitly those forms
whose materials are clear images (whatever be their nature), approaching
perception, giving the impression of reality; in which, too, there
predominate _associations with objective relations_, determinable with
precision. The plastic mark, therefore, is in the images, and in the
modes of association of images. In somewhat rough terms, requiring
modifications which the reader himself can make, it is the imagination
that materializes.

Between perception--a very complex synthesis of qualities, attributes
and relations--and conception--which is only the consciousness of a
quality, quantity, or relation, often of only a single word accompanied
by vague outlines and a latent, potential knowledge; between concrete
and abstract, the image occupies an intermediate position and can run
from one pole to another, now full of reality, now almost as poor and
pale as a concept. The representation here styled plastic descends
towards its point of origin; it is an external imagination, arising from
sensation rather than from feeling and needing to become objective.

Thus its general characters are easy of determination. First and
foremost, it makes use of visual images; then of motor images; lastly,
in practical invention, of tactile images. In a word, the three groups
of images present to a great extent the character of externality and
objectivity. The clearness of form of these three groups proceeds from
their origin, because they arise from sensation well determined in