40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



occurs in the following passage : — " The power of habit may be traced 

 to the operation of a certain law of our natui'e by which every time 

 we perform a given action a residuum is left in the mind which 

 renders the facility of performing it again, and the tendency to do so, 

 greater." This word " residuum " explains nothing. Finally, 

 Macvicar regards habit as the psychical expression of a special 

 " myo-cei'ebral " rhythm. Such a rhythm, or organic binding together 

 of parts, is produced " by practice or exercise." " And," says he, " if 

 anything occur or is pi-esented to the senses which commences that 

 rhythmical state, the organism will tend, perhaps with in.satiable or 

 invincible force, to complete its act." This view, however, is given 

 without any attempt at philosophical deduction, thus amounting, 

 with the other views we have just cited, merely to the use of more 

 or less convenient forms in which to express, without explaining, facts 

 patent to observation. The treatment of the question in general at 

 the hands of psychologists, is characterized by Dr. Chalmers as "an 

 obscure and profitless S[)eculation. " Certainly little result has so far 

 come of it, and its inadequacy we in some instances find confessed. 



It is the extreme variety to be met with in the ofiices and mani- 

 festations of habit that renders so difiicult a comprehension or a 

 definition wide enough to embrace all the facts, and this for the 

 reason that nothing can yet be definitely shown common to all the 

 forms of this variety. This difiiculty, betrayed or confessed by sys- 

 tematic thinkers, is likewise apparent when we look at the proverbs 

 or maxims which express popular A^iews of this subject. For ex- 

 ample, we often hear the expression " Practice makes perfect." But, 

 as if knowing that this was untrue when taken as an universal pro- 

 position, and needed correction, another proverb tells us " While 

 habit strengthens reason, it blunts feeling." This latter view has 

 been contended for philosophically. It appeal's to have been Bishop 

 Butler's conception, and he cites it as an incentive to active virtue, 

 pointing out that while habit comes to our aid in action, increasing 

 the tendencies and facilities for the performance of work, it has a 

 deadening effect upon our passive susceptibility. 



Another adage tells us, referring to a wider operation of the law, 

 " Habit is a second nature," this being allied to the view of Lord 

 Bacon, " Custom alone doth alter and subdue nature." And still 

 another maxim, recognizing the moral importance of the law, says 

 " Man is a bundle of habits." In these maxims there is recognized 



