,
then to a sewing machine that she uses, then by analogy to an organ that
he sees on the street adorned with a monkey, then to his toys
representing animals.[47] We have elsewhere given more similar cases,
where we perceive the fundamental difference between thought by imagery
and rational thought.

To conclude: At this period the imagination is the master-faculty and
the highest form of intellectual development. It works in two
directions, one principal--it creates plays, invents romances, and
extends language; the other secondary--it contains a germ of thought and
ventures a fanciful explanation of the world which can not yet be
conceived according to abstract notions and laws.

FOOTNOTES:

[40] One will find a large number of examples in Sully's work,
_Studies of Childhood_, Chapter ii, entitled "The Age of
Imagination." Most of the observations given in the present chapter
have been borrowed from this author.

[41] Apropos of this subject compare especially the recent studies
by William James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_. (Tr.)

[42] Spinoza, _Ethics_, II, 49, _Scholium_; Hume, _Human
Understanding_, Part III, Section VII ff.; Dugald Stewart, _Elements
of the Philosophy of the Human Mind_, Vol. I, Ch. III; Taine, _On
Intelligence_, Part II.

[43] James, _The Will to Believe and Other Essays_, p. 10.

[44] Payot, _De la croyance_, 139 ff.

[45] B. Perez, _Les trois premieres annees de l'enfant_, p. 323.

[46] Sully, _op. cit._, pp. 59-61. Compayre, _L'evolution
intellectuelle et morale de l'enfant_, p. 145.

(Some time ago the writer was riding on a train, when the engine,
for some reason or other, began to slow up, jerking, puffing, almost
groaning, until it finally came to a full stop. The groaning
continued. A little girl of about three called to her mother,
"Too-too sick, too-too sick," and when finally the train started on
again, the child was overjoyed that "too-too" was well again. (Tr.))

[47] Sully, _op. cit._, p. 164.

CHAPTER III

PRIMITIVE MAN AND THE CREATION OF MYTHS

We come now to a unique period in the history of the development of the
imagination--its golden age. In primitive man, still confined in
savagery or just starting toward civilization, it reaches its full bloom
in the creation of myths; and we are rightly astonished that
psychologists, obstinately attached to esthetics, have neglected such an
important form of activity, one so rich in information concerni