Methods of Mind-training, Concentrated Attention and Memory

This book was published in 1895

OBJECT OF THE SYSTEM

THE ability to concentrate the atten-
tion is of inestimable value.

A great educator has said, " The pow-
er of attention constitutes a striking
difference between the trained and the
untrained intellect." The most super-
ficial observer will be ready to admit
that he who possesses the ability to
concentrate his attention at will, wheth-
er his task be the learning of a trade or
profession, the solving of a mathemat-
ical problem, the finding of a logical
sequence by means of a chain of ab-
struse reasoning, or the tracing of ef-
fects to their causes, physical or meta-
physical, will sooner and more satis-
factorily reach success than he who
though possessed of more skill and learn-
ing, fails to fix his attention upon his
subject.

How important it is, then, that this
power should be acquired when young,
and that the youthful student should
secure it in some degree while making
his first attempts at learning.

Here, then, is the important work of
the teacher. It is in the school -room
that these habits of attention should be
formed.

Experience has convinced me that
the chief factor in the obtaining of
knowledge, in school or out of school,
is the ability to concentrate the atten-
tion to such a degree as to insure a
retentive memory. As so many things
are to be learned arbitrarily, a system
which strives to secure the ability of con-
centrating the attention and strength-
ening the memory must prove invalu-
able