type of manipulation. Where in
make-believe he has an actual object to manipulate according to the
meaning attached to it, in story-telling he simply talks about persons
and things and makes them perform in his story. He comes breathless
into the house with a harrowing tale of being pursued by a
hippopotamus in the woods; or he gives a fantastic account of the
doings of his acquaintances. For this he is sometimes accused of being
a "little liar"--as indeed he {483} probably is when circumstances
demand--and sometimes, more charitably, he is described as being still
unable to distinguish observation from imagination; but really what he
has not yet grasped is the _social_ difference between his
make-believe, which no one objects to, and his story-telling, which
may lead people astray.

Both make-believe and story-telling are a great convenience to the
child, since he is able by their means to manipulate big and important
objects that he could not manage in sober reality. He thus finds an
outlet for tendencies that are blocked in sober reality--blocked by
the limitations of his environment, blocked by the opposition of other
people, blocked by his own weakness and lack of knowledge and skill.
Unable to go hunting in the woods, he can play hunt in the yard;
unable to go to war with the real soldiers, he can shoulder his toy
gun and campaign all about the neighborhood. The little girl of four
years, hearing her older brothers and sisters talk of their school,
has her own "home work" in "joggity", and her own graduation
exercises.

Preliminary Definition of Imagination

In such ways as we have been describing, the little child shows
"imagination", or mental manipulation. In story-telling the objects
manipulated are simply _thought of_; in make-believe, though there is
actual motor manipulation of present objects, the attached _meanings_
are the important matter; and in construction there is apt to be a
_plan_ in mind in advance of the motor manipulation, as when you look
at the furniture in a room and consider possible rearrangements.

The materials manipulated in imagination are usually facts previously
perceived, and to be available for mental {484} manipulation they must
now be recalled; but they are not merely recalled--they are rearranged
and give a new result that may never have been perceived. A typical
product of imagination is composed of parts perceived at different
times and later recalled and combined, as a