HABIT 249 



another impulse is called inhibition, and it is just as important 

 a part of our control as skillful action is. Indeed, skill is in large 

 part a matter of inhibition. In the excitement of a ball game^ 

 the impulse of any player who gets hold of the ball is to throw 

 it ; the clever player will put the brakes on this impulse — 

 inhibit it — long enough to decide just where to throw it, or 

 he may even decide not to throw it at all, but to carry it some- 

 where, or he may go through the motions of throwing it in 

 one direction and then quickly turn and throw it elsewhere. 



299. Practice. All movements can be performed accurately 

 just in proportion as a person has had practice in doing and 

 practice in inhibiting movements. We all know this when we 

 urge the other fellows to come out to practice for an important 

 game, or when we arrange rehearsals for theatricals, or when 

 we practice some new steps in dancing. We do not seem to 

 realize it so well when we are urged to drill on our lessons or 

 to practice some tedious scales on a musical instrument. 



300. Kinds of habit. The education of human beings, like 

 the training of a dog, consists very largely of the establishment 

 of habits — habits of doing, habits of thinking, and habits of 

 feeling. Learning to walk, to handle our food or tools, 

 to swim, or to skate — these are examples of habits of 

 doing. A person who could walk only by thinking of each 

 step would not get along very far in the course of a day, and 

 he would not have much time to use his brain for anything 

 else if he really had to get anywhere. 



301. Thinking habits. When we learn to say — or, rather, 

 to think — "eighty-four" on being presented by the combina- 

 tion " 12 X 7," or when " 1492 " makes us think " Columbus," 

 we are acquiring habits of thinking. Thinking shows itself 

 when you work out the answers to various kinds of problems, 

 when you draw out of your stock of remembered ideas and 

 experiences arguments to use in a discussion or examples to 

 make clear an idea that you are trying to explain to someone, 

 or when you work out a plan for getting certain tasks done 



