Part 10 (1/2)

Our words and other modes of expression are but the description of the flow of ies in our h the e indeed would it be to make others see a situation which we ourselves cannot see; strange if we could draw a picture without being able to follow its outlines as we draw Or suppose we are teaching science, and our object is to explain the composition of ht, heat, etc, depend on the theory of et a picture if we ourselves are unable to get it Or, once more, suppose we are to describe some incident, and our aim is to make its every detail stand out so clearly that no one can le one

Is it not evident that we can never es more clear to those who listen to us or read our words than they are to ourselves?

2 THE MATERIAL USED BY IMAGINATION

What is the ination builds its structures?

IMAGES THE STUFF OF IMAGINATION--Nothing can enter the iination the elements of which have not been in our past experience and then been conserved in the fores The Indians never dreaold, and in whose center stands a great white throne Their experience had given thes; and so, perforce, they es which they had at command, namely, those connected with the chase and the forest So their heaven was the ”happy hunting ground,” inhabited by game and enemies over whom the blessed forever triumphed Likewise the valiant soldiers whose deadly arrows and keen-edged swords and battle-axes won on the bloody field of Hastings, did not picture a far-off day when the opposing lines should kill each other withdeath from behind parapets a dozen miles away Firearms and the explosive poere yet unknown, hence there were no ies out of which to build such a picture

I do not ination cannot construct an object which has never before been in your experience as a whole, for the work of the i It takes the various ies at its disposal and builds them into _wholes_ which may never have existed before, and which may exist now only as a creation of the mind

And yet we have put into this new product not a single _elee of one kind or another

It is the _form_ which is new; the _material_ is old This is exemplified every time an inventor takes the two fundamental parts of a machine, the _lever_ and the _inclined plane_, and puts theether in relations new to each other and so evolves a machine whose co, as inable to see the old in new relations, and so constantly build new constructions out of old inal thinker, the Nehose falling apple suggested to hi toward the sun in their orbits; the Darho out of the thigh bone of an aniination the whole animal and the environe to the earth's history

THE TWO FACTORS IN IMAGINATION--Fro, the conclusion is plain that our power of iination depends on two factors; naes capable of recall_, and (2) _our constructive ability_, or the power to group these iuided by some purpose or end_ Without this last provision, the products of our iination are daydrea and proper enough on occasions, but which as an habitual erous

IMAGINATION LIMITED BY STOCK OF IMAGES--That the es may be seen fro er adequate for your needs, and so purpose to build a new one; and suppose, further, that you have noexcept that contained in the old structure It is evident that you will be li by the material which was in the old You may be able to build the new structure in any one of a multitude of different forms or styles of architecture, so far as the , and providing, further, that you are able to make the plans But you will always be limited finally by the character and amount of material obtainable fro is your past experience, and the separate bricks are the ih the i can enter which was not already on hand Nothing goes into the new structure so far as its constructive et ies but from the results of our past experience

LIMITED ALSO BY OUR CONSTRUCTIVE ABILITY--But not only is our iinative output lies which we have at our command, but also and perhaps not less by our _constructive ability_ Many persons ht own the old pile of bricks fully adequate for the new structure, and then fail to get the new because they were unable to construct it So, many who have had a rich and varied experience in es of these experiences in such a way that new products are obtainable from theoes plodding on, very possibly doing good service in its own circue, but destined after all to service in the narrow field with its low, drooping horizon They are never able to take a dash at a two- at a good round pace along the pleasant highways of an experience lying beyond the confines of the narrow _here_ and _now_ These are the minds which cannot discover relations; which cannot _think_ Minds of this type can never be architects of their own fate, or even builders, but must content themselves to be hod carriers

THE NEED OF A PURPOSE--Nor are we to forget that we cannot intelligently erect our building until we know the _purpose_ for which it is to be used Nomaterial we may have on hand, nor how skillful an architect we uided by some definite aim, we shall be likely to end with a structure that is fanciful and useless Likeith our thought structure

Unless our ier of drifting intoideals for the guidance of our lives, but often becorown into a habit The habit of daydreaht in thrall and s of everyday life Who has not had the experience of an hour or a day spent in a fairyland of dreams, and awakened at the end to find himself rather dissatisfied with the prosaic round of duties which confronted him! I do not mean to say that we should _never_ dream; but I know of nocarried to excess, for it ends in our following every will-o'-the-wisp of fancy, and places us at the estion

3 TYPES OF IMAGINATION

Although iination enters every field of human experience, and busies itself with every line of human interest, yet all its activities can be classed under two different types These are (1) _reproductive_, and (2) _creative_ iination is the type we use e seek to reproduce in our minds the pictures described by others, or pictures from our own past experience which lack the completeness and fidelity to make them true memory

The narration or description of the story book, the history or geography text; the tale of adventure recounted by traveler or hunter; the account of a new machine or other invention; fairy tales and myths--these or any other es to us are the field for reproductive iination our business is to follow and not lead, to copy and not create

CREATIVE IMAGINATION--But we inators--else we should but imitate each other and the world would be at a standstill

Indeed, every person, no matter how humble his station or how huree capable of initiative and originality Such ability depends in no sination

Creative ies froleaned froinal forms The inventor, the writer, the mechanic or the artist who possesses the spirit of creation is not satisfied with _inate True,accident, by being stumbled upon Yet it holds that the person who thus stumbles upon the discovery or invention is usually one whose creative i_ to create or discover in his field The world's progress as a whole does not coination is always found at the van of progress, whether in the life of an individual or a nation

4 TRAINING THE IMAGINATION

Ihly susceptible of cultivation, and its training should constitute one of the most important aims of education Every school subject, but especially such subjects as deal with description and narration--history, literature, geography, nature study and science--is rich in opportunities for the use of i will not only find in these subjects a ination in their study as towith life and action, rather than sofacts

GATHERING OF MATERIAL FOR IMAGINATION--Theoretically, then, it is not hard to see e ination In the first place, we es_ froh to have visual ies alone or chiefly, forall the other senses and the motor activities as well This e an environe in the world of Nature with all her varied fore in our contact with people in all phases of experience, laughing with those who laugh and weeping with those eep; large in contact with books, the interpreters of the men and events of the past We must not only let all these kinds of environment drift in upon us as they may chance to do, but we must deliberately _seek_ to increase our stock of experience; for, after all, experience lies at the bottoination as of every other mental process And not onlynew experience, but we must by recall and reconstruction, asin an earlier discussion, keep our iery fresh and usable

For whatever serves to i the very foundation of iination

WE MUST NOT FAIL TO BUILD--In the second place, we e supply of ies if we let the material lie unused Howmaterial for their structure, and never take ti! They look and listen and read, and are so fully occupied in absorbing the inificance of the things hich they deal They are like the students who are too busy studying to have ti that they never perforatherers,material which the seer and the philosopher, with their constructive power, build together into the greater wholes which ht They are the ones who fondly think that, by reading books full of wild tales and iination For theic in its quiet movements, is too tahtful literature, and works of science and philosophy are a bore These are the persons who put in all their ti other people's houses, and never get ti for themselves