ly be overcome by an effort of the will and
the physical body be made to do its proper work. An actor or lecturer
after months of continuous work may find the brain and body growing
tired and dull. He may feel when going before his audience that he has
not an idea nor the wit to express it were someone else to furnish it.
Yet by an effort of the will he can quickly overcome the condition and
change from stupidity to mental alertness and intensity of thought.
The self is never tired. It is only the physical body that grows
weary. It is true that it has its limitations and must not be
overtaxed and driven beyond endurance as a tired horse is sometimes
cruelly urged forward with whip and spur. Judgment must always be used
in determining one's capacity for work. But that which is to be done
should never be done draggingly, with the inertia of the physical body
marring the work. We should be fully awake instead of "dead" while we
"are walking about." If a person resolves to be the master of the body
he may soon acquire the power to arouse it to activity and alertness
during all his waking hours, very much as one may acquire the habit of
keen observation and be conscious of what is occurring in his vicinity
instead of being carelessly unconscious of the major portion of what
is going on immediately about him.

This matter of giving attention to the things that may properly engage
the mind, and of using the will to arouse and control it, is of very
great importance. Is it not what we call "paying attention" that makes
the connection between the ego and the objective world? Giving
attention is a process of consciousness. The person who fails in
attention misses the purpose of life and throws away valuable time and
opportunity. To give attention is to be alive and awake and in a
condition to make the most of limited physical life. Yet many people
cannot give sustained attention to an ordinary conversation nor direct
the mind with sufficient precision to state a simple fact without
wandering aimlessly about in the effort, bringing in various
incidental matters until the original subject, instead of being made
clear, is obscured in a maze of unimportant details or lost sight of
altogether.

Such habits of mind should be put resolutely aside by one who would
hasten self-development. The attention should be fixed deliberately
upon the subject in hand, whatever it may be, and nothing should be
permitted to break the connection betw