Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/230

218 which makes our attention so weak in the period of immaturity. In childhood, attention is a direct product of curiosity. As we grow older, curiosity is sated, and becomes weak as a motor. Nothing takes its place until we discover that attention is under the control of the will, and until, by perseverance, we acquire the power of thus controlling it. It is only then that we make rapid conquests, and that genuine mental discipline shows itself. There is no reason why it should be so late in life before this force becomes a substitute, as it were, for curiosity. From want of this mastery of the will over attention, the great majority of our youth close their school-life without realizing of what they are really capable.

Instead of aiding to impart this power, ordinary school-work does positively the reverse. Humdrum repetition is made a substitute for attention. By dint of drilling and memorizing, recitations are prepared, but without concentration of thought. Our children simply mark time; they do not advance. They know of no means of acquisition but "study," in the school-room sense. To them it is not quality of effort, but quantity. They can appreciate exertion only in the bulk. They know little of intensity of labor, or of its rewards. To them simple reading means a very feeble, unsatisfactory hold upon the matter read. With the mind only thus half awake, comprehension of the author is very feeble; and, as a consequence, we find substantial, profitable reading a dull exercise to many who, by their training, as we think, ought to find pleasure in it.

It is to be observed that just in proportion to the intensity of our mental action in grappling the thought, just to that extent does the language vanish from our view, and the thought only remain. The mind is not conscious of having seen words, but only of having perceived ideas. Any one must realize, upon reflection, that, when studying with a purpose of verbal reproduction, there is a diversion of effort from the thought. Ordinary memorizing, instead of aiding, is the direct enemy of thought. As we are impressed by the peculiarities of language, the vigor of the sentiment loses. The best reader, so far as seeing the author's mind is concerned, is the poorest proof-reader in regard to mere typographical errors—attention to the vehicle is so much withdrawn from the content. Hence, that study or reading is not entirely worthless which fails to give us the power to reproduce. The power of expression generally lags behind the power of thought. The slightest observation of a child will convince that he often thinks and feels what he cannot declare. Unquestionably there may be good ground for the remark, "I know, but cannot tell." He is to be pitied who, even in mature years, never finds his soul pregnant with a thought, while he feels that the words adequate to convey it are wanting. There may be mental perception without the power to reflect it. This is a dangerous fact with which to allow children to become impressed, because of the universal proneness to find refuge