Page:Philosophical Review Volume 6.djvu/72

56 absorption when it occurs, it means that only the subject-matter is present in consciousness, not attention itself. We are conscious of being attentive only when our attention is divided, only when there are two centres of attention competing with each other, only when there is an oscillation from one group of ideas to another, together with a tendency to a third group of ideas, in which the two previous groups are included. The sense of strain in attention, instead of being coincident with the activity of attention, is proof that attention itself is not yet complete.

To establish the identity of attention with the formation of a new act, through the mutual adaptation of two existing habits, would take us too far away from our present purpose; but there need be no hesitation, I believe, in admitting that the sense of attention arises only under the conditions of conflict already stated.