Albion College - Albionian Yearbook (Albion, MI)

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VQLY -3 gi Q smizeflurl M X S' JOHN P. ASHLEY, 5. T. B., Ph. D. E T i Q H HOW TO CULTIVATE THE lwmciuariou. 1 1 Imagination is the pictuiizing facultj of the soul, it is the powci which piesents ideas and forms combinations. There are several kinds of imagination, first, the scientific or con- by which the scientist is enabled to hypothesize results not yet actual from a study conditions. Then, there is the inventive or creative imagination, which manifests itself in new and modified structive imagination, of present facts -and usually in- practical time and labor saving inventions, and i11 which the reproductive and comparative pro- cesses work over their materials subject to theidea of the good. There is also an aesthetic imagination which Coleridge has divided into the epic imagination, the perfection of which is in Milton, and the di unatic, of which Shakespeare is the absolute master. In this form of the imagination the material is imagination. ' In developing any form of imagination, first, have at hand abundant material: second, be intimate with nature, third, picturize clearly, fourth, analyze fully, fifth, synthesize completely: sixth, idealize greatly, seventh, poetize abundantlyg eighth, 'travel extensively, ninth, originate daily: tenth, illustrate freely. The commonest experiences of our sense life, in leaf, flower, and shrub, the lights and shadows of 'tn ascending and descending sun, afford boundless material for every imagination. When our ears and eyes are open, the world is full of the thoughts and voices of God. Q Among the processes that weaken and limit imagination are. reading to no definite purpose, the absence of idealizing our life daily, the unwillingness to search for words which will not under-express or over-express the mental picture, our assumption that when we know a part it may 'stand for the whole. Day-dreaming and castle-building are both morally and mentally bad. To idealize should imply obligation to realize the ideal. FREDERICK LUTZ, A. M. N THE study of foreign languages many faculties come into play, among which the imagination is by no means the least. A language is, so to speak, the living history of a people, showing forth 'its make-up its customs, its inner life. And words also have histories. Now surely it requires imagination to enter into this spirit of a' language so that one is for the time being, following the great lights of all the departments of human knowledge by means of that language: so that one is thinking and living and playing in the thoughts of the great men that have benefited the race. It is by the flight of our imagination that we appreciate art, literature, science and history, in short S . Qi f on N W 3. I . ' mn 95 worked over subject to the idea of the true and the beautiful. Q We might discuss also ethical and religious E245 L Q h X . W 'N I .J j Q iii 5 the true life of the people. It is due to this trained- imagination that we enjoy the wealth that ancient art and literature so freely bequeathed to us. It is by poetic fancy that we can read, in translation at least, all that is noble and true and beautiful in any literature. -gg-

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It is by the imaginative, sympathetic study of foreign languages that we learn to grasp the full imagery of the Bible, not only through Hebrew and Greek but 'through as many languages as possible, the different versions being not infrequently the best commentaries. As children, our imagination is cultivated by the study of languages, in the little legends and tales our mothers read and tell to usg and later in life as students, our imagination carries us farther, and we are permitted to live with the Muses on Parnassus, with Ulysses in his wanderings, with Dante in his circles of the World to come, with Goethe in the wonderful career of Faust, with Shakespeare in his unsurpassed world of dramas. Withoiit going beyond the sphere of languages proper-for language is the vehicle of thought-let me close my illustrations. HENRY BENNER, Ph, D. O MANY who think the subject of mathematics an exceedingly uninteresting study, it may be a matter of great surprise to know that the imagination is an important faculty in the successful prosecution of the subiect. Bothbthe represen- tative and creative imagination play an important part in elementary as well as in advanced inaihematics, The most elementary processes in arithmetic furnish abundant means for cultivating this faculty. The child learns the fundamental operations by means of objects. It is, however, impossible to employ these all the time and then the imagination can be used and consequently cultivated. In the solution of problems in arithmetic and algebra the teacher frequently finds it necessary to aid the imagination by drawings and other devices so that the facts may be properly kept before the mind. And vet even with all these aids inaccurate conclusions are often drawn simply because the mind has been unable to hold before itself all the details of the problem proposed for solution. More urgent yet is the need of this faculty in the discussion of problems to see iust what effect variations in data and conditions have upon the final form of the result. - ' Perhaps in no other branch of mathematics is the imagination so much needed as in geometry. Ulmagination is only second to reason in the right study of geometry. We all know how much trouble some propositions in solid geometry make because the pupil cannot see the figure as he ought to see it. And what is true in elementary solid geometry is true to a still greater degree in descriptive geometry and in all advanced geometry. Geometry and algebra aid each other in discovering truths, and an examination of mathematical models made to illustrate higher geometric forms will convince any one that the power of imagination needed to study the subject is more than ordinary. The achievements and predictions of astronomy are marvelous, but to make them or eniov them we need both mathe- matics and imagination. Not in poetry alone but in applied mathematics also does imagination bodv forth the forms of things unknown and give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. ' R. CLYDE FoRD, Ph. M. MAGINATION is an element of aesthetic tone, and involves appreciation which is the n1easu1-Q gf msthetic tone Hoey appreciative is one of literature or art? The answer tells what the imagination is. . i Doubtless every one possesses, or has possessed, the germs of an imagination. Now the question is: How shall what is rudimentary become full grown, and from the seeds of an imagination come an active, healthy, developed iimufilmtionja At the outset we may say that the imagination is wilful, in no great debt to real experience, possessing aii, independent nature of its own, therefore, obviously, direct training will be too vigorous. The imagination, howeverigroizvs unconsciously by what it feeds on,-here is the opportunity. for its cultivation. ' ' f I. Guide its emotions, the feelings from which it springs, the ideals it employs. Learn to admire to see beauty to think beautyg. be kind, be. sympathetic, have a soul nature, be religious. i ' pi-fy-mIIis.fi'ff','f1e ifi?.ZlalhL'l.Wfl1f.'i..12iiifmfifis iltSiii3...1.ii..lS ..Tfll1Tii 'l1? 3flf3k'OXeZ.f0 lliilfllgf in flights, iv1.t.i1.,. vw are valuable. by s s 23- P . lZLWlllg',l11OClCll1l'lg, litelazy composition