88 METAPHYSICS 



There can be no doubt, we think, that, under the cir- 

 cumstances here indicated, the first impulse towards the 

 use of combined effort in the furtherance of the common 

 cause of truth on the part of the participators in the great 

 common work was prompted by and originated in the 

 views ahead presented by imagination to the pioneers in 

 the forefront of invention and discovery ; it, therefore, 

 behoves every searcher after truth still to avail himself to 

 the full of every well-founded and genuine imagining, 

 from whatever source it may emanate, in order that, fired 

 by the " light ahead " which it affords, he may be able to 

 take, it may be, only one step forward in the great march 

 of discovery, to the end that he may assist in realising the 

 great destiny of the human race and its emancipation 

 from every influence which mars its progress towards its 

 accomplishment. 



That a full and proper use should be made of the 

 faculty of imagination there seems every reason to believe ; 

 it therefore becomes necessary that we should be able 

 to distinguish between imagination, warranted as being 

 founded on exact knowledge, and suggested by lines of 

 continuity leading from the known to the unknown, and 

 imagination founded on uneducated impulse, and prompted 

 by unscrupulous motives for vain and, it may be, ignoble 

 purposes. 



Imagination of the kind serviceable to the highest 

 aspirations of mankind has been conspicuous along the 

 whole lines of progress of the human race, as history 

 enables us to see, and believing that " human nature has 

 been and still is human nature all the world over," we are 

 persuaded that one of the greatest influences in the 

 raising of man from savagedom and barbarism to civilisa- 

 tion, as now seen, has been and is the use of this faculty. 



Has not the faculty of imagination been largely made 

 use of on the part of inspired writers, and those to whom 

 these writers appealed and still appeal ? Was not the 

 faculty of imagination largely cultivated by the ancient 

 Phoenicians in their many maritime adventures and 

 accomplishments ? Did not the illustrious Columbus 

 mark for ever the value of properly founded and rigidly 

 followed imagination ? Have not all our great voyagers 



