a due application of the ear or of the mind to any thing said or done, in order to acquire a knowledge thereof. The word is compounded of ad, to, and the verbal substantive derived from tendo, I stretch.

respect of hearing, is the stretching or straining of the membrana tympani, so as to make it more susceptible of sounds, and better prepared to catch even a feeble agitation of the air; or it is the adjusting of the According to the degree of attention, objects make a stronger or weaker impression. Attention is requisite even to the simple act of seeing: the eye can take in a considerable field at one look, but no object in the field is seen distinctly except that singly which fixes the attention; in a profound reverie, which totally occupies the attention, we scarcely see what is directly before us. In a train of perceptions, no particular object makes such a figure as it would do singly and apart; for when the attention is divided among many objects, no particular object is entitled to a large share. Hence the stillness of night contributes to terror, there being nothing to divert the attention.

Attention is clasped by Mr Dugald Stewart as a distinct faculty of the mind; an arrangement from which some other philosophers have dissented. But his admirable illustrations of the effects or results of attention are not at all dependent on the opinion which may be formed on this question. (See Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, ch. ii.)