AUTOMATIC ACTION 255 



within my area of sight. In just the same way, it seems to 

 me, we are able to do many things at one time, and attend 

 to them all, though at any given moment the most of our 

 attention is concentrated on one or other of them only. This 

 action is always the most interesting for the time being to 

 us, and it is non-automatic, not because it receives the whole 

 of our attention, but because is receives the greater part of 

 it; whereas the other actions are automatic, not because 

 they receive no attention, but because they receive com- 

 paratively little. As I gazed at the knob I was smoking, 

 but I am sure I was not wholly unconscious of the latter 

 action. Now, that I am thinking chiefly of it, it has ceased 

 to be automatic, whereas my gaze at the point has become 

 so. Had I been quite unconscious, quite inattentive of my 

 pipe, it would have dropped from my mouth. Were I quite 

 inattentive to the point of light, I should in effect be blind. 

 When I lean automatically against a structure which I have 

 supposed to be stable, but which presently gives way, I am 

 instantly conscious of the change of position which follows. 

 But I am sure I do not know how I could have been conscious 

 of it unless my attention had been to some degree occupied 

 with the sensations that are changed. Indeed if our attention 

 is always wholly concentrated on one object, I do not under- 

 stand how we can change it to another. If, when engaged 

 in deep thought and walking automatically, I avoid obstacles, 

 I must have given them some attention. I take it, in fact, 

 that no single sensation ever reaches us but receives some 

 part of our attention, but that at any given time only one, if 

 any, of the whole complex receives the concentrated part of 

 our attention. 



417. When we speak to a friend we are not conscious only 

 of the words we are uttering ; we are automatically observing 

 also the play of expression on his features. When a lover 

 pays court to his mistress his attention is not wholly occupied 

 with informing her that he had the happiness of meeting 

 her uncle a week ago. He is conscious also of the girl's 

 charm, of the graceful turn of her head, of the bloom on her 

 cheeks, of the movements of her pretty hands ; he is conscious 

 even of the bore in the distance who may interrupt the 

 conversation. So long as he devotes his main attention to 

 what he is saying, his speech is not automatic and remains 

 coherent ; but the moment his main attention wanders to 

 the lady's perfections or to the bore his speech tends to 

 become automatic, and therefore, because the choice of words 

 requires concentrated attention, it tends to become incoherent 



