IMAGINATION. 145 



branch in the diagram which represents the faculty a very- 

 long one, reaching from level 19 to level 38. The top of the 

 branch therefore reaches as high as the top of Abstraction, 

 about as high as two-thirds of Generalization, and beyond 

 the origin of Keflection. Of course these comparative esti- 

 mates are intended here, as elsewhere, to indicate merely 

 with some rough approximation to the probable truth the 

 relative amount of elaboration presented by each of the 

 mental species which we denominate faculties. I consider 

 indeed, as I have said before, that these species are them- 

 selves of an artificial or conventional character — that what 

 we call faculties are abstractions of our own making rather 

 than objective or independent actualities, and therefore that 

 the classification of these faculties by psychologists only 

 deserves in some remote sense to be regarded as a natural 

 one. Still it is the best classification available for the 

 purpose of comparing one grade of mental evolution with 

 another, and there can be no harm in adopting it if we 

 remember, what I desire always to be remembered, that my 

 representative tree is designed only to show the general 

 relation between the faculties of mind as these have been 

 formulated by psychologists. 



But even on this rough and general plan it may seem to 

 require explanation why I represent the apex of Imagina- 

 tion as attaining to the same level as the apex of Abstraction, 

 for psychologists might naturally infer from my doing so 

 that I am inadvertently endorsing the doctrine of Realism. 

 Such, however, is not the case. For, although it is true 

 that, if we were able to imagine every abstraction, Realism 

 would become the only rational theory, I do not intend the 

 diagram to favour any so absurd a notion. In my next work, 

 when I shall have occasion to explain the higher branches 

 of the representative tree, it will become apparent that, as I 

 do not intend Abstraction to include Generalization or 

 Reflection, I am careful to keep well within the lines of 

 Nominalism. 



Torning now to the lateral columns, it will be seen that 

 I place upon a level with the rise of imagination the classes 

 Mollnsca, [nsecta, Ajachnida, Crustacea, Cephalopoda, and 

 the cold-blooded Vertebrata. My justification for assigning 

 t" these animals the first manifestation of this faculty will 

 be found, as in other cases, in "Animal Intelligence." Thus 



