6. *Farther, How many wanderings of thought may arise, from those various _associations_ of our ideas, which are made entirely without our knowledge, and independently on our choice? How these connexions are formed we cannot tell: but they are formed in a thousand different manners. Nor is it in the power of the wisest or holiest of men, to break those associations, or to prevent what is the necessary consequence of them, and matter of daily observation. Let the fire but touch one end of the train, and it immediately runs on to the other.
7. *Once more. Let us fix our attention as studiously as we are able on any subject, yet let either _pleasure or pain_ arise, especially if it be intense, and it will demand our immediate attention, and attach our thought to itself. It will interrupt the steadiest contemplation, and divert the mind from its favourite subject.
8. *These occasions of wandering thoughts lie within, are wrought into our very nature. But they will likewise naturally and necessarily arise, from the various impulse of _outward objects_. Whatever strikes upon the organ of sense, the eye or ear, will raise a perception in the mind. And accordingly, whatever we see or hear, will break in upon our former train of thought. Every man therefore that does any thing in our sight, or speaks any thing in our hearing, occasions our mind to wander more or less from the point it was thinking of before.
9. *And there is no question but those _evil spirits_, who are continually _seeking whom they may devour_, make use of all the foregoing occasions, to hurry and distract our minds. Sometimes by one, sometimes by another of these means, they will harass and perplex us, and so far as God permits, interrupt our thoughts, particularly when they are engaged on the best subjects. Nor is this at all strange: they well understand the very springs of thought, and know on which of the bodily organs, the imagination, the understanding, and every other faculty of the mind more immediately depends. And hereby they know, how by affecting those organs, to affect the operations dependent on them. Add to this, that they can inject a thousand thoughts, without any of the preceding means: it being as natural for spirit to act upon spirit, as for matter to act upon matter. These things being considered, we cannot admire, that our thought so often wanders from any point which we have in view.