Literature parallels life and what is presented calls up individual
experience. Any child will feel a thrill of kinship with the
experiences given in _The Tin Soldier_--a little boy's birthday, the
opening of the box, the counting of the soldiers, and the setting of
them upon the table. And because here Andersen has transformed this
usual experience with a vivacity and charm, the tale ranks high as a
tale of imagination. _Little Ida's Flowers_ and _Thumbelina_ are tales
of pure fancy. Grimm's _The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean_ and _The
Spindle, the Shuttle, and the Needle_ rank in the same class, as also
do the Norse _The Doll i' the Grass_ and the English _Tom Thumb_.

(b) _The penetrative imagination_. This power of imagination shows the
real character of a thing and describes it by its spiritual effects.
It sees the heart and inner nature of things. Through fancy the child
cannot reach this central viewpoint since fancy deals only with
externals. Through the exercise of this power the child develops
insight, intuition, and a perception of spiritual values, and gains a
love of the ideal truth and a perpetual thirst for it. He develops
genuineness, one of the chief virtues of originality. He will tend not
to have respect for sayings or opinions but will seek the truth, be
governed by its laws, and hold a passion for perfection. This power of
imagination makes of him a continual seeker, "a pilgrim upon earth."
Through the penetrative imagination the child forgets himself and
enters into the things about him, into the doings of Three Pigs or the
adventures of Henny Penny.

(c) _The contemplative imagination_. This is that special phase of the
imagination that gives to abstract being consistency and reality.
Through the contemplative imagination the child gains the significance
of meaning and discerns the true message of the tale. When merely