When it
falls in his way, he evokes forces so unusual that they seem
supernatural to those who do not understand his power, but the end
which lies before him is always real, enduring, and noble; something
which belongs to the eternal order of things."
"For that matter," I interrupted, "it grows more and more difficult to
distinguish between the forces and the achievements that we have
thought real and possible, and those which have seemed only dreams and
visions. Men are doing things every day by mechanical agencies which
the most famous of the old magicians failed to accomplish. The visions
of great minds are realities discovered a little in advance of their
universal recognition."
"As I was saying," continued the Poet, "most men hold Prospero to be a
mere wonder-worker, a magician who puts his arts on and off with his
robe; they do not know that he stands for the greatest force in the
world. For the Imagination is not only the inspiring leader of men in
their strange journey through life, but their nearest, most constant,
and most practical helper and sustainer. That our souls would have
starved without the Imagination we are all, I think, agreed; without
Imagination we should have seen and remembered nothing on our long
journey but the path at our feet.
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