ON THE IMAGINATION 89 



and discoverers been inspired by the same faculty ? And 

 do we not still see around us, amongst the great army 

 of research and discovery, the torch of imagination held 

 aloft, as they turn their eyes on the things which have 

 not yet become visible, but which, they are led by this 

 faculty to believe, lie immediately or somewhere before 

 them ? All round us now, all behind us, and all before 

 us is irradiated by the light of imagination. The human 

 race, par excellence, has been endowed with this faculty 

 for the accomplishment of the great ends and aims for 

 which it has come into being ; who, therefore, will argue 

 that experience, and experience alone, constitutes the 

 4< Alpha and Omega," and is to be sole guide to the 

 workers in the field, as well as the sole test of the 

 genuineness of human knowledge ? 



Observation and experiment, conducted by stringent 

 methods of logic, inductive and deductive, are no doubt 

 absolutely essential in the great search after truth ; but 

 these, divorced from the inspiring influence of imagina- 

 tion, will fail to reach the highest levels of discovery and 

 invention, and, therefore, will fail in placing man on that 

 plane of existence to which his supreme qualifications, as 

 compared with his lower animal relations, entitle him to 

 attain. 



While imagination may be described as a picturing by 

 the aid of images, already more or less fully realised 

 by the intellect of images lying outside of the experience 

 of the individual or of the race, so the manner and 

 method of imagining must conform to the necessities of 

 the situation on the part of every imaginer, be he engaged 

 in original research, deducing laws from the experience of 

 the past for the regulation of the future, depicting the 

 subtle beauties of ever-changing scenery for the delectation 

 of those to come, laying the foundations of structures, 

 material and immaterial, which are ultimately to embody 

 great conceptions, or pointing the way to continued exist- 

 ence or immortal destiny, along the lines of continuity, 

 material and immaterial, in actual and logical coherence,, 

 and continuity of accomplishment, in imperishable actuality 

 and sequence of occurrence, one thing leading to another, 

 one event merging in another, for ever and ever. 



