combination--the sight and sound of the crashing avalanche are one; so are the

flash and report of the huntman's gun that came so near "doing for us."

 

Thus, imaging--especially conscious reproductive imagination--will become a

valuable part of our mental processes in proportion as we direct and control it.

 

_2. Productive Imagination_

 

All of the foregoing examples, and doubtless also many of the experiments you

yourself may originate, are merely reproductive. Pleasurable or horrific as

these may be, they are far less important than the images evoked by the

productive imagination--though that does not infer a separate faculty.

 

Recall, again for experiment, some scene whose beginning you once saw enacted on

a street corner but passed by before the denouement was ready to be disclosed.

Recall it all--that far the image is reproductive. But what followed? Let your

fantasy roam at pleasure--the succeeding scenes are productive, for you have

more or less consciously invented the unreal on the basis of the real.

 

And just here the fictionist, the poet, and the public speaker will see the

value of productive imagery. True, the feet of the idol you build are on the

ground, but its head pierces the clouds, it is a son of both earth and heaven.

 

One fact it is important to note here: Imagery is a valuable mental asset in

proportion as it is controlled by the higher intellectual power of pure reason.