tude of a spectator and of an agent or participant. The former
is indifferent to what is going on; one result is just as good as
another, since each is just something to look at. The latter is bound
up with what is going on; its outcome makes a difference to him. His
fortunes are more or less at stake in the issue of events. Consequently
he does whatever he can to influence the direction present occurrences
take. One is like a man in a prison cell watching the rain out of the
window; it is all the same to him. The other is like a man who has
planned an outing for the next day which continuing rain will frustrate.
He cannot, to be sure, by his present reactions affect to-morrow's
weather, but he may take some steps which will influence future
happenings, if only to postpone the proposed picnic. If a man sees a
carriage coming which may run over him, if he cannot stop its movement,
he can at least get out of the way if he foresees the consequence
in time. In many instances, he can intervene even more directly. The
attitude of a participant in the course of affairs is thus a double
one: there is solicitude, anxiety concerning future consequences, and a
tendency to act to assure better, and avert worse, consequences. There
are words which denote this attitude: concern, interest. These words
suggest that a person is bound up with the possibilities inhering in
objects; that he is accordingly on the lookout for what they are likely
to do to him; and that, on the basis of his expectation or foresight,
he is eager to act so as to give things one turn rather than another.
Interest and aims, concern and purpose, are necessarily connected. Such
words as aim, intent, end, emphasize the results which are wanted and
striven for; they take for granted the personal attitude of solicitude
and attentive eagerness. Such words as interest, affection, concern,
motivation, emphasize the bearing of what is foreseen upon the
individual's fortunes, and his active desire to act to secure a possible
result. They take for granted the objective changes. But the difference
is but one of emphasis; the meaning that is shaded in one set of words
is illuminated in the other. What is anticipated is objective and
impersonal; to-morrow's rain; the possibility of being run over. But
for an active being, a being who partakes of the consequences instead of
standing aloof from them, there is at the same time a personal response.
The difference imaginatively fores