maneuver period. He met citizens who extolled their military system as offering a defense against foreign aggression and as training youths in habits which were assets in industrial life. Some of the youths with whom he talked seemed to find their interest associated with the attitude of the Swiss lasses toward military shirks. A number of young soldiers told him that a lad could not get near a girl unless he did full military duty. We wish you to be interested in military character as something useful to you in your business as future officers, and to understand that you cannot carry on the business of being an officer without this as the principal asset.

No nostrum can satisfy which does not allow for self-expression. Interest centers in the idea. of practical application. We may define it as a VISION OF AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SELF-EXPRESSION IN WAYS WHICH MEET OUR APPROVAL OR THE APPROVAL OF OTHERS IN WHOM WE HAVE CONFIDENCE.

Interest is limited to our sphere of self-expression. Some years ago an acquaintance, who was a notorious politician, told me that when a youth he had committed to memory the Synoptic Gospels, to please his mother. A little while ago I mentioned this fact to a philosopher, and also the fact that my friend's knowledge of the Bible did not seem to produce any practical results in his

own life. The philosopher remarked that my political friend probably found his reward in gratifying his mother, and that his interest in the Bible stopped there, because he saw no opportunity to use its great teachings in his own business.

Interest can be developed by increasing the power of attention. There are laws of attention, the observance of which serves our purpose in creating and sustaining interest. In a general way the more a man knows about a subject, the greater is his interest in, and power of sustained attention in reference to, that subject. A short time ago I passed an evening with a village blacksmith before an open fire. While we sat there he took up a rough iron poker and talked most entertainingly about the construction of its handle. I knew nothing about poker handles and could not have concentrated my attention upon one for more than a few seconds. The blacksmith's mind, however, was stored with many ideas and images connected with the details of poker handles. He was using this knowledge in his daily work. Everything he said was full of meaning in terms of past experiHe talked to me for over an hour about poker handles. This man had a real interest in the subject. Poker handles meant much to him because he made them. He had use for every idea in reference to them and the subject was alive with interest connected with his own business. His

ence.

memory was stored with a mass of ideas associated in his past experience with iron-working. It was because of this very mass of past experience that all sorts of images and ideas flowed into the focus of his consciousness as he talked. These associated ideas continually brought back his attention to the subject of his discussion.

In the same way you will find that the more you know about military affairs, and the more experience you have organized and stored in your memory, the easier it will be for you to keep your attention upon any military subject, turn it over in your mind, using and applying your ideas to fit it into and understand it in terms of your past experience.

As a form of intellectual activity the mere mental gymnastics of thinking in terms of past experience is interesting. Every idea attended to develops energy and has a tendency to do work. Last year I illustrated this by showing how the image of a bodily movement has a tendency to reproduce the act of which the idea is an image. I told the class that I was going to ask one of the officers downstairs to come into the classroom, that I would ask him to extend his right arm and right forefinger and, without moving either, explain to the class the sensation of crooking his finger as in the trigger-pull. I told the class that I would stand before the officer, crook my finger before

his eyes, illustrating the movement which I wished him to describe; that I would not watch his hand, but would concentrate my attention upon attempting to produce in his mind an image of the movement which I wished him to describe. I asked the class to watch the officer's fore-finger, expecting that, although he had been told and had agreed to keep that finger stiff, the mere fact that he held, in the focus of his consciousness, the idea of its movements, would be sufficient to cause him to crook the finger. We got an officer to come from downstairs. He stood with his back toward the class, agreed to do what he was told, and then extended his arm and finger as directed. I stood in front of him, crooked my own finger, and talked to him fluently as to what I wished him to think of and describe. Before he had opened his mouth to say anything he had crooked his finger two or three times, and the experiment was broken up by the class indulging in peals of laughter.

An idea attended to and holding the focus of consciousness always does some work. When the blacksmith was talking to me about a poker handle, I could not keep my attention on a poker handle for more than a few seconds, without the help of his ideas. When I think of poker handles I am conscious that I have an internal image of a poker handle. It has no meaning, however, it is just a poker handle, and when I have grasped that,

there is nothing more in it for me, and the image fades away, and its place is taken by some other image or idea in the ordinary flow of thought. I cannot keep my attention on poker handles. It is too stupid, and there is nothing in it to continue my interest. The blacksmith, however, had a lot of associated ideas connected with poker handles, and the image before him kept calling up in his mind various ideas. His past experience was stored with all sorts of ideas connected with poker handles, and although his attention fluctuated from the image of the poker handle before him, still every thought which flowed into his mind had some connection with pokers. The poker was the central thought about which these ideas ranged for over an hour. In the same way you cannot keep your attention and interest on military character unless your memory is stored with ideas associated with the central thought. They must be your own ideas thrashed out in your own mind and organized as the result of your past experience.

Professor James says that will is nothing but attention. Other writers claim that there is something plus attention in the act of willing. They all agree, however, that attention is the basis of willing. Attention is the mental process by which the images of things which interest us get into the mind and dominate it to the exclusion of other ideas. The insane patient who thought he was