ABSTRACT
The individual holds and develops this intuitive whole in an "inner monologue" by means of linguistic symbols. The intuitive deficiencies are due to the intrusion of mere Fancy. Keeping the imagination a source of intuitive wisdom rather than dangerous illusion is a never-ending task. Irving Babbitt reconciles elements of classical and modern aesthetics. He stresses that art is imagination and not some kind of rationality, but he also argues that the imagination, if disciplined with reference to an ethical center, may express intuitive wisdom. The words "likenesses and analogies" have been employed because they figure prominently in Babbitt's description of the imagination. Babbitt is critical of Friedrich Schiller's encouragement of the notion that one can escape neoclassical didacticism only by eliminating purpose and allowing free imaginative play. He views Schiller as preparing the way for "the divorce of art from ethical reality."
