How, now, does the pattern of imagination compare with that of memory?
We saw that the memory-pattern is that of discursive movement within
fixed boundaries, the limits set by the fixity of the past occurrence
which is remembered. Imagination, on the other hand, is a more or
less steady flow, in a single direction, from the fountain-head of
disposition; there are no limits of any kind, save those of individual
capacity and experience; but the course is determined by the initial
plan or ambition. _Memory is discursive movement within fixed
boundaries; imagination is progressive movement from a constant source.
Memory is characterised by the feeling of familiarity and by imitative
kinæsthesis; imagination by the feeling of strangeness and by empathy._
Questions and Exercises
(1) Memory, like recognition, may be definite or indefinite, direct or
indirect. Can you give instances from your own experience?
(2) Suppose that you were required to write a defence of cramming.
Could you find materials in these two chapters?
(3) Memory fails as old age comes on; it decays, as we say, in old age;
and the course of decay is well-marked and uniform. Can you give any
account of it? And can you explain the course from statements made in
these two chapters?
(4) Do you think that memory can be improved? Be sure, before you
answer, that you have read a clear meaning into the question. Give
reasons for your answer.
(5) It has been said that we have no memory, but only memories. In what
sense or senses is this statement true?
(6) Memory has been described as a storehouse of ideas, as a power to
revive perceptions, as a universal function of organic matter, and as
decaying sense. Try to realise clearly what the users of these phrases
had in mind; say what you can in their favour; show in what respects
they are inadequate to the psychology of memory.
(7) Can you give instances of empathy, from your own experience: in
the reading of history or fiction, in the viewing of architecture
or landscape, in watching an actor or a musician or an athlete, in
day-dreaming? Describe as accurately as you can the different ‘feel’ of
empathy and sympathy; do not be satisfied with meanings.
(8) (_a_) Read Hawthorne’s preface to _The House of the Seven Gables_
and G. P. Lathrop’s Introduction. What light do they throw on the
mechanics of constructive imagination? (_b_) Read Poe’s essay on _The
Philosophy of Composition_. Is the writer’s psychology sound? Do you
take him to have been wholly sincere? Why? Be definite.
(9) It has been suggested that the pattern of constructive imagination
might be studied in the first drafts (where the manuscripts have been
preserved) of poems, especially of lyric poems. What have you to say to
the plan?
(10) Has imagination, in the ordinary sense, any place in science? Can
you justify your answer in psychological terms?
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