114 A. T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ., M.D., ON 
Attention is most important in education, and it is found 
that three-quarters of an hour at a time is the longest period 
at which it can be fully maintained. This, therefore, should 
be the extent of any one lesson requiring close attention. 
Attention directed to any subject may be voluntary 
(conscious) or involuntary (unconscious). We can fix our 
attention by an effort which is sometimes very great; and a 
time may come when the strongest volition can no longer 
resist the other distractions or the sense of fatigue. In 
children fixed attention is almost impossible, unless it be 
involuntary (unconscious), the power of the will being as 
yet so slight. Children punished for not attending are often 
punished for what they can’t help by effort; whereas a 
suggestion directing their thoughts automatically would at 
once succeed. In short, it is easier to secure unconscious 
than conscious attention. 
The mind should be well grounded in nature before it 
studies art. Natural theology is the impression of the 
Divine Mind in nature, and should precede doctrinal 
theology, on the principle we have already given—the 
concrete before the abstract. 
Science, moreover, and natural theology go hand-in-hand. 
«True science and true religion are twin sisters, and the 
separation of either from the other is sure to be the death of 
both. Science prospers exactly in proportion as it is 
religious. . . . The great deeds of philosophers have 
been less the fruit of their intellect than of the direction of 
that intellect by an eminently religious tone of mind.”* 
As a rule, emotions should be cultivated first and the 
intellect afterwards. “Do” and not “don’t” should be the 
watchword, and punishments should not be arbitrary, but in 
the relations of cause and effect. ‘ What a man sows that 
shall he also reap.” And as a last word on the whole 
subject of child trainnmg we cannot do better than direct 
attention to the profound force of the threefold maxim of 
Holy Writ, “Offend not—despise not—hinder not, one of 
these little ones.” 
* Prof. Huxley, quoted by Herbert Spencer, Hducation, p. 45. 
