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The Fifth Lesson: The Cultivation of Attention.561
continually before the mind. And others have added that such a course will
enable one to observe relations between the subject and other things that
will not be apparent to the careless observer or student.
The degree of Attention cultivated by a man is the degree of his capacity
for intellectual work. As we have said, the “great” men of all walks of life have
developed this faculty to a wonderful degree, and many of them seem to
get results “intuitively,” whereas, in truth, they obtain them by reason of their
concentrated power of Attention, which enables them to see right into the
center of a subject or proposition—and all around it, back and front, and
all sides, in a space of time incredible to the man who has not cultivated this
mighty power. Men who have devoted much attention to some special line
of work or research, are able to act almost as if they possessed “second sight,”
providing the subject is within their favorite field of endeavor. Attention
quickens every one of the faculties—the reasoning faculties—the senses—
the deciding qualities—the analytical faculties, and so on, each being given
a “fine edge” by their use under a concentrated Attention.
And, on the other hand, there is no surer indication of a weak mind than
the deficiency in Attention. This weakness may arise from illness or physical
weakness reacting upon the brain, in which case the trouble is but temporary.
Or it may arise from a lack of mental development. Imbeciles and idiots have
little or no Attention. The great French psychologist, Luys, speaking of this
fact says “Imbeciles and idiots see badly, hear badly, feel badly, and their
sensorium is, in consequence, in a similar condition of sensitive poverty. Its
impressionability for the things of the external world is at a minimum, its
sensibility weak, and consequently, it is difficult to provoke the physiological
condition necessary for the absorption of the external impression.”
In old age the Attention is the first faculty to show signs of decay. Some
authorities have held that the Memory was the first faculty to be affected by
the approach of old age, but this is incorrect, for it is a matter of common
experience that the aged manifest a wonderfully clear memory of events
occurring in the far past. The reason that their memory of recent events is so