it is lucky to find such an object, or a nail, I picked it up, when to
my astonishment I found that it was a silver pencil case, but made to
exactly resemble a screw. Hundreds of people had, perhaps, seen it,
thought they knew all about it, or what it was, and then passed it by,
little suspecting its real value.

There is an exact spiritual parallel for this incident or parable of
the screw-pencil in innumerable ideas, at which well-nigh everybody in
the hurrying stream of life has glanced, yet no one has ever examined,
until someone with a poetic spirit of curiosity, or inspired by quaint
superstition, pauses, picks one up, looks into it, and finds that It
has ingenious use, and is far more than it appeared to be. Thus, if I
declare that by special attention to a subject, earnestly turning it
over and thinking deeply into it, very remarkable results may be
produced, as regards result in knowledge, every human being will
assent to it as the veriest truism ever uttered; in the fullest belief
that he or she assuredly knows all _that_.

Yet it was not until within a very few years that I discovered that
this idea, which seemed so commonplace, had within it mysteries and
meanings which were stupendously original or remarkable. I found that
there was a certain intensity or power of attention, far surpassing
ordinary observation, which we may, if we will, summon up and _force_
on ourselves, just as we can by special effort see or hear far better
at times than usually. The Romans show by such a phrase as _animum
adjicere_, and numerous proverbs and synonyms, that they had learned
to bend their attention energetically. They were good listeners,
therefore keen observers.

Learning to control or strengthen the Will is closely allied to