Alertness

“ Alertness of the body whether you are moving, standing, or sitting means alertness of mind and it is a paying thing to have because many an employer will select an alert-looking boy for work and pass over a sloucher. ”

“ There is a potent combination of alertness in observation, with a never-satisfied desire to know even the trifles of a case, which, with sagacity, gives a medical mental character as rare as it is valuable. ”

“ This is what I wish to bring before you under the vague title of "The study of a country".
This is a study in which, if we would lend ourselves to it, we shall be forced to exhibit mental alertness. Mental alertness is a quality which may almost be said to be abhorrent to the purely scientific mind. What the scientific man wants is to get at positive conclusions according to a proper method. ”

“ Vigilance, readiness and promptness must be our watchwords. Might I ask you to remember my family motto, 'He who guards never sleeps.' Even to-morrow may bring surprises—such stormy weather as we are having seems strangely suitable for covering an attack. ”

“ If an alarm comes—no matter of what kind—don't be frightened, but stand in front of and protect her from being seen, until she says to you: 'Sauve qui peut?' That will be her signal for you to run and scream, and do whatever the rest are doing. ”

“ Had I had some definite knowledge as to the cause of my alarm I should not have suffered so much, but it [271] was my ignorance of what was there, of what I feared, that made my terror so poignant. Each second saw the agony of my suspense increase. I dared not move. I hardly dare breathe, and I dreaded lest the violent pulsation of my heart should attract the attention of the Unknown Presence and precipitate its coming out. ”

“ At last finding that it was a false alarm, we return once more to our beds; but what good can the kind sleep of nature do to us when interrupted by such scenes! Securely placed as you are, you can have no idea of our agitations, but by hear-say; no relation can be equal to what we suffer and to what we feel. ”

“ Apprehension springs from a sense of danger when somewhat remote, but approaching; alarm arises from danger when announced as near at hand. Apprehension is calmer and more permanent; alarm is more agitating and transient. ”

“ Rhythm strained and false accord
In a ceaseless stream are poured;
Then sighs are heard, and men depart
To seek the sage physician's art,
Or silence, and a little ease,
When others' fingers touch the keys. ”

“ But notice: you can keep your attention fixed on only a portion of the field at a time. The rest of the field is always lost in a dim haze. You must be receiving impressions all the time from all points of the field. But all of these, except the few to which you pay attention, nearly or quite disappear in the dim thickets that seem to surround the little forest-clearing made by our attentive consciousness. A like experiment can be tried with the sense of hearing, when you are in a large room full of people who are talking all around you in many independent groups. ”

“ Even some persons who possess means of information that are not open to me, profess to discern in the signs of public feeling, in the views of some hope and some fear, the expectation of something about to happen, something reaching far beyond partial, or local, or even agrarian, disturbance, and calculated to create a greater degree of alarm than anything we have witnessed, or anything that has happened. ”

“ A silence, for which it was not easy to account, stimulated her curiosity; for nothing is so alarming to those who are conscious of the presence of imminent danger, as to be unable to trace its approach. ”

“ Up to the time of the living generation of observers, Nature had kept over all her inner workshops the forbidding inscription, No Admittance! If any prying observer ventured to spy through his magnifying tubes into the mysteries of her glands and canals and fluids, she covered up her work in blinding mists and bewildering halos, as the deities of old concealed their favored heroes in the moment of danger. ”

“ The absence of sound, the inability to see for more than a few feet, the sense of isolation which every group experiences, the strange surroundings, the uncertainty of the future, the idea that some untoward event may happen,—all contribute to produce a suppressed excitement almost akin to nervousness. ”

“ I said to my sister only to-day, 'What would we do if there was a sudden alarm in the night?' If we needed a doctor or a policeman? You know, my dear, the servants are all as old as we are. I don't really believe there is anyone in our road that can run. ”

“ It is no false alarm. There are judgments, heavy judgments, at the door. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. ”

“ In every case it is only obscurity and darkness which cause alarm. Every terrifying vision vanishes when one gazes at it firmly. With the same unconcern and directness, with which we have hitherto analysed every subject that has occurred in these addresses, let us look this terror, too, in the face. ”

“ To hear a call for assistance in this lonely vicinity was certainly enough to bewilder, yes, and perhaps to alarm anyone; especially men whose past had been so very shady that they suspected everything which they could not fully understand. ”

“ Darkness, fear, any strong emotion, any difficulty in perception reveal the same influence. "La nuit tous les chats sont gris." Expectation, or expectant attention, is doubtless the most influential of all such factors. When awaiting a friend, any indistinct noise is readily converted into the rumbling of carriage-wheels; the mother hears in every sound the cry of her sick child. After viewing an object through a magnifying-glass, we detect details with the naked eye which escaped our vision before. ”

“ So giving order to an alert serving man, the two sit down to a very hasty, yet comfortable meal, seasoned by peace and contentment, for these young men are so accustomed to danger that any little breathing spell in their struggle with sudden death seems to them a calm, quiet and contented time. ”

“ Giving alarms in case of fire: How alarms are sent in; false alarms.
5. Precautions to insure personal safety: Care in the use of inflammable or explosive materials; keeping hallways, fire escapes and other exits clear of obstructions; noting location of exits; keeping cool in case of fire—how easy it is for every one to get out if all keep cool—danger from panic—aiding the weak.
Note.—Relate this topic to Safety, Self-Control, Courage.
III. THE POSTMAN
1. ”

“ Primary attention.—There are certain classes of stimuli that force attention upon us; they take us by storm, and we can offer no resistance; when they appear, we must attend, whatever our preoccupation may be. Intensive stimuli belong to this class: very loud sounds, very bright lights, strong tastes and smells, severe pressures, extreme temperatures, intense pains, one and all take possession of us, dominate us in their own right. A stimulus that is often repeated is also likely to attract the attention, even if at first it went unremarked. ”

“ In the midst of the same anxious faces, the same eager eyes, the same nervous countenances which have already attracted your attention before, and man after man pressing upon him, pouring hurried tales into his ear, or thrusting papers at him with the vehemence of extreme urgency. ”

“ Alarm is always the fear of some uncertain evil beyond what is immediately felt, and from some unknown and external cause. But all animals, and men among the rest, feel some degree of this alarm, start, are roused and rendered circumspect and attentive by unusual and unexpected Sound. ”

“ From much night-watching, my hearing and sight had gradually acquired such an acuteness that even in sleep I was able to retain a certain consciousness of what was passing around me, and it is probable that I was indebted to this remarkable faculty for the preservation of my life on the present occasion. ”

“ You must first moderate your present alarm, and then change your attitude, and be alarmed, all of you, for the Thebans. They are far more within the reach of disaster than we: it is they whom the danger threatens first. ”

“ The mute men on guard,—to whom the slowly-passing hours seemed doubly long and gloomy, from the oppressive sense of the duty of silence,—stood immovably at their posts, alternately employing themselves in guessing at the hour of the night, and intently listening to catch some sound which should indicate the presence of the dreaded object of their watch. ”

“ By attention we mean sensory clearness. When we say we are attentive to a thing or subject, we mean that perceptions or ideas of that thing or subject are clear as compared to other perceptions and ideas that are in consciousness at the same time. The contents of one’s consciousness, the perceptions and ideas that constitute one’s mind at any one moment are always arranged in an attentive pattern, some being clear, others unclear. ”

“ Sooth to say, the first interview with the uncompromising contraband who hakes you is a trial, and it is bitterly cold work for feet and fingers, when you first come into your "blind" under the early dawn; but the blood soon warms up as the warning cries from the markers become more frequent; the pulse quickens as the dark specks or lines loom nearer, defined against the dull red or silvery gray of the sky-line ”

“ The simplest manifestation of this is the matter of attention. Our minds apprehend what they wish to apprehend; all else passes unnoticed, or, on the other hand, we perceive what we resent, as, for example, the noise of a passing train; while others, used to the sound, do not notice it at all. ”

“ Here it is essential to the safety of the individual that he shall respond in sleep, not merely to sounds or movements which threaten danger, but also to the sounds or movements of the other members of the group. ”

“ As I have attempted to set forth in former efforts,315 attention is probably in its earliest manifestations rather a means for the furtherance of the struggle for life than a so-called faculty of the mind. The instinct of lying in wait (by which we must understand not merely holding one’s self in readiness to seize prey, but also a preparedness for flight) is, as I conceive, the elementary form of attention. ”

“ If we control attention we control thought, and with the suggestible patient this principle depends upon the one just now considered. Hope and courage-breeding thoughts can replace despairing and fearful ones, but it will be only when attention is directed through interest or by will to new material. There is no blank in waking consciousness. The last thought or feeling or perception, through association of ideas, brings up a related one, and so on indefinitely. ”

“ We hear the bell faintly tinkle—now voices in loud conversation break upon the ear—then all is silent. Our anxiety increases, and keeps increasing, until a heavy footstep is heard advancing up the hall. ”

“ The manner of expression intimates the imminent danger we are in, the need we have of this caution, and the great importance of it, and that our watchmen are, or should be, in good earnest, in giving us warning. ”

“ Since you and your own are safe, do you become insensible that others now again wait in your place? And those that swing in the wind! Have you forgot? If you remember and are true, communicate. And you can help save them all! ”

“ There are times, too, when the light breaks through the clouds of uncertainty that hang over his path, and his eye must be open and ready, as was the traveller’s, to discern all that the light may reveal of that which lies before him. ”

“ The incapacity of sound sleep denotes a mind sorely wounded. It is thus that atrocious criminals denote the possession of some dreadful secret. The thoughts, which considerations of safety enable them to suppress or disguise during wakefulness, operate without impediment, and exhibit their genuine effects, when the notices of sense are partly excluded and they are shut out from a knowledge of their entire condition. ”

“ They talk and laugh, read or sleep, never thinking of danger, because they know that watchful eyes are on the track, and that everything that human foresight, care and skill can do to avert disaster, will be done. ”

“ Each man wanted to point out to his fellow the cause of his alarm, but each found on other faces the same horror–only that his neighbour's hands and eyes were turned in a different direction from that where the phantom, half laughing and half threatening, rose before him. ”

“ To sit almost motionless for hours listening, listening intently for every sound, hearing occasional words spoken either in too low tones or too far distant to make them understandable, to record bits of conversation that sounded harmless, yet might have some sinister meaning, became a most laborious task. ”

“ Attention, therefore, if we consider it purely descriptively, hinges not upon mental activity, but upon the vividness of mental processes; and the state of attention may be described as a certain pattern or arrangement of mental processes; whenever our experience shows the pattern of vivid centre and dim background, of bright focus and obscure margin, then we have attention before us. ”

“ Only I have a consciousness—I had from the first, when you began to talk to me about it—that your fears were exaggerated. If you have been allowed to remain safe all this time, you will be safe always. ”

“ The same thing is probably true for every one of our organic functions. In the chapters on the heart we call attention to the fact that surveillance makes a perfectly healthy though nervous heart miss beats. ”

“ And we may hope, indeed, that as our investigations proceed, and as we on this side of the fateful gulf, and the discarnate spirits on the other, learn more of the conditions necessary for perfect control of the brain and nervous system of intermediaries,—the communications will grow fuller and more coherent, and reach a higher level of unitary consciousness. ”