THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ATTENTION. 1091 
periods, until at last the light shining forth made dawn in his 
own mind. 
When it is remembered that dawn in the mind of a Newton 
means the beginning of a new day of knowledge for mankind, the 
ultimate value of his abstraction becomes still more clearly 
manifest. 
From what has been observed already concerning the field or 
scope of attention, it is easy to pass to its consideration. The 
mind may be directed to any object of any interest, if this can 
but furnish a new relation for perception. The three co-existent 
worlds of Nature, Humanity, Mind, each infinite in extent or 
complexity, offer subjects, it would seem, to suffice eternity. 
As, therefore, it is not possible to indicate in more than this 
general way the full scope of knowledge, it would be useless to 
catalogue its material in detail. A word may not be out of place, 
however, as to its limits, for there are bounds set beyond which it 
may not pass. 
On the one side, an object must be capable of opening out 
before thought if it is to be regarded with attention ; on the other, 
for the Mind to attain to a vision of Truth uncomprehended before, 
there must be steps by which it may climb—a highway prepared 
in the desert. 
Sufficient, perhaps, has been said with regard to any attempt to 
transgress the lower of these limits, the effort at Attention simply 
becomes nullitied ; but with regard to the higher, a glance at its 
meaning is needed. 
There is really no region of human experience that can be con- 
sidered necessarily closed to the view of Attention. Prejudice 
and timidity combine often to prevent this steady, earnest, appli- 
cation to subjects of paramount interest and importance. The 
whole fields of the mental, moral, and spiritual have hardly yet 
been opened to the vision which alone finds enduring ordered 
knowledge. 
Tt cannot, however, be supposed that such alien motives will 
always maintain their influence. The time must come when 
Attention, step by step, will penetrate to the very centre of these 
lands now so strange and so fascinating in their mystery. 
The scope of Attention is therefore far wider than is popularly 
supposed ; its function to deal with matters quite beyond the 
passing fashion of interest. 
Still the practical attainment of this activity depends absolutely 
on the condition just recognised. Knowledge of relations is only 
to be gained step by step. Upon the achievment of the past the 
seer must stand who would look into the future. Copernicus, 
Galileo, Kepler, Newton, follow in an order invariable as necessity. 
It must be, then, that for a long time in every department of 
experience, Attention must follow feeling and belief slowly, and 
