Thus Mr. Serviss gave an explanation of material achievement and material success on big lines.
WITHOUT imagination a man may prosper relatively. He may live comfortably and die contented.
But at best such a man will only follow in beaten paths. He will only do what others have done before him.
He will not receive any of the great rewards which humanity offers to those whose IMAGINATION opens for the benefit of all new fields of thought, of successful material effort. ——
In material achievement there are two elements—executive force (which may be sub-divided into an indefinite number of classifications) and the great creative power, IMAGINATION.
Imagination enabled Marconi to see the possibility of sending electric messages without wires.
Had he been a dreamer, had he allowed his imagination to wander on indefinitely into notions of talking to other planets, the power of his imagination might have been in vain.
His imagination enabled him to SEE the possibility, and the lack of the dreamer's quality enabled him to REALIZE it.
There were many men centuries ago who, in an abstract kind of way, knew that the earth was round. Their imaginations led them to the discovery of facts—and long before Galileo's recantation many men knew vaguely the truth of what he taught.
It took Galileo, a man of great imagination, not a dreamer, to demonstrate his truth to all the world.