71. What is the imagination?
A form of constructive thought. The light by which we penetrate new worlds of thought and experience. The mighty instrument by which every inventor or discoverer opened the way from precedent to experience.
72. What is the result of imagination?
The cultivation of the imagination leads to the development of the ideal out of which your future will emerge.
73. How may it be cultivated?
By exercise; it must be supplied with nourishment or it cannot live.
74. How does imagination differ from day dreaming?
Daydreaming is a form of mental dissipation, while imagination is a form of constructive thought which must precede every constructive action.
75. What are mistakes?
The result of ignorance.
76. What is knowledge?
The result of a man's ability to think.
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77. What is the Power with which successful men build?
Mind is the ever moving force with which they secure the persons and circumstances necessary to complete their plans.
78. What predetermines the result?
The ideal held steadily in mind attracts the necessary conditions for its fulfillment.
79. What is the result of a keen analytical observation?
The development of imagination, insight, perception and sagacity.
80. To what do these lead?
Opulence and harmony.
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TELLS of the fundamental principle, the imperative condition, the immutable law underlying every successful business relation or social condition. It tells of the law by which you may make yourself irresistible, by which you may sweep away every form of discord, disharmony and doubt. It tells the secret of the solution to every problem. It explains that there are only three things which all mankind requires for complete happiness and development. It tells what they are and how they may be had.
INTRODUCTION. PART NINE.
In this Part you may learn to fashion the tools by which you may build for yourself any condition you desire.
If you wish to change conditions, you must change yourself. Your whims, your wishes, your fancies, your ambitions may be thwarted at every step, but your inmost thoughts will find expression just as certainly as the plant springs from the seed.
Suppose, then, we desire to change conditions, how are we to bring this about? The reply is simple: By the law of growth. Cause and effect are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of material things.
Hold in mind the condition desired; affirm it as an already existing fact. This indicates the value of a powerful affirmation. By constant repetition it becomes a part of ourselves. We are actually changing ourselves; we are making ourselves what we want to be.
Character is not a thing of chance, but it is the result of continued effort. If you are timid, vacillating, self-conscious, or if you are over-anxious or harassed by thoughts of fear or impending danger, remember that it is axiomatic that "two things cannot exist in the same place at the same time."
Exactly the same thing is true in the mental and spiritual world; so that your remedy is plainly to substitute thoughts of courage, power, self-reliance and confidence, for those of fear, lack and limitation.
The easiest and most natural way to do this is to select an affirmation which seems to fit your particular case. The positive thought will destroy the 94
negative as certainly as light destroys darkness, and the results will be just as effectual.
Act is the blossom of thought, and conditions are the result of action, so that you constantly have in your possession the tools by which you will certainly and inevitably make or unmake yourself, and joy or suffering will be the reward.