The Washington herald., 1908-02-01
THE OPTIMIST.

/ In the life lived under the guidance Of
a healthy optimism Imagination plays no
small part. There are those stern ma
/ terialists. who neither desire nor have the
faculty to see beyond their own noses.
who decry imagination and say that this
workaday world has no time for dreams.
But this is to disCTedt the God who
made US. and who endowed us with that
glorious faculty Of imagination which Is
given to the world not only that some
men may become poets and sing the
world on TO Drawer and hOnester deeds.
but that through its light all men may
beautify homely things and even in the
/ sodden earth find grains of sparkling
gold.
Imagination is, in fact, only the allow
ing OF the mind to see things beyond it.
self AS Mrs. Browning said once:
A mans imagination ought 70 aggrandize. glorify.
conSeeEate man sees vith his mind. and his
mind Is at fault when il does not see greatly.
The man without Imagination who
sticks to his dreary routine of tasks and
believes that his duties begin and end
with his Iedgers and day-books has little
use for the idle Imagination which lets
the man with soul above accounts build
his fine castles in the air. Such people
cannot understand the profit there is in
day-dTeaming. one Of the finest products
OF the Imagination: they call it idleness.
as If 1t We're not true that in some sorts
Of so-C8lled idleness the best and most
noble work the world has known has
been conceived. Thoreau told US:
II you have buHt castles in the cir. your work
need not be lost that is where they should be- Now
put the foundations under them. II one ad-
Fances confidently m the direction Of his dreams.
and endlavOrs 20 live the life which he has imaR-
inca. De viii meet with success unexpected iu
common hours.
Ihan a healthy and vivid Imagination
/ there IS nothing that more sweetens life
and lends it an enjoyable SAVIOR:
Oh. sweet Illusions Of the brain.
on. sudden thrills n fire aud FROST
The world Is bright while Sc remain.
and dark and dead when ye are lost
] think that We are all too much on
guard against our imagination as If il
would lead us into dangerous paths
paths wriCh we may never hope to trav-
erse. On the contrary. il Is only by
imagination that we may see ahead that
there are such paths, and. seeing them
may strive for them, and striving nobly,
sometimes win 70 them, Nine. de Stael
informed us that
Fancy must ever rr-cade reason as It does IN the
growth II the human mind Rsssoners may readily
icresee their actions, but al that belongs 10
iancy IS unexpected she oveTieaps gTadations; a
trte mag wound her. OF that which ought 70 move
her must BE- passed ig with indifference she's her
own world and ia II there Is no calculating Effects
iy causes
Imagination is in very truth the ex-
pressed life Of the spirit that is within
u.s. She taxes us by the hand and leads
us away from the humdrUm labor and
''the cares that infest the day" out into
wide and spacious galleries Of fancies
where We Hay roam NJ viii amid the
masterpieces which the great minds and
souls Of those who lived before US have
created. In that land where fmagina-
ton takes us We may see ourselves as
we fain would be-gentle. brave. learned
accomplishing something for the better
meuJ Of the world, unseldsh, seIf-sacri-
ncing. Thus. in our souls. we may fix a
goal, and. finding il attainable. and much
10 be desired. We may strive for fl with
al our hearts For 10 dream Of good
work is almost as good as 20 have done
good work-the impulse Is there after
ALL and once the impulse. by assiduous
cultivation. becomes strong enough, the
task viii be- set about
We suou not when we sleep nar phen we wake.
Visions distinct aui ueftc- Cross Our eve
Which. 20 the slmbcrsr. seem realities:
Aud While taey walked, s,me men hsvs seen such
sights
As set al Hsusht the evidence of sense.
Aud left them well persuaded they were dreaming