Some Terms 157 



energy. The resultant act becomes more pro- 

 nounced with the intensification and persist- 

 ence of the katabolic destruction. In other 

 words, we will better, and with increased power, 

 if we act with speed and with a quick response in 

 energy. A strong will, therefore, indicates that 

 katabolic centres are dominant ; a weaker will 

 implies that anabolic centres, with their slower 

 and less effective responses, are in ascendance. 

 These responses are attention a quality of 

 anabolism, because in anabolic cells, at every 

 step, changes take place more slowly, and also 

 continue longer, than they do in katabolic cells. 

 Such cells, then, afford more time for attention, 

 and prolonged attention checks bodily changes. 1 

 Willing and attention are opposites. Men 

 with strong wills are poor at analytic thought, 

 and careful thinkers hesitate when in action. 

 As we gain in will, we lose in thought power, 

 and we gain in thought as we lose in will 

 power. 



An application of this truth brings us back 

 to the assumption that each being is a com- 

 bination of two selves, one anabolic and the 



1 Ribot, " The Psychology of Attention," p. 2Q. 



