NORMAL CONSCIOUSNESS ALWAYS IN A STATE OF ATTENTION.--But this very effort of the mind to free itself from one object of thought that it may busy itself with another is _because attention is solicited by this other_. Some object in our field of consciousness is always exerting an appeal for attention; and to attend _to_ one thing is always to attend _away from_ a multitude of other things upon which the thought might rest. We may therefore say that attention is constantly _selecting_ in our stream of thought those aspects that are to receive emphasis and consideration. From moment to moment it determines the points at which our mental energy shall be centered. 2. THE EFFECTS OF ATTENTION ATTENTION MAKES ITS OBJECT CLEAR AND DEFINITE.--Whatever attention centers upon stands out sharp and clear in consciousness. Whether it be a bit of memory, an "air-castle," a sensation from an aching tooth, the reasoning on an algebraic formula, a choice which we are making, the setting of an emotion--whatever be the object to which we are attending, that object is illumined and made to stand out from its fellows as the one prominent thing in the mind's eye while the attention rests on it. It is like the one building which the searchlight picks out among a city full of buildings and lights up, while the remainder are left in the semilight or in darkness. ATTENTION MEASURES MENTAL EFFICIENCY.--In a state of attention the mind may be likened to the rays of the sun which have been passed through a burning glass. You may let all the rays which can pass through your window pane fall hour after hour upon the paper lying on your desk, and no marked effects follow. But let the same amount of sunlight be passed through a lens and converged to a point the size of your pencil point, and the paper will at once burst into flame. What the diffused rays could not do in hours or in ages is now accomplished in seconds. Likewise the mind, allowed to scatter over many objects, can accomplish but little. We may sit and dream away an hour or a day over a page or a problem without securing results. But let us call in our wits from their wool-gathering and "buckle down to it" with all our might, withdrawing our thoughts from everything else but this _one thing_, and concentrating our mind on it. More can now be accomplished in minutes than before in hours. Nay, _things which could not be accomplished at all before_ now become possible.