"The best answer to this is the study of the little child. The very first means a child adopts to get out of itself, or to realize the great world about it, is by dramatic action and instinct. No child was ever born with any mind at all, that had not some of this instinct; and the more promising the child, the more is it dramatic and imaginative. Dramatic instinct is universal. It is the secret of all success; it is the instinct by which man sees things from different points of view, by which he realizes the ideal in character in contrast to that which is not ideal." "Professor Monroe was once asked by a clergyman for private lessons. He told him that was impossible. 'Well,' said the minister, 'what can I do then?' 'Go home and read Shakespeare dramatically.' Why was such advice given? Because the struggle to read Shakespeare would get the minister out of himself. The struggle to realize how men of different types of character would speak certain things would make him conscious whether he, himself, spoke naturally. He would, in short, become aware of his mannerisms, of his narrow gamut of emotions, his sameness of point of view; he would be brought into direct contact with the process of his own mind in thinking." The supreme value of a vivid and versatile imagination in giving full and rich development to the whole mind is now a vital part of our confession of faith. The question is how to cultivate such a resourceful imagination. The literature of the creative imagination is felt to be the chief means, and the dramatic instinct toward interpreting, assimilating and expressing human thought and feeling opens the avenue of growth. Dr. Curry says:-- "Dramatic instinct should be trained because it is a part of the imagination, because it gives us practical steps toward the development of the imagination, because it is the means of securing discipline and power over feeling. Dramatic instinct should be trained because it is the insight of one mind into another. The man who has killed his dramatic instinct has become unsympathetic, and can never appreciate any one's point of view but his own. Dramatic instinct endows us with broad conceptions of the idiosyncrasies, beliefs, and convictions of men. It trains us to unconscious reasoning, to a deep insight into the motives of man. It is universally felt that one's power to 'other himself' is the measure of the greatness of his personality. All sympathy, all union of ourselves with the ideals and struggles of our race, are traceable to imagination and dramatic instinct."