382 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
necessary from the viewpoint of a student of this course who wishes
to use the course only as a means of attaining material or monetary
advantages in life.
IMAGINATION CAN BE DEVELOPEDIf you have mastered and thoroughly understood the preceding lessoris
you know that the materials out of which you built your Definite
Chief Aim were assembled and combined in your Imagination. You
also know that Self-Confidence, and Initiative and Leadership, must
be created in your Imagination before they can become a reality, for
it is in the workshop of your Imagination that you will put the
principle of autosuggestion into operation in creating these necessary
qualities.
This lesson on Imagination might be called the "hub" of this
course, because every other lesson of the course leads to this lesson
and makes use of the principle upon which it is based, just as all the
telephone wires lead to the exchange office for their source of power.
You will never have a definite purpose in life, you will never have Self-
Confidence, you will never have Initiative and Leadership unless you
first create these qualities in your Imagination and see yourself in
possession of them.
Just as the oak tree develops from the germ that lies in the acorn,
and the bird develops from the germ that lies asleep in the egg, so
will your material achievements grow out of the organized plans that
you create in your Imagination. First comes the thought; then organ-
ization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of
those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your
Imagination.
The Imagination is both interpretative and creative in nature. It
can examine facts, concepts, and ideas, and it can create new combina-
tions and plans out of these.