use a psychology for poets that defines phases or states of intellectual
consciousness through which all artists who advance to a certain mental
level must inevitably pass; the realisation of such states of consciousness
serves to guide the progression of thought towards its own expression
and final abstraction.

My aim throughout this study has been to present a general view of
ValÉry's intellectual attitude, by examining the principles on which he
founded the structure of his thought, and to give some idea of his
mental life, through research into the methods applied in his œuvre.
Instead of judging his poems by accepted literary or objective standards,
it seems to me to be worth while to examine them as far as possible
from the poet's own point of view: from his thought and theories, his
sources and his sensibility, his conception of poetry and his conclusions.
This reveals the poet's creation of a constructive system which became
a habit of mind and the basis of his thought and his art. I have applied
to Valéry something of his own method in considering the point of
view from which he approached his interior drama--that Intellectual
Comedy whose actors are mental images.

I have not followed him closely in the world of men and events, but
have been content to give the circumstances of his childhood, his early
impressions and enthusiasms, his friendship with certain poets and the
significant changes in the environment of his life. He himself always
insisted that the events and circumstances which surround a work of
art are of secondary interest and are not essential to a critical examina-
tion. He even suggested that the history of literature should be less a
history of its authors and more a history of the mind in so far as it
produces works.

The riches of Valéry's mind provide a thoughtful reader with a
universe formed from the dream and act of the metaphysics of poetry:
he shows us how language, each time it exerts a certain independence,
may enrich our vision with new vistas and horizons. He invites us to
consider a science of ideas--and an art of treating them. To the re-
search of greater consciousness he brings the art of mathematical prin-
ciples and the science of classical prosody or poetics; and in doing this
he bridges the supposed gulf between poetry and science.

His 'pure poetry,' he tells us, is the outcome of the effort of an
isolated being to create an ideal. The touchstone of its reality is the
poet's sensibility. It is better described as an 'absolute' poetry, in the
sense of being an exploration into the possibilities of creating an intel-
lectual harmony.

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