The Elements of Character | Page 9

everything
that we are. Pretence and hypocrisy, subterfuge and falsehood, will then
disappear, and life will become the adequate expression of symmetrical
Character.
The intellectual part of our being may be better understood if divided
into two departments, viz., Thought and Imagination,--the subjective
and the objective. Thought can be lifted up into the Affections, and
made manifest in Life only through the medium of the Imagination.
Thought is at first a pure abstraction, a subjective idea,--something
entirely within the mind, and having no relation to conduct,--a seed
sown, but not germinated; and while it remains thus it has no influence
upon the Affections. If, however, it germinate, the next step in its
existence is to become an objective idea; and now it has lost its abstract
quality and become an image. In its first state it is neither agreeable nor
disagreeable to the mind, but so soon as it takes a distinctive form it
becomes either pleasing or displeasing, and is either cast away and
forgotten, or retained arid expanded by the Affections, whose office it
is to cause Thought to become a vital reality, ready to show itself in the
external life so soon as a fitting occasion calls for its manifestation.
Thought is like water. Sometimes it glides over the mind as over a bed

of rock; neither softening nor fertilizing; but when it is made a possible
reality by the Imagination, and a vital reality by the Affections, it is
now like a stream, flowing through rich farms and gardens, fertilizing
wherever it comes; and again, like waterfalls, furnishing power to set
ideas in motion, that shall give nutriment and warmth to the souls of
millions.
The Lord, when he would condense religion into its narrowest compass,
commands us to love the Heavenly Father with the whole heart and
soul and mind and strength. Can this signify anything else than that
Affection, Imagination, and Thought, in their whole strength, or
brought down into the ultimates of life, must be consecrated to the
Divine Creator of them all? So St. Paul, when he would sum up the
whole Christian system in a single phrase, exclaims: "Faith, Hope,
Charity. The greatest of these is Charity." Faith here expresses the
religion of Thought, Hope the religion of the Imagination, and Charity
the religion of the Affections, which is greatest of all because it is the
vitalization of the other two.
Every act that we voluntarily perform, whether good or evil, first
entered the mind as an abstract Thought; it was then shaped by the
Imagination until it became a definite idea; next, it was claimed as a
child by the Affections; and lastly, it was by the Affections made to
come out into a use of love or an abuse of hate.
Many thoughts die in the mind without passing through all these stages.
We sometimes hear a sermon that fills our Thoughts as we listen, and
yet we forget it all as we turn away from the church door; for it went no
deeper than our Thoughts. At another time, what we hear goes with us
to our homes, haunts us through the week, and perhaps is made a
standard whereby to measure the virtues or the vices of our neighbors;
possibly even, we try ourselves by its rule, and our consciences are
roused to pierce us with the sharp pang of remorse. All this, however,
brings no change over our lives. Here Thought has passed into
Imagination, has become a reality to the mind; but as yet the Affections
do not warm towards it, and so it dies in the second stage of existence.
Yet, again, we listen to the voice of the preacher, and his words abide
in the soul until they quicken our Affections, and as we muse the fire
burns. Then are our eyes lightened to perceive how all that we have
heard may become realized in life; and warmed by the heavenly flame

that has descended upon our altar, our souls kindle with charity, and we
go forth to realize the hope that is within us in works of angelic use.
This process of the mind is not confined to the religious part of our
being. It goes on perpetually in our intellectual no less than our moral
nature. Our success in using whatever we learn in every department, the
wisdom or the folly of everything we do, whether relating to
intellectual, to religious, or to practical life, depends on the faithfulness
with which we apply these three powers to whatever is presented to
them.
Look in upon the assembled members of a school, of any grade from
primary to collegiate, and you will see one set of pupils with stolid
faces conning their tasks, as if they were indeed tasks in the hardest
sense of