the unknown poet worked. In such
a process the imagination is evoked
in full and free play; it insensibly re-
constructs a life gone out of knowl-
edge; selects, harmonises, unifies, and
in a measure creates. It illuminates
and unifies knowledge, divines the
wide relations of thought, and dis-
cerns its place in organic connection
with the world which gave it birth.

The material upon which this great
power is nourished is specifically fur-
nished by the works which it has
created. As the eye is trained to
discover the line of beauty by com-
panionship with the works in which
it is revealed with the greatest clear-
ness and power, so is the imagination
developed by intimacy with the books
which disclose its depth, its reality,
and its method. The reader of
Shakespeare cannot follow the lead-

[[152]]

p151 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p152w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p153

v?