MENTAL WANDERING.--_Second_, we may have good mental power and be able
to think hard and efficiently on any one point, but lack the power to
think in a straight line. Every stray thought that comes along is a
'will-o"-the-wisp' to lead us away from the subject in hand and into
lines of thought not relating to it. Who has not started in to think on
some problem, and, after a few moments, been surprised to find himself
miles away from the topic upon which he started! Or who has not read
down a page and, turning to the next, found that he did not know a word
on the preceding page, his thoughts having wandered away, his eyes only
going through the process of reading! Instead of sticking to the _a_,
_b_, _c_, _d_, etc., of our topic and relating them all up to A, thereby
reaching a solution of the problem, we often jump at once to _x_, _y_,
_z_, and find ourselves far afield with all possibility of a solution
gone. We may have brilliant thoughts about _x_, _y_, _z_, but they are
not related to anything in particular, and so they pass from us and are
gone--lost in oblivion because they are not attached to something
permanent.
title=bahamas
