404 PSYCHOLOGY. 



of tliouglit. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness 

 are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things 

 in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition 

 which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatter- 

 brained state which in French is called distraction, and Zer- 

 streutheit in German. 



We all know this latter state, even in its extreme degree. 

 Most people probably fall several times a day into a fit 

 of something like this : The eyes are fixed on vacancy, the 

 sounds of the world melt into confused unity, the attention 

 is dispersed so that the whole body is felt, as it were, at 

 once, and the foreground of consciousness is filled, if by 

 anything, by a sort of solemn sense of surrender to the 

 empty passing of time. In the dim background of our 

 mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing : get- 

 ting up, dressing ourselves, answering the person who has 

 spoken to us, trying to make the next step in our reason- 

 ing. But somehow we cannot start ; the pensee de derriere la 

 tete fails to pierce the shell of lethargy that wraps our state 

 about. Every moment we expect the sjDell to break, for we 

 know^ no reason why it should continue. But it does con- 

 tinue, pulse after pulse, and we float with it, until — also 

 without reason that we can discover — an energy is given, 

 something — we know not what — enables us to gather our- 

 selves together, we wink our eyes, we shake our heads, the 

 background-ideas become efiective, and the wheels of life 

 go round again. 



This curious state of inhibition can for a few moments be 

 produced at will by fixing the eyes on vacancy. Some j)er- 

 sons can voluntarily empty their minds and ' think of noth- 

 ing.' With many, as Professor Exner remarks of himself, 

 this is the most efiicacious means of falling asleep. It is 

 difiicult not to suppose something like this scattered con- 

 dition of mind to be the usual state of brutes when not 

 actively engaged in some pursuit. Fatigue, monotonous 

 mechanical occupations that end by being automatically 

 carried on, tend to produce it in men. It is not sleep ; and 

 yet when aroused from such a state, a j)erson will often 

 hardly be able to say what he has been thinking about 

 Subjects of the hypnotic trance seem to lapse into it whe'^ 



