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.