or wave
Clear and unmoved, and flowing not so deep
As that its bed is dark, the shape returns
So faint of our impictured lineaments
That on white forehead set, a pearl as strong
Comes to the eye; such saw I many a face
All stretch'd to speak.
(Carey's translation of Dante's _Paradiso_, Canto III.)

Dante's metaphors are profuse and marvelous, but every lofty writer
and every great orator perpetually links the fruits of the imagination
with the observation of fact; and then we say that he is a genius,
full of imagination and knowledge, and that his thought is clear and
vital.

"As a pack of hounds, after vainly pursuing a hare, returns in
mortification to the master with hanging heads and drooping tails, so
on that tumultuous night did the mercenaries return to Don Rodrigo's
stronghold" (Manzoni, _I promessi Sposi_).

Imagery is confined to actual figures; and it is this measure and this
_form_ which give power to the creations of the mind. The imaginative
writer should possess a rich store of perceptive observations, and the
more accurate and perfect these are, the more vigorous will be the
form he creates. The insane talk of fantastic things, but we do not
therefore say that they have a great deal of "imagination"; there is a
vast gulf between the delirious confusion of thought and the
metaphorical eloquence of the imagination. In the first case there is
a total incapacity to perceive actual things correctly, and also to
construct organically with the intelligence; in the second, the two
things are co-existent as forms closely bound up one with the other.

The value of imaginative speech is determined by these conditions:
that the images used should be _original_, that their author should
himself link together the actual and the created images, his own skill
making him susceptible to their just and harmonious association. If he
repeats or imitates the images of others, he achieves nothing. Hence
it is necessary that every artist should be an observer; and so,
speaking of the generality of intelligences, it may be said that in
order to develop the imagination it is necessary for every one first
of all to put himself in contact with reality.

The same thing holds good in art. The artist "imagines" his figure; he
does not copy it, he "creates" it. But this creation is in fact the
_fruit_ of the mind which is rooted in the observation of reality. The
painter and the sculptor ar