One-pointedness means enthusiasm, but enthusiasm is impossible without ideals.  So the teacher who desires to be one-pointed must be full of ideals to which he is eager to lead his school.  These ideals will sharpen his attention, and make him able to concentrate it even upon quite trivial details.  He will have the ideal school in his mind, and will always be trying to bring the real school nearer to it.  To be one-pointed, therefore, the teacher must not be contented with things as they are, but must be continually on the alert to take advantage of every opportunity of improvement.

The teacher’s ideal will of course be modified as he learns more of his students’ capacities and of the needs of the nation.  In this way, as the years pass, the teacher may find himself far from the early ideals that at first gave him one-pointedness.  Ideals will still guide him, but they will be more practical, and so his one-pointedness will be much keener and will produce larger results.

The Master quotes two sayings which seem to me to show very clearly the lines along which one-pointedness should work:  “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might”; and:  “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men.”  It must be done “as to the Lord.”  The Master says:  “Every piece of work must be done religiously—­done with the feeling that it is a sacred offering to be laid on the altar of the Lord.  ’This do I, O Lord, in Thy name and for Thee.’  Thinking this, can I offer to Him anything but my very best?  Can I let any piece of my work be done carelessly or inattentively, when I know that it is being done expressly for Him?  Think how you would do your work if you knew that the Lord Himself were coming directly to see it; and then realise that He does see it, for all is taking place within His consciousness.  So will you do your duty ’as unto the Lord and not as unto men’.”

The work must be done, too, according to the teacher’s knowledge of the principles of evolution, and not merely out of regard to small and fleeting interests.  The teacher must therefore gradually learn his own place in evolution, so that he may become one-pointed as to himself; unless he practises one-pointedness with regard to his own ideal for himself, he will not be able to bring it to bear on his surroundings.  He must try to be in miniature the ideal towards which he hopes to lead his boys, and the application of the ideal to himself will enable him to see in it details which otherwise would escape his notice, or which he might neglect as unimportant.

The practical application, then, of one-pointedness lies in the endeavour to keep before the mind some dominant central ideal towards which the whole of the teachers’ and boys’ daily routine shall be directed, so that the small life may be vitalised by the larger, and all may become conscious parts of one great whole.  The ideal of service, for instance, may be made so vivid that the whole of daily life shall be lived in the effort to serve.