In the case of instinct, the initial moment is an external or internal
sensation, or rather, a representation--the image of a nest to be built,
in the case of the bird; of a tunnel to be dug, for the ant; of a comb
to be made, for the bee and the wasp; of a web to be spun, for the
spider, etc. This initial state puts into action a mechanism determined
by the nature of each species, and ends in creations of special kinds.
However, variations of instinct, its adaptation to various conditions,
show that the conditions of the determinism are less simple, that the
creative activity is endowed with a certain plasticity.

In the third case, creative imagination, the ideal, a sketched
construction, is the equivalent of the ovum; but it is evident that the
plasticity of the creative imagination is much greater than that of
instinct. The imagination may radiate in several very different ways,
and the plan of the invention, as we have seen,[164] may arise as a
whole and develop regularly in an embryological manner, or else present
itself in a fragmentary, partial form that becomes complete after a
series of attractions.

Perhaps an identical process, forming three stages--a lower, middle,
and higher--is at the root of all three cases. But this is only a
speculative hypothesis, foreign to psychology proper.

FOOTNOTES:

[162] See above, Part One, Chapter IV.

[163] Those who, not having the courage to read the 575 pages of
Froschammer's book, want more details, may profitably consult the
excellent analysis that Seailles has given (_Rev. Philos._, March,
1878, pp. 198-220). See also Ambrosi, _Psicologia dell'
immaginazione nella storia della filosofia_, pp. 472-498.

[164] See above, Part II, chapter IV.

APPENDIX D

EVIDENCE IN REGARD TO MUSICAL IMAGINATION[165]

The question asked above,[166] Does the experiencing of purely musical
sounds evoke images, universally, and of what nature and under what
conditions? seemed to me to enter a more general field--the affective
imagination--which I intend to study elsewhere in a special work. For
the time being I limit myself to observations and information that I
have gathered, picking from them several that I give here for the sake
of shedding light on the question. I give first the replies of
musicians; then, those of non-musicians.

1. M. Lionel Dauriac writes me: "The question that you ask me is
complex. I am not a 'visualizer;' I have infrequent hypnagogic
hallu