should next proceed to mapout your general field and to note its prominent landmarks. In the words of the second section of the General Rule, you should: “Form a comprehensive picture of the whole field of the proposed undertaking; get a comprehensive and inclusive view of the field of the whole business into which you purpose embarking; see the whole enterprise in all of its general aspects; compose a comprehensive idea including the whole matter under consideration.”
In this process you need but to follow the general principles which already have been presented to you in the instruction concerning the discovery and visualization of your Definite Purpose—your Definite Ideal. These principles may be stated in condensed form as follows:
(1) “THINK WITH YOUR PENCIL.” Write down all of the ideas concerning the general field and plan, and then compare these for the purpose of selection. Eliminate the nonessentials, cancel the duplications and contradictories, and arrange the selected items in a logical and orderly classification. In short, make a chart or diagram of the general field and plan, showing the ground to be covered, the obstacles to be overcome, the strong places, the weak points, etc., etc., You will do well to bestow sufficient care and attention upon this task, for your chart will be to you what his map of the battlefield is to the commanding officer.
(2) “VISUALIZE YOUR MAP.” Study your map until you can easily visualize it. Learn it “by heart” so that it will become as familiar as your “A, B, C’s,” or your Multiplication Table of childhood days. Impress your map upon your memory, so that you can bring it at will into conscious representation or recollection.
V
THE MENTAL LABORATORY
THE THIRD section of the General Rule tells you to: “Make a written list of all of the probable factors involved in the problem or undertaking; compile a list of all of the probable elements involved in the working out of the matter; gather together all of the ideas of the things at all likely to be called into the creative process; have within easy reach the ideas of all of the materials likely to be employed in the construction of the ideal form which you wish to materialize.”
Here you proceed to supply the Constructive Imagination with the raw materials for its creative processes. You have seen that the Constructive Imagination does not, and cannot, create “something out of nothing.” Instead, it creates by combination, adaptation, adjustment, transformation—always employing the material which you furnish it for the purpose. Therefore, you must supply it with the kind of mental images which are best adapted for the creation of the new forms, images or ideas which contribute to the manifestation of your Definite Purpose—your Definite Central Ideal. This material (composed of mental images) is then employed both by your conscious mentality and by your subconscious mentality, in their work of weaving or fusing the fabric or form of the necessary new images.
You must get busy at this point—you have much real work ahead of you here. You must begin by acquainting yourself with the list of the things which seem likely to come into use in the working out of your Definite Purpose—your Definite Ideal. You need not be absolutely certain that all of the material being gathered in by you for this purpose really will prove necessary or even valuable in the process; gather in all that seems “at all likely” to be of some use. In case of uncertainty on this point, give the material the benefit of the doubt, and add it to your list—you may discard it later, if need be. All that you need to do at this time is to gather together such materials as seem likely to be worth consideration in the matter. And, note this, make a written list of all such items of promising material; for you will be called upon to do considerable “thinking with your pencil” in the work ahead of you.
In the first place, you must fairly saturate yourself with the subject represented by your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal, the achievement of which is so insistently desired, so confidently expected, and so persistently willed by you. You must learn at least the name and general character of every thing connected with or related to that subject—if but even remotely related to it. This, because the images or ideas of these related things are precisely the “stuff” upon which your Constructive Imagination must depend for the materials which it must weave or fuse into newer and more efficient images.
Every thing that ever was invented, created or composed by the Constructive Imagination, is constituted of several elements; and these elements previously existed as separate though related ideas—the same kind of ideas which you are now trying to accumulate as raw material. The men who invented, created or composed those new things were dependent upon these separate images or ideas for their material—without them these men could not, and would not have invented or created those new images. You are now in the same position as were they before their work was really begun—or rather, before their Definite Purposes and Definite Ideals had begun to assume clearly defined form and proportions.
Morse, Stephenson, Marconi, Edison, and the rest of the inventors, were once “in the same boat” in which you are now. To duplicate their processes, you must gather together the raw materials just as they did. This should be plain enough for you; but do not proceed further until this truth is thoroughly grasped and appreciated by you. You must be well grounded in the facts of this fundamental principle before you properly may proceed to set the same into creative activity. There is no royal road to Constructive Imagination. All, high and low, always have, must now, and must always hereafter, travel the same common road leading to the goal. This “all” includes yourself.
A moment ago, we told you that “you must fairly ‘saturate’ yourself with the subject represented by your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal, the achievement of which is so insistently desired, confidently expected, and persistently willed by you. You must learn at least the name and general character of every thing connected with or related to that subject—even remotely related to it.” But just how are you to saturate yourself with such knowledge? Just how are you going to know at least the name and general character of everything connected with or related to that particular subject? The correct answer to these questions involves a most important method of the scientific application of Constructive Imagination, and you should consider carefully the following information given as the answer.
Consider this proposition: If some very wealthy man were to call you into his office and then make you the following offer, you would accept it at once, and would proceed to devise the proper means to accomplish the task and win the reward—there would be no hesitancy on your part about accepting it, we are sure. Here is the hypothetical rich man’s offer to you: “Mr. Blank, I want someone to prepare for me the fullest and most complete list possible of the things concerning or related to this particular subject (here naming the subject of your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal). I will give you a salary of double the amount you are now earning, and also pay all your expenses, while you are conducting the search and preparing the list. When you have completed the list, if it is found to meet the requirements of reasonable completeness and perfection, I will make you a present of one hundred thousand dollars. Will you undertake the task?” What would be your answer? You would accept, of course.
Then, what would be the first steps in your preparation of the list? Well, you would begin by reading the best textbooks covering the general subject—starting off with the descriptive articles treating upon it which you would find in the best encyclopaedias. You would saturate yourself with the subject. You would consult with persons employed in occupations necessitating at least a working knowledge of the subject. You would read the trade journals circulating among those engaged in such callings—not forgetting to read the advertisements. You would carefully consider the pricelists and catalogues of houses dealing in the supplies required in those branches of work. In short, you would seek in every possible direction, and from every possible source, for the names of the things concerning or related to that special
