Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/193

 ATTENTION 175

The hearer is at liberty to attend or not ; and while a sense of duty may constrain some conscientious auditors to at tend to the truth uninterestingly presented, their number is not large, and the great majority will most certainly exercise their privilege not to listen.

The preacher or other public speaker, therefore, should make as small a demand as possible on the voluntary atten tion of his hearers. If he finds them inattentive it is gen erally useless, and often suicidal, to scold or lecture them for their failure to listen. If they listen to him &quot; from a sense of duty,&quot; they will give him at best only a divided attention; and the disagreeable feeling attendant upon the strain not only reacts against him personally but gives a repellent cast to the truth he wishes them heartily to receive. Of course it would be a serious mistake to present the truths of religion in such a way as to make people believe that the religious life is &quot; a primrose path,&quot; an easy way, which involves no toil and sacrifice and pain. Deep and serious truth, stern duty, arduous struggle for high and difficult ideals may be urged upon the conscience in such a way as to associate them with agreeable feelings and invest them with an ethical charm which creates enthusiasm for them in the human heart. But it certainly does not con tribute to that result to have to listen to their presentation from a sheer sense of duty. To contemplate a great truth or a high duty through the medium of unpleasant feelings aroused by the necessity of giving strained attention to a dull speaker is to strip the truth and duty of the charm which they naturally have for the normal human mind, and with which, at any rate, they ought to be invested whenever possible.

3. Spontaneous attention. This form of attention may be negatively described as a concentration of consciousness which is not forced by an external stimulus and at the same time is without internal strain. The object of such atten tion is not thrust into the focus by any strong or sudden appeal from without, nor brought and held there by an effort

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