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 concerning the creative imagination. Where, indeed, find more favorable conditions for knowing it?