If people only knew the possibilities which center in the highest development of their visualizing powers it would revolutionize their lives. Until comparatively recent times most of the country between Omaha and the Rocky Mountains was a vast barren desert, and it looked as though it would always be absolutely worthless. Many intelligent men wondered why the Creator ever made such a dreary waste as these millions of acres presented, and when it was suggested in Congress that the Government assist in building a railroad across this desert from the Missouri River to the Pacific Slope, even men like Webster laughed at the idea.
Webster said that such an undertaking would be a wicked waste of public money, and he suggested the importation of camels for the purpose of carrying the United States mail across the Western desert. He believed this was the only use that could be made of those waste lands. But the vision seen by the men who conceived the Union Pacific Railroad was no idle dream; it was a foreshadowing of the reality. Before a rail had been laid, these men saw great thriving cities, vast populations and millions of fertile farms springing up like magic where the men without a vision of its possibilities saw nothing but alkali plains, sage brush and coyotes.
It was the men who were not limited by appearances, by what the senses told them, who transformed the desert into a thing of beauty and untold wealth. Human beings are like this arid desert, packed with marvelous possibilities which are just waiting for that which will arouse their latent forces and make the germs of those wonderful possibilities blossom into beauty and power. What we need is a firm belief in the vision of ourselves which we see in the moment of our highest inspiration. As soon as we feel the touch of the awakening, arousing, energizing power of an unalterable faith in our own divinity, in our ability to be “the thing we long for,” our lives will blossom into beauty and grandeur.
The realization of our power to create ideals and to make these live in reality is destined to revolutionize the world, because we build life through our ideals. This power to build mentally is the pathway of achievement, the way which will lead to the millennium. ‘We cannot accomplish anything, do anything, create anything except through an ideal, a vision. “The vision that you glorify in your mind,” says James Allen, “the ideal that you enthrone in your heart . . this you will build your life by, this you will become.
Orison Swett Marden
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