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2. Plato supposes that when the tablet has been made blank the

artist will fill in the lineaments of the ideal state. Is this a

pattern laid up in heaven, or mere vacancy on which he is

supposed to gaze with wondering eye? The answer is, that such

ideals are framed partly by the omission of particulars, partly

by imagination perfecting the form which experience supplies

(Phaedo). Plato represents these ideals in a figure as belonging

to another world; and in modern times the idea will sometimes

seem to precede, at other times to co-operate with the hand of

the artist. As in science, so also in creative art, there is a

synthetical as well as an analytical method. One man will have

the whole in his mind before he begins; to another the processes

of mind and hand will be simultaneous.