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walk into church with his gun under his arm, to ascertain what the people wanted there. Once, when he was playing at backgammon, he poured out a glass of wine, and it being his turn to throw, having the box in one hand and the glass in the other, and being extremely dry, he swallowed down both the dice, and discharged the wine upon the dice-board.

"His notorious heedlessness was so apparent that no one would lend him a horse, as he frequently lost his beast from under him, or, at least, from out of his hands, it being his frequent practice to dismount and lead the horse, putting the bridle under his arm, which the horse sometimes shook off, or the intervention of a post occasioned it to fall. Sometimes it was taken off by the boys, when the parson was seen drawing his bridle after him; and if any one asked him after the animal, he could not give the least account of it, or how he had lost it."*

Instances of this kind might be easily multiplied. It will be noticed, that in cases such as have been enumerated, the leading trait is not mere weakness of the mind, not that specific characteristic which is known in writers on Insanity under the name of imbecility, not mere helplessness and wandering of the attention; but an excessive facility and profoundness of abstraction, which results in excluding all notice of everything, whether of greater or less importance, excepting the particular subject which at the moment happens to occupy the mind. No matter what the nature of the subject is. It may be of great moment or of very trivial moment; the crea* Macnish's Philosophy of Sleep, ch. xvii.

tion of a world or the birth of an insect. It is all the same to Menalcas. Relatively to him, there is nothing which, for the time being, comes at all into comparison. The proprieties of time and place; the conventional decencies and civilities of society; the claims of age, talents, and station; the common practical duties of life; everything, in a word, is disregarded, forgotten, involuntarily thrown out of ac

count.

CHAPTER IX.

DISORDERED ATTENTION.

$88. Of the general nature of attention. THE mere fact of Attention or mental Concentration is, unquestionably, a different thing from Concentrativeness, or that elementary power (if such there be, and whatever may be its nature) by means of which we give attention. Our inquiries, in the first place, have relation to the fact of attention rather than the power. Probably we come near the common view of the matter by saying, in general terms, that attention expresses the state of the mind when it is steadily and strongly directed to the ob⚫ject, whatever it is, which happens to be before it. As the mind, in the exercise of Attention, generally directs itself to a particular object, exclusive of other

objects, it is not surprising that attention should sometimes be confounded with Abstraction. Attention, however, does not make it a chief or leading object, as Abstraction does, to consider things apart, and in a state of isolation from each other, but particularly to consider them fixedly and closely, whether they present themselves to the mind alone or in connexion with other objects. In other words, the grasp which the perceptive power fixes upon the object of its contemplations, whether considered as one or many, abstractly or complexly, is essentially an undivided, an unbroken one.

In what way the perceptive or intellective power is able to do this, it may not be an easy matter to determine with entire certainty. But the probability is, that it is owing to a distinct and specific act of the will, directing, condensing, and confining to a particular point, the movement of the percipient nature. So that in all cases of attention the act of the mind may be regarded as a complex one, involving not only the mere perceptions, or series of perceptions, but also an act of the will, founded on some feeling of desire or sentiment of duty. It is the act of the will, prompted, in general, by the feeling of desire or interest, which keeps the mind intense and fixed in its position. Nevertheless, as we generally have reference, when we speak of this subject, to the intellectual movement rather than to the volitive or voluntary energy which may be supposed to lay back of it, it is not without reason that we propose to consider it under the head of the intellect rather than under any subsequent division. And, as

Attention, like Abstraction, is as predicable of the External Intellect as of the Internal, it may as well be considered under the former subordinate division as under the latter.

§ 89. Of differences in the Degree of Attention.

It is worthy of notice, that we often speak of Attention as great or small, as existing in a very high or a very slight degree. When the view of the mind is only momentary, and is unaccompanied, as it generally is at such times, with any force of emotion or energy of volitive action, then the attention is said to be slight. When, on the contrary, the mind directs itself to an object or series of objects with earnestness, and for a considerable length of time, and refuses to attend to anything else, then the attention is said to be intense.

Some persons possess a command of attention in a very high degree. There have been mathematicians who were able to investigate the most abstruse and complicated problems amid every variety and character of disturbance. It is said of Julius Cæsar, that, while writing a despatch, he could at the same time dictate four others to his secretaries; and, if he did not write himself, could dictate seven letters at once. The same thing is asserted also of the Emperor Napoleon, who had a wonderful capability of directing his whole mental energy to whatever came before him.*—Many other striking instances of this kind, illustrating the immense energy of attention which is characteristic of some individuals, might be introduced here if it were necessary.

* Elements of Mental Philosophy, vol. ii., § 153, 3d ed.

§ 90. Of Absence of Mind, or inability to fix the

Attention.

But this view of the subject, viz., great strength or energy of attention, is of less consequence to us, in our present inquiries, than the opposite. In some men there seems to be an utter inability to detain the intellect, for any length of time, upon a given topic. Every new object which presents itself, every new idea which arises in the mind, claims the attention, slight as it is, which had just before been given to some other object or some other thought. The mind may be considered as in a state of constant transition from object to object, almost without motive and without purpose.

-Such a state of the mind is, in the highest degree, unfortunate. It is fatal to the acquisition of knowledge. If the eye of the student, who is the subject of it, is fixed upon his book, it is probable that his thoughts are altogether removed from any connexion with the thoughts and reasonings of his author. To all practical purposes, the faculties of a person in this situation are obliterated and lost. Of what use are perceptive powers, and judgment, and powers of reasoning, if, in consequence of weakness of the will, or for any other cause, it is impossible to direct them, for any length of time, to any definite and practicable purpose? Such a person is unable to make any favourable impression on the community; he is even unable to manage the concerns of his own family; and is likely to be a source of great anxiety and trouble to all with whom he is immedi ately connected.

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