ociation by contrast,
especially those alike in emotional basis, which have been previously
studied. (First Part, Chapter II.)

Thus the diffluent imagination is, trait for trait, the opposite of the
plastic imagination. It has a general character of inwardness because it
arises less from sensation than from feeling, often from a simple and
fugitive impression. Its creations have not the organic character of the
other, lacking a stable center of attraction; but they act by diffusion
and inclusion.

II

By its very nature it is _de jure_, if not _de facto_, excluded from
certain territories--if it ventures therein it produces only abortions.
This is true of the practical sphere, which permits neither vague images
nor approximate constructions; and of the scientific world, where the
imagination may be used only to create a theory or invent processes of
discovery (experiments, schemes of reasoning). Even with these
exceptions there is still left for it a very wide range.

Let us rapidly pass over some very frequent, very well-known
manifestations of the diffluent imagination--those obliterated forms in
which it does not reach complete development and cannot give the full
measure of its power.

(1) Revery and related states. This is perhaps the purest specimen of
the kind, but it remains embryonic.

(2) The romantic turn of mind. This is seen in those who, confronted by
any event whatever or an unknown person, make up, spontaneously,
involuntarily, in spite of themselves, a story out of whole cloth. I
shall later give examples of it according to the written testimony of
several people.[86] In whatever concerns themselves or others they
create an imagined world, which they substitute for the real.

(3) The fantastic mind. Here we come away from the vague forms; the
diffluent imagination becomes substantial and asserts itself through its
permanence. At bottom this fantastic form is the romantic spirit tending
toward objectification. The invention, which was at first only a
thoroughly internal construction and recognized as such, aspires to
become external, to become realized, and when it ventures into a world
other than its own, one requiring the rigorous conditions of the
practical imagination, it is wrecked, or succeeds only through chance,
and that very rarely. To this class belong those inventors, known to
everyone, who are fertile in methods of enriching themselves or their
country by means of agricultural, mi