_Attention is the Will directing the Intellect into some particular
channel and keeping it there._ There are virtually two processes
involved in Attention. The Intellect is directed into a particular
channel, but to keep it there, all intruders must be excluded. To
illustrate. A student attempts to learn a proposition in Geometry. To do
this he must keep his mind on the printed explanations, and if his
thoughts attempt to fly away, he must repress that attempt. To guide his
mind into the channel of the printed exposition, he calls into play the
Directory power of the attention. To prevent intruders or extruders from
withdrawing his mind from the text, he exercises the Inhibitory function
of the Attention.
To fully understand what takes place when trying to study, let the pupil
recall that there are three sources of knowledge.
First: The Senses carry into his mind reports from the outside
world--Sensation--sight of the letters, words and sentences, &c. Second:
The Intellect operates on these undigested elementary Sense-reports, or
Sensations, and find _relations_ among them. This is Perception, or
relations among Sensations. Third: The mind acts on the _perceived
relations_ and finds relations among them. This is Reason or relations
among relations.
Now the geometrical student in reading the printed instructions to
himself or in reading them aloud, might simply occupy his _eye_, or _eye
and ear_ with them and his Reason might soar away to other subjects,
climes or ages.
Remember that the Intellect is always active and busy, and the question
for us to answer in our own case is--shall it co-operate with the senses
or the matter before us, or shall it wander away?
What the geometrical student requires and what we all require in such
cases is to _compel the Intellect to stay with the Senses, and follow
the printed train of thought_.
Interest in the subject helps to secure this co-operation. And the
_Process or Method of study_, if it be an Assimilating one, also compels
this co-operation. And one of the processes which is most of all
effective in TRAINING the Intellect to obey the Will and thereby to stay
with the Senses (where it is not a case of pure reflection), and thereby
to institute and develop the Habit of the activity of the Intellect
co-operating with the action of the mere senses, is practice in the use
of the Laws of In., Ex., and Con. To illustrate: In reciting the last
training example of one hundred words, the Directory power is exercised
and then the Inhibitory power is brought into play, and so on
_alternately_. Suppose the reciter has got to "Signatures." If he does
not inhibit or exclude from his mind the word "Petition" he can make no
advance. If he dwells upon "Petition" he will never reach "Cygnet." But
if he inhibits "Petition" his Directory power sends him on to "Cygnet,"
and then inhibiting "Signatures" he proceeds from "Cygnet" to "Net,"
&c., &c. In this most simple, elementary way he exercises and trains the
Directory and Inhibitory functions to co-operate in recalling the entire
Series, and notice how many distinct and separate times he has exerted
the Directory function and how many times the Inhibitory function in
reciting a short series. And if _he has learned_ this and other Series
_as I direct_ and then _recites them forward and backward as long as I
require_, he is sure to greatly strengthen his Attention and thereby
habituate the intellect to stay with the senses and thereby help to
banish mind-wandering. And when the Intellect is thus trained into the
Habit of staying with the sense of sight or hearing in reading or
listening, the geometrical or other student can keep his mind on the
subject before him until it is mastered.