is not being done in the best way which makes
the pressure more than it need be; and instead of quietly studying to
work to better advantage, the worrier allows herself to get more and
more oppressed by her anxieties,--as we have seen a child grow cross
over a snarl of twine which, with very little patience, might be easily
unravelled, but in which, in the child's nervous annoyance, every knot
is pulled tighter. Perhaps we ought hardly to expect as much from the
worried student as from the child, because the ideas of how to study
arc so vague that they seldom bring a realization of the fact that
there might be an improvement in the way of studying.

This possible improvement may be easily shown. I have taken a girl
inclined to the mistaken way of working, asked her to lie on the floor
where she could give up entirely to the force of gravity,--then after
helping her to a certain amount of passivity, so that at least she
looked quiet, have asked her to give me a list of her lessons. Before
opening her mouth to answer, she moved in little nervous twitches,
apparently every muscle in her body, from head to foot. I stopped her,
took time to bring her again to a quiet state, and then repeated the
question. Again the nervous movement began, but this time the child
exclaimed, "Why, isn't it funny? I cannot think without moving all
over!" Here was the Rubicon crossed. She had become alive to her own
superfluous tension; and after that to train her not only to think
without moving all over, but to answer questions easily and quietly and
so with more expression, and then to study with greatly decreased
effort, was a very pleasant process.

Every boy and girl should have this training to a greater or less
degree. It is a steady, regular process, and should be so taken. We
have come through too many generations of misused force to get back
into a natural use of our powers in any rapid way; it must come step by
step, as a man is trained to use a complicated machine. It seems hardly
fair to compare such training to the use of a machine,--it opens to us
such extensive and unlimited power. We can only make the comparison
with regard to the first process of development.

A training for concentration of mind should begin with the muscles.
First, learn to withdraw the will from the muscles entirely. Learn,
next, to direct the will over the muscles of one arm while the rest of
the body is perfectly free and relaxed,--first, by stretching