_attention_. It is the
line of action that we hold the mind upon with an attitude of intending
to perform it that we finally follow. It is the thing we keep thinking
about that we finally do.

On the other hand, let us resolutely hold the mind away from some
attractive but unsuitable line of action, directing our thoughts to an
opposite course, or to some wholly different subject, and we have
effectually blocked the wrong response. To control our acts is therefore
to control our thoughts, and strength of will can be measured by our
ability to direct our attention.

2. THE EXTENT OF VOLUNTARY CONTROL OVER OUR ACTS

A relatively small proportion of our acts, or responses, are controlled
by volition. Nature, in her wise economy, has provided a simpler and
easier method than to have all our actions performed or checked with
conscious effort.

CLASSES OF ACTS OR RESPONSE.--Movements or acts, like other phenomena,
do not just happen. They never occur without a cause back of them.
Whether they are performed with a conscious end in view or without it,
the fact remains the same--something must lie back of the act to account
for its performance. During the last hour, each of us has performed many
simple movements and more or less complex acts. These acts have varied
greatly in character. Of many we were wholly unconscious. Others were
consciously performed, but without feeling of effort on our part. Still
others were accomplished only with effort, and after a struggle to
decide which of two lines of action we should take. Some of our acts
were reflex, some were chiefly instinctive, and some were volitional.

SIMPLE REFLEX ACTS.--First, there are going on within every living
organism countless movements of which he is in large part unconscious,
which he does nothing to initiate, and which he is largely powerless to
prevent. Some of them are wholly, and others almost, out of the reach
and power of his will. Such are the movements of the heart and vascular
system, the action of the lungs in breathing, the movements of the
digestive tract, the work of the various glands in their process of
secretion. The entire organism is a mass of living matter, and just
because it is living no part of it is at rest.

Movements of this type require no external stimulus and no direction,
they are _reflex_; they take care of themselves, as long as the body is
in health, without let or hindrance, continuing whether we sleep or
wake, even if