mental in its development, we only begin to appreciate what
value imagination bears to it. According to Dr. Hart, there
are at least three elements entering into a true political com
position. “First: It must be the product of an excited im
agination. Slecond: It must be the product of a creative im
agination. Third: Its primary object must be to please.”
Now poetry may be said to act in a reciprocal capacity; the
poet in composing his own production is stimulated by his
own imaginative activity to explore the unseen world in or
der to reach its beauties, and the reader can only appreciate
the work when his own creative faculty reaches the level of
the author’s. When Macbeth says of the dead king: “After
life’s fitful fever he sleeps well, ” we at once see that this
is no commonplace expression, but the product of a fertile
imagination and that when we try to interpret it, our own
door to imaginative activity is opened.
Examine the literary productions in some typical per
iods and countries if you will and note the influence of im
agery on the character of the writings. The Chinese have
a natural taste for poetry and the drama, but this kind of
literature has been crippled to a large extent by the lack of
creative power in the people. And when we come into the
realm of English literature and compare the production of
the Elizabethan age say, with the Restoration age, we only
emphasize the value of creation again in a more fruitful
way. The productions of the age of Elizabeth were the re
sult of a nation overflowing with youthful buoyancy.
The New World was just coming into prominence and prom
ising wealth and enjoyment to all; and the old world was
expanding in every line possible and giving its people new
hope, new ambition, and new ideas. We can truly say, that
there never was a time in the history of the world when im
agination was more exercised, and what was the result?
Why we can only say, that no higher compliment can be
paid to an age of literature than to say it resembled the
The Power of Imagination.