Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/197

 ATTENTION

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��many things are constantly changing their positions or atti tudes relative to ourselves; or, on the other hand, we are, because of our limitations and our numerous needs, driven to constant changes of our positions and attitudes with re spect to them. Third, as we have already said, our con sciousness is able to bring itself into definite and clear rela tion with but one, or at most a few, of those objects at any moment. Under such conditions a consciousness which re fuses to remain fixed upon any one point but persistently moves on from one to another manifestly has a decided &quot; survival value/ To be sure, its shifting is not at random, though it may often appear so. Its movements are not un related or chaotic. From the very first, organic interest ex ercises a general directing influence; more or less definite laws of association play their part in regulating the move ments; and with the growth of experience and the higher organization of the mind the self-conscious will gains an increasing domination over this activity. But the movement is incessant, except in sleep if indeed it wholly ceases then ; and by virtue of it we are able to carry ourselves with some measure of safety and success amidst the multitu dinous objects of a very changeful environment.

What this characteristic of the attention means for the public speaker is obvious. The attention of his hearers will move on. He should not dwell upon a single point longer than is necessary for them to grasp it. If he does, one of two things will happen. Either they will become drowsy or their minds will flit away to other things, which most prob ably will be wholly unrelated to his discourse. In any case he will lose their attention, and any method he may adopt to compel them to listen will be unavailing. Speaking of this aspect of our mental activity Angell says : &quot; So far as attention is really an activity of the relating or adjusting kind its work is done when the relation between the mind and the thing attended to is once established. This is the mental, as distinguished from the physiological, part of the adjustment, and attention must go elsewhere, because it is

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