CHAPTER V.

LISTENING.

"You must listen as if listening were your life."--_Phillips
Brooks._[14]

In our last Talk we learned that it was quite possible for sounds to
be about us and yet we not hear them. Sometimes, as in the case of
Tyndall's companion, it is because we are not capable; at other times,
as when the clock strikes and we do not hear, it is because we are
occupied with other things. It is from this latter fact--being
occupied with other things--that we can learn what listening is.
Listening is not being occupied with other things. It is being
completely attentive to what we are expected to hear.

The condition of being occupied with other thoughts when we should be
listening is known as inattention. To listen with full attention, all
other things being entirely absent from the mind, is one form of
concentration.

Inattention is a destroyer. It divides our power between two or more
things when it should be directed upon a single thing. Concentration
gives us greater and greater mind-power. If you will look in the
dictionary to find what concentration means (you should be good
friends with the dictionary) you will find it is made up of _con_[15]
meaning with, and _centrum_, a center, "with a center," or "to come to
a center." If you hold a magnifying-glass between your hand and the
sun you will find that at a certain distance the sunlight is in a
circle. By changing the distance with delicacy you can diminish the
circle to almost a point,--you make the light _come to a center_. When
the circle of light is large, no particular effect is noted by the
hand. When, however, the circle is as small as it can be made you feel
a sensation of warmth which, if continued long enough, will really
burn the hand. That small circle is the sunlight _in concentration_.
The rays of sunlight, instead of being scattered, are centered. They
burn the hand because they are full of power--powerful.

By way of example: Let the different rays stand for inattention and
the tiny circle of light for concentration. The former has little or
no power; the latter is full of power. This very well illustrates what
happens, both when our thoughts are scattered over a large area, and
when they are brought together--concentrated--in a small circle. The
first listening indeed which should claim our attention is not
tone-listening, but listening to what is said to us. No one under a
good teacher ever learns well who is not attenti