The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-04-25
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.
GATHERED FROM THE RELIC
IOUS AND SECULAR PRESS.
Words of Wisdom and Thoughts
Worth Pondering on Religious
and Moral Subjects.

! 1t is a pity that word so full of
meaning as economy should be mar
rowed down to the single notion of
/ saving money. When we speak of an
economical man, we think of one who
I is careful not to spend too freely.
whereas even financial economy sig
mites much more than this. 1t means
the right management and distribu-
ton of the funds entrusted to the care,
either of person. corporation or a
/ government. Saving alone would never
accomplish this; it is an art which
combines wise thrift with wise expend-
iture, and brings out the best results
from both.
Money, however, is only one out of
many things which demand this far
reaching economy. Our time and. our
powers, our labors and our pleasures,
our thoughts and our emotions-all
need wise management, that they may
perform well their various functions.
Among these, the power of attention is
capable of a much more careful econ
omy than is usually accorded to it. 1t
is true that the practice of concentrate
ing the attention upon what is in hand
10 be done is often urged. "One cannot
attend to two things at once" is a
common adage, and the advice to guard
frequently prescribed than followed.
But the art of concentrating is a. much
deeper and more complicated matter
than this. 1t cannot at once be en-
forced by the will. If it is to attain
real efficiency. it must grow and be
developed by slow degrees and accord
ing to regular laws of it's own. To
economic the attention, so as to make
ii d truly valuable power, it is not
enough simply to try to fix on one
thing, though that is doubtless one
important part of the process. Past
habits of the mind will either make this
effort possible or impossible. The power
of concentration implies a great deal
of elimination. While 20 different things
are crowding upon the thoughts it is
simply impossible to pay close atten-
ton to any one subject. Nor can we
suddenly, by voluntary effort. drive
them out. What is needed for this pur-
pose is a long process by which large
parts of life and rendered so habitual
as to be instructive. To a considerable
degree this is now the case with all of
us Many of our movements are in
voluntary. We walk without thinking
of the motion of our feet, and perform
correctly a large number of familiar
evolutions while our thoughts are far
away. When we have thoroughly
learned to read or to write, to swim or
TO skate, TO dance or TO sing, TO drive a
nail we'll home, or to plough a straight
furrow in the field. the attention that
was at first imperative becomes quite
unnecessary. and is, therefore, released
for other purposes.
The more of life'S actions we can put
into this category the more power of
attention we can command for those
things which do require it. Professor
William James. in his Psychology"
says upon this point:
THE great thing in all education is
instead of our enemy. It is to fund and
capitalize our acquisitions. and live
at ease upon the interest of the fund
For this we must make automatic and
habitual as early as possible as many
useful actions as we can, and guard
against the growing into ways that
are likely to be Instantaneous to us.
as we should guard against the plague.
The more of the details of our daily
life we can hand over TO the effortless
custody of automatism, the more our
higher powers of mind viii be set free
for their own proper work There is
no more miserable human being than
one in whom nothing is habitual but
indecisiOn. and for whom the drinking
of every cup. the time of rising and
going to bed and the beginning of
every bit of work are subjects of ex-
press volitional elaboration. Full half
the time of such a man goes to the
deciding or regretting of matters which
ought to be so ingrained in him as