—Daniel Putnam, Psychology4.
Try to rub the top of your head forward and backward at the same time that you are patting your chest. Unless your powers of co?rdination are well developed you will find it confusing, if not impossible. The brain needs special training before it can do two or more things efficiently5 at the same instant. It may seem like splitting a hair between its north and northwest corner, but some psychologists argue that no brain can think two distinct thoughts, absolutely simultaneously—that what seems to be simultaneous is really very rapid rotation6 from the first thought to the second and back again, just as in the above-cited experiment the attention must shift from one hand to the other until one or the other movement becomes partly or wholly automatic.
Whatever is the psychological truth of this contention7 it is undeniable that the mind measurably loses grip on one idea the moment the attention is projected decidedly ahead to a second or a third idea.
A fault in public speakers that is as pernicious as it is common is that they try to think of the succeeding sentence while still uttering the former, and in this way their concentration trails off; in consequence, they start their sentences strongly and end them weakly. In a well-prepared written speech the emphatic8 word usually comes at one end of the sentence. But an emphatic word needs emphatic expression, and this is precisely9 what it does not get when concentration flags by leaping too soon to that which is next to be uttered. Concentrate all your mental energies on the present sentence. Remember that the mind of your audience follows yours very closely, and if you withdraw your attention from what you are saying to what you are going to say, your audience will also withdraw theirs. They may not do so consciously and deliberately10, but they will surely cease to give importance to the things that you yourself slight. It is fatal to either the actor or the speaker to cross his bridges too soon.
Of course, all this is not to say that in the natural pauses of your speech you are not to take swift forward surveys—they are as important as the forward look in driving a motor car; the caution is of quite another sort: while speaking one sentence do not think of the sentence to follow. Let it come from its proper source—within yourself. You cannot deliver a broadside without concentrated force—that is what produces the explosion. In preparation you store and concentrate thought and feeling; in the pauses during delivery you swiftly look ahead and gather yourself for effective attack; during the moments of actual speech, SPEAK—DON'T ANTICIPATE. Divide your attention and you divide your power.
This matter of the effect of the inner man upon the outer needs a further word here, particularly as touching11 concentration.
"What do you read, my lord?" Hamlet replied, "Words. Words. Words." That is a world-old trouble. The mechanical calling of words is not expression, by a long stretch. Did you ever notice how hollow a memorized speech usually sounds? You have listened to the ranting12, mechanical cadence13 of inefficient14 actors, lawyers and preachers. Their trouble is a mental one—they are not concentratedly thinking thoughts that cause words to issue with sincerity15 and conviction, but are merely enunciating word-sounds mechanically. Painful experience alike to audience and to speaker! A parrot is equally eloquent17. Again let Shakespeare instruct us, this tune18 in the insincere prayer of the King, Hamlet's uncle. He laments19 thus pointedly20:
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
The truth is, that as a speaker your words must be born again every time they are spoken, then they will not suffer in their utterance21, even though perforce committed to memory and repeated, like Dr. Russell Conwell's lecture, "Acres of Diamonds," five thousand times. Such speeches lose nothing by repetition for the perfectly22 patent reason that they arise from concentrated thought and feeling and not a mere16 necessity for saying something—which usually means anything, and that, in turn, is tantamount to nothing. If the thought beneath your words is warm, fresh, spontaneous, a part of your self, your utterance will have breath and life. Words are only a result. Do not try to get the result without stimulating23 the cause.
Do you ask how to concentrate? Think of the word itself, and of its philological24 brother, concentric. Think of how a lens gathers and concenters the rays of light within a given circle. It centers them by a process of withdrawal25. It may seem like a harsh saying, but the man who cannot concentrate is either weak of will, a nervous wreck26, or has never learned what will-power is good for.
You must concentrate by resolutely27 withdrawing your attention from everything else. If you concentrate your thought on a pain which may be afflicting28 you, that pain will grow more intense. "Count your blessings29" and they will multiply. Center your thought on your strokes and your tennis play will gradually improve. To concentrate is simply to attend to one thing, and attend to nothing else. If you find that you cannot do that, there is something wrong—attend to that first. Remove the cause and the symptom will disappear. Read the chapter on "Will Power." Cultivate your will by willing and then doing, at all costs. Concentrate—and you will win.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. select from any source several sentences suitable for speaking aloud; deliver them first in the manner condemned30 in this chapter, and second with due regard for emphasis toward the close of each sentence.
2. Put into about one hundred words your impression of the effect produced.
3. Tell of any peculiar31 methods you may have observed or heard of by which speakers have sought to aid their powers of concentration, such as looking fixedly32 at a blank spot in the ceiling, or twisting a watch charm.
4. What effect do such habits have on the audience?
5. What relation does pause bear to concentration?
7. Read the following selection through to get its meaning and spirit clearly in your mind. Then read it aloud, concentrating solely34 on the thought that you are expressing—do not trouble about the sentence or thought that is coming. Half the troubles of mankind arise from anticipating trials that never occur. Avoid this in speaking. Make the end of your sentences just as strong as the beginning. CONCENTRATE.
WAR!
The last of the savage35 instincts is war. The cave man's club made law and procured36 food. Might decreed right. Warriors37 were saviours38.
In Nazareth a carpenter laid down the saw and preached the brotherhood39 of man. Twelve centuries afterwards his followers40 marched to the Holy Land to destroy all who differed with them in the worship of the God of Love. Triumphantly41 they wrote "In Solomon's Porch and in his temple our men rode in the blood of the Saracens up to the knees of their horses."
History is an appalling42 tale of war. In the seventeenth century Germany, France, Sweden, and Spain warred for thirty years. At Magdeburg 30,000 out of 36,000 were killed regardless of sex or age. In Germany schools were closed for a third of a century, homes burned, women outraged43, towns demolished44, and the untilled land became a wilderness45.
Two-thirds of Germany's property was destroyed and 18,000,000 of her citizens were killed, because men quarrelled about the way to glorify46 "The Prince of Peace." Marching through rain and snow, sleeping on the ground, eating stale food or starving, contracting diseases and facing guns that fire six hundred times a minute, for fifty cents a day—this is the soldier's life.
At the window sits the widowed mother crying. Little children with tearful faces pressed against the pane47 watch and wait. Their means of livelihood48, their home, their happiness is gone. Fatherless children, broken-hearted women, sick, disabled and dead men—this is the wage of war.
We spend more money preparing men to kill each other than we do in teaching them to live. We spend more money building one battleship than in the annual maintenance of all our state universities. The financial loss resulting from destroying one another's homes in the civil war would have built 15,000,000 houses, each costing $2,000. We pray for love but prepare for hate. We preach peace but equip for war.
Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
War only defers52 a question. No issue will ever really be settled until it is settled rightly. Like rival "gun gangs" in a back alley53, the nations of the world, through the bloody54 ages, have fought over their differences. Denver cannot fight Chicago and Iowa cannot fight Ohio. Why should Germany be permitted to fight France, or Bulgaria fight Turkey?
When mankind rises above creeds55, colors and countries, when we are citizens, not of a nation, but of the world, the armies and navies of the earth will constitute an international police force to preserve the peace and the dove will take the eagle's place.
Our differences will be settled by an international court with the power to enforce its mandates56. In times of peace prepare for peace. The wages of war are the wages of sin, and the "wages of sin is death."
—Editorial by D.C., Leslie's Weekly; used by permission.
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1
circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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efficiently
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| adv.高效率地，有能力地 | |
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rotation
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| n.旋转；循环，轮流 | |
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contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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9
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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12
ranting
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| v.夸夸其谈( rant的现在分词 )；大叫大嚷地以…说教；气愤地)大叫大嚷；不停地大声抱怨 | |
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13
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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14
inefficient
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| adj.效率低的，无效的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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16
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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17
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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laments
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| n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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pointedly
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| adv.尖地，明显地 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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philological
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| adj.语言学的，文献学的 | |
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withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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afflicting
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| 痛苦的 | |
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29
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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30
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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33
tempo
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| n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度 | |
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34
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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35
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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36
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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37
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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38
saviours
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| n.救助者( saviour的名词复数 )；救星；救世主；耶稣基督 | |
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39
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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40
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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41
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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42
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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43
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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44
demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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45
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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46
glorify
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| vt.颂扬，赞美，使增光，美化 | |
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47
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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48
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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49
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
redeem
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| v.买回，赎回，挽回，恢复，履行（诺言等） | |
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51
arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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52
defers
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| v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的第三人称单数 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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53
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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54
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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55
creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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56
mandates
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| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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