446 PSYCHOLOGY. 



uot concern us particularly now. Noting merely the inti- 

 mate connection Avliicli our account so far establishes be- 

 tween attentif)n, on the one hand, and imagination, discrim- 

 ination, and memory, on the other, let us draw a couple of 

 practical inferences, and then pass to the more speculative 

 problem that remains. 



The ])ractical inferences are pedagogic, Fiist, to 

 strengthen attention in children who care nothing for tha sub- 

 ject they are studying and let their wits go wool-gathering. 

 The interest here must be ' derived ' from something that 

 the teacher associates with the task, a reward or a punish- 

 ment if nothing less external comes to mind. Prof. Hibot 

 says : 



" A child refuses to read; he is incapable of keeping his mind fixed 

 on the letters, which have no attraction for hnn; but he looks with avid- 

 ity upon the pictures contained in a book. ' What do they mean?' he 

 asks. The father replies: ' When you can read, the book will tell you.' 

 After several colloquies like this, the child resigns himself and falls to 

 work, first slaekly, then the habit grows, and finally he shows an ardor 

 which has to be restrained. This is a case of the genesis of voluntary 

 attention. An artificial and indirect desire has to be grafted on a natu- 

 ral and direct one. Reading has no immediate attractiveness, but it 

 has a borrowed one, and that is enough. The child is caught in the 

 wheelwork, the first step is made." 



I take another example, from M. B. Perez : * 



''A child of SIX years, habitually prone to mind-wandering, sat 

 down one day to the piano of his own accord to repeat an air by which 

 his mother had been charmed. His exercises lasted an hour. The 

 same child at the age of seven, seeing his brother busy with tasks in 

 vacation, went and sa t at his father's desk. ' What are you doing there ? ' 

 his nurse said, surprised at so finding him. 'I am,' said the child, 

 'learning a page of German; it isn't very amusing, but it is for an 

 agreeable surprise to mamma.' " 



Here, again, a birth of voluntary attention, grafted this 

 time on a sympathetic instead of a selfish sentiment like 

 that of the first examjjle. The piano, the German, awaken 



impossible. See also G. H Lewes: Problems of Life and Mind, Sd Series, 

 Prob. 2. chap. 10, G H. Schneider. Der men.schliche Wille, 294 ff., 309 

 fi.: C Stumpf: Tonpsychologie I. 67-75. W. B Carpenter; Mental Physi- 

 ology, chap. 3 ; Cappie in ' Brain,' July 1886 (liypeiifimia-theory) , J. Sully 

 in Brain,' Oct. 1890. 



* L'Enfaut de trois a sept Ans, p. 108. 



