42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



detail, under the influence of habit, may rise very near their originals. 

 Habit, too, develops our acquired perceptions, and the accuracy of 

 the judgments to which it leads is often most remarkable. For 

 example, the eye originally, and of itself, receives nothing but 

 impressions of colour ; but through habit we may acquire a wonderful 

 degree of accuracy in judging by sight of the distances, forms, and 

 magnitudes of objects ; and these judgments may be framed so readily 

 that to ordinaiy observation they appear immediate, and the intricate 

 processes really at work ai'e hidden from view. It is, however, 

 curious to note that upon certain of our primary susceptibilities, e. g. 

 the susceptibility to cold and heat, and the rough contact of hard or 

 injurious stimuli with the sensitive surfaces both of the skin and 

 intestinal passages, the effect of habit is directly the reverse of that 

 whicli was found in our previously cited instances. There is no fact 

 more familiar to everyone's experience, than that exposure lessens 

 sensibility to pain. While the eye is increased in value as an instru- 

 ment of mind by repeated impressions upon the visual nerve, while 

 it becomes ever more and more sensible of those qualities of external 

 objects which constitute its peculiar province, it at the same time 

 becomes more and more insensible to hurtful impressions by exposure 

 to them. The glare of sunlight and excessive heat are gradually 

 stripped of their power to injure. In the same way the tongue and 

 palate may become accustomed to the most pungent fluids and solids 

 so as to bear them with impunity, while at the same time their 

 power of appreciating minute distinctions of taste may regularly 

 improve, as, for exam])le, in the cases of the wine-tester and the 

 gourmand. Here we And alongside of one another, nerves which 

 have been subjected to the same action, on the one hand quite 

 callous to the pungent and fiery eSects of alcohol and strong spices, 

 and, on the other, having such a delicacy of discriminating power as 

 might seem impossible to an individual accustomed to plain diet. 

 The general statement, then, that habit blunts feeling, is most inac- 

 curate, for we find that even among our simple primary feelings 

 there are cases which flatly contradict it. The effect of habit upon 

 some is deadening, but upon others quickening. Still more inade- 

 quate is the notion shown by consideration of our complex states of 

 feeling which we call emotions. Here, too, we find the same ajjparent 

 contradictoriness in the eflfects of habit. As Dr. Bain points out, 

 " our emotions may be steadily increased by culture." Fear or 



