And the reason why poets clothe their philosophical
expressions in concrete images is not because of any shame of the
concept, but just in order the more easily and vividly to attach and
communicate their emotion. Their general preference for the concrete
has the same motive; for there are only a few abstractions capable of
arousing and fixing emotion.
Even as an element of spontaneity is native to all expression, so
originally all expression is personal. This is easily observable in
the child. His first uses of words as well as of things are touched
with emotion. Every descriptive name conveys to him his emotional
reaction to the object; disinterested knowledge does not exist for
him; every tool, a knife or a fork, means to him not only something
to be used, but the whole background of feelings which its use involves.
Our first perceptions of things contain as much of feeling and attitude
as of color and shape and sound and odor. Pure science and mere industry
are abstractions from the original integrity of perception and
expression; mutilations of their wholeness forced upon the mind through
the stress of living. To be able to see things without feeling them,
or to describe them without being moved by their image, is a disciplined
and derivative accomplishment. Only as the result of training and of
haste do the forms and colors of objects, once the stimuli to a
wondering and lingering attention, become mere cues to their recognition
and employment, or mere incitements to a cold and disinterested analysis
and description.
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