34 EMILE BOUTROUX 



empty of all concept, any creation indepen- 

 dent of ideas. If man should try to feel and 

 produce outside of all ideas and all rules, he 

 would become by his own consent, the slave of 

 chance and mechanical necessity, and would 

 produce nothing but bizarre and insignificant 

 works. The activity of genius is not pure cre- 

 ation; it is the production of beautiful things 

 ' — of things stamped with the seal of perfec- 

 tion and eternity. 



An intuition without a concept is for man 

 an impossibility or a simple datum without 

 determinable value. 



The problem, then, is not to find out how 

 we can set feeling free from all connection 

 with the intellect, but to form an idea of the 

 way in which our intuitions and our intellect- 

 ual concepts can mingle with each other in 

 such a manner that, without losing sponta- 

 neity and freedom, the creations of our imagi- 

 nations may be regular, harmonious and in 

 conformity with the laws of intelligence. The 

 study of letters, consequently, ought not to 

 have for its object the development of the 

 imagination considered by itself as an arbi- 



