This
is, perhaps, quite as bad as to have an insufficiency. What we should
desire is a balance of powers. Imagination should not run away with
Thought and Affection, but neither should it lag behind them. All must
act harmoniously and equally in a symmetrically developed Character.
They are like the three legs of a tripod; and if either is longer or
shorter than the others, or worse still, if no two are alike in length,
the tripod must be an awkward and useless piece of lumber, instead of
the graceful and useful article for which it was intended.
Whatever is to be done, from the discovery of a continent to the making
of a shoe or a loaf, can be done well only by a person of Imagination.
Go to a shoemaker and tell him exactly what you wish for a shoe, and it
is your imagination that gives you the power of telling him so that
he can understand your wishes. Every one can think, "I want a pair of
shoes," but one must have Imagination to know what kind of shoe one
wants, and a clear, distinct Imagination to be able to describe it
intelligibly to another. Suppose you have this, and have told the
shoemaker what you desire. Now, whether the man sends home to you a pair
of misfits, quite different from those you ordered, or a pair just such
as you want, depends in no small degree on his powers of Imagination.
Any man can think enough to fasten materials together into the form of a
shoe, and to make them vary in size according to a regular gradation of
numbers; but this is all he can do unless he exercises his Imagination.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81