THE ELEMENTS OF MIND 199 



working at it and saying it over and over again, 

 just as a boy memorises his rules and catechisms. 

 Imagination is the picturing power of the mind. 

 In its lowest stages of manifestation it is akin to 

 memory. Imagination, however, in its higher 

 reaches, not only reimages previous impressions, 

 but combines them in new and original relations. 

 Imagination is displayed in dreams, images, de- 

 lusions, anticipation, and S3^mpathy. It also fur- 

 nishes wings for speculation and reason. Spiders, 

 when they attach stones to their webs to steady 

 them during anticipated gales, probably exercise 

 imagination. The tame serpent which was carried 

 away from its master^s house and found its way 

 back again, though the distance was one hundred 

 miles, no doubt carried in its imagination vivid 

 pictures of its old home (10). Cats, dogs, horses, 

 and other animals dream, and parrots talk in their 

 sleep. Horses and cattle sometimes stampede at 

 imaginary objects, and often distort real objects 

 into imaginary monsters. When a horse at night 

 takes fright at a big black stump by the roadside, 

 he no doubt imagines it to be some terrible creature 

 ready to eat him up if he should go near it, just 

 as a timid child does in the same circumstances. 

 There is a great difference in horses in this respect, 

 just as there is among children and men, some of 

 them taking fright at every unusual thing, while 

 others are more bold or stolid. The cat playing 

 with a ball of yarn converts it by means of its 

 imagination into an object of prey, just as a girl 

 converts a doll into a baby, or a boy changes a 



