Page:Three Lectures on Aesthetic (1915).djvu/40

Rh as we have seen, it could not possibly do so. Of course it remains true that we must be able to live, or live in the detail of the object if our pleasant feeling is to become a property of it, so that it (the object) is the body of our pleasure. But in order to do this we have the whole world of imagination, about which we must speak directly.

iv. But before going on to speak of Imagination there is one point of principle to notice. Such a theory as we have just referred to carries very different weight if we believe it to be a vehicle of illusion, and if we believe it to be an interpretation of truth. You might say, indeed, “Why surely it is much more important if it conveys the truth than if it promotes illusion.” But that is not so in every respect. If what it conveys is truth — if there really is in Nature and the world a pervading life and divinity — then this special theory is only one among innumerable illustrations of the ways in which we can come to the realisation of this truth; to penetration