ne whose beginning you once saw
enacted on a street corner but passed by before the denouement was ready
to be disclosed. Recall it all--that far the image is reproductive. But
what followed? Let your fantasy roam at pleasure--the succeeding scenes
are productive, for you have more or less consciously invented the
unreal on the basis of the real.

And just here the fictionist, the poet, and the public speaker will see
the value of productive imagery. True, the feet of the idol you build
are on the ground, but its head pierces the clouds, it is a son of both
earth and heaven.

One fact it is important to note here: Imagery is a valuable mental
asset in proportion as it is controlled by the higher intellectual power
of pure reason. The untutored child of nature thinks largely in images
and therefore attaches to them undue importance. He readily confuses the
real with the unreal--to him they are of like value. But the man of
training readily distinguishes the one from the other and evaluates each
with some, if not with perfect, justice.

So we see that unrestrained imaging may produce a rudderless steamer,
while the trained faculty is the graceful sloop, skimming the seas at
her skipper's will, her course steadied by the helm of reason and her
lightsome wings catching every air of heaven.

The game of chess, the war-lord's tactical plan, the evolution of a
geometrical theorem, the devising of a great business campaign, the
elimination of waste in a factory, the denouement of a powerful drama,
the overcoming of an economic obstacle, the scheme for a sublime poem,
and the convincing siege of an audience may--nay, indeed must--each be
conceived in an image and wrought to reality according to the plans and
specifications laid upon the trestle board by some modern imaginative
Hiram. The farmer who would be content with the seed he possesses would
have no harvest. Do not rest satisfied with the ability to recall
images, but cultivate your creative imagination by building "what might
be" upon the foundation of "what is."

II. THE USES OF IMAGING IN PUBLIC SPEAKING

By this time you will have already made some general application of
these ideas to the art of the platform, but to several specific uses we
must now refer.

_1. Imaging in Speech-Preparation_

(a) _Set the image of your audience before you while you prepare._
Disappointment may lurk here, and you cannot be forearmed for every
emergency, but in the main yo