fatigue, are the ones out
of which, other things being equal, we get the most and remember the
best and longest. On the other hand, there are sometimes lessons and
lectures and books, and many things besides, which are not intensely
interesting, but which should be attended to nevertheless. It is at this
point that the will must step in and take command. If it has not the
strength to do this, it is in so far a weak will, and steps should be
taken to develop it. We are to "_keep the faculty of effort alive in us
by a little gratuitous exercise every day_." We are to be systematically
heroic in the little points of everyday life and experience. We are not
to shrink from tasks because they are difficult or unpleasant. Then,
when the test comes, we shall not find ourselves unnerved and untrained,
but shall be able to stand in the evil day.

THE HABIT OF ATTENTION.--Finally, one of the chief things in training
the attention is _to form the habit of attending_. This habit is to be
formed only by _attending_ whenever and wherever the proper thing to do
is to attend, whether "in work, in play, in making fishing flies, in
preparing for an examination, in courting a sweetheart, in reading a
book." The lesson, or the sermon, or the lecture, may not be very
interesting; but if they are to be attended to at all, our rule should
be to attend to them completely and absolutely. Not by fits and starts,
now drifting away and now jerking ourselves back, but _all the time_.
And, furthermore, the one who will deliberately do this will often find
the dull and uninteresting task become more interesting; but if it never
becomes interesting, he is at least forming a habit which will be
invaluable to him through life. On the other hand, the one who fails to
attend except when his interest is captured, who never exerts effort to
compel attention, is forming a habit which will be the bane of his
thinking until his stream of thought shall end.

7. PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION

1. Which fatigues you more, to give attention of the nonvoluntary type,
or the voluntary? Which can you maintain longer? Which is the more
pleasant and agreeable to give? Under which can you accomplish more?
What bearing have these facts on teaching?

2. Try to follow for one or two minutes the "wave" in your
consciousness, and then describe the course taken by your attention.

3. Have you observed one class alert in attention, and another lifeless
and in