150 THE XKKVOI S SYSTEM AM) ITS C< >.\SI ;i;\ ATK >\ 



number \vliich arc neither to he particularly commended 

 nor condemned. The habits of the first das> are evidently 

 to he cultivated and cherished, while those of the second 

 da are to he abandoned. These statements are plati- 

 tudes, hut the teaching of .lames regarding the habits 

 \vhich are neither good nor had is worthy of careful con- 

 sideration. His contention is that such habits are to be 

 arbitrarily changed from time to time; not .that the new 

 practices are any more hygienic or attractive than the old, 

 hut that by such deliberate changes one preserves the mas- 

 tery of the situation and the adaptability of the nervous 

 system to altered conditions which the future may bring. 



It is easy to find opportunities to follow this suggestion. 

 One may find that a certain phrase is being used repeatedly 

 in conversation or in writing. An equivalent phrase may 

 be substituted; this is combating the tendency to form a 

 rigid habit. A certain melody may run in the head; the 

 act of cutting short its continuance and causing another 

 air to take its place or, better still, silencing the subjective 

 music for the time is attended with an agreeable sense of 

 being in command of the cerebral activities. .lames has 

 said in substance that one should note what one is in- 

 clined to do and then do something else. This practice 

 might conceivably be overdone, hut the want of such 

 initiative and the passive acceptance of all the minor habits 

 as they make their appearance i< the common defect. 



It is not too much to claim that such self-discipline is a 

 postponement of old age. We have said that the charac- 

 teristic of the young nervous system is the ease with which 

 paths may be opened in it. The nervous system in 

 middle life has many well-defined paths which are em- 

 ployed with regularity in doing the daily work to which 

 the subject has been trained. Changes become con- 

 stantly more diflicult and are made more reluctantly. 

 Foster ha- said that in old age the brain holds a record 

 of the pa-t rather than a promise of what may be ivali/ed. 

 Monotony of environment and consequent uniformity of 

 reaction are factors which are calculated to bring on pre- 



