RIDING THE WINGED HORSE

 

To think, and to feel, constitute the two grand divisions of men of genius--the

men of reasoning and the men of imagination.

 

--ISAAC DISRAELI, _Literary Character of Men of Genius_.

 

And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name.

 

--SHAKESPEARE, _Midsummer-Night's Dream_.

 

It is common, among those who deal chiefly with life's practicalities, to think

of imagination as having little value in comparison with direct thinking. They

smile with tolerance when Emerson says that "Science does not know its debt to

the imagination," for these are the words of a speculative essayist, a

philosopher, a poet. But when Napoleon--the indomitable welder of

empires--declares that "The human race is governed by its imagination," the

authoritative word commands their respect.

 

Be it remembered, the faculty of forming _mental images_ is as efficient a cog

as may be found in the whole mind-machine. True, it must fit into that other

vital cog, pure thought, but when it does so it may be questioned which is the

more productive of important results for the happiness and well-being of man.