CONCENTRATION 761concentration of thought. When I found repetition becoming com-
fortable, then I knew that I had won:'
Your ability to train your memory, or to develop any desired habit,
is solely a matter of being able to fix your attention on a given subject
until the outline of that subject has been thoroughly impressed upon
your mind. Concentration itself is nothing but a matter of control of
your attention.
You will observe that by reading a line of print with which you
are not familiar and which you have never seen before, and then closing
your eyes, you can see that line as plainly as though you were looking
at it on the printed page. In reality, you are "looking at it" not on the
page but on the sensitized plate of your own mind. If you try this
experiment and it does not work the first time, it is because you did
not concentrate your attention on the line closely enough. Repeat the
process a few times and finally you will succeed.
If you wish to memorize poetry, for example, you can do so very
quickly by training yourself to fix your attention on the lines so closely
that, again, you can shut your eyes and see them in your mind as plainly
as you see them on the printed page.
So significant is this subject of control of attention that I must
emphasize it strongly. I consider it, by far, the most important part of
the lesson.
Put this hypothesis to a test of your own. You can select no better
subject than your Definite Chief Aim in life. Memorize your Definite
Chief Aim so that you can repeat it without looking at the written
page, then make a practice of fixing your attention on it at least twice
a day.
Go to a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Sit down
and completely relax your mind and your body. Then close your eyes
and place your fingers in your ears, thereby blocking all light and all
ordinary sound waves.