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Speaker 1: Attention. As we have seen in the preceding chapters. Before

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one can expect to recall or remember a thing, that

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thing must have been impressed upon the records of his

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subconsciousness distinctly and clearly. And the main factor of the

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recording of impressions is that quality of the mind that

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we call attention. All the leading authorities on the subject

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of memory recognize and teach the value of attention in

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the cultivation and development of the memory. Tupper says, memory,

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the daughter of attention, is the teeming mother of wisdom.

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Lowell says attention is the stuff that memory is made of,

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and memory is accumulated genius. Hall says in the power

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of fixing the attention lies the most precious of the

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intellectual habits. Locke says, when the ideas that offer themselves

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are taken notice of, and as it were, registered in

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the memory, it is attention. Stuart says, the permanence of

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the impression which anything leaves in the memory is proportionate

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to the degree of attention which was originally given to it.

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Thompson says, the experience is most permanently impressed upon consciousness

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are those upon which the greatest amount of attention has

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been fixed. Beatty says, the force wherewith anything strikes the mind,

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is generally in proportion to the degree of attention bestowed

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upon it. The great art of memory is attention. Inattentive

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people have always bad memories. Kay says it is generally

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held by philosophers that without some degree of attention, no

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impression of any could be made on the mind or

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laid up in the memory. Hamilton says, it is a

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law of the mind that the intensity of the present

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consciousness determines the vivacity of the future. Memory. Memory and

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consciousness are thus in the direct ratio of each other,

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vivid consciousness, long memory, faint consciousness, short memory, no consciousness,

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no memory. An act of attention, that is, an act

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of concentration, seems thus necessary to every exertion of consciousness,

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as a certain contraction of the pupil is requisite to

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every exertion of vision. Attention, then, is to consciousness what

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the contraction of the pupil is to cite, or to

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the eye of the mind, what the microscope or telescope

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is to the bodily eye. It constitutes the better half

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of all inns intellectual power. We have quoted from the

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above authorities at considerable length for the purpose of impressing

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upon your mind the importance of this subject of attention.

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The subconscious regions of the mind are the great storehouses

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of the mental records of impressions from within and without

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its great system of filing, recording, and indexing. These records

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constitute that which we call memory. But before any of

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this work is possible, impressions must first have been received. And,

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as you may see from the quotations just given, these

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impressions depend upon the power of attention given to the

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things making the impressions. If there has been given great attention,

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there will be clear and deep impressions. If there has

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been given but average attention, there will be but average impressions.

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If there has been given but faint attention, there will

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be but faint impressions. If there has been given no attention,

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there will be no records. One of the most common

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causes of poor attention is to be found in the

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lack of interest. We are apt to remember the things

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in which we have been most interested, because in that

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outpouring of interest there has been a high degree of

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attention manifested, A man may have a very poor memory,

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for many things, but when it comes to the things

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in which his interest is involved, he often remembers the

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most minute details. What is called involuntary attention is that

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form of attention that follows upon interest, curiosity, or desire,

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no special effort of the will being required in it.

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What is called voluntary attention is that form of attention

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that is bestowed upon objects necessarily interesting, curious, or attractive.

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This requires the application of the will and is a

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mark of a developed character. Every person has more or

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less involuntary attention, while but few possess developed voluntary attention.

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The former is instinctive, the latter comes only by practice

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and training. But there is this important point to be remembered,

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that interest may be developed by voluntary attention bestowed and

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held upon an object. Things that are originally lacking in

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sufficient interest to attract the involuntary attention may develop a

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secondary interest if the voluntary attention be placed upon and

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held upon them. As Halleck says on this point, when

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it is said that attention will not take a firm

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hold on an uninteresting thing, we must not forget that

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anyone not shallow and fickle can soon discover something interesting

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in most objects. Here cultivated minds show their special superiority.

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For the attention which they are able to give generally

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ends in finding a pearl in the most uninteresting looking oyster.

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When an object necessarily loses interest from one point of view,

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such minds discover in it new attributes. The essence of

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genius is to present an old thing in new ways,

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whether it be some force in nature or some aspect

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of humanity. It is very difficult to teach another person

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how to cultivate the attention. This because the whole thing

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consists so largely in the use of the will and

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by faithful practice and persistent application. The first requisite is

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the determination to use the will. You must argue it

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out with yourself until you become convinced that it is

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necessary and desirable for you. To acquire the art of

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voluntary attention. You must convince yourself beyond reasonable doubt. This

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is the first step, and one more difficult than it

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would seem at first sight. The principal difficulty in it

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lies in the fact that to do the thing you

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must do some active, earnest thinking, and the majority of

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people are too lazy to indulge in such mental effort.

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Having mastered this first step, you must induce a strong,

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burning desire to acquire the art of voluntary attention. You

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must learn to want it hard. In this way, you

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induce a condition of interest and attractiveness where it was

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previously lacking. Third, and last, you must hold your will

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firmly and persistently to the task and practice faithfully. Begin

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by turning your attention upon some uninteresting thing and studying

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its detail until you are able to describe them. This

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will prove very tiresome at first, but you must stick

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to it. Do not practice too long at a time

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at first, take a rest, and try it again later.

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You will soon find that it comes easier, and that

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a new interest is beginning to manifest itself in the task.

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Examine this book as practice. Learn how many pages there

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are in it, how many chapters, how many pages in

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each chapter, the details of type, printing, and binding, all

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the little things about it, so that you could give

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another person a full account of the minor details of

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the book. This may seem uninteresting, and so it will

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be at first, but a little practice will create a

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new interest in the petty details, and you will be

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surprised at the number of little things that you will notice.

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This plan, practiced on many things in spare hours, will

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develop the power of voluntary attention and perception in any one,

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no matter how deficient he may have been in these things.

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If you can get some one else to join in

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the game task with you, and then each endeavor to

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excel the other in finding details, the task will be

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much easier and better work will be accomplished. Begin to

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take notice of things about you, the places you visit,

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the things in the rooms, et cetera. In this way

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you will start the habit of noticing things, which is

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the first requisite for memory development. Halleck gives the following

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excellent advice on this subject. To look at a thing

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intelligently is the most difficult of all arts. The first

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rule for the cultivation of accurate perception is do not

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try to perceive the whole of a complex object at once.

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Take the human face as an example. A man holding

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an important position to which he has been elected offended

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many people because he could not remember faces and hence

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failed to recognize individuals the second time he met them.

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His trouble was in looking at the countenance as a whole.

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When he changed his method of observation and noticed carefully

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the nose, mouth, eyes, chin, and color of hair. He

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at once began to find recognition easier. He was no

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longer in difficulty of mistaking A for B since he

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remembered that the shape of bees nose was different, or

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the color of his hair at least three shades lighter.

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This example shows that another rule can be formulated pay

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careful attention to details. We are perhaps asked to give

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a minute description of the exterior of a somewhat noted

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suburban house that we have lately seen. We reply in

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general terms, giving the size and color of the house.

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Perhaps we also have an idea of part of the

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material used in the exterior construction. We are asked to

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be exact about the shape of the door, porch, roof, chimneys,

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and windows, whether the windows are plane or circular, whether

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they have cornices, or whether the trimmings around them are

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of the same material as the rest of the house.

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A friend who will be unable to see the house

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wishes to know definitely about the angles of the roof

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and the way the windows are arranged with reference to them.

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Unless we can answer these questions exactly, we merely tantalize

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our friends by telling them we have seen the house.

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To see an object merely as an undiscriminated mass of

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something in a certain place is to do no more

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than a donkey accomplishes as he trots along. There are

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three general rules that may be given in this matter

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of bestowing the voluntary attention in the direction of actually

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seeing things instead of merely looking at them. The first

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is make yourself take an interest in the thing. The second,

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see it as if you were taking note of it

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in order to repeat its details to a friend. This

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will force you to take notice. The third, give to

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your sub conscious a mental command to take note of

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what you are looking at. Say to it here you

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take note of this, and remember it for me. This

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last consists of a peculiar knack that can be attained

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by a little practice. It will come to you suddenly

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after a few trials. Regarding this third rule, whereby the

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subconscious is made to work for you, Charles Leland has

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the following to say, although he uses it to illustrate

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another point. As I understand it, it is a kind

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of impulse or projection of will into the coming work.

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I may here illustrate this with a curious fact in physics.

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If the reader wished to bring a doorbell so as

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to produce as much sound as possible, he would probably

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pull it as far back as he could, and then

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let it go. But if he would, in letting it go,

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simply give it a tap with his forefinger, he would

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actually redouble the sound. Or to shoot an arrow as

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far as possible, it is not enough to merely draw

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the bow to its utmost span or tension. If just

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as it goes, you will give the bow a quick push,

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though the effort be trifling, the arrow will fly almost

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as far again as it would have done without it.

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Or if, as is well known, in wielding a very

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sharp saber, we make the draw cut. That is, if

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to blow or chop as with an axe, we also

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add a certain slight pull. Simultaneously, we can cut through

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a silk handkerchief or a sheep. Forethought command to the

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subconsciousness is the tap on the bell, the push on

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the bow, the draw on the saber. It is the

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deliberate but yet rapid action of the mind, when, before

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dismissing thought, we bid the mind to consequently respond. It

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is more than merely thinking what we are to do.

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It is the bidding or ordering the self to fulfill

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a task before willing it. Remember first, last, and always

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that before you can remember or recollect, you must first perceive.

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And that perception is possible only through attention, and responds

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in degree to the latter. Therefore, it has truly been

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said that the great art of memory is attention.