to run at a certain pressure of steam, say one hundred and fifty pounds
to the square inch of boiler surface
Again, the mind may be compared to a steam engine which is constructed
to run at a certain pressure of steam, say one hundred and fifty pounds
to the square inch of boiler surface. Once I ran such an engine; and
well I remember a morning during my early apprenticeship when the
foreman called for power to run some of the lighter machinery, while my
steam gauge registered but seventy-five pounds. 'Surely,' I thought, 'if
one hundred and fifty pounds will run all this machinery, seventy-five
pounds should run half of it,' so I opened the valve. But the powerful
engine could do but little more than turn its own wheels, and refused
to do the required work. Not until the pressure had risen above one
hundred pounds could the engine perform half the work which it could at
one hundred and fifty pounds. And so with our mind. If it is meant to do
its best work under a certain degree of concentration, it cannot in a
given time do half the work with half the attention. Further, there will
be much _which it cannot do at all_ unless working under full pressure.
We shall not be overstating the case if we say that as attention
increases in arithmetical ratio, mental efficiency increases in
geometrical ratio. It is in large measure a difference in the power of
attention which makes one man a master in thought and achievement and
another his humble follower. One often hears it said that 'genius is but
the power of sustained attention,' and this statement possesses a large
element of truth.
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