we find
them filled with images. Furthermore, they are of great variety--images
of colors, sounds, tastes, smells, touches, even of sensations from our
own internal organs, such as the palpitations of the heart that
accompany feelings of pride, indignation, remorse, exaltation. A
further characteristic is that they are sharp, clean-cut, vivid.

Note in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, the number, variety
and vividness of the images:

"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green....
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness in her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy regions stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!"

We may conclude, then, that three of the desirable attributes of great
works of the imagination are _number, variety_ and _vividness_ of
mental images.

One question that frequently arises concerning works of the imagination
is, What is their source? Superficial thinkers have loosely answered,
"Inspiration," implying, (according to the literal meaning of the word,
"to breathe in"), that some mysterious external force (called by the
ancients, "A Muse") enters into the mind of the author with a special
revelation.

Psychological analysis of these imaginative works shows that this
explanation is untrue. That the bizarre and apparently novel products
arise from the experiences of the author, revived in imagination and
combined in new ways. The horrendous incidents depicted in Dante's
"Divine Comedy" never occurred within the lifetime experience of the
author as such. Their separate elements did, however, and furnished the
basis for Dante's clever combinations. The oft-heard saying that there
is nothing new under the sun is psychologically true.

In the light of this brief analysis of products of the imagination we
are ready to develop a program which we may follow in cultivating an
active