Every one will acknowledge the indispensable necessity of a teacher's securing good attention. By attention we mean "fixity of thought, steadiness of mind." 1. Says Mr. Fitch: "Attention is--1. An act of the _will_. 2. It is _the one_ of all the mental faculties which is most under our control. Therefore the degree of attention we give depends upon our disposition, and is therefore largely a matter of _discipline_, and other things being equal, that teacher will gain the best attention who has most personal influence, and who is looked up to with the greatest respect." (Teacher! is your character, conduct, and manner such as will entitle you to respect?) "3. Attention is a _habit_. If truly given, every day it becomes the easier. And every day we listen languidly to a lesson or sermon the habit of inattention is strengthened." 2. Attention is promoted by a deep and earnest interest in and sympathy with the child, as well as for him. We must enter into sympathy with him, so as to understand his nature, his weaknesses, and his trials, and make all due allowance for them. 3. If the teacher would secure attention, he must be _accurately and abundantly prepared_; for no teacher can teach all he knows, and the moment a teacher approaches the limit of his preparation, he shows his weakness and embarrassment, the child detects it, and he is gone. 4. Improve well the circumstances which surround the daily life of the child, for you must here gather your best illustrations. Teachers can do this, if they are industrious, and will keep their "Sunday-school spectacles on." 5. Give the children frequent change of posture to relieve them. Study to do this especially in infant-classes. Give much freedom of motion and gesture to the little ones. If they speak of God and heaven, let them point and look upward in harmony, and thus teach them in a reverent manner to _act out_ their words and feelings. 6. Simultaneous reading and making of ellipses, leaving the children to fill in a word at the close of the sentence or lesson, will aid in securing attention.