Even in the simple exercises for the development of the senses you have been continuously required to draw upon the child's imagination. Most children are blessed with a vivid, active imagination and use it continuously in their play and self-entertainment. The reason that this wonderful faculty is so useless to the average adult is largely caused by a misunderstanding of the faculty on the part of the parent and perhaps the teacher.

Imagination is the reproduction, in mental images, of those sensations which have previously been experienced.

Most children use both reproductive and the productive imagination easily. There is, however, considerable difference in the amount of use and benefit which they derive from it.

Reproductive imagination is reproducing the literal copy of the sensations.

Productive imagination is the forming of a new image made up of elements from previous images.

There is natural individuality in imagination and a difference in method and in inclination to use the faculty. Some children reproduce vivid images which are to them real and impressive and by the use of which they amuse themselves for hours. Others reproduce indistinct images which have no attractiveness, are dim, uncertain, and of little value or consequence.

Do not expect the imagination of two children necessarily to operate in the same way, and above all, do not insist upon the same results. If you wish to know what the difference is in this faculty of visual reproduction you can use some definite test, such as the one following.

Test for Visual Reproduction

The Preparation—Take particular care in the arrangement of the breakfast table in certain known order, so that you will later be able to know exactly what was on it and where it stood. Put on the table some article of distinct color. If there is any question of your being able to check accurately the arrangement leave the table as it is for an hour or so after the meal.

The Test—Some time after the family have left the table, not less than an hour and preferably longer, ask each child separately, and not in the hearing of the others, how the breakfast table looked that morning. Let the child tell in detail what he can of the appearance of the table, or if old enough let each write a description. The ease with which this is done, the amount of definiteness displayed, and the vividness with which the child reproduces the table will be an accurate indication of the quality of images used in his imagination.

A Universally Useful Faculty

Some have held the notion that imagination is a faculty useful only to actors, artists or poets. This is untrue. Some parents have discouraged and even killed the imaginative faculty in their children, because they did not wish them to follow either of the above professions.

Your child will be the greatest credit and satisfaction to you if he becomes that for which his natural endowment and inclination is strongest. It is a great mistake for parents to drive a child to grow up according to some previously conceived plan or professional choice of their own. Parental wisdom and duty are to find out what the child is especially endowed for and to guide him in taking advantage of these natural gifts, and at the same time inducing a general development in other lines.

Because of past misunderstanding or lack of understanding of its importance in every line of effort, including science, engineering, and every business development, many parents have discouraged their children in the use of their imagination. Every leader in commercial and industrial life is a man who has learned to use this faculty. Without it he could not make great progress. Other men as brilliant as he have lagged behind because they have never cultivated their imagination or allowed themselves to be led by it. You should do everything possible to encourage and to guide your children in the conscious use of this faculty.

Children's Falsehoods

Many parents are distressed because of the tendency on the part of young children to tell untruths, "stories" about what they have seen or heard. This tendency is more marked in some children and occurs in the younger years before the senses and faculties are thoroughly under control. There is nothing dangerous about this, it is more often than not the result of a vivid imagination in which the visualizations appear real. The fusion of ideas and illusions sometimes cause the story to be "so awful."

In most cases the child will outgrow this tendency and if carefully and wisely watched over nothing detrimental will come of it. It is an indication of a strong imaginative faculty which, if guided and trained, will later be of immense value to him. Children who have a tendency to this "story telling" should not be punished for it. They should be given to understand that these are imaginary stories and should not be told as the truth. They will, of course, appear real to the child, but he will gradually learn to distinguish between the real and the imaginary.

Two children, both with vivid imaginations, were allowed and encouraged in telling all kinds of imaginary stories, and playing imaginary games, but were taught to discriminate between these and the truth by the use of the word "really." If one began to wonder if the things the other was telling were true and actually happened, he would ask, "Was it really, sister?" "Oh, no, not really," was the reply, and the game or story proceeded. In this way the children developed the faculty and were taught to respect the truth.

Reality of Illusions

There may be many individual peculiarities about your child's imagination and his "story telling inclination," but these should not induce you to be severe or to forbid them unless you have studied the subject of the imagination carefully, or secured competent advice.

You attend the entertainment of a magician, and during the whole evening your senses are deceived. The magician uses the inclination of the mind to illusions in making his tricks possible. He throws a ball into the air a couple of feet and catches it. Then he throws it higher and does the same several times, the last time he goes through the same motion without the ball and nine-tenths of the audience will swear that they saw it actually disappear in the air. If we with years of experience in sensation and thought are so easily deceived can you justly punish a child for yielding to the same mental tendencies?

Imagination a Curse or Blessing

All normal children possess the faculty and its use will bring them blessing and success if properly guided. The direct opposite is true. If the child is allowed to form the habit of using his imagination carelessly and negatively it will be harmful to an extreme degree.

Positive imagination which suggests happy, cheerful and successful thoughts and actions should be praised and encouraged.

Negative imagination which suggests danger, accident, sickness, loss and failure, should be discouraged and immediately replaced by thoughts which are positive in quality. Imagination allowed to dwell upon morbid, revengeful, ethically forbidden, or immoral ideas is harmful physically as well as morally. "He who has imagined an action 'has committed it in his heart.'"

There is no greater truth than—"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."

Imagination is the fountain head of thought and therefore the source of words, action, personality and character. Help your child to control the whole trend of his life by carefully governing the operations of his imagination.

Dissipating the Imagination

Here is a danger point, "Day dreaming, idle flights of imagination, building air castles are of little value, and dangerous in that they tend to develop the habit." If indulged in to excess they constitute a foolish waste of time. Occasional flights of this kind should not be dealt with harshly, but any tendency to persist in them should be stopped.

Reading of books which are wild flights of imagination often constitute a harmless form of recreation for persons who are confined for long hours at routine work, or engaged in hard physical labor. Children do not need this extreme class of reading and should not be allowed to indulge in much of it.

Exercises for the Imagination

First strive for clearness in the reproduction and ability to keep the images separate. The reproduction of letters and figures in the exercises for visualization on page 46 will accomplish this result.

Problems in mental arithmetic, if visualized, are of great value in that the correct solving of them requires vivid and separate images. Work for fullness of detail, the picture frame suggested on page 74 offers an excellent opportunity to do this while exercising the constructive imagination. While fixing the attention upon the square you keep the element of change going by use of the imagination in picture making. Put into this picture all the detail possible, add everything you can think of and then strive to create still more.

The Story Games

Read the child a story or description of some well-known object, then have him tell it as nearly as he can reproduce it. Now have him tell it again and add every bit of detail, every new circumstance and condition which he can create for himself.

Read half of a story to the child and have him go on from where you leave off, making his own imaginary ending for it. Then read the conclusion to show him how the author's imagination differed from his.

Most of the exercises and games given for the development of Visualization and Attention call the imagination into action. These three faculties are so closely related that they can not be treated entirely separate. Any exercise previously given for the first two will develop the imagination as well.

These faculties of Visualization, Attention and Imagination combine in the operation of the great faculty of Memory, which is to be the subject of the Second Book. Exercises given there will result in further development of the imagination.

The Game of Creation

Prof. Gates is credited with being the first to use the following idea for guiding the constructive imagination in producing new ideas. He has in the past few years used it so effectively that there are more than one hundred articles now manufactured under the protection of patents by the United States Government, and scores of others are being perfected.

Make a list of all the things in the room, then select one object and combine it with the rest of the list and see how many new ideas will result. This is using the constructive imagination, creating a new whole from familiar parts. Example—

Floor, table, ceiling, wall, window, glass, casing, frame, stove, pipe, damper, oilcloth, cover, rug, boards, paint, plaster, paper, picture, frame, bench, chair, couch, morris chair, curtain, rod, lace, book, paper, magazine, Victrola, plant, flag, etc.

Select table, and by combining it with the other objects we will see how some new combinations have been created, and perhaps we will create some ourselves.

Table—wall, suggests a table disappearing into the wall, as used in small apartments.

Table—oilcloth, a common article.

Table—cover, also common.

Table—rug, Oriental rugs are often used for table covers.

Table—boards, the extension dining table.

Table—chair, the combination used in dairy lunches.

Table—book, the library table.

Table—Victrola, a combination manufactured by the Columbia Company.

Table—flag, suggests the flag as a table cover.

The longer the list the greater the possibility of finding some new and useful idea. Business men use this idea constructively. Woolworth combined the 5c and store, and made his fortune. Ingersol combined the Dollar and Watch. A boat, paddles, and a steam engine resulted in the first steamboat.

There is no limit to the illustration, it is everywhere apparent and in many things that you use. Every new invention or short-cut in business will result from a new combination of existing concepts. We are now manufacturing alcohol from sawdust, rubber from wheat. When shall we stop?

Play this game with the children. They will enjoy it and learn how progress has been made and gain new and valuable ideas. An active lad was confined to the house with a broken leg. His mother started him playing this game and by its use he has discovered many new games. This time it suggested kite—window, and soon, with the assistance of a neighbor boy, he was flying his kite out of a window.

The Picture Gallery

In the great home of the mind there is a room of unusual importance which can be known as the picture gallery. Here the great artist Imagination hangs the products of his efforts. Picture after picture is painted by this wonderful faculty and hung in this gallery. Each of these pictures becomes a force exerted upon the individual in whose mind it is hung. Thought and Desire wander in this gallery incessantly, and gaze upon the pictures there, using them as patterns for their efforts in future. From these pictures they get their incentive and inspiration.

The young child's picture gallery is a wonderful room with clean, white walls waiting for the artist to take up the task of painting and hanging the pictures. This artist is young and inexperienced and easily influenced and guided by one older and more accurate.

The parents should realize that this gallery is going to be rapidly filled with pictures, and that the choice of these pictures can be almost entirely under their control. You can help your child's imagination paint clean, wholesome pictures that will result in helpful and constructive influence upon his life. But remember that these pictures ARE BEING HUNG, whether YOU take time to help in the work or not.

If the pictures are negative in influence, or those suggested by wrong companions and vulgar thoughts, the result will show itself sometime in the future. The life will sooner or later reproduce these pictures in personal character and action.

Pictures which are objectionable can be replaced, or covered over by attractive ones, which will be helpful and lead Thought into right paths and create Desire that will be a future blessing. Remember, it is far more difficult to replace a negative picture than to paint a helpful one before the other has made its impression. It is very important that you place your picture first.

Imagination is the architect and his plans are hung upon the walls of this picture gallery, where other faculties use them for building the character and personality of the child. His future circumstances, success, or failure, will be the result of this law of nature. The contents of this picture gallery are great and powerful causes which help bring about the desired result.

If this truth can be sufficiently impressed upon the mind of parent and child, both will co-operate in an effort to hang the right kind of pictures in the gallery and the result will be a finer and more successful life.

Every parent should make it a duty to hang in this gallery beautiful pictures of all the ideals which they wish to see fulfilled by their child. Besides the ideals of growth, character, purity, etc., there should be such pictures as a home; a life of useful service; financial independence, and a happy old age. The details are a matter of individual choice and should be filled in as the years pass by the growing understanding and ambition of the child.

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