Hence it comes that those who deliberately train themselves in Society after the precept enforced by all great writers of social maxims to listen politely and patiently, are invariably rewarded by acquiring at last shrewd intelligence, as is well known to diplomatists.

That mere stolid patience subdues impatience sounds like a dull common-place saying, but it is a silver pencil disguised as an iron screw; there is a deep subtlety hidden in it, if it be allowed with a little intelligence, _forethought_, and determination towards a purpose.

Let us now consider the mechanical and easy processes by which attention may be awakened.
According to ED.

VON HARTMANN, Attention is either spontaneous or reflex.

The voluntary fixing our mind upon, or choosing an idea, image, or subject, is _spontaneous attention_, but when the idea for some reason impresses itself upon us then we have enforced, or _reflex attention_.