166 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



No one would wish to change those habits which ob- 

 viously help to support all the useful activities of 

 life. 



There are, on the other hand, all manner of habits 

 which are bad in the sense that they detract from one's 

 efficiency, injure health, or are unbecoming. These 

 are to be broken up when recognized with all possible 

 energy and decision. Their exhibition by other people 

 is to be viewed with a wholesome resolution not to fall 

 into such ways, though the pharisaic spirit is to be 

 avoided. 



One of our wisest teachers, the late William James, 

 pointed out that there are many habits which are not 

 particularly good nor distinctly bad; they are accepted 

 by our associates without praise or blame. It was the 

 teaching of James that such indifferent habits afford us 

 a most valuable sphere for mental training and self- 

 discipline. We can use our will power to change them 

 in radical ways, substituting one practice for another 

 by deliberate choice. Such exercise is attended with a 

 highly pleasurable sense of being master of oneself and 

 one's situation. It is easy to find scope for the effort 

 in the realm of our speech : to abandon a favorite phrase 

 in favor of another, to cast one's sentences in a new 

 mould. 



This voluntary regulation of minor habits gives a 

 kind of control which may be a real asset in meeting 

 crucial temptations. It is also a means of postponing 

 old age. It has been said that the aged nervous system 

 is one which records the past, holding little promise of 

 future modification. Its "ruts" are deep and fixed. 

 To change these ruts often in early and middle life 

 probably delays the coming of senile rigidity. It is to 

 some extent in our power to preserve the plasticity of 

 the cerebral organization and it is worth the cost. 



Inhibition. The self-command that has been recom- 

 mended is largely a practice of inhibition. We have 

 said before that this is an eminent human capacity. 



