Self Help
You will see how important is the subject of imagination when you
stop to realize that it is the only thing in the world over which you
have absolute control. Others may deprive you of your material
wealth and cheat you in a thousand ways, but no man can deprive
you of the control and use of your imagination. Men may deal with
you unfairly, as men often do; they may deprive you of your liberty,
but they cannot take from you the privilege of using your imagination
as you wish.
The most inspiring poem in all literature was written by Leigh Hunt,
while he was a poverty-stricken prisoner in an English prison, where
he had been unjustly confined because of his advanced views on
politics.
This poem is entitled Abou Ben Adhem, and it is here reprinted as a reminder that one of the great things a man may do, in his own imagination, is to forgive those who have dealt unjustly with him:
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight of his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold,
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said:
"What writest thou?" - the vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou.
"Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel, - Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished.
The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!
THE MAN WHO SLANDERS HIS FELLOWMAN UNWITTINGLY UNCOVERS THE REAL NATURE OF HIS INNER SELF.
Civilization, itself, owes its existence to such men as Leigh Hunt, in
whose fertile imaginations have been pictured the higher and nobler
standards of human relationship.
Abou Ben Adhem is a poem that will never die, thanks to this man who pictured in his imagination the hope of an ideal that is constructive. The major trouble with this world today lies in our lack of understanding of the power of imagination, for if we understood this great power we could use it as a weapon with which to wipe out poverty and misery and injustice and persecution, and this could be done in a single generation.