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The imagination takes its color from its environment but the
selective power of the attention enables each one to choose and
determine his own mental environment. For in the end, the Will
is supreme, through its instrument of attention.
The second of the above mentioned lines operates in the
direction of the creation of clear and distinct mental images,
which tend toward effective and direct Will action. This upon
the idea that if we see clearly what we want, we are enabled to act
effectively and directly. This being so, we may see why we should
cultivate the art of using the imagination in the direction of
creating mental images of the clearest possible type. Think of
the things that you wish to do or become, and endeavor to see
them as already existent in their smallest detail, so that you will
become thoroughly familiar with every aspect of the ideal. By
so doing you will set for yourself a pattern, or create a mould,
after which your life will shape itself. You will thus create
well-beaten mental paths along which your Will will travel in
its search for expression. We are continually building mental
paths, consciously or unconsciously, and over which paths our
Will will travel, or at least will try to travel. According to the
character and direction of the path, so will be the progress and
direction of our life activities. This is an important thing which
should be carefully considered by every person who reads these
lines.
Halleck well expresses this idea when he says:
The young take no more important step than when they frame
an ideal which they will ever strive to attain. The first step consists
in studying the lives of illustrious men, to ascertain what constitutes
a noble and glorious life, to see how obstacles are surmounted,
how eminence is gained. The next step is to select the most worthy
attributes and to embody them in an ideal which is peculiarly fitted to
the constructor. Each one may thus construct for himself a life chart
as an ideal. Something may be learned from the life of every great man.
Thus, an ideal may embody the energy of a Napoleon; the integrity and
The Will