448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of matters which ought to have been so thoroughly ingrained in him 

 as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. If there be such 

 daily duties not yet ingrained in any one of my readers, let him begin 

 this very day to set the matter right. 



In Professor Bain's chapter on " The Moral Habits " there are 

 some admirable practical remarks laid down. Two great maxims 

 emerge from his treatment. The first is that in the acquisition of a 

 new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to 

 launch ourselves icith as strong and decided an initiative as possible. 

 Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall re-enforce the 

 right motives ; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage 

 the new way ; make engagements incompatible with the old ; take a 

 public pledge, if the case allows ; in short, envelop your resolution 

 with every aid you know. This will give your new beginning such a 

 momentum that the temptation to break down will not occur as soon 

 as it otherwise might ; and every day during which a breakdown is 

 postponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all. 



The second maxim is : Never suffer an exception to occur till the 

 new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting 

 fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip 

 undoes more than a great many turns will wind again. Continuity of 

 training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly 

 right. As Professor Bain says : " The peculiarity of the moral habits, 

 contradistinguishing them from the intellectual acquisitions, is the 

 presence of two hostile powers, one to be gradually raised into the 

 ascendant over the other. It is necessary, above all things, in such a 

 situation, never to lose a battle. Every gain on the wrong side un- 

 does the effect of many conquests on the right. The essential pre- 

 caution, therefore, is so to regulate the two opposing powers, that 

 the one may have a series of uninterrupted successes, until repetition 

 has fortified it to such a degree as to enable it to cope with the oppo- 

 sition, under any circumstances. This is the theoretically best career 

 of mental progress." 



The question of " tapering-off," in abandoning such habits as 

 drink and opium-indulgence, comes in here, and is a question about 

 which experts differ w T ithin certain limits, and in regard to what may 

 be best for an individual case. In the main, however, all expert opin- 

 ion would agree that abrupt acquisition of the new habit is the best 

 way, if there be a real possibility of carrying it out. We must be 

 careful not to give the will so stiff a task as to insure its defeat at the 

 very outset ; but, provided one can stand it, a sharp period of suffer- 

 ing, and then a free time, is the best thing to aim at, whether in giv- 

 ing up a habit like that of opium, or in simply changing one's hours of 

 rising or of work. It is surprising how soon a desire will die of inani- 

 tion if it be never fed. "One must first learn, unmoved, looking 

 neither to the right nor left, to walk firmly on the straight and narrow 



