Concentration; The Road to Success - A Lesson in Soul Culture (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... SECTION XII. THE IDEAL. Among thy sons O God let me be one. --Edward Egleston. To live divinely is man's work. --Theodore Parker. The thing we long for that we are For one transcendent moment, E'er yet the present poor and bare Can make its sneering comment . Still through our paltry stir and strife, Glows the wished Ideal, And Longing moulds in clay, what Life Carves in the marble Real. --Lowell. I have suggested in previous sections that it is the picture in the mind that is of importance; that the Imagination is the creative power. I wish now to intensify this thought. All things are but material reflections of mental images. You realize this in the statue and the painting, the temple and the machine. On my wall hangs a most beautiful painting, "The Coming Light." The light is breaking through brilliant clouds, "In hues that envious make the pearl-shell, gem and flower." This picture is but a faint representation of the picture that was in the Soul of the painter. He did his best to catch it with canvas and brush. Had it not existed for him before the brush was in his hand, it would not have become my joy. There stands a statue in yonder museum that I love to gaze upon. Story saw that "Greek Slave" long before he took marble and chisel; but when the Idea possessed him It carved itself. A mental picture then; now it stands a marble dream, for the delight of man for ages. Which is the real and which ideal? Which is transitory and which is permanent? Which is Truth and which illusion? Which is the thing, and which is the reflection? Fire, flood, age, neglect, may destroy the picture and the statue, but the idea cannot be destroyed. The eternal thing is the Idea; the transitory is its reflection in the sense-material. That which...