But after all, a large number of people whose mental processes are not normal, have only themselves, their poor emotions, their lazy wills, their hazy thinking to blame. We except what are called the heredity insanities--_dementia præcox_ and the other dementias and the _manic-depressive_ groups and _paranoia_ and _psychasthenia_--for in these cases, possibly with the exception of the _manic depressives_, even the most perfect environment could probably not prevent the disorder from asserting itself. Many neurotics, neurasthenics, and hysterics are curable if they will seriously undertake to fulfil the laws of physical and mental health--simple laws, but ones which demand a strengthened will to carry out. CHAPTER X ATTENTION THE ROOT OF DISEASE OR HEALTH ATTITUDE THE ATTENTION OF INTEREST Attention naturally follows interest. It can, however, be held by will to the unappealing, with the usual result of transforming it into a thing of interest. One of the laws of the mind we have already stressed is that what we attend to largely determines what we are, or shall be. The interests which secure our consideration may be the passive result of emotional life, the things which naturally appeal, which give us sensations that the mind normally heeds; or they may be the active result of our will which has forced application upon the things which reason advised as worth acquiring. We found that the beginning of health of mind consists in the directing of thought toward the health-bringing attitude. We have seen how quickly the normal mind can be diverted from the undesirable by a new or stronger emotional stimulus. We found that the sole appeal to attention in the baby-life is through the emotions, and that it is natural throughout life for the mind to heed and follow the interesting; which is only another way of saying that thinking follows where emotion leads, unless volition steps in to prevent. The supreme test of the will's power is its ability to hold the train of thought in the line that reason directs, when feeling would draw it elsewhere. This ability marks the man who does big things; while the inability to ever turn attention away from the interests proposed by feeling assures weakness. Some of the most charming people we shall ever know are those temperamental children of happiness whose interests are naturally wholesome and externalized, whose natures are spontaneous and joyous, and who live as they feel, seemingly never knowing the stress of forced concentration. With them attention follows feeling, feeling is sweet and true, and volition simply carries out what feeling dictates. And life may not be complicated.