It is a matter of great difficulty, and requires no ordinary skill and
address, to fix the attention of men on the world within them, to
induce them to study the processes and superintend the works which
they are themselves carrying on in their own minds; in short, to
awaken in them both the faculty of thought[15] and the inclination to
exercise it. For alas! the largest part of mankind are nowhere greater
strangers than at home.
[15] _Distinction between Thought and Attention._--By THOUGHT is here
meant the voluntary reproduction in our own minds of those states of
consciousness, or (to use a phrase more familiar to the religious
reader) of those inward experiences, to which, as to his best and most
authentic documents, the teacher of moral or religious truth refers
us. In ATTENTION, we keep the mind _passive_: in THOUGHT we rouse it
into activity. In the former, we submit to an impression--we keep the
mind steady in order to _receive_ the stamp. In the latter, we seek to
_imitate_ the artist, while we ourselves make a copy or duplicate of
his work. We may learn arithmetic, or the elements of geometry, by
continued attention alone; but _self_-knowledge, or an insight into
the laws and constitutions of the human mind, and the _grounds_ of
religion and true morality, in addition to the effort of attention
requires the energy of THOUGHT.