To take a concrete example: Let us suppose the story Andersen's "Tin
Soldier" told to a child of five or six years. At the first recital,
the point which will interest the child most will be the setting up of
the tin soldiers on the table, because he can understand this by means
of his own experience, in his own nursery. It is an appeal to
conditions to which he is accustomed and for which no exercise of the
imagination is needed, unless we take the effect of memory to be,
according to Queyrat, retrospective imagination.

The next incident that appeals is the unfamiliar behavior of the toys,
but still in familiar surroundings; that is to say, the _unusual_
activities are carried on in the safe precincts of the nursery--the
_usual_ atmosphere of the child.

I quote from the text:


Late in the evening the other soldiers were put in their box,
and the people of the house went to bed. Now was the time for
the toys to play; they amused themselves with paying visits,
fighting battles and giving balls. The tin soldiers rustled
about in their box, for they wanted to join the games, but
they could not get the lid off. The nut-crackers turned
somersaults, and the pencil scribbled nonsense on the slate.


Now, from this point onwards in the story, the events will be quite
outside the personal experience of the child and there will have to be
a real stretch of imagination to appreciate the thrilling and blood-
curdling adventures of the tin soldier, namely, the terrible sailing