登陆注册
5240900000045

第45章 CHAPTER Imagination(3)

Individuality, personality, and the sense of self are only three different aspects of one and the same thing. They are so many various views of the soul according as we regard it from an intrinsic, an altruistic, or an egoistic standpoint. For by individuality is not meant simply the isolation in a corporeal casing of a small portion of the universal soul of mankind. So far as mind goes, this would not be individuality at all, but the reverse. By individuality we mean that bundle of ideas, thoughts, and daydreams which constitute our separate identity, and by virtue of which we feel each one of us at home within himself. Now man in his mind-development is bound to become more and more distinct from his neighbor. We can hardly conceive a progress so uniform as not to necessitate this. It would be contrary to all we know of natural law, besides contradicting daily experience. For each successive generation bears unmistakable testimony to the fact. Children of the same parents are never exactly like either their parents or one another, and they often differ amazingly from both. In such instances they revert to type, as we say; but inasmuch as the race is steadily advancing in development, such reversion must resemble that of an estate which has been greatly improved since its previous possession. The appearance of the quality is really the sprouting of a seed whose original germ was in some sense coeval with the beginning of things. This mind-seed takes root in some cases and not in others, according to the soil it finds. And as certain traits develop and others do not, one man turns out very differently from his neighbor. Such inevitable distinction implies furthermore that the man shall be sensible of it. Consciousness is the necessary attribute of mental action. Not only is it the sole way we have of knowing mind; without it there would be no mind to know.

Not to be conscious of one's self is, mentally speaking, not to be.

This complex entity, this little cosmos of a world, the "I," has for its very law of existence self-consciousness, while personality is the effect it produces upon the consciousness of others.

But we may push our inquiry a step further, and find in imagination the cause of this strange force. For imagination, or the image-making faculty, may in a certain sense be said to be the creator of the world within. The separate senses furnish it with material, but to it alone is due the building of our castles, on premises of fact or in the air. For there is no impassable gulf between the two. Coleridge's distinction that imagination drew possible pictures and fancy impossible ones, is itself, except as a classification, an impossible distinction to draw; for it is only the inconceivable that can never be. All else is purely a matter of relation. We may instance dreams which are usually considered to rank among the most fanciful creations of the mind. Who has not in his dreams fallen repeatedly from giddy heights and invariably escaped unhurt? If he had attempted the feat in his waking moments he would assuredly have been dashed to pieces at the bottom. And so we say the thing is impossible. But is it? Only under the relative conditions of his mass and the earth's. If the world he happens to inhabit were not its present size, but the size of one of the tinier asteroids, no such disastrous results would follow a chance misstep.

He could there walk off precipices when too closely pursued by bears --if I remember rightly the usual childish cause of the same-- with perfect impunity. The bear could do likewise, unfortunately.

We should have arrived at our conclusion even quicker had we decreased the size both of the man and his world. He would not then have had to tumble actually so far, and would therefore have arrived yet more gently at the foot. This turns out, then, to be a mere question of size. Decrease the scale of the picture, and the impossible becomes possible at once. All fancies are not so easily reducible to actual facts as the one we have taken, but all, perhaps, eventually may be explicable in the same general way. At present we certainly cannot affirm that anything may not be thus explained. For the actual is widening its field every day. Even in this little world of our own we are daily discovering to be fact what we should have thought fiction, like the sailor's mother the tale of the flying fish. Beyond it our ken is widening still more.

Gulliver's travels may turn out truer than we think. Could we traverse the inter-planetary ocean of ether, we might eventually find in Jupiter the land of Lilliput or in Ceres some old-time country of the Brobdignagians. For men constituted muscularly like ourselves would have to be proportionately small in the big planet and big in the small one. Still stranger things may exist around other suns. In those bright particular stars--which the little girl thought pinholes in the dark canopy of the sky to let the glory beyond shine through--we are finding conditions of existence like yet unlike those we already know. To our groping speculations of the night they almost seem, as we gaze on them in their twinkling, to be winking us a sort of comprehension. Conditions may exist there under which our wildest fancies may be commonplace facts.

There may be "Some Xanadu where Kublai can a stately pleasure dome decree," and carry out his conceptions to his own disillusionment, perhaps.

For if the embodiment of a fancy, however complete, left nothing further to be wished, imagination would have no incentive to work.

同类推荐
  • 周易参同契注·阴长生

    周易参同契注·阴长生

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 艺文

    艺文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 等集众德三昧经

    等集众德三昧经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 唯识论

    唯识论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 般若波罗蜜多心经还源述

    般若波罗蜜多心经还源述

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 语文新课标课外必读第七辑:爱因斯坦传

    语文新课标课外必读第七辑:爱因斯坦传

    国家教育部颁布了最新《语文课程标准》,统称新课标,对中、小学语文教学指定了阅读书目,对阅读的数量、内容、质量以及速度都提出了明确的要求,这对于提高学生的阅读能力,培养语文素养,陶冶情操,促进学生终身学习和终身可持续发展,对于提高广大人民的文学素养具有极大的意义。
  • 毒王黑宠:鬼域九王妃

    毒王黑宠:鬼域九王妃

    (一对一爽文,男主高冷专情,女主搞逗腹黑)错许良人惨遭羞辱剥皮而死,鬼域百年翻手为毒负手为医,前世仇今世了。嫡姐美貌世无双,送你青楼魅众生,嫡妹高洁世无双,送你荒漠和亲澡都洗不了!复仇之路快狠爽!可是谁能告诉她躺在她家门口毒气缭绕却依然后蹦乱跳的男人是谁?某男:“咳咳,本王身中剧毒。”某女:“可你面色红润有光泽。”某男“你会医懂毒要救本王。”某女“我只会让人半死不活,半身不遂,求生不得,你要哪种?”某男瞪眼,“你这狠心的女人还是不是人?”某女弯腰浅笑,“老娘是地狱爬出的恶鬼,不是人!”群号:428408334,书中任意人物敲门。
  • 圣诞老人传奇:他的生活和奇遇

    圣诞老人传奇:他的生活和奇遇

    是美国儿童文学大师弗兰克·鲍姆写给孩子们的圣诞老人的故事。圣诞老人叫什么名字?他是怎么来到我们这个世界的?谁把他抚养大?他为什么对孩子们情有独钟?他是怎么发明第一个玩具的?他在为孩子们送礼物的过程中遭遇到了怎样的困难?魔鬼们是怎样阻碍圣诞老人的?他为什么要在夜间旅行?他为什么要从烟囱爬进来?他怎么会跟驯鹿一起旅行?这些疑问都在本书的精彩讲述中一一被解答。从这本书中,你可以知道可亲可爱的圣诞老人,永远是孩子们快乐的守护神!
  • 电影时空旅行者

    电影时空旅行者

    神秘的系统,只为位面时空旅行而准备。寻找有缘人,让宿主有能力穿梭于任何电影时空位面旅行,不需要刻意的任务,也没有完不成的抹杀。系统说了,“我只为辅助宿主进行时空旅行,完全是为了延续时空旅行者的血脉,当然,宿主要是能顺手完成收集一点点小东西,那是最好不过了……”
  • 万兽世界

    万兽世界

    平静之下的暗潮,波涛中的崛起!是听天由命,还是立帆前行?是使命的召唤,还是家族的责任一个少年,一群兄弟携闯万兽世界,灭魔道,顶天不倒
  • 我的青春我的梦

    我的青春我的梦

    落日的余晖打在晶莹洁白的雪面上,阳光留下淡淡的光泽,远远看去,还真是像一幅安宁静谧的画卷。收到大学的录取通知书后的笑容中更多的是满足,是对未来的憧憬和向往。背对着太阳的女孩儿,似乎周围有了光圈,散发着身上的光芒,刺眼了很。
  • 洞玄灵宝真灵位业图

    洞玄灵宝真灵位业图

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 美利坚显赫名门

    美利坚显赫名门

    因不可抗拒因素,本书凉了!!新书《我的刀快收不住了》已发!!!
  • 穿越全息时代:我不是NPC

    穿越全息时代:我不是NPC

    赶个时髦穿个越,来到了未来世界;图个新鲜玩网游,居然变成了NPC?等等等,肯定是我打开的方式不对,不如下线再试一次……嗯?!还居然喵喵的是个NPC?啊,哪里有这么菜的NPC,人人都砍我,嘤嘤嘤,一刀脆皮……
  • 温暖心灵的友情故事(感悟青少年心灵的故事)

    温暖心灵的友情故事(感悟青少年心灵的故事)

    成长,是大自然最寻常的奇迹,比如一粒种子可以长成参天太树。成长,也是人生最朴素的过程,我们都要从孩童长成大人。每一个好故事,都会给孩子们种下完美人生的种子。《温暖心灵的友情故事》由李超主编,精选了众多极具代表性的故事,故事中的主人翁在交友、为人、处事中的种种表现,会给我们启示、让我们深思,让我们懂得去好好珍惜身边的每一份友情。友情就像是一粒种子,珍惜了,就会在你的心里萌芽、抽叶、开花,直至结果,而那绽放时的清香也将伴你一生一世。《温暖心灵的友情故事》内容丰富,可读性强,是青少年最佳的课外知识读物。