THE THEORY OF STYLE 85 



sory stimuli, they are set in motion. Mists, echoes, clouds, moonlight, 

 shadows and reflections play a great role in poetic art. A faint per- 

 fume or the sound of a distant bell may bring a scene before the imagi- 

 nation with almost hallucinatory vividness. A slight sensory hint like 

 the song of a bird heard in the heart of London may have such rem- 

 iniscent power as to kindle the feelings and imagination so as to trans- 

 form the dust into mist, the street into a stream, and the buildings into 

 hills and mountains. That poets are especially subject to these illusory 

 influences the investigations of Professor Dilthey serve to demonstrate. 



It is the vague and indefinite in nature that calls forth the feelings 

 and affords scope for the exercise of the imagination. Similarly it is 

 the suggestive power, the alluring ambiguity, of poetry that constitutes 

 its great charm. Not clearness, but obscurity, is the supreme virtue of 

 the poetic style. Our study, then, of the creative imagination confirms 

 the view, arrived at in the first part of the discussion, that economy of 

 the mental sensibilities is frequently at the expense of the economy of 

 the mental energies. To get the greatest possible emotional and imagi- 

 native effect the understanding must in literature, as it is in music, be 

 held largely in abeyance. 



Besides this general question of the theory of style, which lies at. 

 the basis of literary criticism, many others of course call for psycho- 

 logical treatment. The psychiatrist already speaks with authority in 

 reference to the portrayal of abnormal characters in literature — cases 

 of congenital paresis, senile dementia or folie du doute; the psychologist 

 should speak no less decisively in reference to types of normal char- 

 acter and their development. In fine, hardly a question raised by liter- 

 ary criticism would fail to be elucidated and advanced by expert psy- 

 chological investigation. Certainly, if criticism is to be rescued from 

 its present state of mere impressionism and placed on a scientific basis, 

 the psychologist must share in the task. 



