ABSTRACT
In his mid-twenties Descartes, contrasting imagination and reason, juxtaposed poets with philosophers in a manner more favourable to the former than the latter:
It may seem surprising to find weighty judgements in the writings of the poets rather than the philosophers. The reason is that the poets were driven to write by enthusiasm and the force of imagination. We have within us the sparks of knowledge, as in a flint: philosophers extract them through reason, but poets force them out through the sharp blows of imagination, so that they shine more brightly.1
