ourse of action difficult or unpleasant, but necessary to success
or duty, and that _B_ leads to a course of action easy or pleasant, but
fatal to success or duty. Which course will you follow--the rugged path
of duty or the easier one of pleasure? The answer depends almost wholly,
if not entirely, on your power of attention. If your will is strong
enough to pull your thoughts away from the fatal but attractive _B_ and
hold them resolutely on the less attractive _A_, then _A_ will dictate
your course of action, and you will respond to the call for endeavor,
self-denial, and duty; but if your thoughts break away from the
domination of your will and allow the beckoning of your interests
alone, then _B_ will dictate your course of action, and you will follow
the leading of ease and pleasure. _For our actions are finally and
irrevocably dictated by the things we think about._

NOT REALLY DIFFERENT KINDS OF ATTENTION.--It is not to be understood,
however, from what has been said, that there are _really_ different
kinds of attention. All attention denotes an active or dynamic phase of
consciousness. The difference is rather _in the way we secure
attention_; whether it is demanded by sudden stimulus, coaxed from us by
interesting objects of thought without effort on our part, or compelled
by force of will to desert the more interesting and take the direction
which we dictate.

6. IMPROVING THE POWER OF ATTENTION

While attention is no doubt partly a natural gift, yet there is probably
no power of the mind more susceptible to training than is attention. And
with attention, as with every other power of body and mind, the secret
of its development lies in its use. Stated briefly, the only way to
train attention is by attending. No amount of theorizing or resolving
can take the place of practice in the actual process of attending.

MAKING DIFFERENT KINDS OF ATTENTION REENFORCE EACH OTHER.--A very close
relationship and interdependence exists between nonvoluntary and
voluntary attention. It would be impossible to hold our attention by
sheer force of will on objects which were forever devoid of interest;
likewise the blind following of our interests and desires would finally
lead to shipwreck in all our lives. Each kind of attention must support
and reenforce the other. The lessons, the sermons, the lectures, and
the books in which we are most interested, and hence to which we attend
nonvoluntarily and with the least effort and