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The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein onlineXXVI RIDING THE WINGED HORSEpage 1 of 5 | table of contents  To think, and to feel, constitute the two grand divisions of men --ISAAC DISRAELI, _Literary Character of Men of Genius_. And as imagination bodies forth 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. This should become more apparent as we go on. I. WHAT IS IMAGINATION? Let us not seek for a definition, for a score of varying ones may be found, but let us grasp this fact: By imagination we mean either the faculty or the process of forming mental images. The subject-matter of imagination may be really existent in nature, or not at all real, or a combination of both; it may be physical or spiritual, or both--the mental image is at once the most lawless and the most law-abiding child that has ever been born of the mind. First of all, as its name suggests, the process of imagination--for we are thinking of it now as a process rather than as a faculty--is memory at work. Therefore we must consider it primarily as _1. Reproductive Imagination_ We see or hear or feel or taste or smell something and the sensation passes away. Yet we are conscious of a greater or lesser ability to reproduce such feelings at will. Two considerations, in general, will govern the vividness of the image thus evoked--the strength of the original impression, and the reproductive power of one mind as compared with another. Yet every normal person will be able to evoke images with some degree of clearness. The fact that not all minds possess this imaging faculty in anything like equal measure will have an important bearing on the public speaker's study of this question. No man who does not feel at least some poetic impulses is likely to aspire seriously to be a poet, yet many whose imaging faculties are so dormant as to seem actually dead do aspire to be public speakers. To all such we say most earnestly: Awaken your image-making gift, for even in the most coldly logical discourse it is sure to prove of great service. It is important that you find out at once just how full and how trustworthy is your imagination, for it is capable of cultivation--as well as of abuse. Francis Galton[29] says: "The French appear to possess the visualizing faculty in a high degree. The peculiar ability they show in pre-arranging ceremonials and fêtes of all kinds and their undoubted genius for tactics and strategy show that they are able to foresee effects with unusual clearness. Their ingenuity in all technical contrivances is an additional testimony in the same direction, and so is their singular clearness of expression. Their phrase _figurez-vous_, or _picture to yourself_, seems to express their dominant mode of perception. Our equivalent, of 'image,' is ambiguous." |