Imagination

Abstract

Imagination is, in its infancy, the art of seeing pictures, in its adolescence, it is the art of making pictures, but in its maturity it must forsake the brush for the pen to express itself with any adequacy. It is next to, and, indeed, preceding technical precision, the first and the greatest asset of the poet and the painter, and not alone are its uses limited to these elegant professions, for when it forms part of the equipment of the man of business its usefulness will be found to outweigh what are commonly regarded as more robust and stable virtues. The ordinary merchant, when dowered with imagination, is transformed into the extraordinary merchant. He becomes a merchant with a mission: he may even develop a conscience, although the science of business, like most other of the sciences, can find little use for this extra sense.