Imagination

Marcus Aurelius writes:

Wipe away all imagination.

It's actually there in his Meditations three times.  Maybe this is a mistranslation.  But, wipe away all imagination?  I don't really understand with what imagination has to do with Stoic philosophy.    I think I agree more with Einstein, who wrote:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. 

Imagination is one of those creative forces that is really useful to us.  It's how knowledge expands, it's how we can solve unique problems.  Imagination is a tool, just like any of the other natural gifts we humans have.  How we use this tool is the real test, but by itself it's just a tool.  And of all the tools we have, imagination is one of my favorites.

So I have no idea what's up with this idea of wiping away imagination.  Hopefully one day a Stoic expert will come along this blog and enlighten me.