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of Man or of Nature, in the process of Constructive Imagination proceeding toward the achievement of a Definite Purpose and the realization of a Definite Ideal.”

      In Creative Composition, you begin with the building materials of mental image­ideas which you have gathered together and arranged according to a convenient and efficient classification. For the purpose of a familiar illustration of the scientific principle involved, let us ask you to think of these building materials of mental image­ideas as resembling the familiar building­blocks of childhood.

      You have the general idea of your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal before you. You perceive clearly the obstacle which you wish to overcome; the new means to an old end, or new ends for old means; the bridge which you wish to build over the space separating the two sides of the stream of Ideas. How shall you proceed to accomplish these ends by means of your imaginative building­blocks? The answer is: Simply as the child proceeds when he wishes to build the structure which he has in mind, i. e., by taking up the various building­blocks of various sizes and forms, and experimenting with them. The child puts this block alongside of that block, and finding that the combination will not answer, he continues to make new and still newer combinations, until at last he discovers the combination that will work.

      If you will examine the history of inventions and scientific discoveries, you will find that the great triumphs in these respective fields have been made in just this way. The two terms “Experiment” and “Experience” are closely connected; both have the same origin—both spring from the Latin word “experior,” meaning, “to try.” Experiment is a trial or test made with the hopes of discovery. Experience is the knowledge gained from experiments. All inventions, all scientific discoveries, all results of Constructive Imagination, proceed along the line of Experiment, trial, tests, “putting this and that together” to “discover how it will work.” This is the whole story, told in a few words.

      In working toward the achievement of your Definite Purpose and Definite Ideal through the Constructive Imagination, you must “put this and that together,” along the lines of experiment, trial and test. You must arrange your imaginative building­blocks, first in this new combination, and then in that one; you must at times even break apart some of the blocks, using portions of them to add to others, and thus to form new combinations. You must proceed with the idea that: “Somewhere in these blocks there abides the certainty of a successful combination; and it is ‘up to me’ to find it.” In your imaginative building­blocks there is hidden the secret of the exact combination for which you are seeking; you can discover this only by experiment; and if you continue to experiment faithfully and intelligently you will surely discover the solution of the problems.

      Here is the process reduced to a familiar illustrative formula: You have twenty­six imaginative “alphabet blocks” before you for your experiment, each block having a letter of the alphabet stamped on its face, from “A” to “Z,” inclusive. You start by taking the “A” block and combining it with the “B” block, then the “C” block, and so on until the “Z” block is reached. If the desired combination is not reached in this way, you begin with the “B” block and test it with all the blocks from “C” on to the end of the list. Then try the combination of the “C” block with all the others, in turn, from “D” downward. By continuing this process sufficiently long, you will exhaust the possibilities of the two­letter combinations.

      If necessary, you may then proceed to experiment with the three­letter combinations, following the same general rule. Then, if necessary, proceed with the four­letter combinations, in the same way. And so on, if the desired result is not obtained, until the blocks have been tried and tested in every possible combination or arrangement, order and sequence.

      By this process (extended to its utmost limits), you will in turn have formed the combination of every one of the many thousands of words in the largest English Dictionary. Stop to think of it for a moment: Every word in any or all of the great dictionaries is made up and composed of combinations of certain of 26 letters—no more. And a list of new words, exceeding in number the known words, could be composed and made­up in the same way.

      But, of course, in the actual practice of Creative Composition, you will not be faced with so formidable and so complicated a task as that above illustrated. Your combinations will be far more simple, owing to the fact that your imaginative image­ideas are classified properly. For instance: if you wish to conjoin your “house” block with your several “building material” blocks, you have but to go to your “building material” compartment, and pick out the following respective “building material” blocks, i. e., “brick,” “stone,” “wood,” “iron,” “steel,” “concrete,” etc. If you wish to form a combination between the image­idea of some utensil and some undetermined particular kind of metal, you have but to test your “metallic utensil” block with each of the following “metal­class” blocks, i. e., “iron,” “copper,” “gold,” “silver,” “nickel,” “zinc,” “platinum,” “lead,” “tin,” “antimony,” “manganese,” “mercury,” “aluminum,” “cobalt,” “tungsten,” etc.

      If you wish to associate your image­idea of a textile fabric with that of some particular kind of textile material not yet decided upon, you have but to test out the respective blocks of “cotton,” “flax,” “hemp,” “jute,” “linen,” “wool,” “silk,” etc., until the desired combination is discovered. If you wish to employ a geometrical form, you will take out each of the image­idea blocks named in our diagram of Geometrical Figures in a preceding section of this book, until you discover the one best suited for the purpose.

      If you wish to invent or to discover some new particular color, you need but to take out the three blocks of the Three Primary Colors, i. e., Red, Blue, and Yellow, and then by experimental combinations, employing shade and tint agencies, you will in time reach any possible tint, shade or hue in the great world of colors. Nature has proceeded in just this way, for she has made a world of almost infinite variety of material things, by the combination and “Creative Composition” of about eighty elements of material substance, these in turn having been created and recombined from still more elementally material.

      As we have said, all inventions and discoveries have been made in just this way, viz., by the process of Creative Composition. The locomotive is a combination of “wagon,” certain mechanical agencies and appliances, “stove,” “tea­kettle” and “engine.” The automobile is the combination of “wagon,” “stove,” “gas,” “explosion,” “engine,” and certain mechanical contrivances. The wagon was the primary building block of both locomotive and automobile. The wagon, in turn is but the combination of wheel, axle, and body; the wheel itself being an evolution from the rolling log.

      The aeroplane is but a combination of “kite,” “engine,” and “propeller”—all old ideas formed by Creative Composition into a new one. The steamboat is but the idea of “boat,” plus “steam­engine” and “mill­wheels.” The primitive boat, itself, was but the combination of “floating log,” plus the idea of “hollowing­out.” The farm­tractor now employed in plowing, etc., is but the combination of “plow’” and “automobile.” The plow itself was the combination of the image­idea of “hard sharpened stick,” and magnified “spear­head” or “battle­axe.”

      In short, every contrivance of Man, every tool, every instrument, every utensil, every article designed for use, of each and every kind, will be found to have been evolved from very simple beginnings along the line of experimentation and Creative Composition. Every thing made by Man is “put together,” made up of material parts; and the idea of every such thing is “made up” of simpler and more elemental ideas, united and combined in Creative Composition. This is the only way in which Man has ever invented or contrived anything; and this is always the way in which you must proceed in your work of Constructive Imagination. The truth of the matter is so simple that most persons entirely overlook it: you have possibly never thought of it until you now have it presented to you in this book—and this without any reflection on your intelligence, we assure you.

      But here is an important point. While Man has always employed this principle

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