Birds are iised because so much more 

 and better activity is to be secured by 

 using them as the material for school 

 work than from any other. 



Why birds are so commanding to 

 the growing mind will become clear 

 to one who will patiently follow the 

 thought in the remainder of this 

 article. In avoiding technical terms 

 the statement has been weakened, but 

 it is believed that tliose who would 

 enjoy the reading better if the terms 

 were technical and closely accurate do 

 not need to have the matter stated to 

 them at all. Hence the statement is 

 made in the terms of common speech 

 with the object in mind of giving the 

 reasons to those not much accustomed 

 to the terms used by writers on 

 psychological topics. 



The mind is somewhat like the eye. 

 It takes in whatever is before it. It 

 is never concentrated upon one object 

 alone, but has to occupy itself to some 

 extent with the surroundings of the 

 object. It is impo.ssible to fix the 

 mind, or the attention, exclusively 

 upon one thing. We frequently ask 

 our pupils to do this, but it is impos- 

 sible. The mind at any one instant 

 resembles the surface of a wave of 

 water, part of what it carries is low, 

 another part higher, and some other 

 things are highest. But few things 

 can be at or near the crest at once. 

 Many things are around the base. As 

 with the eye a few objects are at or 

 near the focus, many things are where 

 they are sensed but are not in the 

 supreme position. And as the wave 

 of water runs along its course so the 

 mind moves forward. It will either 

 run directly away from the subject or 

 it will turn the subject over and carry 

 it along in continually changing 

 aspects. The mind cannot stand still. 

 It cannot keep anything more than an 

 instant except by turning the thing 

 about and perceiving it in relation to 



other things. We still consider we 

 have the thing in mind after we have 

 ceased to think of it as a whole and 

 pass on to thinking of its relations to 

 other things. 



The mind differs from the wave of 

 water in that it is not extensive to the 

 right and left of its course. It is like 

 a hill with a small crest that can hold 

 but few objects upon its surface. 

 When we say we are thinking pro- 

 foundly upon a subject we mean that 

 that subject and its connections are 

 continuously upon the crest of the 

 wave, and that unrelated things are 

 either not in the mind at all or they 

 are at least not at the focus. 



The things that are in the mind but 

 not focal are continually striving, as 

 if they were alive and very active to 

 get at the focal point. Just as the eye 

 is continually tempted to wander, 

 making one object after another its 

 focal one, so the mind is bound to 

 travel unless it has been trained to 

 turn from the thing to its relations 

 and related things and from them 

 back to the main thing again. That 

 is the only way to pay attention. You 

 cannot pay attention to one physical 

 thing for more than an instant. But 

 you can hold a chain of connected 

 things running through the mind, but 

 the things are continually modified 

 by their relations and the absolutely 

 same thing is never again in the mind. 

 When it appears again it is clothed 

 upon or enlarged or modified by what 

 the mind has discovered about it and 

 its relations or has invented and 

 attached to it. 



It is easy to repeat the multiplica- 

 tion table without having it focal in 

 the mind. You may read half a page 

 of print with your focal point upon 

 some other matter. You may pray 

 and find in your mind at the same 

 moment a wicked thought. Worse than 

 this, 5^ou may continue your prayer 



54 



