The Mystic Will | Page 8

attention. That is simply to say, there is active or passive
observation--the things which we seek or which come to us unsought.
And the "seeking for," or spontaneous action can be materially aided
and made persevering, if before we begin the search or set about
devoting Attention to anything, we pause, as it were, to determine or
resolve that we will be thorough, and not leave off until we shall have
mastered it. For strange as it may seem, the doing this actually has in
most cases a positive, and very often a remarkable result, as the reader
may very easily verify for himself. This Forethought is far more easily
awakened, or exerted, than Attention itself, but it prepares it, just as
Attention prepares Interest.
Attention is closely allied to Memory; when we would give attention to
a subject for continued consideration, we must "memorize" it, or it will
vanish. Involuntary memory excited by different causes often compels
us to attend to many subjects whether we will or not. Everyone has
been haunted with images or ideas even unto being tormented by them;
there are many instances in which the Imagination has given them
objective form, and they have appeared visibly to the patient. These
haunting ideas, disagreeable repetitions or obstinate continuances,
assume an incredible variety of forms, and enter in many strange ways
into life. Monomania or the being possessed with one idea to the
exclusion of others, is a form of overstrained attention, sustained by
memory. It is enforced.
Mere repetition of anything to almost anybody, will produce
remarkable results; or a kind of Hypnotism Causing the patient to yield
to what becomes an irresistible power. Thus it is said that perpetual
dropping will wear away stones. Dr. JAMES R. COCKE in his
"Hypnotism," in illustrating this, speaks of a man who did not want to
sign a note, he knew that it was folly to do so, but yielded from having
been "over persuaded." I have read a story in which a man was thus
simply talked into sacrificing his property. The great power latent in
this form of suggestiveness is well known to knaves in America where
it is most employed. This is the whole secret of the value of advertising.

People yield to the mere repetition in time. Attention and Interest may
in this way be self-induced from repetition.
It is true that an image or idea may be often repeated to minds which do
not think or reflect, without awakening attention; per contra, the least
degree of thought in a vast majority of cases forms a nucleus, or
beginning, which may easily be increased to an indefinite extent. A
very little exercise of the Will suffices in most cases to fix the attention
on a subject, and how this can be done will be shown in another chapter.
But in many cases Attention is attracted with little or no voluntary
effort. On this fact is based the truth that when or where it is desired,
Attention and Interest may be awakened with great ease by a simple
process.
It may be remarked on the subject of repetition of images or ideas, that
a vast proportion of senseless superstitions, traditions or customs,
which no one can explain, originate in this way, and that in fact what
we call habit (which ranks as second nature) is only another form or
result of involuntary attention and the unconsciously giving a place in
the memory to what we have heard.
From the simple fact that even a man of plain common-sense and
strong will may be driven to sleeplessness, or well nigh to madness, by
the haunting presence of some wretched trifle, some mere jingle or
rhyme, or idle memory, we may infer that we have here a great power
which must in some way be capable of being led to great or useful
results by some very easy process. I once wrote a sketch, never
completed, in which I depicted a man of culture who, having lost an old
manuscript book which he had regarded in a light, semi-incredulous
manner as a fetish, or amulet, on which his luck depended, began to be
seriously concerned, and awaking to the fact, deliberately cultivated his
alarm as a psychological study, till he found himself, even with his eyes
wide open as an observer in terrible fear, or a semi-monomaniac. The
recovery of his lost charm at once relieved him. This was a diversion of
Attention for a deliberate purpose, which might have been varied ad
infinitum to procure very useful results. But I have myself known a
man in the United States, who, having lost--he being an actor or

performer--a certain article of theatrical properties on which he
believed "luck" depended, lost all heart and hope, and fell into a decline,