to reach the tender, juicy branches of certain trees, which were needed as food. This need and this difficulty were recognized by the subconscious mentality of the animal, and the Creative Idea began to shape and fashion the ideal form or mental image of the long legs and long neck which afterwards manifested in physical form in the descendants of the animal. In the same way were evolved and perfected the long legs and long bills of the wading, fishcatching birds. Again, thus were evolved the cruel beaks and talons of the hawks, eagles and other carnivorous, preycapturing birds; and the claws and fangs of the carnivorous animals.
In short, many thoughtful scientists recognize the existence and activity in Nature of a principle which tends to manifest in objective, material form that which has previously existed as a mental form or ideal image in the subconscious mentality of living creatures; the mental form or ideal image having arisen in response to a strong need, want, lack or desire of the creature—as in the illustrative cases above cited. The advance guard of the new psychology carries this principle to its logical conclusion when it asserts that the human being is able to set into operation great natural forces tending to produce similar objective results when he deliberately creates strong ideals, and then passes the same down to his subconscious mentality. Here is a hint at a mighty principle.
Many persons are disposed to regard as more or less unreal and unsubstantial anything that is purely ideal and mental in its nature. To such we would cite the celebrated rule of Spinoza, viz.: “A thing has only so much reality as it possesses power.” Applying this rule to the ideal forms or mental images underlying material forms, you will discover that such possess a very high degree of reality and substantiality. Ideal forms and creative mental images are not merely such stuff as dreams are made of, but in reality are strong, powerful forces. In fact, many manifestations of natural forces are really efforts toward the expression of the Creative Idea. The inner form striving to manifest in the outer form often exercises a tremendous force. The inner form of a growing plant has been known to crack a heavy concrete block; and the power of growing roots, arising from the inner urge of the ideal form, has been known to tear asunder heavy foundation stones.
John Burroughs, the great naturalist, says concerning this force of the inner form striving for outward expression: “We know that the roots of trees insert themselves into seams in the rocks, and force the rocks asunder. This force is measurable, and often is very great. Its seat seems to be in the soft milky substance called the cambium layer under the bark. These minute cells, when their force is combined, may become regular rocksplitters. One of the most remarkable exhibitions of plant force I ever saw was in a Western city where I observed a species of wild sunflower forcing its way up through the asphalt pavement. The folded and compressed leaves of the plant, like a man’s fist, had pushed against the hard but flexible concrete until it had bulged up and then split, and let the irrepressible plant through. The force exerted must have been many pounds. I think it doubtful if the strongest man could have pushed his fist through such a resisting medium. If it was not Life which exerted this force, what was it?”
In the same way, the great giants of the forest have pushed their way up toward the skies, counteracting the pull of gravitation, and lifting weights which it would have required mighty machinery to move. The mental pattern in the giant redwood trees proceeds to the materialization of the gigantic outer form of the tree, and the “inner urge” of the ideal form calls to its aid the mighty latent forces of Nature in order to materialize that which is contained in the ideal form or mental image of the living organism of the tree. Nature seems ready to furnish such power to the inner urge, provided that such is sufficiently needed, insistently desired, and persistently demanded, and provided that it is called for in the right way. If man ever obtains the inner secret of this demand, he will have the creative powers and forces of Nature in his hands. Already he has acquired a portion of this secret, and is able to perform mighty creative work by directing his mental powers toward the physical plane. In this instruction we seek to disclose the principles of this process to you.
The attention of certain philosophers has been attracted by this manifestation in Nature’s activities of a process closely resembling Constructive Imagination. They venture the hypothesis that the creative powers and processes of the human mind have an equivalent in Nature’s processes of growth in living forms, vegetable and animal. A littleknown, though worthy, metaphysician has gone so far as to elevate to the rank of the Ultimate World Principle that which we know as the Constructive Imagination. He asserts that there is a Cosmic Constructive Imagination working in Nature, producing the myriad forms and varieties of vegetable and animal forms. He holds, further, that the same principle, in the form of the human Constructive Imagination, enables man to become a Creator on his own plane of life.
This metaphysician holds that Constructive Imagination is the essential characteristic attribute of the Ultimate Principle of the Cosmos. He holds that this essential attribute is inherent in the very essence of all things, and in the world as a whole. He postulates its existence in the AllThing as an immanent principle, just as in the kernel of the plantseed there exists an immanent principle which will give to the evolving plant its form and its type of organism. This Cosmic principle, he asserts, has manifested the myriads of vegetable and animal forms which have existed, or now exist; and will so manifest those forms which shall in the future exist in the world. He holds that the first creations were quite simple, but that little by little the Cosmic Constructive Imagination increased its energy and manifested in more complex forms. He cites Darwin as testimony that in Nature there has been a slow evolution of organized forms, proceeding from the simple to the more complex, and so on.
We are not here concerned with philosophical hypotheses, nor with metaphysical speculations, but, at the same time, we feel it proper to direct your attention to the fact that there is manifest in all Nature the operation of a powerful principle which proceeds from the inner form to the outer manifestation—from the ideal image to its materialization in objective form. We have given you in the foregoing pages certain typical illustrations of the operation of this natural principle or process. By looking around you at the world of living and growing things, you will be able to perceive countless instances of the operation of the same power, once your attention has been called to it.
Likewise, we wish to call to your attention the fact that many earnest thinkers hold that that which is called the Constructive Imagination in the mind of man is but a special form of the same great natural principle; and that man himself, like Nature as a whole, has within himself the power of Creation by means of the materialization of his Ideal Forms. Your experience has taught you that the men who have accomplished the great creative achievements in art, literature, mechanics, invention, building and business construction, have created the outer manifestation in accordance with the inner ideal or mental picture—the latter serving as the model, type, mold or pattern of the former. But the principle operates over a much wider area, and extends to a much deeper level of being, than you have realized.
It is a fact acknowledged by many very careful observers and reasoners that the man of strong ideals—he whose mind contains strong, dear mental pictures of that which he hopes to accomplish—actually sets into operation the forces, powers and energies of his entire mental and physical being. These, in turn, draw upon the common source of Nature for their nourishment and subsistence, and all the power so generated tends toward manifestation and expression in the material form which is being built upon the mental framework or pattern of the Creative Idea. Just as the oak is able to draw upon Nature for power with which it may lift itself far above the surface of the earth, and to send forth mighty limbs and branches; just as the growing plant is able to secure from Nature sufficient force to enable it to push aside, or break through the obstacles in the path of its progress—even through concrete blocks as we have seen; so may the Creative Idea of the “man who knows” be able to draw upon Nature for the still more subtle forces of her laboratory needed to materialize his ideal forms—to make his ideals become real.
Not only this, but there is a rapidly growing body of human thinkers who hold that man, in such cases, is not necessarily limited to the mechanism of his own organism in the expression of his inner urge by means of the forces which he has attracted
