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Imagination the material it requires with which to build. The

greater the general knowledge of the person, the greater will
be his store of material for this use. This knowledge need not
necessarily be acquired at first hand from personal observation,
but may also be in the nature of information acquired from the
experience of others and known through their conversation,
writings, etc.
The necessity of forming clear concepts is very apparent
when we come to exercise the Constructive Imaginative. Unless
we have clear-cut ideas of the various things concerned with
the subject before us, we cannot focus the imagination clearly
upon its task. The general ideas should be clearly understood
and the classification should be intelligent. Particular things
should be clearly seen in the mind s eye; that is, the power
of visualization or forming mental images should be cultivated
in this connection. One may improve this particular faculty
by either writing a description of scenes or particular things
we have seen, or else by verbally describing them to others.
As Halleck says: An attempt at a clear-cut oral description of
something to another person will often impress ourselves and
him with the fact that our mental images are hazy, and that the
first step toward better description consists in improving them.
Tyndall has aptly stated the importance of visualizing one s
ideas and particular concepts, as follows: How, for example,
are we to lay hold of the physical basis of light since, like that
of life itself, it lies entirely without the domain of the senses?
Bring your imaginations once more into play and figure a
series of sound-waves passing through air. Follow them up to
their origin, and what do you there find? A definite, tangible,
vibrating body. It may be the vocal chords of a human being, it
may be an organ-pipe, or it may be a stretched string. Follow
in the same manner a train of ether waves to their source,
remembering at the same time that your ether is matter, dense,
elastic and capable of motions subject to and determined
by mechanical laws. What then do you expect to find as the
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source of a series of ether waves? Ask your imagination if it will
accept a vibrating multiple proportion a numerical ratio in a
state of oscillation? I do not think it will. You cannot crown the
edifice by this abstraction. The scientific imagination which is
here authoritative, demands as the origin and cause of a series
of ether waves a particle of vibrating matter quite as definite,
though it may be excessively minute, as that which gives origin
to a musical sound. Such a particle we name an atom or a
molecule. I think the seeking intellect, when focused so as to
give definition without penumbral haze, is sure to realize this
image at the last.
By repeatedly exercising the faculty of Imagination upon
a particular idea, we add power and clearness to that idea.
This is but another example of the familar psychological
principle expressed by Carpenter as follows: The continued
concentration of attention upon a certain idea gives it a
dominant power. Kay says: Clearness and accuracy of image
is only to be obtained by repeatedly having it in the mind, or
by repeated action of the faculty. Each repeated act of any of
the faculties renders the mental image of it more clear and
accurate than the preceding, and in proportion to the clearness
and accuracy of the image will the act itself be performed easily,

readily, skillfully. The course to be pursued, the point to be

gained, the amount of effort to be put forth, become more and
more clear to the mind. It is only from what we have done that
we are able to judge what we can do, and understand how it is
to be effected. When our ideas or conceptions of what we can
do are not based on experience, they become fruitful sources
of error.
Galton says : There is no doubt as to the utility of the
visualizing faculty where it is duly subordinated to the higher
intellectual operations. A visual image is the most perfect form
of mental representation wherever the shape, position and
relation of objects in space are concerned. It is of importance in
every handicraft and profession where design is required. The
Constructive Imagination