Chapter twenty six, Riding the Winged Horse. To think and to feel constitute
the two grand divisions of men of genius, the men of reasoning and the
men of imagination Isaac Disraeli Literary Character of men of genius. And as imagination
bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes,
and gives to air in nothing, a local habitation and a name Shakespeare,
Midsummer Night's Dream. It is common among those who deal chiefly with life's
practicalities to think of imagination as having little value in comparison with direct thinking.
They smile with tolerance when Emerson says that science does not know its debt to
the imagination. For these the words of a speculative essayist, a philosopher,
a poet. But when Napoleon the indomitable world empires declares that the human race
is governed by its imagination, the authoritative word commands their respect. Be it
remembered. The faculty of forming mental images is as efficient a cog as may
be found in the whole mind machine. True, it must fit into the
other vital cog, pure thought. But when it does so, it may
be questioned which is the more productive of important results for the happiness and well
being of man. There should become more apparent as we go on. One
what is imagination? Let us not seek for a definition, for a score
of varying ones may be found, But let us grasp this fact. By
imagination we mean either the faculty or the process of forming mental images. The
subject matter of imagination may be really existent in nature, or not at all
real, or a combination of both. It may be physical or spiritual,
or both. The mental image is at once the most lawless and the most
law abiding child that has ever been born of the mind. First of all,
as its name suggests, the process of imagination, for we are thinking
of it now as a process rather than as a faculty, is memory at
work. Therefore we must consider it primarily as one reproductive imagination. We see
or hear, or feel or taste or smell something, and the sensation passes
away. Yet we're conscious of a greater or lesser ability to reproduce such feelings
at will. Two considerations, in general, will govern the vividness of the
image thus evoked, the strength of the original impression and the reproductive power of
one mind as compared with another. Yet every normal person will be able to
evoke images with some degree of clearness. The fact that not all minds possessed
this imaging faculty in anything like equal measure will have an important bearing on the
public speaker's study of this question. No man who does not feel at least
some poetic impulses is likely to aspire seriously to be a poet. Yet many
whose imaging faculties are so dormant as to seem actually dead, do aspire to
be public speakers. To all such, we say, most earnestly, awaken
your image making gift, for even in the most coldly logical discourse, it
is short approve of great service. It is important that you find out at
once just how full and how trustworthy is your imagination, for it is capable
of cultivation as well as of abuse. Francis Gorton footnote inquires into human faculty.
Francis Gorton says the French appear to possess the visual faculty in a high
degree. The peculiar ability they show in pre arranging ceremonials and fates of all
kinds, and their undoubted genius for tactics and strategy show that they're able to
foresee effects with unusual clearness. Their ingenuity in all technical contrivances is an additional
testimony in the same direction, and so is their singular clearness of expression.
Their phrase figure revous or picture to yourself seems to express their dominant mode of
perception. Our equivalent of image is ambiguous. But individuals differ in this respect
just as markedly as, for instance, the Dutch do from the French.
And this is true not only of those who are classified by their friends as
being respectively imaginative or unimaginative, but of those whose gifts or habits are not
well known. Let us take for expe periments six are the best known types
of imaging, and see in practice how they arise in our own minds.
By all odds, the most common type is at the visual image. Children
who more readily recall things seen than things heard are called by psychologists I minded,
and most of us are bent in this direction. Close your eyes now
and recall the word thus hyphenated as more suggestive the scene around this morning's breakfast
table. Possibly there was nothing striking in the situation, and the images therefore
not striking, then image any notable table scene in your experience, how vividly
it stands forth, Because at the time you felt the impressions strongly just then,
you may not have been conscious of how strongly the scene was laying hold
upon you. For often we are so intent upon what we see that we
give no particular thought to the fact that it is impressing us. It may
surprise you to learn and how accurately you are able to image a scene when
a long time has elapsed between the conscious focusing of your attention on the image
and the time when you saw the original b The auditory image is probably the
next most vivid of our recalled experiences. Here association is potent to suggest similarities.
Close out all the world beside, and listen to the peculiar wood against
wood, sound of the sharp thunder among rocky mountains. The crash of ball
against tenpins may suggest it, or image. The word is imperfect, for
it seems to suggest only the eye the sound of tearing ropes when some precious
weight hangs in danger, or record the bay of a hound almost upon you
in pursuit. Choose your own sound and see how pleasantly or terribly real it
becomes when imaged in your brain. See. The motor image is a close
competitive with the auditory for the second place. Have you ever awakened in the
night, every muscle taut and striving to feel yourself straining against the opposing football
line that held like a stone wall, or as firmly as the headboard of
your bed, Or voluntarily recall the movement of the boat when you cried inwardly
it's all up with me. The perilous lurch of a train, the sudden
sinking of an elevator, or the unexpected toppling of a rocking chair may serve
as further experiments d The gustatory image is common enough, as the idea of
eating lemons will testify. Sometimes the pleasurable recollection of a delightful dinner will cause
the mouth to water years afterward, while the image of particularly atrocious medicine will
wrinkle the nose long after it has made one day in boyhood wretched d The
olfactory image is even more delicate. Some there are who are affected to illness
by the memory of certain odors, while others experience the most delectable sensations by
the rise of pleasing olfactory images. F The tactile image to name no others
is well nigh as potent. Do you shudder at the thought of velvet rubbed
by short nailed finger tips? Or were you ever burned by touching an ice
cold stove? Or happier memory, can you still feel the touch of a
well loved absent hand. Be it remembered that few of these images are present
in our minds, excepting combination. The sight and sound of the crashing avalanche
are one. So are the flash and report of the huntman's gun that came
so near doing for us. Thus, imaging, especially conscious reproductive imagination,
will become a valuable part of our mental processes portion as we direct and control
it. Two productive imagination all of the foregoing examples, and doubtless also many
of the experiments you yourself may originate are merely reproductive. Pleasurable or horrific.
As these may be, they're far less important than the images evoked by the
productive imagination, though that does not infer a separate faculty. Recall again,
for experiment, some scene whose beginning you once saw enacted on a street corner,
but passed by before the day numon was ready to be disclosed. Recall
it all that far the image is reproductive. But what followed, Let your
fantasy roam at pleasure. The succeeding scenes are productive, for you have more
or less consciously invented the unreal on the basis of the real. And just
here the fictionist, the poem, and the public speaker will see the value
of productive imagery. True, the feet of the idol you build on the
ground, but its head pierces the clouds. It is a sun of both
earth and heaven. One fact it is important to note here imagery is a
valuable mental asset in proportion as it is controlled by the higher intellectual power of
pure reason. The untutored child of nature thinks largely in images, and therefore
attaches to them undue importance. He readily confuses the real with the unreal.
To him, they are of like value. But the man of training readily
distinguishes the one from the other and evaluates each with some if not with perfect
justice. So we see, the unrestrained imaging may produce a rudderless steamer,
while the trained faculty is the graceful sloop, skimming the seas at her skill,
as will her course, steaded by the helm of reason and her lightsome
wings catching every air of heaven, the game of chess, the warlord's tactical
plan, the evolution of a geometrical theorem, the devising of a great business
campaign, the elimination of waste in a factory, the day numa of a
powerful drama, the overcoming of an economic obstacle, the scheme for a sublime
poem, and the convincing siege of an audience. May, nay, indeed
must each be conceived in an image and wrought to reality according to the plans
and specifications laid upon the trestle board by some modern imaginative hireum. The farmer
who would be content with the seed he possesses, would have no harvest.
Do not rest satisfied with the ability to recall images, but cultivate your creative
imagination by building what might be upon the foundation of what is. Two the
uses of imaging in public speaking. By this time you will have already made
some general application of these ideas to the art of the platform. But in
several specific uses we must now refer. One Imaging in speech preparation. A
set the image of your audience before you while you prepare, Disappointment may lurk
here, and you cannot be forearmed for every emergency. But in the main,
you must meet your audience before you actually do. Image its probable mood
and attitude toward the occasion, the theme and the speaker b conceive your speech
as a whole while you are preparing its parts. Else can you not see
image how its parts shall be fitly framed together? See image. The language
you will use, so far as written or extemporaneous speech, may dictate the
habit of imaging, will give you choice of varied figures of speech. For
remember that an address without fresh comparisons is like a garden without blooms. Do
not be content with the first hackneyed figure that comes flowing to your pen point,
but dream on until the striking, the unusual, yet the vividly real,
comparison points your thought like steel does the arrow tip. Note the freshness
and effectiveness of the following description from the opening of o'henles's story The Harbinger,
Long before the springtide has felt in the dull bosom of the yokel does a
city man know that the grass green goddess is upon her throne? He sits
at his breakfast, eggs and toast, begirt by stone Walls opens his morning
paper and sees journalism leave vernalism at the post. For whereas Spring's couriers were
once the evidence of their finer senses, now the Associated Press does the trick.
The warble of the first robin in Hackensack, the stirring of the maple
sap in Bennington, the budding of the pussy willows along the main street in
Syracuse, the first chirp of the blue bird, the swan song of the
Blue Point, the annual tornado in Saint Louis, the plaint of the peach
pessimists from Pompton, New Jersey. The regular visit of the tame wild goose
with the broken leg to the pond near build Water Junction. The base attempt
of the Drug Trust to boost the price of quinine foiled in the house by
Congressman Jinks. The first tall poplar struck by lightning, and the usual stunned
picnickers who had taken refuge. The first crack of the ice jam in the
Allegheny River. The finding of a viole in its mossy bed by the correspondent
at Round Corners. These are the advanced signs of the burgeoning season that are
wired into the wise city, while the pharmacies nothing but winter upon his dreary
fields. But these be mere externals. The true harbinger is the heart.
When Streffen seeks his Chloe, and Mike is Maggie. Then, only as
spring arrived and the newspaper report of the five foot rattler killed in Squire's Pettigrew's
pasture confirmed, a hackneyed writer would probably have said that the newspaper told the
city man about spring before the farmer could see any evidence of it, but
that the real harbinger of spring was love, and that in the spring a
young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Two. Imaging in speech
delivery. When once the passion of speech is on you, and you are
warmed up by striking till the iron is hot, so that you may not
fail to strike when it is hot, your mood will be one of vision,
then a reimage past emotion, of which more elsewhere, the actor recalls
the old feelings every time he renders his telling lines. B reconstruct In image
the scenes, you are to describe ce image the objects in nature whose tone
you are delineating, so that bearing and voice and movement gesture will picture forth
the whole convincingly. Instead of merely stating the fact that whiskey ruins homes.
The temperance speaker paints a drunkard coming home to abuse his wife and strike his
children. It is much more effective than telling the truth in abstract terms.
To depict the cralness of war, do not assert the fact abstractly war is
cruel. Show the soldier an arm swept away by a bursting shell, lying
on the battlefield pleading for water. Show the children with tear stained faces pressed
against the window pane, praying for their dead father to return. Avoid general
and prosaic terms. Paint pictures. Evolve images for the imagination of your audience
to construct into pictures of their own. Three. How to acquire the imaging
habit. You remember the American statesman who asserted that the way to resume is
to resume. The application is obvious. Beginning with the first simple analyzes of
this chapter, test your own qualities of image making. One by one,
practice to several kinds of images, then add even invent others in combination.
For many images has come to us in complex form like the combined noise and
shoving and hot odor of a cheering crowd. After practicing on reproductive imaging,
turn to the productive, beginning with the reproductive and adding productive features for the
sake of cultivating invention. Frequently allow your originating gifts full swing by weaving complete
imaginary fabrics, sights, sounds, scenes, or the fine world of fantasy
lies open to the journeyings of your winged steed. In like manner, train
yourself in the use of figurative language. Learn first to distinguish and then to
use its varied forms. When used with restraint, nothing can be more effective
than the trope. But once let extravagance creep in by the window, and
power will flee by the door. All in all, master your image,
let not them master you. Questions and exercises. One, give original examples
of each kind of reproductive imagination. Two Build two of these into imaginary incidents
for platform use using your productive or creative imagination. Three Define a fantasy b
vision see fantastic d phantasmagoria e transmogrify f recollection. Four What is a figure
of speech? Five? Define and give two examples of each of the following
figures of speech. Footnote consult any good rhetoric. An unabridged dictionary will also
be of help. At least one of the examples under each type would better
be original A simile, B, metaphor C metonymy D, sectarchie E apostrophe,
F, vision, G personification, H, hyperbole, I irony.
Six A what is an allegory? B Name one example? C How could
a short allegory be used as part of a public address? Seven Write a
short fable footnote For a full discussion of the form, see the Art of
story Writing by j berg S and Wine and Mary D. Chambers. Seven
Write a short fable for use in a speech, follow either the ancient form
esop or the modern George Ade Josephine Dodge Dascombe. Eight What do you understand
and by the historical present, illustrate how it may be used only occasionally in
a public address. Nine. Recall some disturbance on the street. A.
Describe it as you would on the platform. B. Imagine what preceded the
disturbance. C Imagine what followed it. D. Connect the whole in a
terse, dramatic narration for the platform, and deliver it with careful attention to
all that you have learned of the public speaker's art. Ten. Do the
same with other incidents you have seen or heard of or read of in the
newspapers. Note it is hoped that this exercise will be varied and expanded until
the student has gained considerable mastery of imaginative narration. See chapter on narration eleven.
Experiments have proved that the majority of people think most vividly in terms of
visual images. However, some think more readily in terms of auditory and motor
images. It is a good plan to mix all kinds of images in the
course of your address, for you will doubtless have all kinds of hearers.
This plan will serve to give variety and strengthen your effects by appealing to the
several senses of each hearer, as well as interesting many different auditors. For
exercise A gives several original examples of compound images and b construct beef descriptions of
the scenes imagined, for example, the falling of a bridge in process of
building twelve. Read the following observantly. The Strikers suffered bitter poverty last winter
in New York. Last winter, a woman visiting the East side of New
York City saw another woman coming out of a tenement house wringing her hands.
Upon inquiry, the visitor found that a child had fainted in one of the
apartments. She entered and saw the child ill and in rags. While the
father, a striker, was too poor to provide medical help, a physician
was called and said the child had fainted from lack of food. The only
food in the house was dried fish. The visitor provided grocers for the family
and ordered the milkmen to leave milk for them daily. A month later she
returned. The father of the family knelt down before her and, calling her
an angel, said that she had saved their lives, for the milk she
had provided was all the food they had had. In the too preceding paragraphs,
we have substantially the same story told twice. In the first paragraph a
fact dated in general terms. In the second, we have an outline picture
of a specific happening. Now expand this outline into a dramatic recital, drawing
freely upon your imagination. End of section twenty six