THE LAWS OF HABIT. 445 



whether Ave should advance our leg if we had no sensation of its move- 

 ment as executed, and not even a minimal feeling of impulse to set it 

 down. Knitting appears altogether mechanical, and the knitter keeps 

 up her knitting even while she reads or is engaged in lively talk. But 

 if we ask her how this be possible, she will hardly reply that the knit- 

 ting goes on of itself. She will rather say that she has a feeling of it, 

 that she feels in her hands that she knits and how she must knit, and 

 that therefore the movements of knitting are called forth and resu- 

 lated by the sensations associated therewithal, even when the atten- 

 tion is called away. 



" So of every one who practices, apparently automatically, a long 

 familiar handicraft. The smith turning his tongs, as he smites the 

 iron, the carpenter wielding his plane, the lace-maker with her bobbin, 

 the weaver at his loom, all will answer the same question in the same 

 way by saying that they have a feeling of the proper management of 

 the implement in their hands. 



" In these cases, the feelings which are conditions of the appropri- 

 ate acts, are very faint. But none the less are they necessary. Im- 

 agine your hands not feeling ; your movements could then only be 

 provoked by ideas, and if your ideas were then diverted away, the 

 movements ought to come to a standstill, which is a consequence that 

 seldom occurs." * Again — 



"An idea makes you take, for example, a violin into your left 

 hand. But it is not necessary that your idea should remain fixed on 

 the contraction of the muscles of the left hand and fingers, in order 

 that the violin should continue to be held fast and not let fall. The 

 sensations themselves which the holding of the instrument awakens in 

 the hand, since they are associated with the motor impulse of grasping, 

 are sufficient to cause this impulse, which then lasts as long as the feel- 

 ing itself lasts, or until the impulse is inhibited by the idea of some 

 antagonistic motion." And the same may be said of the manner in 

 w r hich the right hand holds the bow. " It sometimes happens, in be- 

 ginning these simultaneous combinations, that one movement or im- 

 pulse will cease, if the consciousness turns particularly toward another, 

 because at the outset the guiding sensations must all be strongly felt. 

 The bow will perhaps slip from the fingers, because some of the muscles 

 have relaxed. But the slipping is a cause of new sensations starting 

 up in the hand, so that the attention is in a moment brought back to 

 the grasping of the bow. 



"The following experiment shows this well : When one begins to 

 play on the violin, to keep him from raising his right elbow in playing 

 a book is placed under his right armpit, which he is ordered to hold 

 fast by keeping the upper arm tight against his body. The muscular 

 feelings, and feelings of contact connected with the book, provoke an 

 impulse to press it tight. But often it happens that the beginner, 

 * " Der menschlichc Wille," pp. 447, 44S. 



