the mind is directed to certain objects before it, and as long as it fixes itself upon them, it detains them. These objects may be presented by any of the mental powers: by the senses, the memory, the reason, or any combination. Such fixed contemplation is necessary to our being able to form a clear and correct apprehension of any vast or complicated subject. When a number and variety of objects come before the mind simultaneously or in succession, they appear dim and scattered. When the eye is opened, it must in ordinary circumstances take in a number of them, with their varied forms, colors, and distances; but our apprehension of each of them is vague and confused. It is the same with the crowd of thoughts which troop into our minds when we consider some general subject; it is as when we are introduced to a large company, it is only as we single out one after another of the individuals that our idea of the whole and of the parts becomes discriminating. When the attention is directed to any one object, it stands out distinctly from the others, and then, by the laws of association, a whole host of related objects gather around it, and we come the better to know its nature. Sir Isaac Newton has declared that, if in any point he excelled others, it was because he gave his attention exclusively to the topic he was studying. We have a similar testimony from Thomas Reid, who represents the Scotch school. Dr. Chalmers was fond of representing Attention as combining the intellectual and the moral; by fixing the mind, we can make the intellectual moral, and by neglecting to do so, we may make it immoral.

IV. REJECTION. What is presented is repelled. Sometimes this repulsion is altogether instinctive. It is merely turning away from a repulsive object, say in taste or smell, or when we change our position to avoid pain,

or drive away an annoyance. But it may become a very strong determination to oppose what is evil. It may have to resist the attractions of pleasure, the assaults of temptation, the tempests of passion, and desperate opposition. In this nature of ours, with its perverse tendencies, and in this world of ours, so full of evil, the resistance needed may require to be very determined and very prolonged. To be able to say No to plausible proposals is an essential power in all lofty character. A power of resistance may give great strength to the character, though if it is not judiciously guided it may become mere obstinacy. I read the imprecations of the Psalms as an expression of indignation against wickedness, which is an element in all holy character.

V. WISH. It is of moment to distinguish between our mere instinctive appetences, desires, and aversions on the one hand, and our acts of choice on the other hand. Wish is always an act of the will. By it we may select a thing, or at least choose out a thing; or we put it away from us. This may become a very powerful sentiment; we may muse upon an object, we may long for it, we may clasp it and cherish it. The aspirations of the heart may be among the grandest and most inspiring of our affections, elevating the soul from earth to heaven. Such breathings have made the Psalms so universally read by devout people. The soul longeth, even fainteth, to behold the beauty of the Lord.

VI. PREFERENCE. This is the poaípeos of Aristotle, regarded by him as an essential element in virtue. This makes all virtue voluntary, a doctrine which is true only when we make it embrace wish as well as positive decisions of the mind. In this higher form of Will we come to a positive and decided determination: we elect an object or a course of conduct, and in doing so we have

commonly to choose among a number of competing ways spreading out their allurements before us. Such an act decides the whole conduct for good or evil, and has commonly long influence, leading us promptly and peremptorily to stop our ears to the voice of the siren alluring us to evil, and it may be forming in the end the whole character, making it firm and stable. All such wishes and preferences are within the heart. But they come forth into action, in which case we have

VII. VOLITION. This is Will in action. Towards this point all its acts tend, and this is its consummation. The child sees a flower with a bright color and seizes it. The man perceives a more substantial object as he regards it; his eye is attracted by gold, capable of bringing so many enjoyments, and he proceeds to earn it, only, it may be, to find its pleasures as evanescent as the petals of the flower. This is simply a higher exercise of the same will power. Exercised from day to day under, it may be, strong native or acquired impulses, it produces the man of strong character.

VIII. A STRONG WILL. This is a somewhat loose but expressive phrase, denoting a disposition rather than an individual act. It is a continued resolution and determination prompted by a dominant passion, such as the love of glory or of power. It manifests itself in resistance to everything that opposes the man's favorite projects. It would bear down all obstacles that may come in its way; it is the special organ of destructiveness in ambitious men. It is as often found in weaker woman as in stronger man, leading her to devise innumerable means to accomplish her ends-to gain a lover, or to thwart a husband. It incites the youth to reach the greatest height in scholarship or in civil and military pursuits. As he climbs the mountain he may have to

mount rocks and cross ravines; but he will not stay till he reaches the summit to obtain the commanding view, or it may be to find himself in mist and cloud. A promontory which for a thousand years has defied wind and waves is a symbol of such a character.

CHAPTER III.

THE WILL ASSOCIATING ITSELF WITH OTHER MENTAL ACTS.

THE Will may be associated with every other mental faculty. And wherever it goes it may carry good or evil and consequent responsibility.

The Senses may be influenced by it. It is well known that there are inferences of the understanding mingling with many of our perceptions of external objects. In our mature life we feel as if we instinctively know the distances of objects as certainly as their shape and color. But it has been generally admitted ever since the days of Berkeley that the measurement of distance by the eye is an acquired and not an original endowment. It has been ascertained that the knowledge of distance by the ear is also an acquisition of experience. But in most cases

there is need of more or less attention in order to the mind adding the acquired to its instinctive knowledge. Indeed, physiological research shows that there is need of a concurrence of the will in most of the healthy exercises of the senses. Without attention the whole impression on the mind is like the shadow of a passing cloud upon a lake, not ruffling the surface at the time, and speedily passing away. The objects before the eye in the room in which we are accustomed to sit, to work or to study, must in a sense be perceived by the eye, as must by the ear the ticking and striking of the clock, and the beating of the wind upon the window; but how