unhealthful. We reach actual success in life by slow, weary steps.

The day-dreamer attains eminence with one bound. He is without

trouble a victorious general on a vast battlefield, an orator
swaying thousands, a millionaire with every amusement at his
command, a learned man confounding the wisest, a president,
an emperor or a czar. After reveling in these imaginative sweets,
the dry bread of actual toil becomes exceedingly distasteful. It
is so much easier to live in regions where everything comes at
the magic wand of fancy. Not infrequently these castle-builders
abandon effort in an actual world. Success comes too slow for
them. They become speculators or gamblers, and in spite of all
their grand castles, gradually sink into utter nonentities in the
world of action . The young should never allow themselves
to build any imaginative castle, unless they are willing by hard
effort to try to make that castle a reality. They must be willing
to take off their coats, go into the quarries of life, chisel out the
blocks of the stone, and build them with much toil into the
castle walls. If castle-building is merely the formation of an ideal,
which we show by our effort that we are determined to attain,
then all will be well.
It will be seen that, in reality, the Cultivation of the Imagination
is rather the training and intelligent direction of that faculty,
instead of the development of its power. The majority of people
have the faculty of Imagination well developed, but to them it
is large1y an untrained, fanciful self-willed faculty. Cultivation is
Constructive Imagination
119
needed in the direction of bringing it under the guidance of the
reason, and control by the will. Thought-Culture in general will
do much for the Imagination, for the very processes employed
in the development and cultivation of the various other
faculties of the mind will also tend to bring the Imagination into
subjection and under control, instead of allowing it to remain
the wild, fanciful irresponsible faculty that it is in the majority
of cases. Use the faculty of Imagination as a faculty of Thought,
instead of a thing of Fancy. Attach it to the Intellect instead of to
the Emotions. Harness it up with the other faculties of Thought,
and your chariot of Understanding and Attainment will reach
the goal far sooner than under the old arrangement. Establish
harmony between Intellect and Imagination, and you largely
increase the power and achievements of both.
Finis.
Thought Culture
120
121
Bibliography
Atkinson, William Walker. Thought Culture or Practical Mental Training.
Chicago, IL: The Progress Company, 1909.