274 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 
® 
always evil. And the misery of motor paralysis, of in- 
tellectual pauperism, is felt as the disease of ennut. 
The remedy for evils of revery, ennui, narcotism, and the 
like, is to be found in action. The knowledge of this 
fact constitutes the strength of the Salvation Army 
movement. The victim of mental deterioration, the 
“ opium fiend,” or the inebriate is given something to do. 
He is not to wear out the little force he has left in 
ineffective remorse. Better let him beat a big drum and 
make night hideous with unmusical song than to settle 
down to the dry rot of revery or the wet rot of emotional 
regret. Something to do and the will to act furnishes 
the remedy for all forms of social or personal discontent, 
Not every sense impression can demand distinct re- 
sponse. It is the function of the intellect to sift these 
impressions, turning over into action 
only those in which action is desirable 
or wise. The power of attention is one 
of the most valuable attributes of the trained mind. 
And the essential of this power is in the suppression by 
the will of all impulses which do not concern the pres- 
ent need of action. 
As the normal workings of the mind are reducible to 
sensation, thought, will, and action, so the abnormal 
workings may be due to defects of any 
one of these elements. We may have 
defects of sensation, defects of thought, 
vacillation of will, and inaccuracy of action. Hyperes- 
thesia, anzesthesia, sensory weakness, appear in the un- 
certain action of the muscles guided by the ill-informed 
or over-informed brain. The defects and diseases of the 
brain itself appear in many ways, ranging from oddity or 
folly to the extreme of idiocy or mania. Most of the 
“psychic phenomena” along “the borderland of spirit,” 
which occupy a large part in current litérature, are char- 
The power 
of attention. 
Defects in men- 
tal operation. 
