"THE ABSENT-MINDED MAN."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 278, 23 November 1877, Page 4

"THE ABSENT-MINDED MAN."

The phrase "absence of mind," does cot imply that a man has no mind, but only that his faculties have gone off, as it were, on a viait, or that "the man's ..wits have gone away wool-gathering " as it is expressed metaphorically — to the neglect of those duties that need attention at home. It is vory difficult So keep up a conversation with a person of this description. While you are talking in the most interestug manner, iiis eyea become fixed on vacancy, and it is evident that he pays no more attention to what you say than he would if you spoke Choctaw.

Some years ago there was a very learned clergyman, and when the bell fang for church he was unable to find his boot. After searching everywhere bis wife at last discovered, them in the oven where, just after a heavy bake, the good man had put them to dry. It hardly need be added that as boots they were afterwards of very little service. Adistinguiaheddiviue would sometimes write a letter to one personf address it to a second, and iheu send it to a third. No one ever cared to loan him a horse, for he was almost sure, if he rode out, to return on foot without the animal. He forgot his own wedding day, and went off gudgeon-fishing at the eventful hour, when his bride was waiting for him.

r «. Abaent-mindedneaa may come from very different causes, aud is not necessarily the indication of a Btroog or weak intellect. Sir Isaac New ton might forged whether he had eaten his dinner or not, because his mind was •occupied with great thoughts; while another man would be so absorbed in his dinner (has (be greatest thoughts

uttered in his presence would not receive the slightest attention.

Some human beings waste half their dives thinking about nothing. The power of fixing the mind upon one sub. Jeot to the absolute exclusion of 'everything else, is a rate gift. Tha ability to collect the scattered faculties of the : mind in a sudden emergency and bring them to bear clearly upon the matter in j hand is also a rare but most desirable gift. Whatever one- does he ought to give attention to it. If it i 8 not worth klotog at all, let it go — or do it well. ! Mental discipline means simply the ; ability to concentrate the thoughts. The j wind soon obliterates the impression j made upon the sand; but the inscription ! that is cut in the rook may {be as legible ! a thousand years hence, as it is to day.